I absolutely love the hol­i­days. I always have. As a mother one of my favorite things about the hol­i­days is get­ting to share tra­di­tions and make new ones.

Twit­ter Moms asked me what My Top Five Favorite Hol­i­day Tra­di­tions Were? I just had to answer.

One of my favorite hol­i­day tra­di­tions is Noche Buena. Noche Buena is cel­e­brated on Christ­mas Eve tra­di­tion­ally we get together with fam­ily and friends enjoy a fab­u­lous meal of lechón, arroz con fri­joles, yuca, and other yum­mies. Domi­nos, cig­ars, a cock­tail or three, and music and danc­ing is usu­ally involved at some point. As a child I remem­ber run­ning around wait­ing with my cousins while the adults laughed and talked bois­ter­ously. Most years we’d also got to Mid­night Mass.

Another tra­di­tion that I love is dec­o­rat­ing our Christ­mas Tree. I do it every year fol­low­ing Thanks­giv­ing. My boys aren’t that into the dec­o­rat­ing part yet-but they do love to see it lit and hear the sto­ries behind some of the orna­ments on the tree.

Hol­i­days and food are prac­ti­cally syn­ony­mous. I love to bake Christ­mas cook­ies with my boys, see­ing their lit­tle faces specked with flour is quite a sight!

One tra­di­tion that I’ve started with my boys is giv­ing back. Each year we pur­chase toys, coats, hats and mit­tens etc. for the less priv­i­leged. It’s a lit­tle tricky pur­chas­ing the toys and fit­ting Santa into the story but so far I’ve made it work, while teach­ing my chil­dren char­ity and generosity.

Another great tra­di­tion that I love to share with my boys occurs at Mid­night on New Years Eve (Fin de Año) or tech­ni­cally New Years Day. Every­one gets twelve grapes to eat and wish on for the New Year. I enjoy mine with a lit­tle cham­pagne my sons with cider.

Watch Dora’s Christ­mas Carol Adven­ture Dec. 6 on Nick­elodeon

Favorite Hol­i­day Activ­i­ties with Kids

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