My husband and I have a pretty “young” family. We have been married for three years and our oldest will be two in a week. We are trying to gear through what traditions we would like to create as a family. We’ve both grown up with Christmas Traditions, many the same, many different, and we are working on possibly changing it up a bit with our own family. I admit trying to be a bit much as a mom. I want my kids to grow up remembering a mom that made them things. A mom that took them to activities, a mom that was there for them unconditionally. Saying that, I also don’t want to seem like a helicopter mom either. I really want to build traditions for them to look back on their childhood with fondness. So, I’ve been looking around for activities we may start throwing into our traditions list as the years pass every Christmas. Here are several Holiday Activities that I found to be great options.
1. Pictures with Santa.
We don’t really talk much about Santa to my daughter and as such this first trip to get a picture with Santa was interesting.
2. Write a Special Letter to Santa.
My husband and I have had several discussions about Santa, we don’t want our kids to necessarily hold on to Santa too long but we also don’t want to deprive them of the childhood fun and fantasy of it all. (Perhaps a post on this alone will happen in the future)
3. Bake & Decorate Cookies
I think the mess of this one will probably deter me from this for a while but as my kids get older this will be a fun one.
4. Drive around to see Christmas lights.
Where we live, I feel like less and less people decorate for Christmas. I seem to remember a ton of lights every year as a kid but driving around now can be a challenge to find something. My parents were always the brightest house on the block and I do plan to continue that tradition. If nothing else they’ll see the lights there. We have a Botanical Gardens here that does amazing Christmas lights every year. When the kids are older and can handle being out in the cold a bit better we may go to that yearly.
5. Buy Gifts for Siblings and wrap them.
I definitely want to teach my kids selflessness and giving, especially to their siblings.
6. Donate food to the Food Bank.
Again, teaching my kids selflessness and giving.
7. Build a Snowman.
Definitely when we have enough snow.
8. Clean out and donate toys to a worthy organization.
Selflessness and clean out the piles of old toys they don’t play with anymore.
9. Christmas Eve Pajamas and Movie.
My sister does this with her kids and I’ve discussed it with my husband as a great idea. Christmas Eve the kids open one present, which are Christmas pajamas, they put them on and then everyone watches a new movie before bed.
10. Decorate the Christmas Tree.
This year, since our two-year-old gets into everything and doesn’t quite understand not messing with tree decorations, we decided to put up our tree but we didn’t decorate it. It’s a pre-lit tree and it has the star on top and that’s it. I love it, it still works well, but as my kids get older I want to make a big deal of us all decorating together. What are some of your Christmas traditions? Have you tried some that you have found just doesn’t work well for your family? What is new and different from when you grew up?
Sarah
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Haha since my hubby’s family is not really big on Xmas, most of our traditions – from our Xmas eve meal before church to opening stockings over breakfast – come straight from my family of origin!
One of my favorite memories growing up was of buying a Christmas gift for each of my 3 siblings. I tried gingerbread houses a few years. The Pinterest peer pressure just got to me. 3 years…3 disasters. We decided it’s a great tradition for some families…just not ours.
I love Christmas traditions that my family has started. It is amazing how quickly my kids pick up on them.
I liked reading about your special traditions. I love the one about sibling gifts. I need to do that this year with my kids. They love picking out gifts for each other’s birthday so they will love doing it for Christmas too!
My husband is not a huge Christmas person but we have started doing a tree decorating tradition. Great post for ideas.
I love driving around to see the lights! I think I’ll just mark our calendar for that now. I’m going to do as many of these as we can, this is a great list, Sarah!
I love building traditions around charity and giving back. I think it builds young people into being generous adults. I love that idea
Love this list of traditions. We do almost every single one of them.