To me, the holidays are full of holiday traditions. From setting out the Christmas decor and listening to music, to baking cookies and enjoying Christmas breakfast … the days of December are full of joy, warmth, comfort, and all of the amazing other feelings that fall inline with the holiday season.
When we had our son on Christmas Eve, thoughts of holiday traditions started to flow through my head. What holiday traditions did my husband have growing up? What holiday traditions did I have growing up? What traditions were we going to keep? What traditions did we want to add? I’m all about traditions so I wanted to make the holidays extra special for our little family.
25 Holiday Traditions
Here’s a list of 25 holiday traditions that you can start this year with your family to make the holiday season extra special.
- Set out an Advent calendar and begin the holiday countdown.
- Pick a day to set out the Christmas decorations and set them out each year on that day.
- Buy a new ornament every year and add it to the tree. My parents would always give my brother and I an ornament. My grandparents did as well. When I moved out of my parent’s house, my parents gave me most of my ornaments. I love decorating our tree with my ornaments from childhood. To this day, my in-laws still give us ornaments every year to add to the collection.
- Go to a Christmas tree farm and bring home a freshly cut tree. My husband and I did this in our families growing up. Last year when we moved to a new city, we found a great Christmas tree farm. We went back there this year. We were even followed by a photographer from The Frederick News-Post who asked to capture our experience at Gaver Farm. Here’s the featured article (the top photo is my son and me … you can scroll through the photos to see another photo that is a silhouette of us walking up the hill).
- Pick a day of the month and have a cookie bake-a-thon. My Mom and I would do this every year. Our kitchen counters and table were always covered in cookies and treats.
- Decide on a place to take a family photo for the holiday card. I took our son’s holiday card photo at the Christmas tree farm last year. I did a similar pose this year. I can’t wait to look back on all of the holiday card photos and watch him grow.
- Visit Santa and get a keepsake photo. Our nephew always has epic Santa photos that we look forward to receiving every year.
- Send Christmas cookies to family and friends.
- Build a snowman or have an annual friendly snowball fight.
- Make jars of hot cocoa mixes to give to family and friends. You can even pair them with some of these Salted Caramel Hot Cocoa Cookies.
- Pick a holiday gift to give every year. My parents would always give cologne and perfume to the kids. I loved this gift.
- Have fun with the stocking stuffers. Every year, Santa would fill my Mom’s stocking with socks, socks, and more socks … all individually wrapped. It was hilarious.
- Wear matching pajamas to bed every Christmas Eve.
- Wear Santa hats while opening presents on Christmas morning. We did this, and still do this, every year. The photos are always awesome.
- Attend a tree lighting ceremony in your town.
- Go out to dinner at a nice restaurant every year during the holidays. My family always looked forward to this special night out.
- Wear a special clothing item on Christmas. My Grandpa always wore his Christmas tie and suspenders. When I was young, my grandparents would give me a Christmas dress every year.
- Go sledding at your local park.
- Set out milk, cookies, and carrots (you can’t forget Santa’s Reindeer).
- Check out holiday lights in your neighborhood and/or in neighborhoods near your home. We did this last night and it was amazing to hear our son say “Wow!” to all of the lights he saw.
- Deliver cookies and treats to your local first responders. Don’t forget … many of them will be working during the holidays.
- Read “The Night Before Christmas” before bed on Christmas Eve.
- Pick a holiday movie to watch every year. Get in your jammies, make some popcorn, and relax as a family all while watching your favorite movie.
- Volunteer at your local shelter.
- Visit your local senior citizens home to spread joy and cheer during the holiday season.
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