What is your most cherished family tradition?

After Thanksgiving dinner, my daughters and I and any guests who want to join in decorate gingerbread houses while everyone else watches football. I have ready small gingerbread houses I’ve baked, plus a huge selection of candies, cookies, and other edible decorations. The houses are different every year. Once, a daughter and her new husband gave theirs an outdoor graham-cracker hot tub with blue-icing water, then put themselves into it using M&Ms for heads and Twizzlers for hair. We laugh, make a mess, and all end up with our first Christmas decorations.

This tip comes from Real Simple reader Dorothy McConachie, Houston, Texas