Christmas cruises

My husband, myself and our 2 children, son age 30 & daughter age 17, will be going on our third Christmas Cruise this year. We love the holiday trip and I'm wondering if other cruisers have special traditions that they follow on these cruises or ideas for special surprises. It's a great way to enjoy a family holiday. I recommend it to all of you. We'll be on the Splendor of the Seas thru the Panama Canal this year.

Dear Mary:
Thanks for the message. I am planning to write an article for the family cruise section of CruiseMates.com (I'm the family cruise editor here) this fall on holiday cruises. I'd like to contact you at that time for more details on your holiday experiences. Can you please email me directly (lfgaynor@aol.com) with your email address so that I can get in touch with you this fall when I'm ready to write the article? I appreciate your help and interest.
Smooth sailing,
Luisa Frey Gaynor

This sounds so nice, but how do you handle christmas gifts and a tree and such. Do you celebrate before you go or after? And also how old are your kids?

The cruise is our gift to each other. We each bring along one small gift for every other person and have a small gift exchange on Christmas Eve. As far as other family, we have a dinner prior to our trip and exchange family gifts with grandparents, cousins, etc. My husband loves not having a tree that sheds needles and I decorate the house rather conservatively for winter rather than all out Christmas decorations. No mess to clean up after we come home then.