25 Christmas Tradition Ideas For Your Family
What is your favorite family tradition during the holidays? When you hear the word tradition what is the first one that comes to your mind? Take a minute and think about how that makes you feel. I’m excited to share with you my 25 Christmas tradition ideas for your family!
When you think of your very own experience with Christmas traditions, does it put a smile on your face? Does it bring back memories? Does it give you a warm fuzzy feeling deep in your soul? Or does it make you roll your eyes…lol. Hopefully not!
25 Christmas Tradition Ideas
Why I Value Christmas Traditions
As I look back on the early years with our kiddos, I wouldn’t say we looked at each other and said, let’s lay out all our traditions…lol. However, what we did do was just started doing fun things. And after doing them year after year they then became traditions.
Love them and their sweet relationship.
First 5 Christmas Tradition Ideas
- Plan a cookie-baking day for your whole family or whoever is at home. Do this a week or two before Christmas.
- Bake a birthday cake and sing happy birthday to Jesus on Christmas day.
- Have a Christmas movie marathon day with popcorn and hot chocolate and even S’mores if you have a fireplace with real wood.
- Buy matching pajamas for Christmas Eve.
- Open one gift on Christmas eve.
Memories
Growing up my family had just a few Christmas traditions. For years we went to a midnight Christmas Eve service. We always got dressed up and when we got home we were allowed to open one gift. I remember loving this tradition.
We also went caroling with our neighbors. I love to sing and this was always a highlight of the season for me. I’m sad the caroling tradition has gone by the wayside a little. It is probably another reason I love Hallmark Christmas movies…there is usually caroling 😘 Maybe we should have a revival of it!
In my early childhood years, we visited my grandparent’s home on Thanksgiving. We would sleep over the night before and in the morning the dads and the kids all gathered in the car and went to the Philadelphia Thanksgiving Day parade.
This was a great way to kick off the Christmas season as Santa was always at the end of the parade. We had so much fun. Most years we froze our tushies off but it was still the best time ever.
Unfortunately, these traditions weren’t long-lived for us because of the turmoil my father brought upon our lives. You can read more about this at About Kim. But I am thankful for the few precious years of memories.
Even though they didn’t last long I wanted to share those traditions with you because I remember them like they were yesterday. They are forever embedded in my memory bank and bring a smile to my face when I think of them. This is one of my reasons for loving family traditions during the holidays.
Next 5 Family Christmas Tradition Ideas
- Create a Christmas song playlist and play it loud and often.
- Blast that playlist in the car while you drive around and look at Christmas lights in your pajamas with hot chocolate and Christmas cookies.
- Make a gingerbread house and decorate it. Or buy one and have a decorating contest amongst your family members. This is fun with older children.
- Do a service project together. You can do Meals on Wheels or a shoebox for Samaritin’s Purse to help those in need. Or perhaps you know a single mom or senior citizen in need. As a family buy some groceries or provide a meal for them and deliver it together. Bake cookies for your neighbors and deliver them with a Christmas card. Whatever you do show them the love of Jesus as a family.
- Go to a Christmas parade.
The Role of Traditions
I wholeheartedly believe traditions play a significant role in the home life you strive for. In my post 6 Steps To Making Home you can read more about how establishing traditions can play a very important role as you endeavor to make your house a home.
Traditions are the handing down of information, beliefs, and customs by word of mouth or by example from one generation to another without written instruction. The holidays are filled with traditions; anything from advent calendars to Christmas caroling to even hiding a pickle.
Do you have traditions? If so do you know when that tradition started or where it came from? Is it from a previous generation? Is it something you heard from a friend and copied or did you find it on Pinterest or Instagram?
Be Intentional in Your Christmas Traditions
Establishing traditions requires intentionality. Having that pow-wow with hubby and deciding as a family what traditions you want to have can be a fun date. Have a discussion about the purpose of each tradition and why you would establish it. Be sure to include some traditions that include Jesus. One of our most treasured traditions is on Christmas morning. Before we open the gifts, my husband reads Luke 2. It is a time to get centered and refocus our reason for the season.
Try not to go overboard and overwhelm your Christmas season. Choose traditions that are meaningful as well as fun.
Take time to discuss who is responsible for each tradition and how to accomplish it. You can even evaluate on a yearly basis what you like and what you don’t like and if you want to continue that tradition.
Next 5 Family Christmas Tradition Ideas
- Go to a live nativity.
- Go to a Christmas play or musical.
- Have mom or dad read the Christmas story in Luke 2 on Christmas morning. I suggest reading it BEFORE you open gifts. This will be a beautiful moment to remember the reason for Christmas.
- Read an advent book together at mealtime with your family. You can find a Grant family favorite on my Kim Reads Page called Jotham’s Journey. It’s part of a four-part series.
- Have your family attend a Christmas Eve church service together. Take a picture together in front of their Christmas decorations. See below all our pictures in the same spot for the past several years.
This group of pictures below is from years of cookie-baking days! It is definitely one of our favorites!
How Long Should a Tradition Last
Traditions can be for life but they can also come and go. We had some traditions we did when our children were young that have faded. But accordingly, we have added some new ones along the way. There are definitely traditions that will always be a part of our family and we will never give up.
Next 5 Family Christmas Tradition Ideas
It is important to reemphasize the point of not letting traditions overwhelm you. If there is a year when you just can’t get to one of your traditions then let it go. Traditions are supposed to be fun and family-centered. It can easily become a weight and a burden if you let it. So if you can’t get to it LET IT GO. You can always reevaluate if you want to bring it back the following year.
- Make a family favorite for Christmas morning. Our tradition is homemade cinnamon rolls or monkey bread. Whatever you choose, do the same thing every year.
- Family game night at home with prizes and no phones.
- Go to a Christmas tree farm and cut down a real Christmas tree.
- Take a slice from the trunk of your live Christmas tree, write the date on it, and fill a bowl to bring out every year.
- Find an outdoor ice rink and go ice skating.
Plan Ahead
In as much as it is possible, plan ahead and make preparations before the holiday season. This way you are less likely to feel overwhelmed in the midst of all the Christmas crazy. Buy or order supplies needed in September or October. Buy tickets for Christmas plays or shows. Make your playlist in the fall. Buy stocking stuffers early! Do your best to take care of little things before December and it will help you enjoy the traditions with your family. It may also help you to not feel overwhelmed during December.
Last 5 Family Christmas Tradition Ideas
- Leave out cookies and milk for Santa on Christmas Eve.
- Fill your children’s stockings before you go to bed. Anytime after midnight, if your kiddos wake up early or in the middle of the night they are allowed to dig in.
- Hide a pickle. Whoever finds the pickle on Christmas morning is the first one to open a gift. The Pickle and Elf On The Shelf have become very popular too.
- Gather a group of friends and go caroling to your neighbors or to a retirement home or nursing home.
- Go out to dinner on Christmas Eve as a family or order in and let mom have the night off.
My Family’s Favorite Christmas Traditions
Some of these aforementioned Christmas tradition ideas are some of our family traditions. Baking Jesus a birthday cake, a cookie baking day, stockings after midnight, Jotham’s Journey, reading Luke 2 on Christmas morning, and cinnamon rolls are a few of our treasured favorites.
We delivered meals to shut-ins through Meals on Wheels for one year. Wow, what an educational and fulfilling activity this was. This one simple afternoon we spent giving to others reminded us all that we have so much to be thankful for. It was a beautiful experience.
To Conclude
As I wrote out the 25 Christmas tradition ideas I was mindful of the fact that Christmas is all about celebrating the greatest gift ever given to us. In turn, it is important to remember that we give gifts to others to celebrate the gift of Jesus. Christmas has become more about receiving. I want to encourage you to make it more about giving. You can absolutely incorporate a giving mentality in some of these traditions.
Sprinkle Reminders of Jesus
Remember to sprinkle reminders of the gift of Jesus throughout your family’s traditions. Keep Christ in Christmas. God created the family and loves the family unit. I am certain that Christmas and family are meant to go together and I love this! I am sure God is smiling down during his son’s birthday as we spend time together as a family at Christmas.
Traditions at Home
It is not lost on me that over half of these Christmas tradition ideas occur in your home. One of my biggest goals in this adventure of blogging is to constantly be trying to achieve the goal of making home a place your family loves to be, now, and for years to come. Home is everything.
Anything done at home where you’ve created a warm, loving environment can only help to strengthen your family. These traditions that take place at home will help to provide memories for your children for years to come as they did for me when I was a little girl.
I am now a grandma, GiGi, to three precious grandbabes, 2 years of age and under, with one more on the way. GiGi is looking forward to establishing some special traditions with her grandchildren. I will be working on that for sure!
Traditions Passed Down
I wrote this post while driving home from our son in Ohio. As I was writing this post, another son sent me the picture below of his family making my sugar cookie recipe. It made my heart sing with joy!
You now have a plethora of Christmas tradition ideas to choose from! I would love for you to take some of these traditions and make them your own!
Merry Christmas~Kim🎄
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