Everyone has different christmas traditions. I found a cool one on the NPR website which is basically the classic Gingerbread house gone scientific. What are you supposed to do for Christmas?
I generally don’t subscribe to the birth of Christ purpose of xmas. The ritual of xmas predates the death of Christ (meaning it predates the celebration of his birthdate.) In so far as I know, Christ wasn’t born on that date anyhow. Of course, I could be wrong. I’m not wrong about the overarching media idea of xmas. The holiday has become about goodwill to all and buying a lot of stuff. I want to develop traditions that cover both aspects.
In terms of gift giving we are moving towards the adopt a family model, and perhaps will even start baking things for persons in need. The giving spirit feels like a foreign body to my kids, but their young and have room to grow. I think that connecting the buying to goodwill is an excellent way to cloak them in the spirit of xmas.