It's almost the most wonderful time of the year. The holiday season is almost upon us and I am eager to add a little magic and the Christmas spirit into our lives after a year of craziness living in a pandemic. I started sitting down and reflecting upon our holiday traditions and thought that I would share them with you in hopes to inspire you to create some new family traditions with your own family.
As a child, we didn't have many family traditions. When I became a mom, I wanted my kids to experience the things that I didn't get to as a kid.
I do whatever it takes to make the month of December meaningful and fun for my children. Here are some of the traditions that we do every year.
A New Ornaments Every Year
I like to buy each of the kids in our family a new ornament. I add a cute little tag with their name and the year written on it. I plan to one day gift them as a wedding present to each of my children when they get married.
I also like to add a few newer ornaments to go along with our traditional/rustic inspired tree. This year I add some gorgeous brass bells, ice skates, large red and gold bulbs, and a nativity snow globe ornament.
Christmas Craft
My kids love giving gifts at Christmas that are meaningful. Every Christmas, we make an ornament for our friends and family to hang on their Christmas tree. Some of my favorite ornaments were handprint snowmen or fingerprint lights. You can also make DIY Ombre Ornaments here.
Christmas Eve Pajamas
We are only allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve. It's a large box filled with new matching family pajamas, a new holiday book, a Christmas movie, a cocoa mix, peppermint sticks, a sweet treat, and popcorn. We watch a Christmas movie and read our new book as well as The Night Before Christmas before sending the kids off to bed. There is nothing like waking up in new jammies on Christmas morning. These are the ones the kids will be wearing this year. Shop here. These are currently 60% off and on sale for less than $8.00!
Christmas Movie Nights
We love 25 Days of Christmas over here. We watch movies every night as a family. We make some popcorn and relax on the sofa together. Some of our favorite movies are The Polar Express, The Nightmare Before Christmas, The Nutcracker, Elf, the Home Alone series, The Grinch, Charlie Brown's Christmas, and Arthur Christmas. What are your family's favorite Christmas movies to watch together?
Collecting Nutcrackers
This year, my oldest son wanted to start a new tradition by collecting nutcrackers. Last Christmas, we went to see the ballet for the first time. He enjoyed it. I decided to let him pick out two little ones when we were at Hobby Lobby. The plan is to pick up a couple more and every Christmas we will add a new nutcracker to our collection. Does your family collect nutcrackers?
Cookies for Santa
Every December 23rd we bake 3-4 different batches of cookies. We usually bake sugar cookies, gingerbread, candy cane sugar cookies, and my Grandma's rum balls. This year, we plan to enroll the help of the kids. Normally, they just decorate the sugar and gingerbread cookies but now that they are older I think they can handle mixing and cutting out the dough. This is an all-day ordeal, so I could use all the help. What's your family's go-to-cookie recipe? Drop a comment below.
Winter Wonderland Christmas Light Show - PDX
Since we moved to the Portland Metro Area, every month of December we head to the Winter Wonderland Christmas Light Show held at the Portland International Raceway. We make hot cocoa and load up into our Ford Flex and head across the Columbia River to see the light show. Our kids love it and it has become one of our favorite traditions. Do you have a light show like this where you live?
Santa Photos
This is my husband's family tradition. If you walk into my in-law's house, you will see a wall of Santa photos. It's so fun to look at photos of my husband as an infant up until we started our family. Now the grandchildren are on the wall. I can't wait until I'm old and have a whole wall filled with Santa photos of my kids and my future grandchildren. The thought excites me.
What are some of your family's Christmas Traditions? Comment below, I am always down to add a new tradition.
Thanks for stopping by the blog today. Have a wonderful holiday season.
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