This is the fifth post in a 12 day series called “12 Days of Christmas {Planning}”. Check back every day for tips and downloads to help you organize your Christmas holiday!
Traditions are a fantastic way to create lasting memories during the holidays. Many families purposefully establish new ones each year, others create them unintentionally. Whatever the case, our traditions are something we look forward to. They bring joyful memories of times past and produce fond memories for us to savor for years to come.
These are a few of my family’s favorite traditions that we look forward to every year:
We begin the celebration of Christmas by decorating the house the day after Thanksgiving. Then on Saturday, we bundle up in warm clothing, drive to a cut-your-own Christmas tree farm, climb on the hay wagon, and cut down our Christmas tree.
When we get home we put on our favorite carols and set to the task of decorating the tree. Each of the kids has their own set of ornaments that they have received as stocking stuffers each year. It is fun to reminisce with them as they look at their “baby” ornaments and ones from years ago.
For our celebration of Advent, we begin reading our exciting Advent book each day leading up to Christmas. See my previous post on Advent here. On Christmas Eve, we finish the long-awaited, last, exciting chapter of our story.
After we arrive home from our church’s Christmas Eve Candlelight Service, each child receives one present. It’s the same every year, but nonetheless, a gift that the kids really look forward to: a new pair of jammies. I love it because they are all in cute new jammies (not outgrown or worn out ones) for Christmas morning pictures!
After opening their jammies, they each take their stockings down from the mantle and rush to their rooms. Each child hangs their stocking on the outside of their doorknob. This tradition came from my husband’s family since they did not have a fireplace. When we first had children, and he wanted to follow this tradition, I thought it was a little strange. But, I have come to love it for so many reasons.
When I was a kid, we had to wait to go downstairs until my parents awoke. It seemed like forever until they were ready! When our children wake up, they rush to their doors to check their stuffed stockings and peek at the wrapped goodies. Then they all arrive in my husband’s and my room, toting stockings and smiles, and pile into bed with us. They each open their treasures as we delight in the joyfulness of their shining faces!
After we grab the video camera and capture them each carrying their stocking downstairs, we are filled with excitement as they catch their first glimpses of the presents under the tree. Before we open the presents, my hubby retells the story of Jesus’ birth (with our Little People nativity set :o) and reminds the kids of why we celebrate with gifts. Jesus is our ultimate gift, who gave nothing less than His own life for us!
What traditions do you have with your families? I would love to hear about them! Are you starting a new tradition this year?
The 12 Days of Christmas Planning:
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We celebrate in much the sameway as you but we have a few extras too. We always go to a pantomime Christmas Eve and invite friends to come along and enjoy hot chocolate and cookies afterwards.
Last year we started a new one, I found a beautiful leather edition of The Christmas Carol andso we read that everyday in the run up and it finishes with The Night Before Christmas. Then on Christmas day we watch a natavity film while eating breakfast before opening gifts.
We also take a special gift box full of treats and things you might go without if you had very little money and we knock a door run with it leaving it for someone who money is tight for or has had a really tough year and needs a smile.
Thank you for your post it is lovely to read and I think I will steal your tradition with the stockings. In our house we tend to leave them until after dinner but they go under appreciated so moving themto before may be the best way of doing it. Plus it may mean just a little longer in our nice cozy warm bed!!
We have a couple of traditions I love to share with my husband and son.
1. We have our Advent wreath with 5 candles on the dining room table and after church each Sunday of Advent we light another candle.
2. Instead of advent calendar we re-wrap 24 Christmas books and read one each night.
3. Every year I have my son’s Christmas Wish List kept in an ornament with number on it, 1 for when he was 1 and so on.
I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season. Thanks for your lovely post.
Take care,
Sandy PaddyCake
Hi there! I have just stumbled across this GEM of a website. I have been eagerly following along! Now I am looking through all your wonderful printables for Christmas. I came upon the “traditions” blog when I thought – WOW, those are some great ideas. Have you ever thought about making a printable for traditions? Ones you already do, Ones you want to do, ones you want to change? I don’t know. I just thought as I was reading your traditions, “I need to write these down somewhere!” I can’t wait to see what’s coming this Christmas season!
Thanks – Sarah
Thanks, Sarah! I love your idea. I just might make one of those! 🙂 Most of our traditions I just “remember”, but it would be much more fun to write them down and add to or change them with my family. Thanks for the suggestion. 🙂
I am so glad to hear of your tradition with the pjs. I have three kids I did this with my two older ones and as they have gotten older they hated it, but we laugh alot at the eve present. Now we unwrapp a new game to play on Christmas eve and have pjs as well. The added new game to play on that night is awesome and family fun time.
I look forward to Christmastime every year, in part because of the traditions we have in place! The day after Thanksgiving, my husband, my little boys and myself decorate our house for Christmas, with Christmas music playing in the background. They’re allowed to watch a kid’s Christmas movie while drinking hot chocolate, which they love! I’ve never gone shopping the day after Thanksgiving; to me, it’s still Thanksgiving and it’s for family only! My husband and I always have a family Christmas picture taken, and we’ll put a wallet-size Christmas picture in our Christmas cards In the beginning of December we have a holiday cookie party with my family, and we take pictures of all the kids wearing Santa hats, which is always so much fun! A few weeks later I’ll bake cookies with my mother-in-law, and anyone can join in the fun. On Christmas Eve we spend it with my family, and we work everything around going to church. I love it that we can worship as a whole family! On Christmas morning we do stockings and open presents with our boys, then my husband’s parents, his brother and wife come over for a Christmas morning brunch. I set the table fancy, and we have a glorious breakfast of eggs, bacon, fruit salad, a Norwegian coffee cake that my husband’s family loves, and I’ll make a homemade blueberry-lemon coffee cake. There is always coffee, juice or hot chocolate for who wants it. After that we’ll exchange gifts. Later that day, we all go over to my husband’s uncle’s house for the Christmas Day celebration. We’ll also celebrate with my mother-in-law’s family, but it’s more relaxed about what date we celebrate. We have a lot of traditions, but it makes Christmas such a fun time!
We have many of the same traditions with a few fun ones to add. I have three children – 9, 11 and 15. one fun activity we do that is fun for all of us to plan is to have red/green dinner. The kids now plan the whole meal and all that is eaten has to be green or red with food coloring for the milk. Another fun activity is the night before Christmas Eve we all get our jammies on (even mom and dad), make cocoa and popcorn and we take cozy blankets in the car to drive to view the lights. We play Christmas music and each kid can pick one house they for sure want to drive by. It is a great free family activity. 🙂 Sometimes we even take grandma with us who also loves it.
Oh, those traditions sound like so much fun! Thanks for sharing them – I think I’m going to try both this year. I usually don’t like taking the kids out at night because they start getting cranky and it’s an ordeal to get them into bed when we get home. I LOVE the idea of putting jammies on first! They’ll think it’s a treat to go outside in their jammies, too. 🙂 Thanks for the ideas!