Christmas Traditions For Families
Create family-friendly traditions you and your family will carry on for years to come. One of the best memories we make as kids and adults is the Christmas traditions. It gives us that sense of excitement when this time of the year rolls around.
Once Thanksgiving approaches, we all start getting busy. Families are coming in for the holidays, running around shopping, and attending holiday parties. Our families get too wrapped up in the hustle and bustle of the holiday season and having traditions give us a way to create time with each other and make memories to be remembered.
Growing up, I can remember Christmas as a time with lots of gifts, large meals, and the Christmas parade. These were traditions my family looked forward to every year. We would make sausage balls every year and make a large breakfast on Christmas morning.
Tree Decorating
Set aside a time in December to decorate the Christmas Tree with your family. Plan a weekend to stay home and decorate. Make it fun, put on some music, and eat some good food while you decorate.
Make Cookies to Give Out
Before school gets out, make it a tradition to home-make Christmas cookies and give them out to your teachers as gifts. This is a fun activity to do as a family and a great way to give back to others as well.
As well as your teachers, you can make cookies and give them away as a gift to your neighbors or friends. Make them closer to Christmas time and give them out as a nice gift.
Create Gingerbread Houses
Everyone loves a good gingerbread house right? Even if you don’t like the flavor of gingerbread, you still enjoy the activity of decorating a yummy house and competing with your family. Create a holiday tradition for you and your family to have a gingerbread-making contest or party.
Have a prize at the end for the best gingerbread house or set up a gingerbread-making station for family and friends to come over and make them together.
5 Days of Movie Nights
The week of Christmas, plan out five movie nights leading up to Christmas day. Each person picks a holiday movie to watch together. Put your phones and other electronics up and enjoy each other’s company.
Smores Party
This can be a fun idea to have on a cold fall evening. Set up a fire outside or even inside and have a smores party. Choose to invite family and friends or just have it be you and your family to enjoy together.
Add a hot chocolate bar also to sip on outside while you roast your marshmallows. Sit around the fire, tell stories, or even watch a movie.
Christmas Party
Throw an annual Christmas party with close family and friends. Decorate your home with seasonal decor, throw on some Christmas music, cook some great food and have lots of beverages for everyone.
Everyone loves a good Christmas party! Even an Ugly Sweater Christmas Party
Advent Calendars
Have advent calendars for each person in your family. You can make them yourselves or purchase them from the store. Each calendar will have items that the specific person enjoys and is interested in. Each day, starting December 1st, you can open one day at a time and find your prize.
It’s 25 days of gifts, how awesome is that?!
Christmas Eve Gift Swap
Christmas Eve night, let everyone choose one gift to open. You can even choose gifts for them to open specifically on Christmas Eve such as pajamas, sleep shoes, or blankets. Choose items that are Christmas Eve specific to use that evening or for the day after.
Family Christmas Photos
Getting the family together to take pictures can be a stressful thing to do but if you make it fun, your kids may end up enjoying this activity. Have a themed Christmas picture every year or choose to go somewhere fun for the picture. Create a fun experience when planning for Christmas photos and make it an event not to miss!
Christmas Morning Breakfast
Christmas morning breakfast always tastes so much better, why is that? Maybe it’s because you know that right after you get to open all of the gifts waiting for you under the tree. Making a big breakfast with waffles, bacon, eggs, potatoes, and fruit starts the day off in a positive manner. Wake up to the smell of bacon and lots of presents under the tree!
Try New Recipes Together
Christmas is all about the gifts and also the food! Christmas recipes are passed down from family member to family member in hopes of keeping the family traditions alive. In addition to passing down old recipes, create new ones together that everyone enjoys. Every year, pair an old recipe with a new recipe and pass them down as well.
Christmas Game Night
Host a Christmas game night with your family. Choose a game you already have or create a DIY holiday game. This is a fun activity to do on Christmas eve with the whole family to pass the time and spend time together.
Christmas Caroling
Go Christmas caroling around neighborhoods to spread joy. Many families love having carolers come to their door and sing Christmas songs to them and their children. It is a way for neighbors to connect and get to know one another.
Elf of the Shelf
This fun little elf is always up to something. Every morning your child will check and see where the elf is this time and what they got themselves into.
Go See Santa Claus
Visit Santa Claus himself and let your children tell him what they want for Christmas. Kids love to visit Santa in hopes to get their favorite bike or toy.
Create Your Christmas Traditions
The holiday season is a time for joy, laughter, and fun with the family. Creating traditions and memories makes the experience that much more special to everyone. Find traditions that work best for your family, if one of these ends up not being a favorite, try something new!
You want these traditions to live on for years and years, for your family to remember the memories and cherish them
