Christmas Traditions to Start This Year
Christmas is my favorite time of the year! Everyone is happier, everything is prettier, and there is so much time with family and friends!
Aside from all the wonderful music and movies, magical decorations, and yummy food- my favorite part of the holiday season is having traditions we do every single year.
I am obsessed with traditions! If we do something once and love it, then it has to become a tradition! I’m sure your family has someone like me this time of year. If it’s you- I’m giving you a virtual high-five right now!
Because every family is different, I thought it would be fun to share some of my favorite Christmas traditions we do every single year. Hopefully this will give you ideas for some new and fun ones to start with your own family!
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New / Matching Christmas Jams on Christmas Eve
I am a big fan of jams (pajamas) year-round, but there’s something extra special about Christmas pajamas! I know this is a super common tradition so I thought it would be fun to start off with it!
Since I was a kid I remember every Christmas Eve having that special pair of jammies reserved for that night. That rip-the-tag-off moment filled with anticipation for the pictures under the Christmas tree, filled with smiles as my sister and I thought of what we would wake up to the next morning.
It went from new and matching pajamas with my sister every Christmas and as we got ‘too cool’ for matching, we still got new ones each year just for Christmas Eve night. Now that I am married, my Hubby and I have carried this tradition into our own family! Last year was our first Christmas as Mr. & Mrs. and this year we did matching jams with our pup too!
Special Breakfast on Christmas Morning
You had to know there would be some traditions around food! Maybe someday I will share the breakfast casserole recipe my Dad makes every year, that I have now started making too….but for now I’m going to keep that one in the family. 😉
I love thinking of Christmas memories as a child and knowing what it looked like, smelled like, and even tasted like with this special casserole. This is why traditions are just the coolest!
Just an idea to have something special for breakfast this year on Christmas morning! You never know what will stick and end up being a fervent memory.
Play Hooky and Go Shopping
Play hooky and go Christmas shopping!!! I am pretty sure this tradition started when I was in middle school, and as long as I was getting good grades I would get out of school for a day in December to go Christmas shopping with my Mom!
This has continued every year and even as we have gotten older we still request a day off work to go shopping together! Shopping with my mom and sister is always fun, but the added excitement of feeling like you’re ‘playing hooky’ makes it even better!
One of my other favorite Christmas shopping memories growing up was my sister and I going shopping with my Dad to help pick out Mom’s gifts! We would eat food my Mom didn’t like (usually Long John Silver’s) and shopped until we dropped to find the perfect gifts for Mom!
More shopping traditions… Every year my sister and I go shopping with our Grandma Janet to pick out our Christmas gifts! This has happened every year at least since elementary school and we always have so much fun shopping our hearts out! And the deal is, we have to forget about our Christmas gifts as soon as we leave the stores, so that we are surprised on Christmas Day!
Parents and grandparents, these are such fun memories that have stuck with me over the years, and no doubt will stick in your own child’s memories too. Try not to underestimate the value in a simple holiday shopping trip with your kids, even if sometimes it can get a little hectic! Someday they may be writing about it in their blog as one of their favorite memories. 😉
Build-a-Bear with the Babes
If you follow me on Instagram (@spoonfulofkylie) then at Christmas time every year you see the pictures! Also if you follow me on Instagram, you know how seriously I take being an Aunt!
I started this tradition with my oldest nephew when he was just 3 and this year was our 6th year going! It started out as just he and I and has now grown by an uncle and a brother, and will someday add his little sister too when she is old enough.
Every year around the holidays we go and the kids get to make a stuffed animal! They get to pick it all out and have the whole experience of making it. It is so much fun! And being the sentimental picture-hoarder that I am, I have to snap pics the entire time and the smiles never leave their faces! Picture an Aunt with a happy heart!
Even if it’s not Build-a-Bear, as an Aunt or an Uncle think about starting a tradition with your babes this year. Even if it’s something small- it’s all about the memory and the experience together!
If you have never been to Build-a-Bear Workshop, even if you are an adult, just go do it! It’s so fun!
Switch Up Family Dinner
My grandma Susie is hands-down the best homemade cook. I’m talking homemade noodles and mashed potatoes and all the best hearty food. But at Christmas, no no…we flip the script and go completely opposite of that!
We get pizza from a local pizza place (Center Pizza if you’re familiar with Washington Courthouse), have wings, appetizers, dips, meatballs, little weenies, cocktail shrimp, breadsticks, a variety of deep fried things and so much more, and easily 15 different kinds of desserts. It is absolutely amazing!
The fun part about it is that it is completely opposite of what we usually eat at Grandma’s house. We all look forward to it, contribute to it, and definitely help in the eating part of it!
If this year your family isn’t feeling up to fixing the big holiday feast, suggest something completely different like this!
Christmas Eve Church Service
Okay let me just be honest- going to church every Sunday throughout the year is great, that’s so important to me, but there is nothing more magical than a Christmas Eve church service! All the chills, and all the feelings of peace and joy are in your heart. Your heart just feels full going into Christmas after being reminded what it’s all truly about!
Going to make a plug here for an amazing place to check out for Christmas Eve service and services on Saturdays and Sundays leading up to, and really just church services for the rest of the year too. 😉 Whether or not you are local to one of the campuses doesn’t matter, because there is an online option available. I will link their website here for all the information, and if you have any questions, please feel free to reach out!
Spice Up the Stockings
Stockings are easily my favorite part of the unwrapping presents portion of Christmas morning! We always do ours last after opening all other gifts and the stockings always have the most fun stuff. The tradition part of stockings for us is seeing how much random/awesome stuff we can come up with that will fit in a stocking!
I have some fun memories as a child doing stockings after opening presents and it being filled with the coolest things. When Christmas shopping each year, I always challenge myself to think of outside-the-box ideas for Wyatt’s stocking. And yes, my parents still do stockings for every single one of us! Growing up isn’t so bad when you get two stockings. 🙂
I have heard of some people doing traditions with stockings before gifts or after gifts or even the night before. Whatever that may be, I just love the idea that stockings are a tradition for families even if you don’t realize it!
Family Christmas Day
Saved the best for last!
When I was younger, my parents decided to start this tradition as a way for just the four of us to have some special Christmas memories of our own, aside from just Christmas Day. The holidays are such a wonderful time for spending time with extended family, but my parents starting this with just the core 4 of us was so special.
Our first ever Family Christmas Day was back in 2000. We went to the Easton Mall- which if you are familiar with this, it looks so magical at Christmastime! The day started out with going to Build-a-Bear (no wonder I think it makes such a good memory for the babes!), seeing ‘How the Grinch Stole Christmas’ in theaters, and the rest of the day was filled with shopping, good food, and so much laughter!
Since then, the day has transformed into a crazy wide variety of activities, challenges, games, jokes, and adventures! As the family has grown and changed, this tradition of taking a Family Christmas Day has remained in place. It started out with just 4 of us, and now this year there are 9- what an incredible blessing! And this year it’s getting even more creative!
Just some insight into some of the fun from Family Christmas Day’s past include: mall scavenger hunts, matching shirts, random acts of kindness, a horse-drawn carriage ride, crazy gift exchanges with weird requirements, fancy restaurants, decorated mini vans, seeing Christmas lights, photo challenges, gingerbread contests- just really anything off-the-wall that can be made festive- we have incorporated into this day!! After all, this year will be the 20th anniversary of this tradition!
Remember the Importance of Traditions
Now that you have made it all the way to the end of this post, I’m sure you have gathered how sentimental of a person I am. No shame in admitting that!
For those not-so-sentimental that don’t see the importance in holding onto traditions, try to understand why others hold onto them so tightly! It’s about love, and experience, and togetherness, and memories.
For those like me who may have a hard time when traditions begin to change or alter or even go along the wayside, know that it is okay- it doesn’t mean that you can’t still have a great holiday season!
I remember the first Christmas at home when my sister had moved out and it felt like it would be the end of the world (cue my dramatics!), but we adapted, adjusted, and made new traditions and it was all AMAZING!! Last Christmas was hard as the frist Christmas away from my parents, but my First Christmas spent with my husband in our home was nothing short of magical!
Traditions are oh so important, but so is adjusting and adapting to change at the holidays. Hold onto the things most important in this life- your people- and remember what the Christmas season is all really about!
I hope and pray that you have found some new ideas to start with your own family this year, and maybe even found some comfort in knowing you’re not alone if you are tradition obsessed too (solidarity sister!). I hope and pray that if you have been struggling with traditions changing this year, that you have found some peace in learning that it can just be a natural part of life, and that it doesn’t mean the holidays won’t be as psecial!
Wishing you all an incredible holiday season!! Praying for a season of peace, love, and joy for you, your family, and your friends!
All the love,
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The holidays can get pretty hectic too, so I also want to share some other blog posts that may be helpful this time of year!! Just click on the image to read each blog post.
