CarolC, one of my family's traditions was to bake a Swedish Tea Ring, a sweet roll kind of pastry filled with cinnamon, sugar, nuts and raisins, rolled out long and thin, then curved into a circle to resemble a wreath. After it was cooked, we would decorate it with red cherries to look like holly berries. That is what we had for Christmas breakfast, along with scrambled eggs and orange juice, etc.

If you want the exact instructions, let me know.

Another thing we always did was read the Golden Cobwebs story which my grandmother read to me. It is a story for reading round the Christmas tree. I think I posted it last year, so if you do a super search with those words,it should come up. Again, let me know if it doesn't.

How old is your son? You can make a neat advent calendar by folding the top of a long strip of green felt over the tops of a hanger and secring it with stitching, then bringing through, from the back, little pieces of yarn, so that you can tie a piece of candy to each bit of thread, to keep on the calendar. The kids get a piece a day to help them countdown to Christmas.

How about you teach your son how to enjoy it by going somewhere sunny and warm without a lot of hoopla, like you want, and you teach the sharing of that adventure as a means of celebrating the season? Usually if we take care of our own needs, it will be okay with our kids, and sometimes even better.

Hope this is of some help.

kat