INSIDE: What family Christmas traditions do you have? Whether you’re looking for a few more ideas or it’s your first family Christmas, you’ll LOVE the Christmas traditions suggested in this post! Adopt one or all of these and experience your BEST family Christmas yet!
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I LOVE Christmas!
Granted I might be a grown-up, but Christmas is my favourite holiday season of the year BY FAR. With all the decorations, lights, music, food, gifts and festive activities, it’s impossible to be a humbug this time of year. I can’t help but get excited the closer Christmas gets and now I have my own children, I have even more of an excuse to be a big kid at Christmas!
The thing I love most about this festive season though? Our family Christmas traditions. Those Christmas customs that we repeat every single year that make the holiday season special and Christmas feel like Christmas.
What family Christmas traditions do you have?
Big or small, we all have them and as well as making us feel festive, they’re a great way to bring the family together. If I asked you what your favourite childhood memories of Christmas were, what would you say?
Was it leaving mince pies out for Santa? Seeing a stocking stuffed full of presents at the end of your bed on Christmas morning? Or was it the family afternoon walk on Christmas Day to burn off the turkey and Christmas pudding?
Maybe it was all of the above!
Whatever your fondest memories of Christmas as a child might be, I guarantee that at least a handful of them have made their way into the family Christmases you now have with your own children. They certainly have for me. And in this post, I’m sharing what they are!
If you’re looking for a few more family Christmas traditions to add to your list or you just want to try something new this year, this post is for you. Not only am I sharing my own Christmas traditions, I’ve also scoured the web to find the best of the rest too! Are you ready to find out what they are? Let’s dive in!
Related: Five Ways to Enjoy a Family Christmas
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My family Christmas traditions…
When I sat down to write this, I realised just how many family Christmas traditions we have. Every year we add something new to the list too. Here are our favourites:
- Chocolate Advent Calendars– including an advent calendar for the dog!
- Decorating the tree on December 1st to Mariah Carey’s “All I Want for Christmas”.
- Our Elf Buddy arriving the morning after the tree is decorated.
- Making Christmas crafts together after school.
- Reading a Christmas-themed chapter book each night before bed.
- Making and decorating a gingerbread house.
- Donning our PJ’s and driving around the estate looking at all the Christmas lights.
- Going for a walk around our local forest on Christmas Eve.
- Deli meats, cheeses, crackers and tapas for dinner on Christmas Eve.
- Sprinkling reindeer food on the lawn so Santa knows where to land his sleigh.
- Christmas stockings for everyone – you’re never too old for a Christmas stocking, right?!
- Bacon and egg croissants for Christmas Day breakfast.
- Prosecco for the grown-ups whilst unwrapping presents.
- Watching Christmas movies like The Holiday, Love Actually, Elf, Miracle on 34th Street and The Muppet Christmas Carol.
- Making Jamie Oliver’s Bread and Butter Pannetone Pudding Tartfor pudding on Boxing Day.
Our absolute favourite family Christmas tradition?
The Christmas Eve box!
By far our favourite tradition of all, we’ve had a Christmas Eve box to open on Christmas Eve for at least the last three years. A great way to mark the start of the Christmas celebrations, I think both my Hubby and I love it as much as the boys do and I don’t see us stopping it any time soon.
The parting gift from our Elf before he flies back to the North Pole, we open it after dinner on Christmas Eve. Usually packed with Christmas PJ’s, a Christmas-themed movie and a bedtime story, there’s also a Christmas plate for us to leave Santa’s mince pie on, a remembrance candle to light to remember our lost loved ones and a few sachets of hot chocolate and marshmallows.
If you’ve never had one, why not give it a go this year? A LOT of fun, it really makes things feel special and helps get everyone into the Christmas spirit!
The BEST family Christmas traditions from around the web…
Wanting to try a few new traditions this year and in need of some inspiration, I reached out to my fellow bloggers to see what their top suggestions were. Here’s what they had to say…if you’re looking for a few more fun Christmas ideas, why not give them a go too?! And, if you like them, make sure you repeat them every year from now on. You never know, your kids may love them so much they become family Christmas traditions for them when they’re all grown up too!
- ‘Elf’ Your Neighbour – Uncommon Designs Online
- Use a Chalkboard Christmas Countdown Calendar – Country Chic Cottage
- Send 12 Days of Christmas Gifts – Oh My Omaha
- Have a Reverse Advent Calendar – Joyfully Thriving
- Give 24 Days of Christmas Books – Protecting Your Pennies
- Send Santa an eMail – Paper Heart Family
- Do Some Holiday Art Projects – I Heart Frugal
- Have a Cookie Weekend – Made in a Pinch
- Make Holiday Cards – The Half-Assed Housewife
- Buy a New Ornament for the Tree – Becoming Schultz
- Host a Christmas Ornament Making Party – The Soccor Mom Blog
- Collect Toys for Charity – The Soccor Mom Blog
- Visit a Retirement Home – Mommy Enlightened
- Play Christmas Board Games – Kids Love Board Games
- Christmas Light Scavenger Hunt – The DIY Way of Life and Retro Housewife Goes Green
- The Christmas Eve/Night Before Christmas Box – The Best Ideas for Kids and Fashion Ave Mom
- Sleep in the Living room on Christmas Eve – Making Manzanita
- Wearing Matching PJ’s on Christmas Morning – Empowered Single Moms
Related: The BEST Fall Activities for Kids
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Want even more family Christmas tradition ideas? Try these:
- 9 Christmas Countdown Ideas – What’s Up Fagans
- 25 Days of Christmas Activities – The Holy Mess
- 25 Ways to Have a Merrier Christmas – Sharing My Favourites
- 40 Christmas Traditions to Start with Your Kids this Year – Him Me and Three
The BEST family Christmas traditions…
For me, there’s nothing more important than spending quality time with the ones I love. Especially at Christmas. My family Christmas traditions help me to do just that, and they can help you to too. Why not pick a few from those I’ve shared and give them go? The only hard part is choosing what to try first! I think a new one for us this year is going to have to be playing Christmas board games – although, I quite like the idea of sleeping in the lounge on Christmas Eve – and I’m sure my boys would too! Happy Holidays!
That’s it for this post! What family Christmas traditions do you have? What were your favourite growing up? Let me know in the comments below!
Until next time…
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[…] out this amazing list of 100 Family Christmas Traditions over at A Simple and Contented Life (we made the […]