We love finding little ways to make memories, especially during the holidays. The age-old adage reminds us that often the best memories don’t cost a lot of money, and it’s so true. Here are some of our past favorite holiday traditions for families as well as new ones we’ve created with our own family.
1. Caroling to neighbors or friends. Bundle up the kids, knock on a few familiar doors, and watch faces light up with joy as you sing a few Christmas favorites. Your heart will burst at this simple act of spreading cheer.
2. Decorate Christmas cookies. No need to be fancy. Find a favorite recipe or two (we highly recommend Nana’s famous Sugar Cookies). Then color the frosting in festive colors and decorate away. Invite a few friends to bring their favorite Christmas sprinkles and multiply the fun.
3. Too many cookies to keep at home? Make up small plates to share or grab festive containers, Kraft cookie boxes, or check your local dollar store to find treat bags. Then deliver to loved ones.
4. Progressive dinners are a great way to enjoy friends and family without one person bearing the load. Gather a few friends and visit one house for appetizers, a second house for the main dish, and another home for desserts. Enjoy the fun of seeing each other’s homes adorned for Christmas.
5. Find a local Christmas concert, ballet, or other performance. Many times, local adult choirs, orchestras, churches, or schools will put on free or low-cost performances with lots of holiday cheer.
6. Attend a candlelight service at a local church. We think these are some of the most beautiful services of the year. Celebrating our Savior’s birth by candlelight, often with lots of wonderful caroling.
7. Christmas movie marathon. Pop a bowl of Tim’s coconut oil popcorn and pour mugs of Nana’s famous hot cocoa. Don your favorite Christmas pj’s and cozy up to an old classic (we love Frosty in our home). If you want to laugh, watch another favorite of ours- Ice Age Christmas, or shed a few happy tears over a Hallmark classic.
8. Decorate your tree together. Sounds simple, but there is so much joy to be had in pulling out the ornaments and reminiscing where they all came from. Consider buying or making a new ornament each year, then when your kids are grown, gift them their ornaments to start their family tree.
9. Go to your local holiday parade, tree lighting, or festival. There is something special about gathering with others in your community to celebrate Christmas.
10. Take a Christmas light tour around town. If you’re anything like us, you love to ooh and ahh over the houses that put in extra effort with lights, blow-ups, and more. For extra fun, give your kids scorecards (1-10) and have them rank houses as you drive by.
11. Christmas Bingo, Charades, or Pictionary are always extra fun at family gatherings. Who doesn’t like trying to act out the twelve days of Christmas in 60 seconds or less? Add a few fun games to your next holiday gathering.
12. Stop in to visit elderly family members, friends or neighbors. Ask them about their family traditions and most memorable Christmases. Who knows, maybe you’ll pick up some new ideas.
13. Act out the Christmas story. Pull out old bedsheets for makeshift shepherds’ garb, put a baby doll in a basket to represent Jesus and assign everyone a part in re-telling the Christmas story.
14. Family talent shows are always a good idea! Maybe grandpa plays the harmonica, kids have a poem or memory verse to share, or your little dancer has some sweet moves to wow the crowd. Whatever the talent, don’t forget to press record and capture the memories.
15. Create a candy countdown or other advent activity. Try our infamous Candy Countdown, buy a chocolate countdown from the store, or write out 25 activities on popsicle sticks and pull one out of a jar each day. Don’t forget to mail a countdown to kids living away from home, or your grandkids in a different state. If you’re like me, you’re never too old to countdown to Christmas.
I would love to hear if you do any of these holiday traditions this year with your family. Most of all, no matter what age your kids are, where they are, or even if you’re alone, purpose
time to be together, be with others, and show intentional thoughtfulness. Often the time we give
is the best gift of all.
xo, Sarah
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Kayla flannagan
Christmas Eve service is by far my favorite and now my boys! It’s a daily friendly service with lots of worship!
Delores Miller
Kayla flannaganWe love packing everyone in the van and go seeing the neighborhood Christmas lights and then get a treat while we are out. Also going to a train display.
Debbie Mason
Delores MillerNumber 7…marathon Christmas movies…sounds great for Christmas eve. We always have a special “fun” dinner…this year it’s homemade pepperoni rolls and chicken and beef tacos. Also number 10 I would enjoy although I love in the country and finding Christmas lights my mean alot of driving. In years past though I loved driving around and looking at everyone’s outside decorations. Thanks for the list of fun things…Merry Christmas and enjoy your trip.
Karla
Debbie MasonWe love to get hot chocolate and drive through the Festival of Lights (a large light display that runs during the holiday season) while we listen to Christmas songs! There can never be too many lights!
Jenny Owens
These are fun ideas! We do some of them! I’ll have to check out your recipes!
Christine Andrews
Jenny OwensI love taking my kids around looking at Christmas lights every year! They love to see the artwork made my other people!
Joanna
Christine AndrewsOur church does a Christmas Cantat every year and it’s great! Also we spend Christmas Eve and Christmas Day with family. My children are still really little but I can’t wait to implement some fun traditions as they get older 😊
Jeannie
Jenny OwensGreat ideas! We do some of these. We love driving around to look at the Christmas lights. This year we went to our first drive thru live Nativity. It was jus so special.
Kristen Mutu
Jenny OwensLove all the ideas your coming out with, I got to say the games and the gingerbread houses decorating are my favorite family activities around Christmas and especially going to church and singing in the choir with the kids.
Amanda
A nearby church does a living nativity that is fantastic. It’s one of our favorite traditions!
Frumie Diskind
AmandaMaking cookies with the kids and a community party
Shelly Leen
AmandaI love that you Carol. I feel it is a rare thing & very enjoyable for all
Kathryn G
Shelly LeenI feel like the list is never ending, which is so nice!
We decorate together right after thanksgiving, then we always go check out Christmas lights, so cookie decorating and an advent countdown. Such a fun time of year!
Chelsea Brooks
Shelly LeenLove your ideas! Our family loves decorating cookies and doing gingerbread houses!
Thinking next year we will try your candy advent calendar!
Christine Andrews
AmandaI love taking my kids around looking at Christmas lights every year! They love to see the artwork made my other people! We
Ali Dupuis
Love attending our local lighted parade
Brittney Bowman
My favorite tradition is opening gifts with my niece and nephew and having intentional time with each of them to play with their new toys!
Heather
We drive to see lights with our kids and bake all the delicious treats! I would love to try your candy countdown next year! Oh and we also watch Christmas movies all month!
Kimberli West
Christmas movie marathon & cookie sharing/ decorating! Love these ones! 🎄❤️🤶🏼💚☃️
Angie DeBord
We do a lot of the same/similar traditions as your family every year.
Our church has a Flannel Fest in early December every year. We all wear flannel, sing Christmas songs, decorate cookies with our families, and then before the night ends we light up the tree outside of our church. it’s one of our favorite traditions every year now!
Jamie Richmond
Angie DeBordOne of our very favorite traditions is doing a scavenger hunt while looking at Christmas lights! There are tons to be found on the internet or we make our own!
I was gonna skip it this year but my kids were NOT going for that!
Sarah Adkins
Jamie RichmondWe like to bake Christmas cookies Christmas eve, watch movies ❤️ my grandma started it when we were kids and it was my favorite. Now I do this with my kids
Morgan Claassen
Love these! I would love to try the progressive dinner with friends, that sounds so fun!
Jesse Hardin
I actually have a letter my late mother sent me of all our Christmas traditions. It had things such as “wrapping our pictures on our wall in wrapping paper”, “making homemade cookies”, “getting little Santa hats for our cats”, and so much more. One of my childhood traditions I still do in my adult life is buying Christmas Jammie’s that we open on Christmas Eve! I love trying new traditions every year, and I love even more when they stick!
Tami
Aww, these are all great family fun! Ours always seems to be going out into the woods and walking around forever looking for the perfect tree. It’s always too big and too tall foe the house bit it’s always fun and makes for the best tree and memories of how I made them look at 100 trees!
stephanie hart
one of our favorite traditions is building our lego advent calendars!
Nylene Coponen
stephanie hartBeing with family is my favorite part of Christmastime.
Elizabeth Whited
We have a felt Jesse Tree advent calendar that I made one year. I found the pattern to the same one my mom had made when we were kids and we did every year. It’s fun to share that tradition with my kids and also brings back a lot of good memories from my childhood!
Kristi
I love driving around town looking at the Christmas lights!! My kids are at such a fun age to do this and get so excited when they spot a house with lights! 🙂
Amy Hues
The family talent show sounds so amazing!!!! The boys would love this idea!!!
We also roam the neighborhoods for Christmas lights.
Hannah Surges
These are great traditions that I need to start implementing during the holiday season!! Thank you for providing this!!
Daria
We always get in our Christmas pjs and go look at Christmas light in the car!
Julie Ann Ordilla
I’m a single Mom with two Cerebral palsy son and 1 girl. I want to spend time with my kids on Christmas in our house not in the hospital.. Thank you for sharing your family tradition Sarah. Love following your beautiful family. Merry Christmas 🎄
Julianna Waldner
We are have a Christmas concert this year again which will be super fun. Haven’t had one since covid.
And one of my favorite Christmas traditions in reading the Christmas story and singing some Christmas carols before opening our gifts. Wishing you a very Merry Christmas and God’s blessings in the new Year.
Kimberly Webster
This year we are starting the tradition of going to walk thru lights around a lake. Hopefully we stay warm. We always decorate the tree together and make some christmas treats.
Heidi
Awww! Such great ideas! I absolutely love doing matching Christmas jammies, drives through town looking at Christmas lights, baking Christmas cookies and candies, and this year we are going to bake a birthday cake for Jesus on Christmas Eve and sing Happy Birthday Jesus on Christmas morning.
Dominique Naranjo
I love y’all’s tradition to go to that Christmas town every year ♥️ I wish we would have a little Christmas town like that! I have decided to make the tradition, inspired by you, to let my kids pick out a new ornament every year! (:
We also have the traditions to watch Christmas monies on repeat and bake cookies and drive around to look at Christmas lights in our pajamas ♥️
Growing up, it was a tradition for my mom to give us little gifts and treats in an advent calendar. Lord willing, I’ll find the right advent calendar and be able to start that tradition for my kids next year ♥️
Dominique
Dominique NaranjoWatch Christmas movies not monies 😂
Tara
I feel like each year is so different its hard to fit everything I want in. But some of our faves are:
Put the kids in Pjs then drive around and look at lights.
Live drive- thru nativity at a local church
Singing in the Christmas choir at our church
Dawn Samuels
I love all the Christmas traditions! Decorating the tree, bringing treats to the neighbor’s, Christmas mornings with the family, doing Christmas devotionals with our family, baking cookies.., just all of it!!!
Erin
Great ideas. We do some of these as well, but Christmas Eve is my favorite tradition. We go to candlelight service and then come home and have appetizers for dinner and play board games.
Sarah Brandenburg
ErinEvery year that my family spends Christmas together, all my niece’s and nephews spend the night at my house on Christmas night. I am the single fun auntie and I have 11 that can stay the night now. It is one of the things that I look forward too every year. Another one is my dad, every year on Christmas morning will go to 7-11 and buy gifts and drinks for everyone. He has been doing it for 20+ years now. The grandkids know that papa will be making his traditional 7-11 run and cannot wait to see what he comes home with. He even has people give him gift cards to use for Christmas time. 🎄
Lindsey
Church on Christmas Eve always! And my parents have their own “Polar Express” with the kids (7) where they surprise them, give them matching PJs, decorate gingerbread houses and sleep over. It’s highly anticipated and such a treasured gift from my parents!
Mary Radig
We have always hid a pickle ornament on our tree and the first person to find it wins the pickle prize.🙂 And that can be a gift card, money a small gift or whatever. So fun to see their faces all in the tree looking still at the ages of 31 36 and 40.Got to love it❤
Mary Pries
Mary Radig☃️Traditions we enjoy☃️
Christmas cards, making and giving them out.
Christmas cookies, by the way I tried your Mothers cut-out cookie recipe love it.😊😍
Singing Christmas carols
Going to the park in our town to see the Christmas lights and drive around and look for Christmas lights too.
Eating chocolate covered cherries cuz that is one of my favorite Christmas traditions to do.
Taya
My favorite family tradition of all time is helping my mom make like a quadruplet batch of cinnamon rolls ( which she only makes once a year) and giving them out to friends and family! Love your family and inspiration a lot!
Beth
Christmas Eve with extended family, Christmas morning immediate family and Christmas evening bowling with friends <3
Tara
We have lots of memorable and fun Christmas traditions. However, my two favorite ones are taking our kids to an old fashioned candy store that my grandparents took me to I’ve been going there for almost 30 years) and attending our Christmas Eve service.
Cynthia
Our church has a beautiful Christmas Eve service that always ends with all the lights out, everyone holding a candle and singing “Silent Night”… just a beautiful way to end the service! Our girls have always looked forward to it every year!
Mikalah
This year my family and I will be serving Christmas dinner to a homeless/low-income ministry in our area on Christmas day. And I’m SO excited to do it with our 4 boys! What better way to celebrate our Savior than by showing our children to love and serve like He did. We can’t wait to be a part of it and plan to continue this every year!
Katelyn
We do christmas baking(Tuesday we did actually) and gift them to those closest to us. Our kids also decorate the tree start to finish every year and we do not touch it unless they ask for help and they are left more joyous and proud to just have us watch💜
Kara Howard
My favorite tradition is putting a present in my kids stocking each day in the month of December. It’s a tradition my father started with me and my brothers and he passed away in august and the tradition became even sweeter now. I miss him but I’m thankful he’s with Jesus now.♥️
Elizabeth Mock
Decorating Christmas cookies & family Christmas movie nights are favorite traditions in our house, too! We also love our church’s candlelight Christmas Eve service every year! I love your idea of doing a progressive dinner with friends. That would be such a fun tradition to start!
Julie Warren
Love a couple games a friend shared in 2019 – new tradition – #1 sit a group of players in a circle – give everyone full hand pot holders – then you wrap packages – start the Christmas music and pass the first package – everyone gets like 15 seconds (vary by age and skill of players) to try and unwrap it before they have to pass it to the next person – the person to completely open the package gets the present inside. #2 with about 75-100 candy canes – pick two players – with only a candy cane in their mouth – no hands see who can pick up the most candy canes spread out on a table and drag them into a hat or bowl before the Christmas song ends winner gets a prize – extra fun if you picks side to root and surround each player cheering them on
Tiffany Acuff
Our guaranteed tradition every year is that instead of stockings I make pillowcases that say something about their year. Things they’re proud of or vacation we took, etc. So every pillowcase has 3-5 fabrics on them. And then we put all their presents and stocking stuffer things inside their pillowcases.
Every person has a unique wrapping paper. You don’t know which paper is yours until after breakfast and worship. I only write the “from” on each package. Extended family sends all the presents for me to wrap!
Maegan Kintner
Tiffany AcuffOne of my favorite Christmas traditions is eating my Mom’s homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. She has been making them for as long as I can remember. It wouldn’t be Christmas without them.
Courtney
We love the driving around and looking at Christmas lights tradition! Being a military family means we move often and so we get to explore our new towns a lot by doing this too!
Halley
Decorating cookies and looking at lights are some of my favorite traditions. I also like to teach my boys about giving back to others so we always shop for kids in need! ❤️
Laurie
The candlelight service at church and taking the grandkids out looking at the lights and to a Christmas movie ❤️🎄
Lisa
We go to a candlelight Christmas Eve service every year. My girls get to decorate their mini Christmas tree (for their room) with their special ornaments(they pick a new one every year). I want to do Christmas cookies so I need to pick some recipes and just go for it.
Shanna Uptergrove
My mom would tell me all about the Progressive Dinner that her and her siblings would do when I was younger. I so wish we could do that today, but one sis lives in HI and another 25 minutes away. However, traditions we do- the girls and I make fudge and chocolate pretzels with my mom every year. Fudge does not come out right here at my house for some reason!! We also love new PJs for the month and get a new board game too.
Shanda Dow
Shanna UptergroveAll of Christmas Eve, dinner at my grandparents, candlelight service then looking at lights on the way home.
Hunter Gordon
Christmas Eve we stay up watching Christmas movies at my moms house, eating popcorn, and playing games. Then we all sleepover (3 siblings, my SO, and our 3 kids) and wake up to make a BIG breakfast before heading out to my great grandmas and then my aunts!
Fal
Love this
We like to cut down a tree together , decorate it and do matching pjs on Christmas eve.
Angie Smith
Making gingerbread houses!
Lisa Promersberger
We have an indoor “snowball” fight every year. Mini marshmallows, regular marshmallows, and the huge campfire marshmallows are used as our “snowballs”. It is a ton of fun, and with everyone helping, cleanup isn’t as bad as it sounds. The bonus is finding random marshmallows in funny places for weeks (or months) after which brings a smile to everyone’s face!
Rhonda
Taking our grandchildren to see all the lights and decorations has become my favorite thing to do each year. Love their excitement!
Georgie Siposori
Our favourite tradition is playing Christmas carols in the nursing home with my brothers. We all play different brass instruments!
I swear older people are the only ones who know all the words to carols these days 😍
Crystal P
Getting together with all of our extended family for Christmas. With my mom’s side of the family there are over 60 of us and in my 41 years the only time we have missed getting together was in 2020.
Meagan K.
I love the idea of doing a progressive supper with friends!
One of our favorite traditions is making a blanket Fort the same evening that we set up our Christmas tree and watching a Christmas movie in it and sleep in the Fort ☺️
Megan Danielsen
Going to our town’s celebration called “Holiday Hoopla” is an annual favorite. We bundle up and listen to live kid friendly Christmas music to watch Santa’s arrival to town. He arrives a different way each year and it has become a tradition we look forward to each year! Love watching your family’s adventures!
Merry Christmas!
Rachel
Our youth group did a progressive dinner once. That was a lot of fun! Just a few weeks ago we did a talent show and I learned things about myself as well as my friends. It’s definitely a worthwhile activity. Both of these aren’t limited to Christmas, but I love your ideas, Sarah. Thank you for sharing!
Kimberlee
We usually go with my in-laws to Stone Mountain Christmas in Atlanta, GA. Think: goofy Christmas plays, beautiful lights, snow tubing, and a train ride up the mountain while looking at lights and signing carols. My daughter is 8 and we went for the first time for her first Christmas. So many sweet memories from this tradition. ♥️
Alicia Weiers
I love to give my girls Christmas pajamas and new books on Christmas Eve. Then we sit by the tree before bed and read our books together.
April T
One thing I love to do in Dec is decorate the inside of my house. I don’t have expensive taste when it comes to decorations but I have some pieces that make me smile when I see them on the mantle. As my kids get older the more they recognize the words on the signs or the characters of the nativities.
Brandi Brown
We love decorating cookies, but being a pastors wife/family, Christmas Eve service is one of my favorites.
Samantha Lewis
I love some of your ideas. My family in is still young so we are looking for fun new things to try. Right now my favorite is just watching everything holiday threw the eyes of my 5 and 1 year old kids. To see the magic in my them just makes everything that much more special. Merry Christmas.
Heather Perez
Samantha LewisI love driving or walking and seeing Christmas lights as well as watch a good Hallmark movie!
Courtney
We go to out local holiday parade every year
Malena Bauman
I love watching your post. It’s so refreshing to see a God fearing family.
Beverly
We love going around to see Christmas lights and of course, decorating the tree and all the Christmas movies!!
Ann East
We always make beignets the morning after Christmas, wear our pj’s, & play games.
It is the sweetest & most low key time.
Christy
We do many of the same traditions! My favorites are movie night, Christmas concerts in the community, baking treats for friends and of course Christmas Eve candlelight service. Merry Christmas to y’all!!
Dana Christian
I want to be the Christmas cookie mom! Giving out plates to all the neighbors! Starting this tradition this year!
Kari Dodd
We like to make cinnamon rolls and grandpas fresh squeezed orange juice Christmas morning.
Joyce Romberger
Great blog. Fun ideas for Christmas. Thanks!
Hope Mayer
Our favorite is actually going to “Christmas town” Leavenworth as well and spending the day with our family and the grandparents tag along. So fun to go back every year and we always treat the kids to ice cream which they love !
Carol Mischke
We go to candle light service and then out to dinner on Christmas Eve.
Sharon
Baking various cookies and treats, and sharing them with friends and neighbors! Love being able to share some joy with others
Dace Gavene
I love Your summary of Christmas traditions! Thank You for so much great,simple ideas which could bring joy,smile,love and faith! In Latvia,Northern Europe we celebrate Christmas on 24th of Dec,evening… elder family members togather with grandchildrens. Before that we wait Christmas and Jesus birthday and we have gingerbread cookies making night, decorating homes, Christmas tree, doing Charity to poor people there and now for Ukrainians (UA),who suffer from Russia agression. In our continent there wont be any firework,becouse of UA citizens not to suffer from big noises and sounds,which remain war! Please, pray for peace in our World everyone! Have a nice holiday,- Jesus is the Reason for the Season!!!
Rachel
We enjoy delivering homemade goodie’s to our neighbors and I would love to start singing them a song as my kiddos get older 😍
Gina Shrock
So many fun traditions! A couple of my favorites, putting up the tree and decorating as a family, help the kids make a craft (almost) every day to add to the tree, making gingerbread houses and my absolute favorite making cookie and candy trays for friends and family.
Suzann Burnett
》growing up it was our tradition to watch White Christmas… which Kicked off the season for us.
》We also love to go to muskogee for the festival of lights… at least once- if not multiple times.
》 Each year, my dad read the Christmas Story. He passed in 2020 but I videod it one year so I now like to listen each year before we read it as a family.
Julie
These are wonderful ideas! We’ve done several of them over the years. Love looking at lights, baking cookies, Christmas movies and the candlelight service! 💗
Susana
This was my grandma’s tradition and family has continued it since she left. She collected all year long toys and clothes for kids from rural areas who weren’t probably going to get a Christmas present. A couple of days before Christmas the whole family drove around gifting them. Best tradition, it made us feel so blessed and grateful! I live far away from them now but I continue the legacy by donating balls for unprivileged kids in rural areas and my family back home teams up with schools to make sure it’s done in a more organized way and they can actually share more time with them.
Rachel
We enjoy delivering homemade goodie’s to our neighbors and I would love to start singing them a song as my kiddos get older
Christina B
We like to do a big brunch on Christmas morning (complete with mimosas!) and follow it with board games and charcuterie the rest of the day!
Courtney Hooten
These are great! Similar to your going to elderly homes.. Growing up I don’t remember a Christmas where we didn’t visit elderly widows on Christmas Eve. My parents owned an HVAC business and there were about 15 elderly widows that lived all over our town that my dad loved and cared for with their heating and AC through the year. So my mom would make up special gift bags and we would load up for the afternoon and visit them every Christmas Eve- singing songs with them and spending time with them. Oftentimes they would be alone and would have tears of joy when they saw us. We have not done that tradition since my dad passed away, but it’s one of my most special memories that I hope to continue somehow with my family.
Kimberly
Christmas Eve Service followed by a soup and bread dinner. Once the kiddos are in bed, the adults fill stockings. Rather than one person doing all of the stockings, all of the adults get just a couple of items for everyone. It’s makes for fun surprises in our stockings!
Diana L
We do many of those you listed but one we also do is Christmas dishes. We get them out mid Nov and replace our reg dishes in the cupboard with them and use them until mid Jan. Makes all meals seem so festive
Cassy N
Baking Christmas cookies for my nieces and newphew, Christmas movies with my hubby and decorating the tree! Everything about Christmas is my favorite tradition! Excited to move into one new home just in time for Christmas to make new traditions and memories. ♥️
Krista
On Christmas morning we get up, circle the Christmas tree and pray, we then open gifts one at a time as to soak it all in. After gifts we do a nice big family breakfast with our 3 children. After that the girls and I make Jesus a birthday cake that we eat for dessert after our Christmas dinner. We lost our infant daughter 11 years ago so we talk a lot about her celebrating with Jesus on his birthday and talk about what fun they must be having. We just enjoy everything about the day. Merry Christmas.
Jill
We are trying your candy countdown for the first time this year and so far we love it SO much! Other than that new one I think our family favorite is driving around to look at lights! We have our favorite houses and neighborhoods every year and love to see what new stuff we can find too!
Carrie White
For my 17, 19 and 22 year old young men, the Elf on the Shelf still visits. And the elf is my husband! He loves surprising our sons with silly antics and little gifts from the elf.
Rachel Gerkin
My favorite and most important tradition is decorating the tree together as a family. We all look forward to it and love it so much!
Traci Griffin
When all 4 of my girls were home my favorite tradition was; on the night we put up our Christmas tree I would hide 4 ornaments (1 for each and usually something they liked that year from Blue’s Clue’s to soccer) and gave them clues to find their ornament. After everyone found their ornament they would get to hang them on the tree. Thank you for sharing your life and kids with us!! ❤️
Chelsea Beisner
Oh I just love this list! Our favorite Christmas traditions include baking & decorating sugar cookies, cruising through our towns Christmas Light display in our local park, and attending our Christmas Eve service at Church! Simple traditions are the best!
Suki Wellen
Christmas time can feel very stressful to me when I start thinking about all that needs to be done. I have found that having some traditions will help me relax and enjoy the moments as much as I can. The “know what to expect” factor helps calm me down and get into the holiday spirit. One of my favorite traditions isn’t very original but it’s baking my grandma’s famous “top hat cookies” (which don’t even look like top hats?? No idea how the name came to be!). They are my absolute favorite and are now my kids’ favorite too. I remember my grandma cutting them out with a thimble when I was growing up! My grandma passed away a couple of weeks before Christmas when I was a freshman in college. Baking her top hats still makes me feel close to her decades later. It warms my heart that by making the cookies with my kids, they are carrying on a tradition from my grandma and feel her love in a way even though they never got to meet her.
Ashley
Suki WellenWe always look drive around looking at the Christmas lights too! We also buy each other an ornament resembling something from the year.
Shayla Beatch
Love all these ideas! Our favourite family tradition is putting on Christmas carols or a Christmas movie and decorating the tree together.
Brenda Wulterkens
We do a lot of the ones you listed too ☺️ We always go look at Christmas Lights on Christmas Eve after church and this year I found a Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt that we will do to make it even more fun! Can’t wait!
Hannah
A local church puts on a live nativity every single year that we love driving through! The finale is Jesus being born and they sing Mary did you know.
Kalin
We were explaining to our son last Christmas (3.5yo, now 4.5)that we were celebrating Jesus’ birthday, and his response was, “well then can we make him a cake?” So now on Christmas we bake a mini cake together and song happy birthday to Jesus!
Kassi Early
What fun ideas! I love incorporating different things into the holidays with our littles.
Brenda Opperman
Live nativity and program in my parent’s barn!
Jennifer Fulton
Wow, you have some great ideas! A few that I have not yet tried and will in the coming holiday season. Thank you for sharing! I always struggle on what to do with my daughter during her break.. Merry Christmas! Blessing to you and yours 💜
Debi
We have a family Christmas caroling on a trailer with loud speakers on a slow drive around a neighborhood. It’s more like karaoke caroling but Santa rides on the end of the trailer with lights and a big chair and hands out candy canes to all the kids who come out. There are about 50 of us in the back of the truck and on benches on the flatbed like trailer. I looked forward to this every year. Family from their 80’s to our little ones are all together.
Bethany
We are in the beginning stages of making traditions as this year we are celebrating with our first baby, a six month old daughter! Growing up I looooved decorating the tree/house, Christmas Eve service & the excitement in the air before going to sleep that night, opening stockings & presents on Christmas morning & eating French toast casserole! 😋
Amber Turgeon
Love the ideas – we are trying to start traditions this year as this is the first Christmas with our kiddos . We have waited three years to be matched with kids that needed a loving home – so we are trying to start our traditions this year .
Bronwyn Signes
One of my favorite traditions, is baking cookies, putting them in pretty tins, with pretty tags and passing them out to neighbors. I love it!
One I’d LOVE to do one day is a progressive dinner!!
Crystal JONES
We always sing Christmas Carols and then read the Christmas Story in the Bible. This is such a meaningful time as a family, then one person will pray! We usually choose my Mom to pray 🙏🏻, her prayers send you right to Heaven!
Thanks Mom ❤️
Jenifer Hanson
As a child one of my favorite Christmas was we built a Manger scene inside,and my parents hid all the gifts and then use scriptures as clues for us to find them.
With our Children ( now grown) We decorate the tree together after visiting the tree farm. We made candy, cookies, and ginger bread houses. We alway went to my parents home or they would come early to read the Christmas story ( we still do this through zoom every year since we are spread out.) There is something special about starting the day with Jesus. We have many more..
Katie
Live caroling and making cookies to give away!
Karen
We always make cookies during the afternoon on Christmas Eve and then watch Elf before everyone goes to bed. Must do’s on Christmas Day include cinnamon rolls for breakfast and chocolate fondue for dessert at dinner (we like sweets!).
Katie Simmons
We do a countdown to Christmas with a paper chain with a small candy cane.
We also do a Christmas Eve box, they get new jammies, a Christmas movie and hot chocolate that we open on Christmas Eve.
Carrie Fain
We like to put the Christmas cards in a basket at the center of our dinner table. We choose a Christmas card each meal and pray for that specific family.🎄🙏🏻
Kristine Crivier
I love reading all of your great traditions and memory making moments! My fav family tradition is that we always have Mexican Tamales, Spanish rice, and other latin foods to honor our grandparents and passed holiday times with them.♥️
Amanda
The local parades and driving around to look for Christmas lights. Also on Christmas Eve and Day, we spend most of our time with family.
Anisa Troyer
I have made homemade cinnamon rolls for breakfast on Christmas Day. A tradition I still do for my kids who are married. Every year for 32 years.
Elizabeth Lobdell
I didn’t get to do much for Christmas growing up, so for me going to the mountains to get a tree, decorating, making Christmas goodies, they are all exciting and new. Especially as I get to do them with my three little ones now.watxhing them get to grow up with traditions that we are forming, and see the joy is my favorite thing! My oldest is 4, so this year I am telling him the story of the gospel, starting in Genesis, all the way to Jesus’s birth and why he came. We tell bits of the story all through dec. I think that’s something I’d like to make a tradition.
Ashlyn
Every year I gift my husband and kids new Christmas jammies, we make a big pillow and blanket mat on floor, make hot chocolate, and watch the Polar Express. This year we took it a step further and actually went and rode The Polar Express in the NC Mountains.
Ellen Rakowski
My family does snap dragons: soak raisins in brandy, light them on fire and catch them and eat them!
Erin Ryan
We go and see Christmas lights in an area of town known as Candy Cane Lane. Multiple blocks of houses all decorated for Christmas. There is usually a Santa Claus to visit, the Grinch on the corner for pictures, and hot chocolate stands in every other driveway. Such a fun tradition every year.
Maegan Kintner
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is eating my Mom’s homemade cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. She has been making them for as long as I can remember. It wouldn’t be Christmas without them.
Kelsie Kowallis
We love decorating gingerbread cookies. We always go sledding for Christmas Eve. We have Christmas breakfast roll (similar to a cinnamon roll) fresh squeezed orange juice for breakfast Christmas morning. We also love little things like driving to see the lights. Such a wonderful time of year.
Susie Phillips
Our favorite tradition : taking a plate of goodies to neighbors and singing them a Christmas carol!
Yasmin Michel
Watching our favorite Christmas movies! Mine are all the Santa Clauses! My daughter is even starting to have some favorites! She loves Mickey’s once and twice upon a Christmas
Lindsey
Going to look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve
Katrina
We live in Kalispell,MT and during the holidays, you can ride an old trolley that takes you around town to look at Christmas lights. This year our whole family, Aunts, Uncles, cousins and Grandparents are all going together.
Joanna
Definitely baking and decorating cookies! We also go to our towns winterfest and parade every year and my daughter loves it! And of course movie nights ❤
Christina Bong
We always have a Christmas Eve get together with the adult Children and once in awhile a grand son will come over. We have 3 grown grandson’s and we have a 6 month old great granddaughter we haven’t met yet. Hopefully this year!I love and miss my family so much. We exchange cookies and a few gifts and I have a Stocking for everyone and we cook dinner together. Merry Christmas and happy New year!
Caitlin Glaze
We just started using a set of advent blocks and the book of accompanying Bible stories that goes along with them to focus on Jesus with our kids everyday up to Christmas and we love it! Such a good visual for our kids as well!
Beth
Christmas Eve candle light service at our church , riding around looking at all the beautiful Christmas lights
Debra Cashmore
Love this Sarah! We do many of these too! We also always have money for the Salvation Army bell ringers and let the kids put the money in and explain what it’s for. They helped out my Dad and the men he was charged with back when he was young in the Air Force and stationed abroad over the holidays. It meant the world to him. We are in our 4th generation with this!
Tia
One of the best things we do is spend Christmas eve with other relatives that way we can just stay home and have no obligations on Christmas day but to spend time with each other and our kids.
Megan
My favorite tradition is wrapping 24 books and my kids picking a different one to read every night leading up to Christmas. We all look forward to that special quiet time together as a family every evening before bed.
Teresa
I love your visits to elderly. What a sweet thing to do because they are often so forgotten in the busyness of the holidays!
Kristi Davidson
Love all your traditions!
One we have is we put up our nativity scene as a family. However we wrap up baby Jesus and a different family member each year gets to open that gift on Christmas morning and put him in the manger of the nativity scene.
Carolyn Nielson
My favorite holiday tradition is baking cookies and candy with my siblings and grandma every year. We bake all kinds of goodies and then give them to our family, friends, neighbors, and coworkers.
Ashley Huebner
Great post! We go on a lights tour each year with some of our friends. We drink hot chocolate and listen to Christmas music.
Andrea
We buy Christmas ornaments to commemorate the big events of the year. We also go to our church’s Sunday school Christmas pageant every year. We do the Jesse tree as our advent calendar, and we also have one that’s made of chocolate.
Allison
I love getting a family ornament every year! We’ve done it ever since my husband and I got engaged, and they’re so fun to look back on.
Ashley K
We drive around diffrent neighborhoods and check out the lights.
Sarah simon
Love these ideas. Our favorite is probably making cookies and seeing lights in the neighborhood.
Ashley G
My Husband and I love being able to bring our elf on the shelf Twinkle back for the kids. They love all the silly things he does. We also love putting the tree up together and letting the kids decorate it, car rides at night to see all the lights and watching Christmas movies with hot chocolate 🌲♥️
Kylie Robley
I love taking my kids around town to see the lights. Counting down to Christmas and reading the chapters of Luke is my momma hearts most favorite, however!
Heather K
This year I am praying we are home for Christmas and our plans are to enjoy a quiet Christmas together at home. My son got very sick Nov 9th and we get his next MRI the 22nd and hope it brings good news so we can go home the 23rd to be with the rest of our family.
Jordyn
We always put on our new pajamas and watch Rudolph Christmas Eve. Our kids are little and love cuddling up and matching mom and dad 🙂
Madison
I like to bake rosemary bread for the neighbors (our kiddos help!) and then we gift it with a little note about how we celebrate this Christmas season that Christ, the bread of life, came down and took on flesh to dwell among us! And that we pray their holiday season is filled with the peace that comes from Him!
Mary
These are great and all very doable and easy! Thank you so much for things like this!!💕
Shannon Wickingson
Every thanksgiving morning after I get the turkey in the oven, we go to the Christmas tree lot and get our real tree and bring it home. We then decorate on Friday with the ornaments I’ve bought (a new ornament each year since birth) plus all the hand made ones the kids have made throughout their school years. Makes my heart smile more every year.
Meaghan Van De Kerckhove
Sleigh ride on Christmas Eve
Charity
We love to look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve!
Amy Knutsen
Great ideas & easy traditions are wonderful to implement! One of my family favorites is to take all the Christmas cards that are sent our way, and pray for each card individually received. We start selecting & praying on New Year’s Day, rotate who gets to pick the card from the collection, take turns praying for that person/ company/ Family, and then put the card away. The best year was when we were still praying for cards through the end of February!
Renee Hinebaugh
My favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the tree together 🙂
Leanne Zeigler
Church Christmas program is always a highlight of our seasons festivities! Also making tree shaped sandwich butter cookies…a cookie recipe from my MIL. 🎄
Kara
I love all of these ideas! This is our first Christmas with a little one, and it makes this time of year even more special. Some of my favorite traditions are baking and decorating cookies, exploring neighborhoods looking at lights, and the candlelight service at our church. Merry Christmas from my little family to yours❤🎄
Amanda
We love getting dressed super warm, making hot cocoa and waking around a couple of the nights neighborhoods in our area looking at Christmas lights!!
Megan
We love going to cut down our Christmas tree together to kick off the Christmas season. Driving around to look at Christmas lights is another tradition I love!
Stacey
My kids have been loving ice age Christmas this year 😆. every year we bundle up in the car and drive around to look at Christmas lights all over town and vote on our favorites. We also will take evening walks through our the month to stroll around our own neighborhood and enjoy the lights. It is such a special family time.
Amanda Wallet
Love all of these ideas! Thanks for sharing! Merry Christmas!!!
Sarah
Operation Christmas Child boxes; technically that happens before Christmas but I still think of it as a Christmas activity. Church Christmas program and caroling.
Meghan rollins
Some of our favorite traditions include going up to the mountains with dear friends and cutting down the “perfect” Christmas tree(or 2). I also love that we get matching cousin Christmas Jammie’s each year and have professional pictures taken of all the kids. Then the kids can wear their Jammie’s all day Christmas if the so choose.
Laura Musgrove
I love cooking the Christmas dinner with my kids! Many hands make light work 🥰
Lynae
Decorating Christmas cookies and going to see Christmas lights around town and putting up Christmas lights together are ones I’m starting with my little family.
My favorite though, is putting up my parents Christmas tree and decorating it with them and my siblings. So many fun memories in each ornament. 🙂 I love this time of year!
Briana
Our town does a Whoville Christmas celebration! Arts/craft show, Santa breakfast, petting zoo, workshop where kids this year learned how to build a birdhouse. Ending the night with a parade, Christmas tree lighting and town caravan to see everyone’s lights!
Janelle
Still forming traditions with our little family but this year our daughter has loved the cookie decorating and going to look at Christmas lights!! Look forward to more years of these traditions and adding in more as she gets older!!
Amanda Wallet
Our family loves to drive around and look at all the Christmas lights! We have so many houses that do full light shows! Also baking cookies together for Santa!
Meagan
A couple of our favorite holiday traditions are every year 2 days before Thanksgiving we go and cut down our real tree at a tree farm and sit and drink hot cocoa and eat a donut and take our time and it usually ends up where we can also stop for lunch. We also love watching Christmas movies and having hot cocoa. We bake cookies every year and give to my parents and my brother. We do many versions of advent calendars and elf on the shelf. We love to drive around a look at all the pretty lights and we always go to our commons and visit Santa and mail our letters and walk around and see the displays. We have many others but those are a few.
Kathy Hallum
I am hoping to start a new tradition of painting Christmas ornaments with my great nieces/nephews and family friends kids. Tomorrow a close family friend is bringing over her 3 girls to paint ornaments. I’m excited.
Christina Snyder
Christmas Eve we open family pajamas and each get a new book!
Kathryn Hahn
These are great traditions and our family does many of these as well. Another tradition that we love… each year I secretly assign everyone a reindeer name. I wrap the gifts for under the tree using each person’s reindeer name for that year. Then they all have fun trying to guess who is what reindeer in the last few days leading up to christmas eve. On eve we have one last big guess. Then i reveal! My kids and now grandkids love this.
Shakiya
One of my favorite Christmas traditions growing up was waking up early to find our hidden stockings! We also try to watch “It’s a Wonderful Life” every Christmas Eve and read Luke 2 on Christmas morning!
Lindsay P
These are all so wonderful (and even more great ideas in the comments section!). Thank you for sharing! We usually decorate Christmas cookies/gingerbread house and also new Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve!
Jessie
We love to decorate the tree together, watch family Christmas movies, and decorate cookie.
Christie
Thanks for the lovely ideas! For many years my mom and sister in law and myself have been making lots of Christmas candy and cookies to give away to special family friends, coworkers, church friends, family etc. We always look forward to doing this and everyone loves getting their sweet treats from us each year! It really is a blessing to give to others!
Katie S
We love to go to our local tree farm and search for the perfect Christmas tree & cut it down together as a family. We also love to participate in National Wreaths Across America Day at our local veterans cemetery, placing Christmas wreaths on Veteran graves. It’s one of our favorite days of the year and is really so rewarding for our family to give back in this way during the holidays ❤️
Ashley Ruis
We love going as a family of 7 during the holiday season to look at Christmas lights. A big tradition for our is sending out Christmas cards each year.
Ashley Ruis
We love going as a family of 7 during the holiday season to look at Christmas lights. A big tradition for our family is sending out Christmas cards each year.
Megan Alvarez
Our family loves to make tamales together. A wonderful way to spend time together and make memories
Lisa
So many great ideas thanks so much for sharing you make my life so much easier 🥰
Hannah
We read them the Christmas story from the Bible Christmas Eve.
Brittney
We just brought peppermint bark to our sweet, sweet neighbors who are in their 90s. It made us even happier than it did them I think!
Rachel Williamson
I love all of these. We try to do as many as we can fit in every year. We used to bake cookies and zucchini bread for days on end for co-workers. It was a ton of work but such a fun thing to do as a family.
Paige Cappuccio
Every year since we have lived together, my husband and I exchange a meaningful ornament when we set up our tree. It’s so fun to see our little collection growing and they depict such great memories. This year I got him a key ornament because we bought our first house in april and he got be one with a painting of a wedding photo on it because we got married in august. I can’t wait to continue this tradition with our children when the time comes as well! 🥰
Alyssa Emerson
I absolutely love the idea of attending our churches candle light Christmas Eve service! This is our first Christmas with a church home and I am so loving all of the amazing Christmas services and going in depth on the birth of Jesus Christ.
Sarah
I love the idea of mailing the countdown! What a great way for family far away to feel included in the traditions!
Jodi Allen
Christmas Eve service and the driving around to look at lights!
Erin
Thank you for sharing. Our small group, that’s not so small, goes caroling to the members of our church that are shut-in.
Our family hosts Christmas Eve. Such a fun evening of food and fun and fellowship.
Victoria Page
On Christmas Eve we open our matching Christmas pajamas. Decorate cookies and have a gingerbread decorating contest. Some of my favorite memories ❤️❤️
Shannon Salters
We always have the kids open new pjs and a game for us to play on Christmas Eve.
Melissa
I absolutely love creating traditions with my 2 littles. The cookie decorating is definitely one of them along with chocolate making. Next year I want to try the Christmas candy countdown.
Malia Forza
One of my favorite traditions is smashing gingerbread houses…we build/decorate them and display them for a few weeks and then give our boys tools (like a meat pounder) to destroy them! The mess is massive and I find bits of candy for weeks, but the giggles are more than worth it and I look forward to it year round!
Kirstie Cunningham
Our family is still starting out but our favorite holiday traditions are making gingerbread houses and baking Santa red velvet white chocolate chip cookies! We can’t afford to do a whole lot or spend a whole lot on “fancy tradition” stuff so we choose to make things rather than go places or buying things. I really hope we can create newer traditions as our daughter grows but for now it’s just those two things! Thanks for letting me share 🙂
God Bless you all!
Sonya Van Daalen
Our family tradition growing up as a child, that we have continued doing with the grandkids, is around new years, we measure all the children to see how much they have grown! It’s SO neat to see the growth!
Diane
I grew up attending a candlelight service every Christmas Eve. I loved that tradition! I would love to go one of these years with my husband and boys.
We have one tradition as a family and that is going to get our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We’ve been going to the same farm for 19 years and it started the first Christmas we were married ❤️. So special for our family.
Karen
I love Christmas Eve Candle light service! We make treats to give away to friends and family. We have a list of Christmas movies we have to get in every year and I sneak in some cheesy Christmas movies too! 🤣 It’s a Wonderful Life is always saved for Christmas Eve.
Lorena
All such fun suggestions! Probably one of our favorites is getting together at Grandmas house for our big family Christmas celebration.
Kellie Posson
When I was young, and still to this day we all try to keep these traditions going with our families. Church service and lots of cookie making! We also drove around the neighborhood looking at lights. Always had a Christmas Eve party with family and friends earlier in the day. Dancing to Elvis Christmas songs! Christmas Eve night we’d all look out the window into the sky looking for Rudolph’s nose and every year we would spot him lol! Then, Christmas Day get up early to open presents then off to another family gathering. I remember never wanting it to end it’s such a magical time! I’d like to go caroling one year. I think that would be fun! Merry Christmas!
Pamela Smith
Making holiday candy and cookies with my daughters to give away to family and friends! 🎄🥰
Michelle Reilly
Every Advent Sunday night we read from a special collection of Christmas stories, eat some cookies and add an ornament to the tree.
Jennifer Lohr
Making Christmas cookies is my favorite holiday tradition!
Ruthanne Anderson
My favorite tradition is Christmas Eve afternoon sauna and then our Christmas Eve service at church
Britney
I have so many but favorites are hot chocolate in the car with Christmas pajamas to look at Christmas lights. Christmas Eve service. Reading the Christmas story before any presents are opened.
Alyssa
So fun to read while I can’t sleep, our favorite Christmas tradition is we do have an elf of the shelf but we take turns competing who can come up with the best elf set up
Jamie Gholson
I love these ideas! My favorite Christmas tradition was always baking cookies with my mom (especially “Nana’s Cookies”, an Italian cookie that my mom’s grandmother used to make). We’ve started making them and other favorites with my girls. Something I’d love to start doing as a family is go to a Nativity re-telling at our church. They’re old enough to appreciate it now, and I think it would be such a beautiful tradition to start. Merry Christmas, Sarah!
Emily Hurst
This year with my oldest who is 8, I revived a tradition that my dad did with me and that is to wrap presents for family and friends for a small fee (whatever they feel is appropriate to pay). What started as a lesson about work ethic and saving extra money at Christmas, turned into a memory I’ve always treasured of extra time with my daddy while we sat and wrapped and talked for hours. My William and I are now doing this together and I treasure our time so much.
Allison
What a fun list! We are cookie baking this year. First time in a long time 😊
Maggie
Our tradition is to go to a local (tree) nursery and search for the perfekt Christmas tree and then cut it ourselves.
Maria Guidote
Grew up in the Philippines and caroling around the neighborhood. Might start it this next few days with my kids being a little bigger now to try and “sing along” 😆
Kourtney S
Nothing fancy, but as a child we would hop into the car with hot cocoa and drive around looking for Christmas lights blasting Christmas music along the way.
Now I love doing it with my children. I truly look forward to that night.
Kody Nguyen
Oh I love these. I visited my Grammie tonight in the hospice house she at and I so wish I had asked her what some of her favorite Christmas traditions were when her kids were little. I will definitely be asking her that when I see her next, thanks for the great idea.
Amanda
I just love following your little family!! You are so life-giving and always give honor to the Lord and I love that about you. Our favorite family tradition is to put up a Christmas light display synchronized to music for our little city. We want others to know the true meaning of Christmas and it’s a way that we can share the good news. And it’s just fun!!
Shannon Pryor
We love doing finger foods/snack foods for Christmas Eve while we watch It’s A Wonderful Life!
Casey
We love decorating gingerbread cookies at Grammie’s house and walking around by the beach to look at Christmas lights. I did these things each year growing up and it is so fun to share them with my kids now!
Rita Froese
Family traditions are so often passed down from generation to generation. Having the stories that go with them is also important. Your traditions are beautiful for your family.
Elizabeth Lynch
We love our Advent traditions – Jesse Tree, Advent Nativity where we add a new part of the Christmas story each day, & a Christmas countdown paper chain with a fun family activity written on each link!
Cathy
Christmas Eve cheese fest! We have had a holiday charcuterie board waayyy before they were a thing. It’s a special night of what we call “cheese on cheese,” and we indulge in our favorite cheeses with veggies, fruit, and bread. I can’t wait to do it again next week!
Caryn
Decorating the Christmas tree together has always been a family favorite.
Katie
Making sugar cookies is a favorite of ours. Going to try your recipe this year!
Kelli
My in laws have always had the tradition on Christmas Eve after candlelight service to snuggle up watching It’s a Wonderful Life while drinking “little cokes” (coca-cola from the glass bottles) and eating popcorn. Such a simple but sweet tradition that we’ve carried on with our own family.
Emily Jones
I love all those ideas, I’ve always wanted carollers to show up at my door.
Michelle
My favorite family tradition is making lefse with family! There is nothing better than making lefse on a snowy North Dakota day ❄️❤️
Sheri Wallace
We love to play games for “prizes”. Just like Nanas! We play the Grand Prize Game. Throw balls into evenly spaced out buckets for prizes. Sooo fun and all ages live to play!
Catie Dudley
I love all of these family traditions. I remember doing so many has a kid with my family. We always decorated cookies and delivered them to neighbors and family members and I loved being creative and giving in that way. We also drove around the town looking at Christmas lights and every Christmas Eve went to church and then had dinner. A tradition my husband’s family has is gifting the whole family with matching Pjs on Christmas Eve so we can all wake up on Christmas morning wearing the same one.
As a new mom (currently have a 9 month old little girl), I can’t wait to celebrate this first Christmas with her and start building new traditions for our little family for Christmas each year. I’m sure many will look similar to the ones listed above and to our families traditions.
Another unique tradition I thought I would share- my dad’s family is Italian. For the holidays we love to make homemade ravioli, homemade sauce and homemade meatballs along with salad, bread and oven baked cheese. IT’S THE BEST. I’ve honestly never had a traditional Christmas meal and don’t mind it. Love making things together and enjoying good food.
Thanks for the post. Merry Christmas!
Lauren
I love watching all of your stories with new ideas to try. I don’t really have just one favorite tradition. I am single mom of a 6 year old boy so I try do some of my favorite things growing up which include driving around to see Christmas lights, making Christmas cookies along with my little one getting excited for his advent calender every year. I am kind of wanting to try the advent you showed this year for next year and see how it goes. It’s always priceless seeing the little ones face at Christmas time
Lori Wicker
Chinese food Christmas Eve as a family is our yearly tradition!
Cassie Brown
We’ve don’t the candy count down since you shared it last year and love it!
A couple of our favorites…
Attending a live nativity our town puts on it’s the beginning of December and my favorite way to begin the festivities, decorating and filling stockings and delivering them with fun things to neighbors, and doing the 25 days of Christmas ornament countdown Mini devotionals keep the spirit in the activities of the season, and the fireworks for new year to end the celebrations and begin our new year new you new intentions. 💕
Bethany A
We always go to our area’s light festival and Zoo’s Christmas Celebration. Our little guy just turned 3, so we’re just in the beginning years of traditions.
Cate
These are all such great ideas! Something that I’ve loved doing is after midnight Mass on Christmas Eve my sisters and I get in our cozy pjs and have a cup of coffee or hot cocoa together in our kitchen. It’s the best!
Sophia Burd
We always go to visit family, this year we made sugar cookies with our 2y/o- using nanas famous sugar cookie recipe- they were delicious! Next year we are going to do the candy countdown with both girls🙌
Krista Carter
Hosting Christmas Eve for family and friends, whoever needs a place to go.
Kristin McQuiddy
We like to give each child a certain amount of money and let them use it to pick things from Compassion International’s Gift catalog to give to others. It’s not the only thing we like to do this time of the year, but it’s certainly one of the most special ones we all look forward to. ❤️
Julie
I love having breakfast together on Christmas morning! Also a kind of new tradition, whoever can comes to our house and we have cinnamon rolls, etc and then put up our 12 ft tree!
Amy
Advent calendar with Christmas bedtime stories. (We check them out from the library 5-7 at a time so there’s enough for other families). We also made a Christmas tree on our art wall from our upside handprints cut out of green paper. We did this because our place is too small for an actual tree, but it ended up being so much fun I think we’ll do it next year too.
Diane Teachworth
Our town kicks off December with a Festival of Trees in which local non-profits decorate an artificial tree (usually with a theme) and then the trees are auctioned off with proceeds going back to the non-profits. The night before the auction, the community center is open for public votes on their favorite tree plus a visit from Santa. Even at only 3 1/2 & 4 ½, my older kids loved walking slowly around to look at each tree and vote for their favorite. Seeing all the creativity is such a fun way to start the season!
Noelle
We go Christmas caroling each year with our church. Everyone suggests people to visit and we go and sing for them and bring them some goodies to brighten up their holiday. It’s so fun for my husband and I to now do it with our son too and make a tradition for him. And I’ll be making Christmas cookies with my son tomorrow now that he’s old enough. We always decorate together as a family while playing Christmas music!
Ruth Roth
Wow! I love this community!! Every year my husband and I pay to go look for a tree out in the woods but never can find one so we then put up our trusty fake tree. Always on the last day of November to wake up December 1st with some Christmas cheer 🥰
Maggie
We get yearly ornaments as well. The kids have their own bucket of them for when they move out 😭
Chanelle Corley
Love these ideas, I will have my first little one next Christmas! My husbands family has lasagna night on Christmas night and then we play left, right, center.
Stephanie Seely
We love to look at lights,make cookies and go to a candlelight service.
Hannah Kaniewski
We drive around looking at lights, we attend a candlelight service which is Sunday and I cannot wait!
Ashlei B
We started the candy countdown this year and have enjoyed it! Our other favorites are a Christmas Light Scavenger hunt with friends (every car load takes a selfie with the object you’re crossing off of your list), making cookies with our church family and of course Christmas movies. Thanks for sharing your traditions!
Sandra Church
We’re moving to a new state on the 22nd (😳😬) and I have preordered a dozen homemade sugar cookies and icing kit from a local mom who bakes so we will have a ready made Christmas activity in our new home. We always make a birthday cake for baby Jesus and that’s an easy and inexpensive (and meaningful) tradition.
Samantha Sauls
Love decorating the tree together with my children. And they take turns each year putting our angel on top.
Love each of your ideas as well!!
Blessings!! ❤️
Sarah
Since having children, we’ve made the tradition of being home Christmas Eve, and therefore, we attend our church’s candlelight service each year. It’s so special. I’ve never thought, though, to just look up a local, free kids’ musical or Christmas play. That’s a great idea!
Kristina
Thank you for the sweet gestures to help get into the Christmas spirit..
We like to make hot coco, wear Christmas pjs, on Christmas Eve an watch any Christmas movie. *most likely a Christmas story’ or grinch” 🤣❤️
Connie
We love to go Christmas caroling!!
Valeria Heaton
I actually really enjoyed decorating the tree with my daughter this year. It was so special to have her join in this. Money is tight so our traditions are super simple this year. 🙂 That simple tradition was a lot of fun for daughter, even if our tree is far from aesthetically pleasing 😂
Jenna Venezia
A few years ago we took our girls caroling around our neighborhood to a few neighbors houses to deliver some Christmas treats! It was so much fun!!
Christa Y
My favorite tradition now is our crab leg dinner on Christmas Eve. We get all the fancy plates and glasses and have all the utensils for a crab leg feast!! But when I was little I loved make a paper chain countdown and going around to look at Christmas lights!!
Erin M
One of my favorite holiday traditions is Thai take out on Christmas Eve! The Christmas before we got married (in January), my fiancé was putting together furniture in our newly purchased home so that I would have a bed to sleep in. I had just worked a 12 hr shift and went to go see the progress he was making. He has a Thai takeout picnic set out on the living room floor (I didn’t have a dining room table yet) and a small Christmas tree and stocking set up for me. It was the sweetest. 8 years and 3 kids later, we still do a Thai takeout picnic 🙂
Michelle Mohrmann
I’ve always wanted to do a progressive dinner! They sound so fun!
Paige
Such sweet traditions. My favorite is definitely making and decorating Christmas sugar cookies with my girls. My mom made them with me and with her grandkids. It’s an honor to carry on the tradition in her memory. ❤️
Stephanie
We leave baby Jesus out of the nativity until Christmas morning. Then we process baby Jesus into the room where we have our nativity and we place him in the manger. We sing Away in a Manager and Happy Birthday Jesus and pray together as a family.
Kelsey Whelan
We always get matching PJs to wear Christmas morning that the kids get Christmas Eve. This year, we decided to give them their PJs the the night we decorated our Christmas Tree and we all wore them while decorating! It was so fun to decorate while all matching! Love all yalls ideas 🙂
Brittany Bowen
We always have a baking day and then make boxes of cookies and take to the nieghbors. My kids would love the candy count down. Im going to try that next year.
Robin Young
We have two Christmas morning traditions we’ve done with the kids every single year:
1. When they run down the steps on Christmas morning, before opening a single gift, everyone picks up their special ornament and we all sing Happy Birthday to Jesus as we hang the ornaments on the tree. Then it’s time for presents!
2. I cut out the shape of a boot footprint on heavy paper. Then I place the cutout on the carpet near the stockings and sprinkle baking powder around the boot shape. I move the cutout and repeat, making what looks like snowy Santa footprints across the floor. They end by a plate of cookies that says thanks Santa for coming by to celebrate Jesus’ birth. When the kids see the snowy trail on Christmas morning, they get so excited! And the baking powder easily vacuums up and makes your carpet smell fresh! 🙂
Jahmie Montgomery
Go look at lights in a neighborhood and leave a king size candy bar that says “1st place in Our Family Choice lights award” on the doorstep of our favorite display!
LeAnne
Our family has a small birthday cake with a candle. Before we open any presents, we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus. It helps us remember the true reason for Christmas. 🙂
Sandra Buckallew
My daughter is 15 now. So the magic from believing Santa is real is gone but we still have traditions. On Christmas eve my family gets together and has a small dinner, spends a lot of quality time together, and open gifts. This year we’re bringing back a game my grandparents would play with us on Christmas. It’s called blitz. You play with cards and 4 quarters. I need a refresher course. I haven’t played since my gram passed but I’m excited to keep her tradition going! We’ve been doing Christmas eve like this for 20 years or more. So on Christmas people can visit other people on Christmas.🎅🤶🎄
Cindy Reilly
I love continuing the the tradition with my daughters that my mom started when I was young – taking each child out on a Christmas date, for a dinner of their choice, and then shopping for other family members. Such a special time! All of your ideas are awesome, also!
Lauren Horvat
Every year we love baking and decorating cookies, and we also have a night (or two) where we get our jammies on after dinner and make some hot cocoa ( we’re try Nana’s recipe this year, and we cannot wait!) And then we ride around looking at all the lights and decorations in the neighborhoods of our town. A new tradition the kids would like to do this year is making cards and coloring pictures for local nursing/retirement homes!
Laura Lager
We make a homemade ornament out of something in our house (we can’t buy anything). And then we put it in a brown paper lunch bag so no one knows who made which ornament and we play a white elephant game on Christmas Eve where you can keep what ornament you picked or trade. At the end, we each say which ornament we brought. And then we have new ornaments to hang on our trees. It’s always so fun looking at the ornaments on our tree each year and remembering the fun we had exchanging them.
Mary Musgrove
When we were kids our mom would take us to the local homeless shelter; we would help serve the meals for the Christmas dinner and would take our toys we didn’t play with anymore to for the children. It was a tradition I remember dearly and hope to carry on with my kids someday. Helping others is something we all benefit from
Megan
We love to go driving around in the neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights on Christmas night after dinner with cups of cocoa 🙂
Kathryn Heinkel
We give our kids a new ornament each year that obtains to something significant that happened that year for them. Once they officially move out I will gift their ornaments to them. It’s a tradition my grandma started when I was 18.
My dad always gave my mom a Hallmark animated ornament for their anniversary (Dec 6) upon his passing in2010 and that same year I inherited my grandma’s Christmas village my husband now gifts me a new piece to add to my village.
LAURIE TEN KATE
It wouldn’t seem like Christmas without a candle light service (though it happened in 2020 when to many of our members had Covid). Love all your traditions!
Cathy Greene
Lots of great ideas. Love following your family. Wising I could have a redo on life. Merry Christmas!
Mary Haight
My favorite is family time on Christmas eve. Decorating cookies, driving around town looking at the Christmas lights, and midnight candlelight mass. Then afterwards everyone opens one gift. 🎄⛪️❄️🎁
Madison Cefalo
We love to give a little goodie or gift to the house or houses with our favorite Christmas lights!
Coreen Wade
We do #10 every year! I make the kids a popcorn/pretzel/chocolate mix to snack on as we drive around and I take pictures of them outside our favorite houses!
Bethany
I love these! We do an advent calendar that hangs on the wall and has pockets. Each day in December my husband writes a note to one of the kids and leaves the small note and a candy in the pocket and that child is “The Child of the Day.” It’s just something short, but my kids love each being able to be child of the day multiple times until Christmas. They are 19, 17 and 13 and still love it like when they were young. I think it means even more to them because my husband is dyslexic and doesn’t do a lot of writing so these little notes are extra special since them come from him. <3
Joanie Toland
Christmas candlelight services are by far my favorite and that’s the one Sunday my oldest(8) gets to enjoy “big” church with us and I LOVE seeing her face during all of it. We also have a candy day each year(usually the first or second Saturday In dessert) we make TONS of candy with immediate and extended family. Usually it’s the women and kids in the kitchen and the men gather around the tv talking sports😂 but we make enough to put in little boxes and take to the local meals on wheels as a little treat for the families that receive that service. And of course keeping some for ourselves 🥴
Mandy Hammons
We love to watch Christmas movies together as a family. And next year I want to do the candy countdown you shared. I think it sounds like something fun my boys would enjoy doing
Jessica Drouillard
Going to Christmas Eve service and being able to spend time with loved ones you don’t normally see often through the year are my favourite.
Beth
I love our Christmas dates. Each year my dad would take us shopping for the rest of the family & treat us to a meal out. While the shopping doesn’t always happen these days, I still enjoy a meal with just my dad each year 💕
Kara Holombo
I always love going to the local light show they have around here and then at the end there are animals you can feed out of your vehicles the kids just love it and you can just see the joy on their faces! Also I just love Christmas time because you can feel the happiness and joy in everyone wherever you go no matter and I just love it!! ❤️❤️ Would love to make gingerbread houses with my kids too we always did them as kids and had so much fun!
Maria Lopez
We love going out looking at lights and decorating gingerbread houses with the family!
Gina Wrobel
With our 3 boys, we love to drive around to look at Christmas lights. We have a few neighborhoods that go all out with music. But this year we tried your tradition with the Christmas candy countdown and let me say, we are all LOVING it!! Thank you so much!!
Vanessa Henrie Rem
We do many of these already. But when l was a kid my parents always did progressive dimmers at church and l always thought that would be so fun and wished l could go.
Amanda
My dad makes up his own Christmas song parodies/lyrics every year while we put ornaments on the tree.
Lindsay
Great ideas! Getting new Christmas books has been fun this year!
Cathy Schmidt
I love love Christmas!!♥️ One Christmas tradition we have is making Christmas candy (all kinds!) together with my mom’s family. Growing up I so looked forward to going home to grandma’s from school to taste test and play with cousins while our moms finished making the candy. We don’t do it every year, but I still love when we do! Also, our church hands out Christmas goodie bags to children after a Christmas program every year. That was a highlight to me as a child!
Nicole Jensen
My favorite is the Christmas movie marathon. My kids would love that and think that it is so fun.
Whitney
We read Christ’s birth on Christmas Eve, after we get back from church. We also open Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve. So fun! This year, we’ll be in Grinch onesies!
Beth Parker
We also do Christmas movies marathons. I will admit it is getting harder to get my boys (14 and 13) to still join in. We also have the tradition of the boys take turns each year picking out the tree. Merry Christmas 🎄
Elizabeth
We make Christmas cookies/goodies and are gonna gift to teachers and some friends! Also we do the candy count down our kids love it!!!!
Debbie Kuzman-Hajek
Thank you for sharing these awesome ideas! My sweet mom has Alzheimer’s so we have started the tradition of taking drives to look at Christmas lights and baking Christmas cookies❤️. She LOVES cookies😊
Angela Sharpelyuk
Love our tradition of new Christmas pajamas every year and a picture in front of our Christmas tree wearing them:).
Wendy
Christmas movie marathons are the best! I would love to try the candy advent calendar, looks like such a sweet treat!
Ruth
We celebrate Chanukah.
Our family tradition is seeing the car Menorah parade.
Also lighting the candles each night and taking a family picture by the window each night.
Wishing you and your family a beautiful holiday
Vee
Our family tradition is a Christmas Eve viewing of the original Babes In Toyland. It’s my favorite holiday movie! We make hot chocolate with candy cane stirrers and snuggle!
Dara
We love decorating together and driving around looking at lights!
Bekah Spencer
Such great ideas, simple and inexpensive
Jessica Gilbert
Love the idea of a progressive dinner!!!
Kristi Coday
I get each child a new ornament every year, and we open them on Christmas Eve and read the story of Jesus’ birth.
Dawn Blackburn
Traditions are so fun and children love the consistency of them. We also did several you mentioned. Now my children are all grown and starting families of their own. It is fun to see them adopt some of our traditions and also bring in new ones that their spouses enjoyed with their families. That also means our traditions are being recreated much like your parents. I am beyond excited that three of my four will be joining us for Christmas this year – what a gift!!! 6 adults and 6 children! We were able to celebrate with our firstborn and her family at Thanksgiving in their home this year.
Annie Hall
Definitely making Christmas cookies and delivering to our neighbors. We do this every year. I’m looking for a new recipe this year. I think I’ll try your Nana’s sugar cookies.
Luz Maria Segura
We’ve done #’s 2,3,5, 6 and 7!!! We also celebrate either on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, ALL DAY LONG with my whole family!!! We start in the morning with brunch and kids do their stockings. Then we do lunch then nap and then begin on dinner and then presents. It’s so much fun with ALL the cousins and there is a LOT of them! We are 5 sisters and we each of our own family. Our older sister always hosts Thanksgiving at her house then our 2nd oldest hosts Christmas but they live next door to each other 😂. I want to try caroling in our town, but I don’t know if I can convince my family to do it with me!! Wish me luck!!
Toni Craggs
Cookies, lights on the house, red ribbons on the fenceposts, Christmas Eve service, ‘Its a Wonderful Life’ and took all our girls to the Nutcracker ballet at the local HS again this year. Handel’s Messiah has become a new favorite (its Isaiah 40 🎶).
🎄Merry Christmas!! 🌟
Ashley Moline
I love Christmas traditions! This time of year is so cozy. I love cookie baking day!
Toni
Cookies, lights on the house, red ribbons on the fenceposts, Christmas Eve service, ‘Its a Wonderful Life’ and took all our girls to the Nutcracker ballet at the local HS again this year. Handel’s Messiah has become a new favorite (its Isaiah 40 🎶).
🎄Merry Christmas!! 🌟
Melissa Arndt
So many of your traditions are our families favorites. We have a cookie baking day at grandmas house; where we make way too many cookies! We watch Christmas movies with popcorn and cocoa. My favorite is reading a different Christmas book every night at bedtime. A personal favorite book here is God Gave Us Christmas.
Mary Halladay
My favorite holiday tradition is cuddling with my husband and watching our favorite Christmas movies after our kiddo goes to bed. <3
Stacy
We love wearing the Xmas Jammie’s for morning time! Driving around looking at Christmas lights in holiday Jammie’s with hot chocolate is another! Love making memories this time of year!
Kimberly Lara
We have some of the same traditions! I love to gift Christmas goodies every year to friends, co-workers, and family! We also have “Jesus”cake for breakfast, a tradition I started when my first child was born. A gentle reminder of what the day is about, and any day with cake for breakfast is a great day! Merry Christmas to you and your family 💚🌲
Judith Buchanan
Oh wow!!!! I would LOVE to try the movie marathon with Tim’s favorite popcorn 😋😋 and Nana’s delicious hot chocolate drink 😋😋, mainly because I LOVE Nana so much
Madelyn
Our family favorite is stocking exchanges with close friends and family! Purchasing small gifts for others and working together to fill them has been fun throughout the years. Thank you for sharing yours.
Kelly Wong-Lam
I’ve always wanted to do a progressive dinner! I love that!!
Tammy Perry
We’ve done some of these same things! My father n law whose now passed used to have all 35 of us, young and old alike, tell what we were thankful for before we opened gifts. This will be my first Christmas without my parents as I just lost my mom tragically and dad passed in 2020, so it’s been difficult. The tears flow remembering special memories I had with them as a kid. Now that I have small grandchildren, I’m thinking about new ways to start some traditions that they’ll always remember. 💗Merry Christmas! Make the memories!
Jenny
Christmas morning breakfast with my family is my fave tradition. Just a slow paced easy morning.
Mindy Stephens
My all time favorites are Christmas Eve candlelight service and visiting a live nativity. Thank you for the suggestions on traditions. So important!
Norine Rudolph
As a family of 4, for the past 10 years, we look forward to driving through the Glittering Lights Presentation in Las Vegas. We have 2 boys, Dane and Luke and now they invite some of their friends to go with us. We all enjoy hot cocoa in our car as we admire the beautiful holiday decorations.
Wishing you a safe trip with your family!!
Happy Holidays!
Norine
Victoria Baker
Hi Sarah,
Lovely to read about all your Christmas traditions. In our house we have a Gingerbread house decorating competition. I buy lots of sweets, icing sugar and my girls all compete to create the best decorated house. It’s lots of fun xx
Jamie Jackson
Cinnamon rolls for breakfast. New pjs on Christmas morning and opening stockings at night. It’s like a second gifting.
Nadya Ciurea
We love to go to local “walk through the Bethlehem”.Kids get a real feeling of what happened to Mary and Joseph when they had to go to Bethlehem for censu. And it’s a great way to show the true meaning of Christmas in all business of celebration.
Mary Morris
Your home is beautiful and inviting. My holiday tradition are to spoil my grandkids rotten. We bake cookies listen to Christmas songs.
Joy Clark
Great ideas! I think I’m going to do the candy countdown next year.
I love looking at Christmas lights and taking my daughter shopping so she can get her brother and dad something! My son is 3 now and understands more so he gets to go shopping with me too!
Sarah Cason
We love to drive around looking at Christmas lights! Usually we will wear our PJs, bring popcorn and hot chocolate to have while we ooh and ahh.
Our next favorite tradition is exchanging books and chocolate on Christmas Eve (the Icelandic tradition called Jolabokaflod)- after you open them you sit around and read together!
Kimberly
Here in Alaska, our town puts on “The walk to Bethlehem.” Start at a church watch a Bible skit, and walk on to next church and repeat. The last church provides refreshments or should I say hot cocoa to warm up with. All churches in town can participate, the community come together and enjoy the true meaning of Christmas.
Jenny Frank
We have a sleepover with all the kids in the living room with the lit tree the first night our tree is up for the Christmas season! This is one of my favorite traditions!
Kathie Horlacher
When my children were growing up, I always had a breakfast casserole cooking in the oven while they opened their gift’s Christmas morning, since they are all grown and have kids of their own they are doing it with their children. 😀
cortney powell
I’d love to try the rotating house ideas for each meal course. That would be sooo fun!
We do bake cookies and hand out to
Our friends and neighbors and fellow church family.
Catherine Murphh
One of our family traditions is going to the pantomime every Christmas, always makes everyone feel very Christmassy 🎄🎅🏼
Ashley P.
These are great!! My absolute favorite Christmas tradition is attending the Christmas Eve love feast at the Moravian church!
Kathleen Worthen
Some of our favorite Christmas traditions are, cutting down our Christmas tree. We live in Wyoming, close to Yellowstone. We drive up towards Yellowstone and find a tree to chop down. It’s always fun to see how many animals we can spot along the way, deer, antelope, big horn sheep, eagles, elk and Buffalo. Sometimes there’s a lot of snow. It’s always a lot of fun!
We also love to act out the nativity story, make Christmas ornaments and read lots of Christmas book. We too homeschool, and for our schooling in December, we take off of everything and we do a Christmas around the world study. It’s really fun to see how Christmas is celebrated around the world!
Karen Pray
I love candlelight Christmas Eve services. Being from New England that is tradition. Moved out of New England last year and finding it hard to find a candlelight Christmas Eve service. Merry Christmas to your sweet family!
Michelle Oxley
Candy Countdown is such a great idea. I am definitely going to add this one to our list.
Audrey Earl
Growing up we had a Christmas advent and I loved it! Each day we read a scripture verse, read a short poem, sang a Christmas hymn, and then placed a piece of the nativity on a board. I loved focusing on the true meaning of Christmas every evening. We are now doing it with my small family and it makes me SO happy!!
Kathy Beasley
When our kids growing up they with get three wrapped boxes from us to represent the three Wisemen. The box could have more than one item in it. I would help the kids make a Mickey Mouse shaped birthday cake for Jesus. On Christmas Eve all the cousins would take turns blowing out the candles as we sang happy birthday to Jesus.
Ashley Walters
My favorite Christmas tradition is making cookies with all my kids! Growing up it was the candlelight Christmas Eve service
Donna Royce
Ashley WaltersWe have a lot, but my favorite right now is taking my 83 year old Dad to see Christmas lights. He started taking me when I was little and now roles have reversed and I take him each year. My Mom passed away, so I purchased her a memorial star with her name on it that lights up at a local display. I can’t wait for him to see it. My Mom loved Christmas.
Sierra
I love all of these and plan on trying a few in the coming years! My little one is 9 months tomorrow and I want to begin traditions of Christmas pj’s opened by the tree Christmas Eve followed by a Christmas movie and baking Christmas cookies and delivering to neighbors, friends, and family.
Jess
Christmas night we always drive around to look at lights while we eat Christmas cookies. I did it growing up and now we take our boys!
Amanda Wansley
We do a Christmas toast at 7:52 am that’s a story in itself! If we are not all together then we do a conference call and use the person who is in the most western time zone.
We also do a Christmas Eve dinner that has been basically the same menu for almost 70 years started by my husband’s grandmother
She is 102 and still with us ♥️
Monica Murray
We love to go to Midnight Mass and then go to iHop afterwards for a treat!!
Rita Chupp
Going to the zoo to see the lights!
Ashley Queen
Such great ideas. Love decorating the tree with my little ones. Also love spending time with my family
Anna Beeden
Just started following you from the UK – Love these ideas
Jacki Lambert
These are great! I always have such high hopes that we will do fun stuff and then the season is over.
Sarah S
We love making new ornaments to add to our tree for each year!
Bridget Janson
I agree family traditions are so important. I found when my kids left for college, they looked forward to those traditions occurring when they came home. Looking forward to one day watching them start their own family traditions.
Robin
We started celebrating on Christmas Eve with my in-laws (this year it will be the 23rd) and ordering Chinese for dinner. It’s different but part of our traditions now and so fun.
Natalie Liotta
Love this so much
Emelie DeMont
We make kitkat houses with friends or just home with our kids. It’s like a gingerbread house but you use kitkat sand cookies and cream bars for the structure. Kids actually eat the whole thing with no waste and they have a lot of fun putting it all together. We too also enjoy attending our local parade of lights annually to kick off the season. Merry Christmas
Amie
Favorite tradition and one I’ve carried over without kids is cinnamon rolls Christmas morning before opening gifts
Deana Klein
Love making a variety of cookies with my girls, making up trays and taking them to our neighbors. We have recently added cookies my mom used to make, date pinwheels and surprise cookies (both are harder to make and the latter is a recipe she and my grandma made up). The types of cookies/treats we chose to make have been a great way to bring in memories of Christmas’ past.
JillMcDermott
We always have a birthday cake for Jesus and sing happy birthday to him on Christmas day after dinner
Shannon Smieja
When I first met my husband and attended his dad’s side of the family for Christmas I got my first “taste” of their Polish heritage meal traditions. I had never heard of dining on split pea soup as the main entree. It’s side dishes included homemade bread, sometimes tgere was ham, rice pudding, saurkraut that was served cold with peas, poppy seed coffee cake. It is a simple rustic meal. You are always required to try the soup. Usually a favorite uncle would help you out by cleaning your bowl after your mandatory “bite”. Many years later this is still the Christmas eve meal, which my kids kind of dread. We all now take a hand in creating these dishes and passing on this simple but honored meal. My husband has become that favorite uncle who helps his young nieces and nephews polish off their bowl. My father in law just beams that his mother’s and grandmother’s recipes are still being used and passed on to his grandkids. A meal that was not my favorite now is something I look forward to every year.
Meghan
I can’t wait to start the Christmas candy countdown when my son is old enough ❤️
Cristina
I love all these ideas, Sarah!! We love to do an extended family gingerbread house competition! My kids love doing it and having the family over to our house! And we’re all a little bit competitive too so this is perfect for us! 😉 Merry Christmas, Molitors!
Melanie H
Making Christmas cookies is a favorite! I had already saved Nanas Sugar Cookies! So definitely going to try those!! All such wonderful thoughtful ideas though!
Niki
We love to participate in our churches living nativity. We get to see the story of the Savior’s birth come to life!
Katie Pietrowski
Something new this year is we took my 4.5 year old daughter to see A Christmas Carol at our church. She did so well that we’re taking her to see Elf the Musical Jr Sunday at the local community college this weekend. Both performed by local theatre kids. This is becoming such a special mommy daughter, grandma time and I hope to keep it up.
Mattie Coolman
Love the idea of acting out the Christmas story or doing a little talent show. My boys would be all over it!
Kleona Caushi
Fun and great ideas. What I love most during Christmas season is getting together with family. My brother comes from germani and its so fun.
Melody
One of my favorite memories as a child was having carolers come to our house. My mother invited them in and gave them all got chocolate. Then she played the piano and we all sang together. Then one of the carolers said they heard Santa and I hurried to bed. It’s the only time we’ve ever had carolors.
Yekaterina Yashchenko
We do cookie decorating n gingerbread houses with cousins, and just familt i like to take kids to see all the light shows n as many festivals n markets as we can squeeze in. I loved caroling as a teen maybe cuz it was small church living in the country and so we did that visiting church memebers n neighbors n friends but being in the city now n large church n people you need to make appoimtments to see it hasnt continued since my parents moved away from that area… the church basiclly doesnt have anyome anymore now too… i guess as my oldest turned 13 n other is 16mo behind him maybe next year we can start atleast teaching em the carols n make our own cousin little group to go visit close people old friends n carol to them… this year we all got sick n hopimg we can still do the cookies together before january (we have no problems doimg cookies after christmas) traditionally we celebrate christmas all december. n part of january… back in europe christmas was in janurary… christmas bingo sounds awesome! My sister printed a nativity escape she wanted to do with older kids like ages 5 n up… Merry Christmas!
Ginny
We do so many of these traditions too, we are trying Nanas sugar cookie recipe for our cookies this year.
Emily Sorrell
Our first family tradition is reading Luke 2 before opening presents or eating breakfast on Christmas Day. We want our children to always remember that Jesus comes before everything else. We have now gotten into ice skating and gingerbread house making through the years, too. Merry Christmas to you all!
Michele Valeson
Our newest tradition is with our grandkids!! The beginning of December we give our grandkids new Christmas Jammie’s, a new Christmas book or movie & a special ornament for the tree!! We always get matching PJ’s, it’s so much fun for the cousins to match!! They have all month to enjoy their new goodies 💕💕
Tara
Riding around looking at Christmas lights
Krista W
Holiday traditions are my favorite!! Thanks for sharing!
Stacey Gepperth
Love ❤️ all those ideas, wow! So much fun to have that is free and right here for us all to enjoy! Thank you for sharing !
My kids are now all grown and on their own, but we still go to the local Kiwanis tree lot in the center of town to buy a tree together and decorate at my house on the Friday after Thanksgiving together which is a really special time.
Lena
So many fun things to do,thank you for sharing! I find I enjoy things the most, actually we all do,if they just happen,where there’s not push, and shove to get the traditions in but where God leads the way in making our memories special, it looks a little different every year for us,but baking sugar cookies, and making Christmas cards for others by hand,seems to be 2 things that are faithfully on repeat.
Mel Lebow
We buy gifts for a few neighbours every year and deliver them Christmas Day.
We also do the candle light service at church and get the whole family (30 people) together for Chinese food Christmas Eve.
Kayla Chupp
I love to go caroling!I live in Florida and one of my favorite traditions is to go caroling on a hayride!
Katie Anthony
One of my favorite traditions is to pick out our Christmas tree! We come home, have a nice dinner then start decorating! My other favorite is doing acts of service with my kids! We shop for two of our local charities to get children’s items. My kids LOVE this! We also take an annual trip to the NICU where my twin boys stayed for quite some time to deliver our favorite Nancy Tillman books to the babies and treats to the staff!
Cindy Hensley
I love all your ideas! We usually go caroling with our church, got watch the nutcracker ballet and do the area Christmas parades.
Rhonda Sanders
Great ideas! Some of our traditions are similar:
Candy/small gift advent for the grands, watching the Christmas light show in town, working a jigsaw puzzle,
and .22 rifle shooting competition.
A couple of weeks before Christmas, our youngest daughter helps the grands (her nieces) decorate a gingerbread house and sugar cookies.
Then, our family spends NewYears at my Dad’s with my sister’s family. Dad fixes prime rib, we fix the sides.
With our grands, we bake and decorate cupcakes with nativity feves wrapped in parchment paper inside each cupcake.
We eat the cup cake, then the kids take turns telling the Christmas story with the sweet tiny figurines. Stories can be sweet, maybe crazy, often hilarious.
I wish you and your family safe travels and a VERY Merry Christmas! ❤️
Deb barker
Love that this includes so many things that give your time and resources to others. You are doing a great job raising those boys and soon the girl to love and serve others! Merry Christmas!!
Erica Giordano
This is my favorite time of year. We already do a lot of these things. Some of my favorites that we do (some of which you mentioned) are giving my kids Christmas Eve boxes with new Christmas jammies, a snack and hot chocolate and then watching a movie, decorating the tree together, having my kids choose gifts for family members, going to the Christmas village to see all the lights, decorating (and eating) cookies, making fudge and cookie trays for our neighbors and hosts at Christmas time, Christmas photos and cards! My husband and I even had a Christmas inspired wedding (December 14th)!
Merry Christmas!
Caitlin Hinshaw
Looking at Christmas lights!
Tammy
Love your list! We Love going and looking at Christmas lights as a family.
Missy Paszek
We are now empty nesters and we’re feeling sad and missing our kids this Christmas. You have inspired us, and we are doing many of these things with just my husband and I and having a fun, wonderful time making new traditions! Thank you!
Heidi
One of my favorite things to do is read the story of Jesus birth in the Bible and have prayer as a family before we open stockings and gifts on Christmas morning!
Noémie Lavallée
Love to share some spécial Christmas cookies and homemade caramel around us. 🎄
Joanna
Our family of three boys chritmas tradition is choosing a new outfit for our baby jesus resin nativity. Usually my mother in law their grandmother knits a new outfit a color of their choice and pattern. We look forward to choosing the color every year. Happy Holiday’s 😊
Kristin Hineline
My favorite tradition is going to look at Christmas lights!
Jessica Andrews
Our favorite is decorating the tree as a family. We may have to do it in stages to coordinate with everyone’s schedule but all of us turn the lights on together in the end 🎄
Steph Bernardo
11 is a constant tradition for us too (especially since Covid). I love the gaming idea. I bet you did t realize how many traditions you had until you wrote them down!
Kaylee Evans
These are great traditions! We are still working on starting traditions for our family. This year I’m looking forward to taking our boys and serving people food and giving gifts. It’s our GO project for this year. 💛
allison hines
We always go on a golf cart ride around the neighborhood on Christmas Eve before bed to look at all the lights! Jammies and hot chocolate are a must
Holly Sietsma
I love all the ideas! My family makes Christmas Candy every year. Believe we’ve been doing it for more than 50 years❤️
Robin Jonkhoff
I have always enjoyed a Christmas Eve candle light service. So peaceful and I just really feel the reason for the season!
Lisa
We love Christmas baking! All types of cookies, bars, fudge and treats we normally don’t do at other times of the year
Toni Clark
Love your list!
Leading up to Christmas we bake cookies together, the girls (15 & 18 now) still decorate the family tree, and visit both the Herr’s Factory (local, long time, family owned & mainly east coast, potato chip factory) and Longwood Gardens to see all their beautiful lights.
Christmas Eve we open matching family pajamas, the girls get an ornament relating to something they love or have done that year, and the candlelight service at church.
Christmas Day is all about home & family. We open gifts, have a yummy breakfast, play games, read new books, all the together things.
Merry Christmas Molitor Family!
Amber Maschmidt
I’ve never done or seen caroling. I think that would be amazing. 🎄♥️😍
Melanie Beaver
We like to go find a live Nativity to see.
Kathy
My favorite family Christmas traditions are matching pajamas, kids opening gifts to each other on Christmas Eve, and reading the Christmas story in Luke 2 before anything else on Christmas Day.
Carrie H.
This year I’ve done a christmas-themed drawing from Art for kids hub (on YouTube), make 4 copies before I color the original. Each morning the kids wake up to a new countdown drawing to color. It’s been a fun addition to our mornings and the kids are always excited to see how many days are left! Plus, I enjoy picking a new drawing and doing some therapeutic coloring myself! Each drawing takes me around 10 mins or less to do.
Amy iverson
We always begin our Christmas traditions at thanksgiving. Everyone at our table receives an ornament special to them, their year, or personality. It works as a place card. It’s always fun for everyone to guess who belongs to which ornament! Also, they can hang the ornament and enjoy that season!
Elizabeth Van Nus
Love these!! Definitely easy to do with my littles and inconsistent husbands work schedule!!
Danielle Davis
My favorite tradition is staying home all day on Christmas in our matching pajamas, eating the French toast bake, exchanging gifts, and watching a movie by the fire.
Anna Westover
One of my favorite traditions is a Christmas program put on by our church school. They do a beautiful arrangement of songs/speaking or a musical play. The performance changes each year. I still have siblings in it and I look forward to it every year! I live four hours away now and still wouldn’t miss it for the world! ❤️
Shari
Awe! Love seeing you and Tim raising those babies! Christmas Eve lunch (out at a Chinese restaurant)……it’s not as grand as it once was BUT I know it’s one my girls have already know as a staple. Along with driving around looking at Christmas lights!
Gillian Huneycutt
These are all so fun! My kids love making Gingerbread houses. Even though I’m not great at it, I love watching them make memories! ❤️
Killey
We always love to make gingerbread houses and then have each child pick out someone special in the community to give it to for the holidays! 🎄
Natalie
Would love to try the candy count down next year. We usually watch Christmas movie all months and for the most part kiddos decorate the trees, 70% of our ornaments are homemade/handmade, a few as old as 12 year old.
Angie
We love spending time together talking about Christmas memories around the Christmas tree.
Jennifer
Each year I pick out an ornament that represents each of my kids for the year. It could be a character they were into or animal. I love seeing their faces when I give them the ornament once the tree goes up. After Christmas I put a tag on the ornaments with their name and the year and they will get them when they have a tree of their own one day. Also a newer tradition is a punch board I made. Each day they take turns punching one of 25 tissue paper covered cups to reveal a special treat. There are small toys or candy in each one. We might have to add a few things from your list to our yearly traditions!
Natalie dee
Would love to try the candy count down next year. We usually watch Christmas movie all months and for the most part kiddos decorate the trees, 70% of our ornaments are homemade/handmade, a few as old as 12 year old.
Katelin Luthman
Love baking cookies with my boys and my mom. We pull out my grandmother’s favorite recipes. We also attend our local zoo for Zoo lights. Then we always go cut our hair wNt Christmas tree down and have a family night for decorating, eating our favorite snacks and watching a family favorite holiday movie! Love Christmas time! 🎄🎅🏼
Rebecca Percival
We are going to our botanical gardens light show next week. I’ve never been but hope to make it a tradition!
Ashley K
We love our tradition of the having a Santa to countdown to Christmas. Each day we put on a cotton ball so when it’s Christmas his beard is full 😍🎄
Denise
Sarah
Best inexpensive ideas family oriented. The season is about being together and cherishing the moments and the TRUE meaning of christmas.
Merry Christmas to your beautiful family
Blessing to you all
Tricia
Love these ideas. We do a-lot of them. This year we are starting a new one, we decorate a big tree in our front woods. We have lights on it and around it we are inviting neighbors over to come and enjoy a hot cocoa bar and cookies around a fire by the tree. It will be cold cause we live in michigan. But we think it will be a fun new tradition. Our son may even pull some of the little kids around in our dump cart and 4 wheeler. Merry Christmas to you and your family have fun on your trip.
Ashley Meulink
We have officially started doing just one Christmas activity a day. Adding flannel sheets to beds. Getting out our Christmas mugs. Making sugar cookies. Watching a Christmas movie. Getting a tree. Putting lights on. Etc. It makes the magic go a little bit further and saves mama some energy!
Nicole Carlen
Now that my kids are young adults they don’t talk about the presents they received in past years. They talk about how we play games with our extended family, how breakfast on Christmas Day is always with grandma and how we make potato sausage every year. They have asked now that we forgo gifts and do a weekend getaway instead. I can’t wait!
Merry CHRISTmas Molitor family!
Jenny K
9am church service. Then we stop by and visit my son’s grave (he went to heaven in 2009…we have four other children still here on earth with us), then come home and play a dice gift game, followed by dinner where each kid and adult picked their favorite food to make.
Meagan Norman
A Christmas movie Marathon! Or a Christmas parade. My girls seriously watch Christmas movies all year long.
Kailea Kjorlaug
We love making Christmas cookies and going to zoo lights! I started your tradition of letting the kids pick a new ornament each year!
Kristen Wiedmeyer
We love to kick start the Christmas season with Christmas movies!
One thing we’ve been doing for the past 5 years is cookies with the grandparents, aunts and cousins. It’s crazy and loud, but we love crazy and loud. For some reason, I get left with the majority of the baked cookies….so we box them up for our neighbor and friends!
Brooke
We just started going to the holiday parades in neighboring towns. They are so fun to see. I have a 2 year old (and 6m) but he loves driving around town looking at lights. I think we do it 2-3 times a week since it gets dark out at 5! 🤍
Erin Harris
These are all such fun ideas! Our favorite traditions our decorating the tree together and making cookies. This year we also started going to a local light show and picking out a special ornament. I love making all these special memories with my family. 💙
Liz
These are wonderful ideas, many we do with our 3 kiddos. I love the candy countdown idea and want to give it a try next year!
Jenny
What sweet ideas! Shopping and picking out new ornaments is definitely a favorite in our home!
Beth Brewer
Love doing things with our family!
There is really nothing in the world
like getting together with family,
especially at Christmas time.
Trimming the tree, sharing memories,
sipping hot chocolate – the togetherness.
Love going caroling or taking treats to
shower a little Christmas love on others.
Have a very Merry Christmas!
Cassy
We started our own candy countdown this year! We love going around looking at lights all season, 1 or 2 local parades usually a daytime and night time. Candle service at our church is a favorite! Christmas day we usually stay in pjs have breakfast open presents with family and do a platters of meat cheese veggies fruits cookies and then hot apps at night!
Dodie
I love that the family is all together on christmas eve and my brother in law makes The best beef Wellington or steaks and we hang out and play games and my niece gets to open her presents from her aunts and uncle’s
Deborah Jimenez
Having a big Mexican meal on Christmas Eve (my husband is from Mexico) and opening stockings and PJs that night before bed. The kids love it! ❤️
Lynda West
Some of our favorite traditions include shopping for our new Hallmark ornaments, Christmas Eve candlelight service at our church, Mexican for dinner on Christmas Eve and watching Christmas movies! So many fun but easy traditions.
Wendy
We make sugar cookies, go Christmas caroling, go see Christmas lights with friends(we started doing it 7 years ago) and I’m sure many more little things that I’m not even thinking yet!
Maegan
We regularly cookie bake and bring them to the neighbors in cute little boxes all wrapped in bows! It is so much fun! These are wonderful Christmas traditions and ideas!
Jorrey Maynard
My favorite Christmas traditions is, sleeping by the Christmas tree on Christmas eve.
My dad started the tradition with my older sister and I when we were younger. He still does it to this day with my younger siblings. I want to care on the tradition with my kids
Sara Schwehr
We always put the tree up and decorate together (we were delayed this year with a couple of sick kiddos) Always, say a prayer with the first ornament, an angel for our angel baby.
Tradition #2 we let everyone pick something for our meal. Not always traditional but there is zero complaining. As they have gotten older, it’s become super fun.
Erin
Fun ideas! Love that they’re pretty simple and inexpensive. We love looking at Christmas lights with hot cocoa. I also wrap up all of my girls’ Christmas picture books and they get to open one a night before bed. That’s probably our favorite tradition. 💕
Monika Sarsfield
All great ideas!!! We decorate gingerbread houses with all the cousins and on Xmas eve we do a secret Santa between all of the kids and a yankee swap for the adults. Merry Christmas 🎄🎅🏻
Brittney
Driving around town and looking at Christmas lights
Tsarina Metker
We have several family traditions but I think my favorite is that we order pizza on Christmas Eve. The kids get to open one present, it is always new pajamas, and we watch a movie together.
Amanda Campbell
We have several Christmas traditions that we love.
My husband is the Children’s Pastor at our church (K-5th grade) and we take a group of kids Christmas Caroling to some of our older church members or ones that are not able to get out very much. The kids love it and seeing the faces of the people we sing to brings so much joy to me.
We have 4 children (15, 13, 10, 8) and we love driving around to see all the Christmas lights. As our children are getting older I am really cherishing these simple moments together.
Ashlee Janusziewicz
We love to do breakfast for dinner and picnic by the tree. It’s probably my kids most favorite activity. We also do donkey in the living room where they search each day for a nativity character and then we read about them.
Teresa
My favorite tradition is going to church on Christmas Eve with all the family! I’m thinking of trying the candy chain next year!
Connie
Popcorn in the car driving around looking at Christmas lights. It’s been our tradition for years🎄.
Alyssa Bouma
My sister is a nurse in the ICU and works Christmas Day so we always celebrate Christmas on the 26th and it’s so nice to be able to stretch the holiday & have more time together.
Lexi Studenski
I love making cookies with my mom!
Amanda Mickey
I love getting popcorn, hot chocolate, and getting in our pajamas with blankets to go in the van and look at Christmas lights! So much fun!
Janisa Bauman
Matching Christmas PJ’s and doing a puzzle on Christmas Day….also baking Christmas cookies as a family and handing them out to our neighbors.
Megan Nelson
Making and decorating tons of cookies is a must every year! My kids love it and always look forward to a day in the kitchen all together!
Lauren Nichols
I love the idea of a progressive dinner! I love that you if you’re the host you aren’t hosting the entire evening so you can enjoy at other homes and try new things! Great holiday suggestion, Sarah!
Amber Abrahamson
My favorite family tradition is putting up the tree together and decorating it, decorating gingerbread houses, and going to see Christmas lights
Laura Black
LOVE ALL OF THESE!
We also do the Movie marathon and add in some classic Christmas episodes like Dock van Dyke, Brady Bunch and Mr Magoo Christmas Carol. We start early on a Saturday stay in PJs and put all titles in a Christmas bowl and draw them out and watch in the order we draw. It is soo fun!!
We also do a Christmas puzzle each year and have several Family Game nights.
Stephanie B
Growing up my favorite holiday tradition was making all the Christmas cookies work my mom and my sister.
Bethany Kubnick
One of my favorite traditions is making Pierogis with my mom and aunts! Pierogis are a Polish noodle that is stuffed with various different fillings. This tradition is so much more about the experience. While the pierogis are delicious and amazing, the time spent with these women is invaluable. I thank God for giving me strong, faith filled women as my spiritual guides and teachers!
Michelle Nieman
We eat cinnamon rolls every Christmas morning. Also my entire immediate family has Christmas together and no one is allowed to get dressed! We stay in our pjs the whole day and never leave the house. We play Christmas Family Feud as well. Such fun!
Danielle Carlton
We always loved riding around to look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve after church. My husband and I now take our family out to eat on Christmas Eve after church and use it as an opportunity to bless our waitress!
Tabitha
Our family does a few of these but my kids favorite has to be baking and decorating cookies and giving them out to family and friends
Lindsey Thering
So many sweet ideas, I want to start cute Christmas breakfasts with pancakes in the shape of reindeer or Santa
Katie Hardt
This year we are going to make cookies and use those and graham crackers to create ginger bread houses! I have a feeling these will be much tastier than the boxed gingerbread house kits!
Elizabeth
I’m most excited to bake cookies with my two littles! We skip the sugar cookie/decorating as their favorite is chocolate chip. We’ve started implementing reading a Christmas/winter book a day this year. Hoping to do Christmas movie marathons complete with hot cocoa and popcorn and candies in the future but it’s too hard in this season for my little sensory seeker.
Rhonda
Christmas cookies for neighbors! This year we have all new neighbors, excited to start this tradition in our new town!
Peggy Noonan
Our tradition is decorating the tree.
We all get together. (Our 4 grown children, their spouses and grandkids).
We spend the day eating, drinking, decorating and having fun.
Megan Geise
I just love your family. I’m going to try Nana’s sugar cookie recipe!
Lisa
Some fantastic ideas. Our traditions include decorating a gingerbread house (we buy the ones from the store you can build and then decorate). Baking Christmas cookies and decorating sugar cookies. We started a tradition of having chilli dogs on Christmas Eve and pizza on Christmas Day. We also decorate the tree together and buy or make a new ornament for the tree. We also make Swedish thin bread as another tradition.
Silje Vassvik
I love it when me and my sister decorate my fathers house for christmas. On the 23, we also decorate his tree. We do this every year. The tradition i have with me and my kids is that when they are a sleep, i put their christmas stocking on the foot of the bed.
Cassie Göçmen
We read The Night Before Christmas and the Christmas story from the Bible on Christmas Eve after attending our church’s Christmas Eve service.
Nina Delaney
Best tradition all day making all kinds of goodies with our daughter and granddaughter. This time together is just so special. Merry Christmas to you and your family
Lisa Mauldin
We do pjs on Christmas Eve, advent calendar full of treats, activities and giveaways, pizza on Christmas eve(cause Mama’s tired after cooking), this year we started a hopefully new tradition- a family Bible study to prepare our hearts during the Advent season
Sally Chambliss
We are grandparents to 3 precious babies, and have 2 more on the way. We have “cousin” sleepovers at our house before Christmas. This year we bought them “Cousins make the best friends” sweatshirts to wear on our special night. Activities included a drive through light display, a train ride at a local spot, decorating ornaments, getting pizza and making some Christmas treats!
Emily Jochim
We always have birthday cake pancakes for breakfast on Christmas morning!
Sarah
My Dad reads The Night Before Christmas to all the grandkids. All the sweet little face gathered around him close is so beautiful! A neighbor stops by to play Christmas songs on his trumpet.
June DeJonge
Love to read your family traditions, great new ideas. We do Christmas Eve fondue, read a Christmas story, and open our gifts.
Decorating Christmas cookies with my 3 & 1 yr old grandkids! A very fun time!!
Brenda Brown
Reading the Christmas story from Luke 2 on Christmas Eve night and then having prayer as a family is my favorite tradition.
Brittany Hageman
My favorite Christmas tradition is baking my moms famous homemade sugar cookie recipe with her and my 4 kids! ❤️🎄
Laura Mackay
When we get close to Christmas we love driving around town looking at lights and decorations and of course have snacks with us!
Traci Dobrowolski
We take a picture every Christmas by the tree! Then it is put on the tree skirt with the year! We started the year we were married and even baby ultrasounds went on! It’s fun for the kids to look back at all the past years! Merry Christmas!🎁 🎄
Billie Ryan
We are definitely trying Tim’s popcorn and Nanas hot chocolate with our movies this year 🎄
Tiffany Lobban
When I was a child we always decorated Christmas cookies to the sounds of Christmas music softly playing the background. We would drive around and look at Christmas lights, Christmas shopping together as a family and we always dressed in our Christmas program costumes with our church childrens choir and went to the nursing home and caroled through the halls. Now that I’m married with two little boys of my own, we are doing the very same things with them. It’s so much fun seeing the joy and wonder of Christmas through their eyes and thankful we can pass along not only our traditions but the true reason we celebrate Christmas to them. 😊 We also started our own tradition of decorating a gingerbread house together and this year we may be making Jesus a birthday cake. Merry Christmas to you all! I really enjoy all of your content!
Maya Getz
I love driving through neighborhoods and looking at the lights!
Molli
My mom and I make and decorate sugar cookies each year. My grandmother started the tradition with my mom when she was a a young girl, now my son joins in to help out too!
Lindsay Ulmer
Decorating cookies is one of my absolute favorite traditions to carry on with my kids! We also really love doing candy cane hunts — super simple but I had candy canes throughout the house and they have to find them all! We usually do this several times throughout the holiday season!
Margaret Rizzo
We decorate the tree with my grandmothers home safe ornaments! Then we drive around and look at the Christmas lights! Love this tradition!! 🎄🎅🏻
Rebecca
Every Christmas Eve after church we have cake or cupcakes and sing Happy Birthday to Jesus!! It started when my oldest was 2 and has stuck ever since!!!
Rachel McElhaney
We always decorate Christmas cookies together as a family. The kids have a competition on who can be the most creative.
Maryjo Miller
I put my kids handprints on our tree skirt.
Brittany
We love cookie decorating parties with friends
Jan Mielke
Our Firemen in our city donate all the lights for the Christmas tree lighted huge park drive through. They serve hot chocolate, coffee and cookies all night. Belgium horse drawn carriage rides too! A bonfire is there and s’mores for all! Every year they add new lights! More Nativity scene lights, animated lights in motion, Santa sliding down rooftop and Snoopy are last years new ones. This year they added psalm trees! It’s so beautiful and fun! A very nice tradition!
Rebecca Naue
Progressive dinners would be so much fun to try!! I have never heard or thought of something like that!! Thank you for the ideas ♥️
Cassie Siple
We love popping popcorn and jumping in the car to drive around and look at lights. We also do a pajamas exchange on Xmas eve so everyone gets to wear a new pair to bed!
Deb
We always attended the Lessons and Carols service at a church in our area. So very special, and I still love that first song in their intro, “once in royal David’s city.” It brings back many memories.
Esther
My favorite tradition is we go to our local tree farm and cut down our Christmas tree each year!
Kaley
My town has a Christmas train that goes through neighborhoods looking at lights! It’s become one of our favorite Christmas traditions we do each year!
Maureen Pratt
We put out luminaries in our neighborhood and light them on Christmas Eve. The we have a golf cart parade to see the beautifully decorated homes. ❤️🎄❤️
Erica D
This year for the first time we went to go get a real Christmas tree and four lil girls(5,3.5,2 and 3 months) had a blast trying to find the perfect one! After the girls went to bed that night I told my husband I think we have started a new tradition! I love seeing things through my their eyes!!!
I love your movie marathon idea and will be trying your nana sugar cookie recipe!
April fitzsimon
I love having everyone open one gift Christmas Eve morning and it is matching family pajamas for us to all wear that night and a new book as well.
Laura Hodges
Favorite tradition is family cookie day, and Christmas Eve we play a game and the winner gets to open a present.
Marianne
All of these are so wonderful! Two of my favorite traditions we do since getting married and starting our family are getting a live Christmas tree and decorating it together while we watch the movie Pirates of Penzance. My second fave is going to a Christmas Eve service.
Amanda Sellars
Getting into our new Christmas PJs on Christmas Eve, then my husband reads the Christmas story from Luke and I read The Night Before Christmas. Such a sweet time with our kids and precious memories of when I was a child. ❤️❤️❤️
Rachel Nugent
Definitely Christmas cookies or our local Christmas light train ride!!
Rochelle Darling
I love to take the grandkids to look at lights! Grab some hot coco and see the joy in their faces!
Susan Wilson
We put on pajamas, make hot cocoa and drive around to look at lights. Even as teenagers now, they look so forward to this!
Candice
One of our favorite traditions is sleeping in the living room with the Christmas tree lights on. Honestly, I don’t sleep the best that night but my boys love it so it is totally worth it 🙂
Mackenzie Jones
We love cutting down a tree and then decorating it while listening to Christmas music and making sugar cookies! Another favorite is driving around to see lights and going to Christmas lane at a local gift store.
Carina B
Our favorite tradition is our kids picking out an ornament each year!
Another that we do is hide a pickle ornament in our tree and the first to find it on Christmas gets a small prize! We also love to go to a large Christmas light display (Bentleyville)!
Once our kiddo is older, we would love to start the tradition of signing up for a day of ringing the Salvation Army bells!💕
Kirstyn
I love these! And we are hoping to add caroling to our list of traditions this year!
Two of my favorite traditions in our home is having a cookie decorating contest and reading parts of the Christmas story from the Bible leading up to Christmas
Chelsea
I always enjoy your blog and your ideas!
Charlotte Brown
We love baking and seeing Christmas lights. I also love to go caroling!
Logan Stearns
Such sweet memories to make! Growing up, we always baked a birthday cake for Jesus and sang happy birthday after a family dinner of lasagna. Then we would read Luke chapter 2 to help remind all of us why we celebrate. I also remember looking at Christmas lights when I was a little girl. The Saturday after Thanksgiving, we drove an hour away to my great aunt’s house. The ride home was just as special as time spent there. We would get our hot chocolate from a gas station and spend the hour drive home, fighting the urge to sleep and look at the first lights of the season.
Ashley Smith
I love the season of advent – anticipation! I handmade advent calendars for my girls this year – just scrapbook paper and little paper drawers from Hobby Lobby. Then I got to be creative with each day’s prize. But at the end of each day, we read the advent devotion, light the advent wreath candles, and sing a hymn that goes along with the focus for the week. I just LOVE singing with my teen girls!
Amy
These are great. We do a few of these already but would love to incorporate more.
Courtney Barkman
Growing up every year on Christmas Eve we opened our family gift, which we always knew was a new board game. We would play until late at night and then go to bed and mom and dad would put out presents!
Carley
Love this! I tend to overthink Christmas traditions, but My kids always love the easiest things. They love that on Christmas Eve they always get up sleep over in our room. So easy and so fun
Kimberly Souther
I enjoy reading everyone’s traditions! One of our favorites is playing bingo on Christmas Eve eve at my sister’s house. Each person brings a candy gift, dessert gift, or a Christmas decoration. ( that way it covers all age group for the prizes)
Corinne Bowman
Our silly Christmas family tradition is the run the length of our back yard barefoot in the snow 🥹
Sydney
What a wonderful post! We love holiday traditions! I love baking all the amazing food with and for my family.
Erin Spurlock
DOABLE is what I need in this season of life for sure!
Louise Burns
Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!! Enjoy your special time together ❤️❄️⛄️. Thank you for all you do. The wonderful ideas you came up I will be trying to use them at my Christmas break.
Becky North
My family enjoys going for a drive and looking at all the Christmas lights. We all have a cup of hot chocolate and listen to Christmas music. A few years ago we started giving an award to two houses we vote on who have some of the best decorated yards. We sneak up to the house and knock and run leaving a Christmas treat with a note telling them thanks and that they won.
Nicole Patterson
Checking out Christmas lights in our area is definitely something we’ve done every year.
Tracy Crum
We always make gingerbread houses n bake cookies put up the tree n watch Christmas movies one night. It’s so much fun. My kids are grown but they still come over n we still do it. They love it!!
Amanda Gerber
I love letting the kids pick out a different ornament each year. That’s a tradition I had growing up and those ornaments are so special to me. We also love to go look at lights. Those are probably the 2 my kids look forward to the most. Love your list! Might have to make some of those happen!
Sarah Thomas
We do Caroling every year!! It’s been a tradition on my Dads side since I can remember!!
Nancy Martin
We are doing the candy count down for the first time this year!! It’s fun! We also do caroling with our church and that’s a big highlight!!
Cami Duckett
Our family always reads the Christmas story by candle light on Christmas eve.
Shelby Seaton
We have an annual grinch themed party with our friends! Everyone wears comfy or themed grinch clothes, contributes themed snacks and we put on the newest animated version of the movie.
Christina Taylor
Decorating the tree together is the sweetest tradition for us. I love the time reminiscing over the ornaments as they come out and the collaboration on where each one should go. It’s such precious time to me.
Nicole Heinicke
These are great ideas! My kiddos are really young right now, but when they’re a bit older I would love to do a service project with the whole family around Christmas so they understand giving is just as great, if not better, than receiving. For now, decorating together and setting up the nativity scene is a favorite around here!
Erica Lemmon
I love the idea to visit elderly family. We of course see them on Christmas Day but going to stop in this week to bring them some cheer.
Mary
My favorite as a kid (I have 5 siblings) was when we bought dollar store gifts we all exchanged the presents on Christmas Eve to each other. We got mom and dad presents on Christmas Eve.
I know it’s definitely not the same as Christmas. But another tradition in my maternal grandmothers home was celebrating Hanukkah. That’s something we will be doing going forward.
Monique Condon
My favorite traditions include making gingerbread houses with my children, making Christmas cookies and going to the Candlelight service on Christmas Eve.
Katie Wilson
We take my Grandparents to look at lights every year and to Christmas Eve service. It’s such a fun tradition.
Kristi Collins
I love getting the kids ready for bed but then putting them in the car to go drive around and look at lights!
SaraMae Founds
We do a few things: we go see Christmas lights because that’s what my mom used to do with us before she passed, we decorate Christmas cookies and we open our stockings on Christmas Eve.
Cortney Yount
Such a great list! We haven’t done Christmas caroling since having more than 2 kids. Maybe we need to step up our game and try it again
Naomi Vieru
We love to take the kids ice skating Christmas evening. It’s their favorite.
Karen Boone
I LOVE the family talent show idea!!! Now if only I can convince the whole family to join in. 😅
Kaitlyn
We decorate our Christmas tree together as a family and then we also try to drive around our town listening to Christmas music and looking at all the pretty Christmas lights. Both simple traditions, but are so fun to do each year with our kids.
Sheila Helms
We love to go to the candle light service. And we love to watch Christmas movies.
Andrea W
One of our main traditions is that our Christmas mornings are very slow and relaxing. The kids open stockings and then we eat a breakfast pizza. We read the Christmas story and then slowly start to open gifts. It takes all day. Not because the kids have lots of gifts but because each gift they open they play with/read/use for a long time before opening then next one. We don’t see anyone or go anywhere.
Amanda Sikes
I love loading up in the van with mugs of hot chocolate for everyone and driving around looking at lights. CHRISTMAS music playing on the radio and lots of silliness!
Amber Gore
I want to start the tradion of driving around and enjoying all the decorations and Christmas lights. Brings such a festive atmosphere to this time of year!
Sherry daniels
All my grandkids are big now, so we do the Saran Wrap game. I wrap, candy, money, gift cards into a large ball of Saran Wrap. They love it!
Rachel Hintz
Our boys are finally old enough to handle staying up a little later, so our new tradition we’re starting this year is that they get to stay up late and watch a movie with mom & dad. Popcorn with m&ms and hot cocoa. No baby sister allowed (yet!)
JOCEY
Decorating cookies with the kids. Or meeting extended family on Christmas gatherings.
Christy Baum
I love going to our candlelight service at church and driving around to look at Christmas lights!
Ashley
There are so many traditions that I love around this time that it’s hard to pick two, haha. Nightly advent reading and lighting to candles is definitely at the top. We also have a tradition of going out for breakfast Christmas Eve, just my husband and I and our kids, before things get crazy with time with all of the extended family.
Laurie Groves
I love to bake and I make candy also. So, I pack some in Christmas tins and give them to friends and family. We also love to drive around and look at all the beautiful Christmas lights. We also love going to Christmas concerts and a candlelight Christmas Eve service.
Cheryl Gish
So fun making memories. Thankful for a few more ideas.
Sherry Sicheneder
Candlelight church service on Christmas Eve!
Jaclyn
We do a themed Christmas breakfast each year. My girls never know when it will happen, they just wake up to a decorated table with fun treats and yummy food. They look forward to it every year!
Diana Holden
My favorite family tradition is making a birthday cake for Jesus with my sons. We sing happy birthday to the Lord and really solidify what Christmas is all about! My kids look forward to it every year.
My other favorite is on christmas morning, before gifts, we all sit around the Christmas tree and read from Luke 2. It sets the tone and meaning for our Christmas day. 😊
Alicia
We always have a Christmas Eve candlelight service at our church we go to. We’re driving 15 hours down to see family which we do every year but this will be our first time driving and not flying!
Regina Vivanco
I love making & decorating sugar cookies with the kids! This year my oldest daughter (age 21) took the 3 youngest to do sugar cookies at her house with her roommates!! I am hosting my 3 grandkids ages 3, 1, & 5 months to our house to dechrste them as well! Passing on the tradition! ❤️
Molly Seppala
10 nights before Christmas we sit for advent reading, open 1 gift from our stocking, and pray for whoever comes to mind. Last night we prayed for all the widows in our area. Each night it’s someone different. Love doing this with the kids.
Emily
Definitely love Christmas cookie day with my mom and sisters and the little kid cousins! We also enjoy watching all our favorite Christmas movies each year as a family!
Autumn
Love finding local concerts to attend, a bonus if they’re free!
Lauren
These are all great ideas! Would love to do some with our kids! Thanks for these!
Alana Sue Morgan
Wonderful family time suggestions! Thanks for sharing!
Laurie Cassano
We love going to our church’s candlelight service every Christmas eve. This one will be especially touching because our daughter is singing a solo 🥰
Molly Vargas
My favorite holiday tradition is decorating sugar cookies, it’s so relaxing to me and another favorite is looking at this light show a local man puts on his house every year to music ( although our kids don’t quit appreciate the light show as much as me) we also drive around to see lights on other houses and usually with a treat/decaf coffee/ hot chocolate
Samantha
Love decorating cookies with my girls! We used Nana’s recipe last year and they were a huge hit. 🙂
Jenn Anderson
I love caroling. It is just the best blessing to sing songs of our Savior and bring joy to others.
Tanya Pratt
Hi Sarah!
I’m new in following you! And I just love your creativity with your beautiful boys! And loving Jesus! Just awesome. We have always had advent traditions, some of what you mentioned. This year we are going to see a live nativity, then grab some hot chocolate and drive to see some lights. When our son was younger, we had an advent jar and he would daily pick something to do. It encompassed things like helping a needy family, shopping for another child in need, baking for family and friends, ice skating, having a family game night, watching a Christmas movie, and many more! Another great idea is reading Luke leading up to Christmas. 24 chapters, so one for each night in December! It really gives a great picture of Jesus’ birth. I hope you enjoy this holiday season as we celebrate our sweet Savior!
Aleta
We always decorate Christmas cookies & take gifts to the neighbors. Love reconecting with them each year
Megan Principe Cassarino
We have so many favorite Christmas traditions. We lost a few of my favorites last year when my grandma moved to Virginia. But my siblings and I would get together right before Christmas and make everyone’s favorite Christmas cookies and decorate them. We’d eat them Christmas Eve when the whole extended family got together. And on Christmas Eve we would all go to Grammys house do dinner together and go out and see Santa on the firetruck. No matter how old the cousins got we’d always go outside and see Santa. They firemen always loved stopping because they said they loved watching us grow up. Last year was my daughters first Christmas and the first Christmas we didn’t see Santa on the firetruck. My grandma sold her house. But my town is staring it this year and I’m so happy to start the tradition again! It’s always been a favorite memory. We then would come inside and eat dinner together and talk about our favorite memory of the year and then exchange gifts. I loved the family time.
Charissa
Yes! We do some of those as well but definitely adding more! A fav tradition growing up was opening a new pair of pjs on Christmas Eve, putting them on then loading in the van to drive around and look at Christmas lights 😍
Stephanie Ahlswede
All of the Christmas ideas/traditions are wonderful! I’m always trying to think of fun things to do with my kids and always blank on the spot! But of course, the next day I’m like, “Oh that would’ve been fun to do!” So thanks to your written list, no more of not knowing what to do!!🥰 Merry Christmas to you and you’re beautiful family!
Brandie Grant
We always go to our local Christmas parade and Christmas Stroll in the the Village we live in during the 1st week of December. We attend candlelight service at our church on Christmas Eve followed by heading home and watching a Christmas Story before getting a good nights Christmas Eve sleep. I love this time of year and just being able to spend extra (intentional) time with my family, friends and loved ones.
Merry Christmas!!!!
Caitlin Narwold
So fun! Our favorite holiday traditions are decorating the tree together the day after Thanksgiving. We also enjoy doing Christmas parades, and loading up everyone in the van, with some hot cocoa, and driving around to see Christmas lights.
Rebecca
My husband and I take our boys to a local town to walk through and look at the lights. Our smaller boys love it. We also have a night where we paint Christmas crafts.
Lara West
I would love to do all of those things! Christmas is the best, my favorite though is decorating our tree together. We turn on Christmas carols and reminisce as we put up our special ornaments. It’s the best.
Vanessa M
My kids and I love getting together to decorate the tree my older girls don’t live in the home. I try to make it a special time with hot cocoa and dinner and all the fixings.
Amy
My favorite traditions are the free symphony concert our city does, and also bundling up with cocoa and driving around to see the neighborhood light shows! Some people are so creative with them!!
Rebecca McReynolds
Love all these wonderful ideas, esp. game night & candy Advent! I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas! God bless you all! ❤️💚🙏🏻
Sarah
I love the traditions of decorating Christmas cookies and decorating the Christmas tree! We listen to Christmas tunes while we decorate. Such sweet memories throughout the years!
Taylor Salomon
We live in Florida so it doesn’t get too cold here 😭 it can be hard to make it feel like Christmas! We listen to ALOT of Christmas music and make all the treats!
Caron McNeaney
We decorate the Christmas tree together. I know get to do it with my grandchildren ❣️
Nicki George
A favorite tradition of mine is our annual Christmas baking day with my mom and daughters and now we have added grandchildren. It’s a fun day spending time together and making memories
Cindy
I love making Gingerbread house every year and I love that target has unique ones
Rebecca Durham
Decorating the tree together, chocolate advent calendar countdowns, and going to look at Christmas lights are some of our favorites too.
Helena Somnitz
One of my favorite Christmas traditions is decorating gingerbread houses. My mom did it with me when I was a kid. Now I’m continuing with my own daughters. It always brings back such special memories. I hope it creates the same special memories for my girls.
Melody Jorgensen
We just did a progressive dinner last weekend! Always a great time!!
Joan Jones
We take 2 older ladies to look at Christmas lights each year. They love it and we’re blessed
Marla Wiegand
I love Christmas traditions!! We love going to our local light display every year!
Rebecca Reahm
So many good ones! We do the Christmas movie marathon and the Christmas light tour!
Diane M
Even though my kids are grown they all come home with there families for Christmas! We do a Christmas movie marathon on the 24th with our favorite homemade snacks and hot chocolates and then after we all open gifts on Christmas morning we do a white elephant gift game then take our family photo one nice one silly faces 🎄🎅🎄🎅
Merry Christmas from our family to yours !
Melissa
My favorite Christmas tradition is Christmas Eve Jammies and sipping hot cocoa while watching ANY Christmas movie chosen by my children. It has become even more precious to me since my youngest went to be with the Lord! We are all so busy this time of year, I enjoy taking that time to slow down and just enjoy my blessings.
Jean Bird
These are great ideas!
We are all together this year and I cherish those times
We love to play games together and have a tradition of clam chowder on Christmas Eve.
Brenda Maendel
We go caroling at the neighbors
Would also love to go look at Christmas lights
Bethany Geesey
I love all these ideas. We do some of them. One of my favorites is we go get hot chocolate and drive around looking at Christmas lights just me and the kids. I love this time of year.
Lori Linsmeyer
My favorite tradition is decorating our Christmas tree with our grandkids. Also, decorating cookies with them. We also love to go to their Christmas programs.
Krista Wasinger
Great ideas! Some of these we do and I need to try that popcorn recipe!
Karin Fairless
We do many of your family traditions but still have yet to do that candy chain. Next year!!!! My favorites are the holiday parade in our city, Christmas Eve service at our church with the childrens choir singing and participating in “Moonbeams for Sweet Dreams” at a hospital in our city. Beginning in December, people line up outside the childrens wing of our local hospital and shine flashlights (moonbeams) as a way to say goodnight and sweet dreams for all the children inpatient at the hospital. The nurses give the kids flashlights so they shine them back at us. People wear light up necklaces, make light up signs with messages for the kids, etc. it only lasts about 15-20 min and it’s the best 15-20 min of the whole holiday season. So heartwarming to bring a smile to the hospitalized kids faces. You walk away in tears and hug all your loved ones a little closer that night. 💗
Kristen
We do so many of the same traditions that you shared! We love going on a family light drive. We haven’t been able to go this year since the night we headed out one of our kids got sick and threw up all over the car (a first for us after parenting for 13 years)! Ugh! We headed home put the kids down for bed and spent the evening tearing the car apart and cleaning up the puke from under the seats and all the crevices. It’s a memory we won’t soon forget. Hopefully we’ll be able to find another time to go look at lights this season-ha❤️🎄
Janet Ziemski
I love traditions, especially now with grandchildren. Making memories that your kids and grands will cherish forever. My lil 9 yr. Old just said to me the other day, granny can we play that cellophane game again this year? It warmed my heart!
Miranda Ramirez
We started doing a modified candy countdown, and the kids LOVE it! By far, our favorite family tradition is going to look at Christmas lights with hot chocolate and popcorn on December 22nd.
Taylor wren
We love looking at Christmas lights and watching Christmas movies! This year we did a candy count down! The kids are loving it! Thanks for all the fun ideas
Savannah Stewart (@savvy0567)
Absolutely love these ideas!! I’m definitely gonna be making Nana’s Cookies!! Such sweet ideas.
Kaleigh Kirschbaum
I want to do the candy countdown next year!
Simone Friesen
This year is the first one that my 3 year old understands what’s going one. We have had so much fun baking cookies, decorating the tree, shopping for some gifts and visiting her cousins Christmas programs. I love to see the joy spark in her eyes. 😊
Erika Slendebroek
Our favorite Christmas tradition for the past few years is having my aunt over and making so so many different Christmas cookie recipes! Then filling as many plates as we can to give away!
Kristy Johnson
My very favorite tradition is our Christmas Eve candle light service. It’s such a beautiful time to be still during the chaos of this season and really reflect on what it’s all about!! I just love
It every year.
Laurie Ulmer
These are so great. I think my favorite is when my husband reads the Christmas story,(29 years) before we open presents. But a fun one that I did most of the years: I didn’t want the kids to know which gifts were theirs, so I gave them code names. Usually characters from a movie/show. Pooh bear characters, muppets, veggie tales etc.
Liz
My favorite traditions are giving and receiving Christmas cards with friends and family and baking all the treats we only do this time of year like fudge and caramels. This year we went to see the Canadian Pacific Holiday Train on it’s way through MN and that was fun.
Rebecca
Great ideas! We do a lot of these too. It’s hard to pick a fave! Maybe looking at lights or Christmas pj’s?
Karen
Our tradition has been having our 5 grandkids spend a loud, energetic day making dozens and dozens of cookies, and crockpot peanut clusters to add to cookie boxes for family or friends we think of. Our “grands” are all older teens now, and though they’ll all soon be off on their own, my hope is they take these yearly memories with them as they branch out in their own journey and experience their own traditions. Merry Christmas!
Rachel
Some of these we already do, and I got some fantastic new ideas! Love making new memories with my boys. Merry, Merry Christmas, Molitors! Xx
Christy Patterson
My seven kids are all adults now, but still insist we keep our Christmas traditions – including their favorite – we hide their stockings and tie different colored yarn to each one. Then we string it throughout the house like a giant spiderweb! Now that they are adults, they hide each other’s and get quite creative!
Jeanette Mitchell
Our family tries to all go to our churches candle light service on Christmas Eve. We also play Christmas light scavenger hunt. We pile into three or four cars who are teams and drive around town finding light decorations on the list then take a picture of it (only one decoration per house). Then the cars race back to the house with all their pictures and the first car back wins the prize. It’s a fun way to see neighborhood lights and win prizes!!!
Kristi Morris
Favorite traditions: baking Christmas cookies and this year, we’re using your recipe. Also, getting those Christmas PJ’s is pretty special too!!
Thanks!!
Colleen
My favorite family tradition is new pjs with Berger Cookies that are from my hometown of Baltimore, MD. Also a new Christmas ornament on Saturday after thanksgiving
Kyla Wesch
Christmas Eve service with my family!
Mary Fermenick
I am planning on starting a candy countdown! Love the idea! our family also gets matching PJs and we wear them as many night before Christmas as we can ☺️
Natalie Call
We always wrap the doorway into the living room after Santa comes so we never miss the first reactions of our kids. They also love breaking through the wrapping paper to get into the living room.
Sharon Tiehen
Christmas Eve family together-food, games, white elephant exchange, and popping of crackers!
Jennifer Erwin
We love to do Christmas movie “theaters” in the living room and special candies in the popcorn. Each kid gets a turn to pick the movie!
Tiffany Gravlee
Baking & decorating Christmas cookies.
Gayle Smith
Love those ideas! There’s a couple we will start doing with our boys. Merry Christmas!!
Rhoda Oberholtzer
Dip chocolates & give as gifts…
Jessica Ryan
There are several of these we already do! Once my girl is a little older I would love to take her caroling. It’s something we’ve done in the past and really enjoyed.
Sara
So fun! Our favorite traditions are a drive around the neighborhood to see the Christmas lights, and doing Christmas cutout cookies! ❤️💚🤍
Sarah Jenkins
I love hearing what traditions other families do. Thanks for sharing and Merry Christmas!
Brenda
We started FaceTime Christmas caroling during covid and have kept doing it for friends and family who we don’t see very often both our kids and the family we call love it, it’s quick easy and we don’t even have to leave the house to do it.
Paula Brickweg
We count on the family to decorate the tree. We all enjoy that time together. Some of activities look fun. We will look into doing one to make our spirits bright. Merry Christmas!
Brittany Skow
Our favorite family traditions are going to pick out our tree in the snowy mountains and then going to see the light show in town. Beautiful memories ❤️
Anna Davis
Candle Light Christmas Eve service. Beautiful and what the season is all about. Thanks for the tips!
Elaine M
We love grabbing a bite and then going thru the lights in our local town! Also, Christmas carol with our church every year to the locals, looking forward to that on Sunday, definitely a highlight!!
Daisia Toney
I grew up not celebrating holidays, so now that I have my own family, I’ve tried to start traditions. We spend time with my extended family at my grandpa’s lake sports bar and then Christmas day, my little family does stockings, gifts and make a green breakfast. I love it and want to create more traditions as my kids get older. Happy holidays!
Martha Houseknecht
I love having my kids all snuggled up with me and watching Christmas movie, eating popcorn, candy and drinking hot coco! I like to keep things simple and not feel like i need to keep up with all other stuff.
Shelby Mcguffee
Love these ideas!! We get dressed in our PJs each year and go to a near by town & go to Candy Cane Lane! Its a drive through Christmas light show with over 1,000 lights! Its so beautiful and the kids LOVE IT!
Bethany Roe
Love these!! Great ideas!
Jennifer Reuther
We always go out together with family to purchase our tree each year. We watch a Christmas movie on Thanksgiving night. And we gift our kids a “Christmas Eve box” on Christmas Eve. It usually contains a pair of PJs, a snack, and something for them to do that night (book, game, movie, etc.).
Emma
It’s so silly, but my favorite tradition is Christmas morning breakfast. My mom always includes pineapple and blueberries with breakfast and my dad always makes homemade Orange Julius!
Amy Stephens
We have Christmas with my sisters, Dad and their families the week before Christmas. We eat, play games, pain ornaments and watch Christmas movies. We all stay the night and have breakfast the next morning before returning home. So fun for us and the cousins.
Sarah
These are great ideas! I would love to do the cookie decorating with future littles of ours!
Katie Juergens
Decorating our tree as a family with all the keepsake ornaments is one of my favorite traditions!🎄 Now that my kids are getting older, a progressive dinner would be really fun to try with other friends & family!! Thanks for sharing the great ideas to help keep this sometimes chaotic season a fun season!
Morgan Powell
Setting up the tree is my kiddos favorite! These are som fun ideas!
Katie Eldridge
We love going to the Christmas program at a large church near us ever year. It’s an amazing production, but has such a wonderful message from the pastor. It even drew in my husband who generally isn’t moved by church services. ❤️
Jodi Colrud
We do the movie marathon. We watch the entire series (ie all of the Home Alones or the Santa Clauses!)
Nikki Fields
We go to the parade and we have a few locations that does lights so we will head to see those.
Miriam Dickhudt
I’m so excited for when my baby is big enough to do candy countdown!!! I love candy, 😂
CAITLIN SABEL
My new favorite holiday tradition is Bingo with my family!! The kids love it 😍
Melonie
My son and daughter in law always host a Christmas Eve party for our family and friends! We have so much fun..we have lots of good food, play games.. my favorite is White Elephant.. a night of joy and lots of laughs!!
Clara Criswell
Always decorate the tree together and visit some kind of lights display, like zoo lights. And can’t forget the cookies and gingerbread houses! Happy holidays to your family!
Becky Woodward
My boys are grown now (40’s) , not married and I have no grandchildren. 😢 I hope I will get at least one grandchild someday to start some traditions with. I won’t give up hope! Meanwhile I enjoy getting together with my sisters and family. Our tradition is we play a white elephant game and it always brings a lot of laughs! I do have one tradition with my great niece. We go Christmas shopping every year to get presents for her and her parents. I hope it continues as she gets older!
Malia
I love decorating the tree together!!
Gail
After Christmas Eve church service, we always drive to see all the neighborhood Christmas lights.
Jennifer Ericson
A fantastic community of caring people come together every evening outside the pediatric hospital windows and shine lights and signs for the kiddos inpatient. The pediatric staff and families bring the children to the windows with their own signs and lights. Everyone sings. A happy moment of sharing and sweetness during the holiday season for these little ones.
Rene Beaubouef
Driving around to look at Christmas lights is one of my favorite holiday activities!
Miranda Harju
Such fun traditions! We decorate our tree together and make Christmas cookies every year! We are hoping to make it a tradition to go and watch a light show, where you put your radio station to a certain station and the lights go along with the music!
Lisa Huston
We do 12 days of Kindness and try to spread holiday cheer before Christmas. For example we secretly decorated the evergreen tree in front of our local high school. My daughters giggled when they heard people talking about it. We paid the bill for the car behind us at coffee shop drive through. Other acts of kindness we did was my girls had to give a random person in the local store a gift card, we delivered a poinsettia to an elderly lady who lives near us, delivered Christmas cards with a baked goodie to teachers that my girls had in the past. The memories are cherished from this event.
Mindy
We go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve. It’s beautiful, the church is lit by Candles and just so special. And bonus…the kids fall right to sleep by the time we get home!
Kathy
We like to decorate the tree together and sing Christmas songs, while snacking and also make and decorate Christmas cookies. Growing up, my parents always invited someone, who didn’t have close family, to share our Christmas meal. I have continued to do this and it has been so rewarding😊
Megan
So many fun things here! One of my favorite Christmas traditions is new jammies. My mom would leave new jammies on our bed Christmas Eve. We were always so excited to see what new jammies we got! I’ve continued the tradition with my kids and they love it as well 🙂
Amamda
We have so many traditions! Baking Christmas tree coffee cakes, making our own gingerbread houses then decorating them on Christmas. We also have Christmas Eve service and cookies afterwards, then we go out to dinner to celebrate. We also open one gift after dinner. Then Christmas day we read Luke chapter 2, and open presents. We start with the greatest gift of all!
Jamie
We do a Ding Dong Ditch every year. We pray for guidance in choosing a family in need, then we go buy gifts for everyone in that family. On Christmas Eve we secretly drop off the gifts, ring the doorbell & run & hide so that they don’t know who did it. The thing is, it is getting harder to do because a lot of people have doorbell cameras now, lol. We love this tradition!
Jill
One of my favorite holiday traditions is our annual cookie baking day. My daughters, granddaughter and I all get together and have a marathon baking and decorating day. This year my son’s girlfriend joined us and it was a wonderful day full of visiting, laughter, singing and dancing.
Morgan
My favorite holiday tradition was making dozens of Christmas cookies with my grandma and mom. Also being the taste tester wasn’t all that bad.
Alina
So many wonderful activities. We do a bunch of them already but will be trying a few we have not done yet as well.
Brandi Cotton
Me and the kids like to bake cookies and decorate them. We bring some to family members and friends.
Rosi
You are such a good mama! Merry Christmas and God bless you and your family!
Bailey
Progressive dinner! They sound so fun and surprisingly my neighbor just texted last week and set one up for 6 couples in our neighborhood for 2 weeks from now! So very excited to try it!
Michele Pleasants
So much fun! We always do gingerbread houses together- and my kids are now 15-28! Still a favorite tradition!
Jessica McCuskey Zahn
Each year as we’re leaving for Christmas Eve church service, I sneak away under the guise of having forgotten something and put boxes I’ve prepared on each of my kiddos’ beds. Each box contains a (washed and ready) new pair of Christmas/cozy pajamas, a new book w/Christmas theme, and hot chocolate. Now that the kids are bit older (11 and 7) they remember from year to year and are super excited about it! We go to church, drive around town to look at Christmas lights, go out for an easy Christmas Eve dinner, and then come home to watch a holiday movie before bed. They always remember just as we’re about to watch the movie and are SO excited to run up to their rooms and look for their boxes. Next to cookies and stockings, it’s my favorite tradition!
Eileen Gibson
Going as a family to pick out and cut a Christmas tree.
Barbara smith
I started this years ago with our fist child was about 3. We made Christmas cookies on Black Friday. I’d invite moms with their kids and we spent the afternoon making cookies. Well that grew as the family grew. It got so big we had to move it into our church kitchen!
We adopted 10 children of various ages and had foster children as well as our birth children. So when everyone invited their friends it got huge.
Everyone started bringing their own dough and cookie sheets and we’d play Christmas music and entire families would come and it went on all day.
Now it’s back to small with my 3 “challenged” kids and a friend on different days and my other adult kids have stated the tradition with their children.
It’s so fun to see it continue.
Got some great pics with floured faces!
Donna Clark
Ice Age Christmas?! I’ve gotta check that one out!
We did sooo many of these when our kids were little, thanks for the sweet reminders! We’ll be baking lots to share with neighbors next week!
Rebecca Emerson
Love these. Thank you for being a light to so many in a lost world. Jesus shines through you! 😊
Haylee Smith
Ahhh! We used to do progressive dinners with my church youth groups when we were growing up! I had totally forgot about those!! Super fun!!
Anna Holloway
Two of my favorite traditions is a postal/delivery box of snacks and water at our door starting the day after a thanksgiving. My girls fill it with candy and some snack choices for all the delivery and postal workers that stop by.
We also love gingerbread houses with family or friends and we put twinkle lights around them. Set up by the kids and they’re always so cute.
Vonda Fairchild
We love to drive thru the neighborhood and look at all the Christmas lights and then come back home for hot chocolate and Christmas movies.
Laura Valencia
I love the Christmas lights tour!! We, here in Colombia, also have 9 days of prayer around the nativity set, and all the family get together and we sing carols and we eat christmas food, it’s calked ‘novenas’ and it’s so nice! It starts today 🙂
Ashley Luyk
We do so many of these but I love Christmas movies and cocoa as a tradition!
Devon
Some of our favorites are to, drive around and look at Christmas lights, make Christmas cookies (Oreo truffles are our favorite), watch Christmas movies and my daughter and I have matching jammies(she’s a teenager, so not sure how many more years she’ll think that’s fun or ok). Merry Christmas!!!
Sabrina Caines
My favorite is on Christmas Eve we get with my parents and eat soup (either chili or oyster soup). Then we go to our churches Christmas eve service. After the service we pike into one vehicle and drive around and look at Christmas lights!
Sherian McCoy
My absolute favorite tradition is my adult kids decorating our Christmas tree. They act silly, remember Christmas from childhood and just make their momma happy. They know I love it. It takes 30-40 min if that long and every year I take pictures and tell them how much it means to me. There’s lots of things they do for me throughout the year and during this season but this one….it makes my heart sing.
Kasey Kauffman
Holiday Traditions are the best! Growing up my mom would save quarters all year long and she, my brother and I used that money for a Christmas lunch at the Space Needle. We would walk all around Seattle going to our favorite stores,all decorated for the holidays. At the end of the day we would stop by our favorite book store and each get a holiday book. It was always a day we looked forward to all year long because we knew that it meant continuing our tradition but also we got to spend the entire day together.
Jamie Couvaris
We enjoy making Christmas cookies together! We also always go to the local light show and get pictures with Santa!
Tonia Muncy
Love family traditions. My youngest daughter is still home (22) and we were discussing traditions and how hard it is when everyone is gone, all her grandparents have passed away, oldest siblings moved out and away, etc…but I was so thankful that she could reminisce about all the things we did when they were growing up. (I’m only 50 btw lol but saying all this makes me feel so ancient), making candy, family decorating night, caroling, etc…exciting thing tho is that the majority of the family is coming to our house this year from across the nation and we are excited to do a newer tradition that we started a few years ago when all the family was together at Thanksgiving! We now do a city scavenger hunt! The whole family is so excited about this!! Can’t wait!
Jill Johansen
Your traditions are all so special. You are doing such a great job making special memories for your precious 6 (almost 7! 😊) kiddos. Well done, Sarah!
One of our favorite traditions is to go as a family to get our tree the day after Thanksgiving. We bring it home, decorate it together, then enjoy a family Christmas movie night while eating pizza and white chocolate covered Oreos. Celebrating Jesus’s birthday is one our favorite times of the year!
Cheryl
I love the the act out the Christmas Story! That would be fun for our kids to do at Christmas with their cousins.
Karina vasquez
This year was the first time i tried baking cookies with my kids to start a new christmas tradition. I have 3 boys ages 12,10 and 7, and lets just say their decorating skills were not that great😁. I did get lots of videos and pictures of them while we sat around the table, which I’m sure i will look back too when they are older. Time flies, and i keep reminding myself, they wont be little forever🥲. God gave me the gift of being their mom so i plan on doing the best i can, even if it means a messy kitchen full of frosting and sprinkles everywhere. My boys will always remember the times when we used to make christmas cookies, and so will I.
Rachel Evers
One of our favorite holiday traditions is everyone puts on comfy pajamas and slippers and we make hot cocoa and all load up in the van at night and go drive and look at lights 💛💛
Alyssa
We might do a progressive Christmas this year! We’ve never done it before, but we always make cookies and decorate the tree!
Julie Burnham
My favorite Christmas traditions including decorating our tree with the big ceramic bulbs and hanging all the old bulbs and ornaments that have been around for decades. I also love making sugar cookies and having my grandchildren decorate them with me.
Tina Stickney
Love spending time with family!
Alise
We love reading an advent story daily from one of Ytreeide’s books, countdown calendar and learning new Christmas songs with the kids.
Janice Korthuis
Every Christmas Eve (while our kids were still young and at home) we slept in the living room by the Christmas tree. We opened stocking in bed that night and then presents in the morning! I figured if the kids were going to wake us up early on Christmas morning we might as well be able to stay “in bed”.
Danielle
Such awesome ideas here!! We have been a bit of a traveling family and haven’t been able to start too many traditions. We just (yesterday) moved into out home and plan on staying here a while. I have been thinking about starting traditions, and love all your ideas!! Thank you so much for this post!
Jessica Bowman
All of the grandkids get together and perform a family nativity while us, their parents, read scripture and the story of the birth of the Savior. They are all in full costume and we sing beautiful Christmas hymns together. Really brings the true Christmas spirit!!! Merry Christmas to you and your family!!!! 🎄❤️
Ashley Fuentes
We have never done is but always wanted to. Are kids 3 ,5, 6, now we are going to try this year.movie marathon See how it Goes . I have two Special needs kids. One is .more hard to sit still. My with his favorite stuff animal and treats he will be ok. Merry Christmas and happy new year.
Ashley King
Love these! We love going to look at lights as a family. A progressive dinner seems really fun!
Grace
Our favorite holiday tradition is going to see the light display at a local church 🙂
Andrea Pruett
I love the idea of visiting the elderly. We had to put my mother in law in memory care. She was there for nine months before she passed away this last November. What broke our hearts is that in those nine months, whenever we visited her, we did not see one other visitor, not once. We took my granddaughter, she is now 16 months old, and just watching those folks delight in watching her brought tears to my eyes.
Amy
I love the idea of doing a progressive dinner…does it work well with younger children, ages 3-8?
Tessa
Hi Sarah and Moliter family,
I don’t have kids of my own, but I have a classroom full of kids each day. We made our own christmas cards, which we’ll give to elderly residential care who are alone. Maybe play a game of two with them.
Maybe it’ll be the start of a new tradition?!
Regards, Tessa
Tamara McCord
The talent show sounds so fun!!!
Desteni Burkhalter
One of my favorite traditions is on your list a Christmas light tour! I love seeing the kiddos faces each year and lets face it I love it too!
Theresa De Boer
I love that my husband and I take turns every other year and we prepare Christmas morning breakfast for each other (and the kids). It makes for something fun and exciting bc we leave it a secret what we are making.
Desiree Padia
Hot chocolate and driving around looking at Christmas lights is my favorite ❤️
Alesha
We make tons of cookies to share with our family and friends.
Kristi
Hot chocolate and looking at Christmas lights!
Heather
Driving around looking at Christmas lights with my little kids!
Angie Case
My husband and I have bought a dated ornament every year and our now married children have carried on that tradition with their families. We have also recently picked up a tradition that my in-laws always did – we have everyone sign their name and year on a white tablecloth and then my daughter embroiders the names and we add to it each year. The one my MIL had was beautiful after about 50 years! Love all of your traditions as well – may be stealing some for us! 😉
Nicole
One tradition that we like to do as a family is making little care packages for homeless people that we may come across when our and about. They include high protein snacks, beverages, hand warmers, gift cards, blankets, etc. We keep the packages in the car ready to hand out when needed. It gives the kids an awareness of helping others and the need that others do have. Love you daily instagram posts! Beautiful family:)
Megan
I ♥️ this season and all the traditions. One of my favorites is each Christmas Day I plan out a scavenger hunt for the last gift for my girls and it leads to a box with a surprise excursion that we take shortly after (examples: a Christmas theme ride park, a water park, an aquarium w/ behind the scenes tour, etc.) This year is a concert to one of our favorites and so excited to see their reaction when opening.
Steph Bernardo
We visit the rockafeller tree every year as it is being decorated AND (since I’m a teacher) I ask for a branch. It’s such a great lesson when I bring the branch to school and teach the history of the NY tradition. After, I keep the needles in a glove ornament and label it with the year!!!!!
Wynona Ancelet
We started the Jesus Story Book Bible Advent when my son was 2 and now he’s 4! Best tradition to focus on the meaning of Christmas!
Kenzie Schissel
One of my favorite traditions is having everyone (me and hubby included) open Christmas Jammie’s on Christmas Eve. Then we all wear them to bed and wake up all matching and ready to open presents from Santa!
Sandy Bowers
My two kids are grown and out of the house. When they were little, we always went to candlelight service on Christmas Eve (husband is a pastor) then came home, got in our jammies (well, they did) and had hot chocolate in special mugs, along with our previously decorated Christmas cookies. And of course, after they went to bed, we wrapped some gifts and assembled others! Fun memories. Just my husband and me this year. Kids are too far away and can’t get home. We’ll have to enjoy the memories. Maybe get out scrapbooks! Merry Christmas to all the Moliters.
Jordan S
We always decorate sugar cookies! I did it as a kid at my moms and we do it every year now with our kids. Also have certain classic Christmas movies we always watch.
Jaclyn Joseph
I love this list! So fun and also seems doable so it’s actually full of joy instead of stress. We like to get a tree as a family and drive to see the Christmas lights through town. I also bake with my girls while listening to Christmas music. This year they started to like hot chocolate so we’re adding that to the list of festive things we love!
Teresa
On your stories I read how the boys all got to pick a Christmas ornament when you were out doing hiliday events.
Our tradition with ornaments is, each year I pick an ornament thatbpertains to each child for that year. Ex. One year our daughter did ballet so we gave her a ballerina. The ornaments get wrapped and on Christmas Eve, this is the gift that they getbto open.
Now my children are all grown, so when they moved out, got married and settled in, I gave them their ornaments to have for decorating their trees.
I started this tradition for the kids, but my husband still likes to give me and ornament to open on Christmas Eve!
Merry Christmas Blessings to you and your family! 🎄🕯✝️💝
Karen Pautz
Sarah, such great ideas! Things like this always make the holiday more special and memorable! Merry Christmas to you and your family! God’s blessings to you! ✝️❤️🎄
Elizabeth Allen
Omg I love all these family traditions 🎄❤ Our family loves building Gingerbread houses, going to parades, making cookies, giving to neighbors and on and on🎄 I pray your family has the most Magical Christmas! Happy New Year!
Kathy Opitz
My entire family spend Christmas Eve together, eating, celebrating with each other and enjoy games and fellowship.
Helen Antichevich
I am going to add one we make tamales . Mom didn’t want to make them after dad died 20 yrs ago . And no I said we will carry it on he pas on December 7 so we have keep it up and it is so much fun we have added 2 son in laws . They love it always looking forward to it . But this year I got sick so everything stoped . So on Monday we’re getting it all done . In time thank God feeling better . Merry Christmas to your beautiful family ❤️
Sally
Created our own Polar Express outing. Woke the kids, gave them tickets, bundled up in the car, had cookies and hot chocolate and toured Christmas lights
Brenda Beltz
Sarah, I love your blog and your Instagram! I have raised 6 kids. I’m now a Grandma and love the family ideas you suggest ❤️ I love reading your ideas and feel good that we did so many of them with our own kids! 🙌 God bless your family and have a very Merry Christmas and a Blessed New Year! ❤️💚🎄
Eliya
One of our traditions for the last 20-something years is that when we decorate the house for Christmas, we turn on an old vhs of a christian Christmas concert from 1994. While we originally really liked it, now we mostly enjoy the sappiness and the cringy early 90s style.
Aleah Tallarita
We love celebrating Christmas with our boys! We also go caroling with our church every year. And one of my favorite traditions we started this year, is taking our boys separately for a special date, and then taking them to pick a present for their brother.
Maribel Valdivia
Great ideas! We will be doing a “pre-Christmas” lunch with extended family that we won’t see closer to Christmas. We’ll do a White Elephant, no spending…wrapped “gifts” from home, some funny, some nice, some silly and fun, all creatively wrapped. Emphasis is on the fun family time together, not the actual gift.
Taryn Wright
We decorate the Christmas tree 🎄 together and sometimes decorate cookies.
These are all such fun ideas.
Maribel Valdivia
Previous White Elephant comment I left has incorrect email address.
Jolene
Our Christmas Eve tradition may sound odd to some, but we love it. We take candles to the cemetery where our loved ones are laid to rest and leave them on their headstones. It’s so beautiful in the snow after dark. It’s a wonderful way to keep those who have gone on before us in our Christmas activities.
Kim Cress
My mom baked a red velvet cake every year. We sang Happy Birthday to Jesus. My mom passed away so now my niece makes the cake but we still sing. The grown ups and children alike expect it.
April LaRock
I am new to following you! I have been so thoroughly blessed as I watch your relationship with the Lord come across in your posts to your family and friends. Thank you for entertaining me so well:)
A favorite family Christmas tradition I enjoy is getting to buy special little gifts for my family which I do not get to do a lot of through the rest of the year. We have a large family so I enjoy trying to find good deals on things I think they would enjoy!
Thanks again!
Shavona Templeton
Oh these are wonderful ideas! Thanks so much for sharing ❤️ love following along with your beautiful family!
Shavona Templeton
These are great! ❤️
Crystal DeMetz
We love decorating our Christmas tree together and each kiddo gets to hang up all their ornaments. We take them each year to pick out a ornament of there choice. So fun 😊 This year will be hard because lots of ornaments were lost in our shed for.
Ashley Bray
Hot cocoa and looking at Christmas lights in our downtown Festival of Lights as well as driving around town looking at all the lights is a favorite! We also have started the tradition of doing Christmas Crepes for breakfast on Christmas morning to include whipped cream which is out of the norm and always exciting for the kids! We also always attend our Christmas eve service at church which always sets the stage before Christmas Day
Liz
We’re big on Christmas cookies at our house!! We make a ton so we have extras to pass to all our neighbors like you mentioned. It’s so much fun and I look forward to it every year! Next year I think we need to do your candy countdown! 🍬🍭
Stefanie Beitel
We really like decorating Christmas cookies and yesterday my kids did the gingerbread house decorating so much fun and very creative seeing each child so there own creation
Have a safe trip and a wonderful Xmas ❤️
Denise
One of our favorite traditions is making Crispix caramel mix. It is so so good and it’s usually gone within a day.
Tina Hauser
The traditions I started with my own family is to code the gift tags so the kids don’t know which ones are theirs until Christmas morning when the code is revealed. We also make sure each person has a new pair of unique socks in their stockings. We all put them on and take a group pic of our feet. It’s fun to see how many feet are in the pic each year as the family grows. When our kids were old enough we started putting a cheap pair of scissors in their stocking to help open gifts. I am sure their scissor collection has grown over the years lol.
Chelsey
Night before Christmas the kiddos always open present. It’s always a new pair of festive jammies, a book, candy box & hot chocolate. We snuggle in under the tree and watch a Christmas movie with of course Tim’s famous homemade popcorn! It’s the kiddos FAVORITE!
Ruth Heneveld
We have a Christmas Eve box with new jammies, hot cocoa, popcorn and a new Christmas movie
Ashley
We love driving around and looking at Christmas lights!
Morgan
We bring hot chocolate, blankets, etc. and drive around the nearby neighborhoods with the windows down, listening to Christmas music and looking at Christmas lights! 🎄
Julie
We always celebrate early so my adult children don’t have to stress going to multiple houses! Our favorite is my daughter in laws and I plus the grandkids bake cookies! We have been doing it for 9 plus years when there was no littles but have kept it up every year! Family time is always the best time no matter what day it is!
Maria A
Newlyweds, and just started doing a bunch of these this year. Especially the ones that don’t cost anything to go to like parades, caroling, town/highschool concerts. A family tradition is the Jesse Tree where an ornament goes up each day on the Biblical countdown to Christmas!
Skii B
Such fun ideas! We love to go together every year and pick out and ornament for our tree. We always get the custom ones and have gone and picked them out every year since we started dating. They are the first ornaments we put on the tree each year and we love it. Such a special memory that we wanted to start and then include our kids, but we haven’t been blessed with kids and so for us it is super special.
Darcy Phillips
My tradition has been to make fudge,(3 or 4 different flavors) and give it to co workers, neighbors, and close friends!
Ashley Davis
My family has made gingerbread houses out of graham crackers and decorated them! I carried that on and did it with my 3 year old daughter and it’s was SO fun to see it come back around. I have always loved the creativity of them and I’m glad to carry that tradition on. We also made Christmas cookies with the family!
Shellie
*Christmas Eve Candlelight Service at Church.
*Reading about Christ’s birth from the Bible before opening presents Christmas morning.
Heather
We love watching Christmas movies, making gingerbread houses, reading stories and participating in holiday kids parties!
Alex
We always decorate the tree together! And we love driving around to some very impressive light displays in the area. Last year was the first in our home and I loved bringing the neighbors treats. It took multiple nights! The conversations were so fun and engaging we just couldn’t get to everyone at once!
Kristen Reinowski
I love decorating the tree, Christmas baking, and looking at lights together!
Jackie Lally
Decorate cookies and watch Christmas movies with a ton of snacks 🍿 and 🍭
Sarah Fox
We do number 8 we usually watch all the Christmas movies from when I was a kid and then all the ones my kids love. We also go to Christmas Eve service at our church.
Kalli
We like to go to the local drive through Christmas lights near us every year. We also like to take our kids to the Zoo Lights too.
Katie Smith
My family does a lot of the same traditions! One I’d really love to start doing though is caroling! 🎶🎄
Emily Huffine
Love these! We buy a new family ornament and each kid pics their own ornament every year! We also have a night we have a cookie decorating competition! This year I’m starting Christmas cards from the kids. My girls will be 4 in Feb and I just saw another mama doing it. We plan to let them tell us what they want the card to say after they decorate it. We will write word for word w no correction so everyone can remember how funny, small and sweet they are!
Michaela McLean
Absolutely love them all!! ❤️ Every year my husband and our kids go to Nashville’s Opryland Resort and spend the day looking at all thier Christmas lights and shopping at the mall. The kids love it and look forward to it every year!
Jess
#10 is hands down our favorite. Pjs, blankets and hot cocoa are a must and we take a tour of some of our favorite neighborhoods!
Heather
We have done so many of your ideas over the years; however, one tradition we started and still do today with our grown children (because they don’t want the tradition to end) is going to Bronner’s in Frankenmuth, MI. If you haven’t heard of it I highly recommend googling it as it is a HUGE Christmas store and absolutely beautiful and festive and will give you all the feels. Merry Christmas Molitor Family!! 🎅🤶🧑🎄🎄
Kayla
We always decorate the tree as a family. I would love to try a progressive dinner!
Emily Heise
Starting this year, I want to have a cookie day with my kids!!! Making all kinds and packaging up to bring to family, neighbors and friends 🎄
Elena Link
We do matching pj’s and gingerbread house every Christmas eve
Diane
When my children were little we used to sing Christmas hymns and songs around the Christmas tree every night and finish with a mince pie.
Cassie Dorsey
Love these ideas!! We like to make and shape our own homemade gingerbread houses every year! We also have some favorite Christmas recipes! And my favorite above all else is a pot of fresh potpourri simmering on the stove for every special occasion throughout the season!❤️🎄✝️
Jennifer
I’m really looking forward to starting your candy a day thing. My kids are too old and don’t love the little advent chocolates. This will let me pick different candy’s that they like. Thank you for the idea!
Diane
Singing Christmas carols say around the Christmas tree when my three were little. Always finished off with a mince pie.
Kathy Weckesser
We love to make homemade Christmas cards for our church family each year
Susan susanstanleyks
Decorating sugar cookies and watching Christmas Vacation and Elf are my favorite. Oh wait, candlelight Christmas Eve church service too!
Erica Diffenderfer
Love the game idea and dinners. The holidays get so busy and it can be hard to find time
To just stop and relax with the ones you love!
Debbie heist
All are such gtrst ideas! I have done many of them, with our own children growing up and with our grandchildren. Nice idea for you to post them.
Emily Runion
Sarah I love these. One of my favorite traditions in Christmas Eve service
Polly S
Oh I love some of these ideas, we always make our Christmas Pudding as a family and everyone has a stir and makes a wish before we cook it! 🎄
Kylie Belshe
We are in the little years (I have a 16 month old and another on the way in the next month). But my husband is a pastor so we always go to a candle light service, which we love and my husband and I love to bake and decorate cookies. One that we’d love to start is driving around town to look at Christmas lights because that just seems doable in our season of life right now.
Morgan Snurr
Definitely trying the candy countdown next year when my little is just a bit older!!
Lace Morford
We always attend Christmas Eve services. Take a ride around town to look at lights while having hot chocolate. We do decorate the tree together and at some point during the month we watch some Christmas movie. Christmas Eve involves opening 1 gift that is new PJs. I always make the boys a homemade gift as well.
Kristin Heffernan
So many traditions!! We have been decorating Christmas cookies with my 5th grader’s friends since kindergarten! This year one of the friends asked me when we’re doing it. It makes me so happy that they love it! Also, one of our local churches puts on the Scrooge musical and it is PHENOMENAL! Went last year with a friend and this year I’m taking my son and my dad. This week become a tradition bc it is that good!!
Emily
Our favorite is Christmas eve, when we decorate our sugar cookies -using NANA’S Famous sugarcookie recipe (which was a hit) and watching its a wonderful life and decorating our Christmas tree 🥰
Elisabeth Beamer
We’ve moved a lot in our kiddos lives, so we haven’t established some of the “local” traditions yet, but my prayer is we root down soon so we can start some of those! Christmas movies are definitely tradition around here and our stocking tradition has been fun as the kids have gotten older (everyone gets to buy one thing per person from the dollar store for each other and we do it late- like December 23. It’s an easy way for them to be thoughtful towards each other and not let the stockings get out of hand! Thanks for this post Sarah!
Rhonda
Our church splits into small groups and songs Christmas carols every year for neighbors and elderly people in our local area. It’s so enjoyable! Afterwards we all meet up at church for snack and fellowship. We really enjoy this evening a lot!
A new tradition is singing in a neighboring town at the Christmas Nutcracker display they have. It’s like a small Christmas market and super fun to visit.
Denise J
Christmas caroling is always a must. Great ideas to do with friends and family.👏🎄👍
Brenda Hampson
Pack everyone up. Stop for hot chocolate and doughnuts. Tour the lights of the town!
Page
We do many of these too! Our most favorite tradition is our Christmas Eve candlelit “Shepherd’s meal.” (an idea from Sally Clarkson) We serve crackers, cheese, bread, chicken and rice soup and read the shepherd’s part of the Christmas story. We talk about what it might have been like or felt like. It is such a sweet time before opening one Christmas Eve gift and watching Alabaster’s song.
Michelle
December 1st we put up our tree and have pizza and eat cookies. So fun and the kids look forward to it every year.
Lois Leavengood
Back when our kids were small we noticed that all they wanted to do and think about was open presents . My husband and I decided that we as a family would make a list of those people who we were grateful for and deliver them our homemade sticky buns on Christmas morning before we opened presents. Our children embraced this tradition and now do it with
their own families! It was especially meaningful to us when we were overseas in the Philippines with the Air Force!
Alyssa Renner
I love this! Our tradition is the kids get a special ornament! We also always have rice pudding for Christmas breakfast! Merry Christmas!
Sarah
My favorite tradition is one I just started this year! It is a book advent calendar for my boys! I gathered up 24 books about Christmas from thrift stores or from Facebook marketplace and wrapped them and each night we open one and read it together 😊 so fun and my boys love it!
Janelle
Love all of these ideas! Christmas town looks so fun ❤️ this year in doing a tradition my family grew up on my Mimi’s famous cheese ball served with crackers and then everything to make a really nice fun breakfast!
Ashley Wheeler
My favorite activity is Christmas lights! We have a huge drive thru light display in a park. It’s so fun to see my son light up looking at the lights.
Michele Dominice
I make homemade eggnog which we enjoy with cookies while watching a Christmas movie and decorating our big tree!
Jaclyn
I love those traditions! We always frost sugar cookies (it was my great grandma’s recipe). This year my niece and nephew helped decorate the tree, which was different, usually it’s just me and my mom. Hallmark movies are the best!!
Heather Pinkham
We love driving around to look at lights but we’re also doing your family auction activity with our extended family this year! Very excited to see how it goes!
Katherine Kraemer
We are creating our traditions with our little incomes and we have done going through a lights show in town, going to Christmas at the zoo, a chocolate advent calendar with a reading of a Bible story beforehand, and singing Christmas carols throughout the days!
Heather Albertson
Lots of great ideas! We started a few years ago doing stocking boxes instead of stockings, where the kids get a new pair of pj’s, either a new movie to watch as a family or family game, popcorn and candy 🙂 we open them Christmas Eve and spend the evening playing games or watching movies 🙂 our last 2 are about to be 17 and 18 so trying to get in all the family time I can before the fly the coop lol
Sherry Hanson
A favorite of ours – we gift our grands with Christmas Pjs on Thanksgiving and the next day they come decorate our tree !
Another – we make my Nana sour cream sugar cookies & decorate.
Christmas Eve our daughters & families go to church and then to downtown Kalamazoo’s Bronson Park to walk Candy Cane Lane & all the lights & the manger scene ❤️
Michelle Wolf
My family tradition- make Christmas sprintz cookies for one! Christmas movies, pajamas, games! Oven mitt game is always FUN!
Kali Wanstrom
Love all of these ideas! Christmas parades will always be my favorite. They get chilly but so so fun to see all the lights and the kids faced! This year however, we participated in a foster care Christmas shopping event where some donated money or bought items off a designated Amazon list for foster kids. Others such as myself, and a few other people got to go shopping in stores to pick out items. 20 local kids getting the best Christmas ever! It was so sweet to go with my 3 year old and my mom and we will 100% be making it a tradition from this year on!
Debbie
We have so many Christmas traditions that I LOVE! But my favorite & I think the most important of them all, reading Luke 2 on Christmas morning before doing anything else!
Joyce Day
We always attend candlelight service and cookies. Love a lot of your new ones. We have a lot to be blessed this year my Brain tumor I was diagnosed with ended up being false positive. Merry Christmas to your beautiful and blessed family. Prayers for new baby soon!❤️
Alison Burgett
Favorite tradition is opening family Christmas gifts Christmas Eve and Santa/stocking gifts Christmas morning!
Erin
I love baking Christmas cookies with my family!
Kiara Lillywhite
One of my favorite traditions we have is a “Jesus Stocking”. We all write down one thing we want to do for Jesus the next year, and put it in a white little stocking.
Sonya Hyatt
On Christmas Eve, all the extended family has dinner at my aunt’s house (only a mile away). When we get home, we make Great-Grandmommy’s Homemade Eggnog. It’s so thick you have to use a spoon! It’s a family favorite for sure! We have a buffet of all the Christmas goodies we’ve made. Everyone nibbles, drinks, and visits while we make a savory breakfast phyllo roll for Christmas brunch. My children are grown and won’t break from these traditions!
Pam
One of our favorite traditions is taking a wagon ride through the park to see the Christmas lights
Kadi
My favorite tradition is baking cookies, making hot cocoa and putting up the tree together!
Amanda Weaver
Opening new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve
Dianne Amyett
For several years every December another mom and I would take our daughters to see The Nutcracker Ballet. It was something we always looked forward to!🩰😍
Kristie Whiting
So many fun ideas, lots we did with our six children when they were growing up. Its a great time for family traditions and memories they create!!
Estella Rohm
Making Christmas cookies
Sarah P.
Growing up (and now sometimes with my own family) we would attend the Christmas Eve service then go to a local pizza place for dinner. Afterwards we would go to my grandparents and have dessert and snacks (it was always chips, dip and tri-flavored popcorn tins!) and do a small white elephant exchange. Pizza has always been a Christmas Eve tradition and I think will continue for many more years!
Sarah
Sarah P.Oh and after the service before dinner or before going to our grandparents, we would drive around and look at the most decorated houses with the best lights!
Kailey Schneemann
I love opening one present each on Christmas Eve!
CoreyandShawn Martin
1. We like to decorate our tree together even though our kids are grown.
2. We normally try to go to Branson MO for the weekend together a couple of weeks before Christmas.
3. We have always fixed our boys food boxes for Christmas as one of their gifts. Some of it is their favorite snacks and the rest of it is odd stuff that they have never tried.
Rebecca Rathbone
Driving around and looking g at Christmas lights for sure!!!
Tiffany
We want to try your Candy Countdown and make that something special we do each year! I love making homemade wassail every year, my grandmother used to make it every Christmas Eve.
Amber
Our favorite Christmas tradition is putting the tree up while listening to Christmas music and drinking hot chocolate. Our area also has a Christmas light drive-thru event that we go to every year.
Andrea Pieti
We do quite a few of these and they are so fun! My kids are still toddlers and I can’t wait to do more as they get older and understand more. I love following your family.
Yvette Lange
We always did new pjs on Christmas Eve, with a dvd… no more dvds so it’s hot cocoa! My kids loved it!!! We still give them now that they r married… ❤️
Rachel Ogrin
My favorite is reading the Bible verses that go along with the different nativity pieces and the kids unwrapping and adding each piece as we count down the days till Christmas!
Brenda Bontrager
We have in the past done family( my brothers & sisters & their children) hayrides with a tractor, wagon & hay bales an went caroling to our elderly neighbors. My husband just died 2 days after thanksgiving so this holiday season has been rough but I need to come up with some new traditions to help p us through the holidays next year. I’d love to see the ideas you get in.
Ashley
A favorite memory is my Papa (mom’s dad) always read Luke 2:1-20 – his giant hand holding out his Bible as he sat on the hearth and read. He’s been gone many years and so I often read it even though I cry every time. Our 5 year old read it himself for the first time this past weekend so we’re having him practice and maybe he’ll surprise everyone by doing it this year! I love just being with family and when people stick around to play games. Doing a mix of Swiss (husband) and American (me) things is important to me. Merry Christmas, Molitors!
Jill
We always do our Christmas Eve service at church with family and go out to eat either before or after.
Devyn Partin
My favorite holiday tradition is baking cookies from scratch for Santa with my boys! (I have 3 so far)!
Kelly Forsberg
Well, I’m a mom of two daughters on my own and our tradition is to go look at Christmas lights while drinking hot chocolate, eating cookies and listening to Christmas music. Also, we would bake Christmas cookies with my mom but she now passed away in 2015 but I keep that tradition going as well in honor of her. This year my oldest will be driving because I was in a car accident and I won’t be able to drive for a while because I got hurt pretty bad so our Christmas this year is very emotional unfortunately. So I need Christmas miracles please send them our way.Most grateful ❤️🤞💚
Madison
A new tradition we’ve started in the last few years is a shepherd’s dinner! It’s a very simple dinner of things like pita bread, hummus, fruit, veggies, etc to honor the shepherds of the nativity. Love your list!
Jean
I’d love to do #13 this year! Acting out the Christmas story would be so fun! This year I aster Ed a new tradition since my kids are old enough to do more now (5, 3.5, 2 and 4m) we are celebrating advent by reading a short passage from the Bible, lighting candles, counting down with a paper chain and doing an activity together. It’s been so special to have that focused time together every day!
Ashley Kejsar
Ahh these are good! I’m going to add a few (at least caroling and talent show).
Kayla Russell
Such fun ideas! But this triggered my memory and I just loved spending Christmas Eve with my Grandparents growing up. My Grandma had all the cousins sing we wish you a merry Christmas down the long hall and enter the living room while singing. Only then could we open a present!
Christa Simon
Baking Christmas cookies and watching a Christmas movie!
Leslie forman
Love baking cookies to give away.
Diana Roos
My husband’s family we go caroling his mom plays the according and we got a trumpet and trombone and guitar and the rest of us sing. I’ve only been following you for a few weeks and enjoy watching you guys.
Barbara Simone
Your love and energy is contagious and I am a new follower and first time Nonna, (my mom was a Nana) Always looking for new ideas and traditions for our 15 month old grandson…. my daughter too is expecting a baby girl in 2023!! Beyond thirlled
Merry Christmas to your beautiful family❤️
Jessica Compton
Driving around to look at Christmas lights is one of our favorites.
Serena Acevedo
We set out our decorative & play nativity scenes early December. Baby Jesus doesn’t come out until Christmas and the Three Kings arrive on Three Kings Day, as our culture celebrates this day as well!
Marina
We tried out your candy countdown with the kids this year… safe to say that they love it!! 😊
Jessica H
I love the idea of sharing extra cookies with neighbors 😊 I don’t know why I didn’t think to do that this year!!
Analysa O’Leary
We love decorating the tree together (family of 8), homemade gingerbread houses using graham crackers just like when I was a kid, watching our favorite Christmas movies together (Home Alone!!), and taking an evening drive to look at Christmas lights together!!
Andrea OPatchen
#1 favorite tradition is cooking the Christmas Eve Vigil. My Gram always cooked it, all fish & some pasta. When she passed I took over cooking it. Also baking cookies with my sons. Hoping my 18yo will be able to come help. Last year my 7yo wanted to deliver cookies to our neighbors. He got on his John Deer tractor with wagon & went around to the neighbors houses. It brought many smiles. I plan to continue that until he no longer fits & then we’ll figure out another delivery method besides just walking.
Lila Pearson
I love caroling and looking at Christmas lights! It is amazing to hear singing at night in the cold! Warms the heart!
Sam Brocker
My favorite family tradition is getting together with my three siblings and my parents to bake cookies. My Mom had a really aggressive kind of cancer a few years ago. Ever since then, this tradition has become extremely important for our family during the holiday season. It’s a great time reminisce and spend time together with our spouses and kids. 🤍
Becca
Great ideas! We gift our children a new ornament every year and we hang up our Christmas cards as we receive them as part of our decorations too!
Karla
We love to get hot chocolate and drive through the Festival of Lights (a large light display that runs during the holiday season) while we listen to Christmas songs! There can never be too many lights!
Stefanie
We love to sing the 12 days of Christmas with our whole family on Christmas Eve. It’s so fun especially as we get older.
Melissa Romibe
Love your ideas. I think I’ll try Nana’s Sugar Cookies this week.
Our family is all adults for now, but we still get matching Christmas shirts and wear them on Christmas Day.
Penny Hallmark
My favorite tradition was with my children taking toys to Cooks Children Hospital in Fort Worth, Texas. We always went Christmas Eve.
My children are grown now but, it has left a lasting impression on my children.
Teri Holland
On Christmas Eve, my husband always puts on The Christmas Story play(from the Bible) with all the littles and before opening presents, we all gather to listen to my brother read the Christmas Story from the Bible!
Katrina Wilson
Yes yes always decorate cookies
We also make lots of special candies . Lots of memories and messes 🙂
Lizabeth Blagrave
We love watching Christmas movies with popcorn and Christmas cookies! What’s what we’re doing tonight! We’re watching the Star!
Angelina Marmol
We get into Our Pjs, eat breakfast then open gifts usually a day before Christmas. After we open gifts we build gingerbread houses or bake cookies. Then Kids play with their gifts that they got.
Andrea
My husband and I both lost spouses. We were blessed to get a second chance at love. We take nothing for granted. We plan to attend a Christmas Eve, candle light service. I have baked and delivered goodies for the neighbors. Between us we’ve had four granchildren in our three years of marriage. We hope to start some Christmas traditions with our grandchildren as they get older.
Stephanie
We love decorating cookies together! We are also going to do the pickle ornament this year. So many other good ideas from you!
Brittany Lael
We are TTC and are so excited to start some new traditions hopefully next year! While it’s just been the two of us we haven’t really put the effort into the holiday season and are just so looking forward to everything! Baking cookies, decorating, holiday lights, sledding, Christmas movies, Christmas Eve pajamas, Christmas brunch and presents!
Andrea
Our favorite tradition since our first Christmas together is opening gifts on Christmas Eve. PJ’s (or something else to wear) and 3 gifts (one for each of the wise men) from Mom and Dad, and brother gifts from each other. Then Christmas morning it’s stockings (the family divides into teams prior to Christmas Eve and races around the same store at the same time to fill them!) and the highly anticipated “Carleigh Gift” – something they’ve not asked for, but is extra special because it comes straight from their sister in Heaven. Two of the three boys are adults now, but they still actively participate in the traditions. 🙂
Susannah Barlow
Our most looked forward to tradition is Christmas crepes. We do an all out crepe buffet on Christmas morning and let everyone fill and put there own toppings on. Then we sit together and watch Christmas movies
Katrina Rutz
We love to decorate the tree together as well as drive around town looking at the lights. Christmas Eve we open Christmas Jammie’s and watch a movie with hot cocoa!
Christine Perella
Love these ideas! Caroling reminds me of my childhood! We pick a family in the community or person and secret Santa them. We carefully drop off gifts and words of encouragement, the kids really enjoy the process and learn the gift of giving! Merry Christmas!!
Amanda Duncan
Love these! Our family favorite is making cookies together! Something new this year doing a Christmas puzzle together while watching a Christmas movie in the background.
Donna Eastwood
My kids are all grown. Our favorite holiday tradition is one that carried over from when they were kids. On Christmas eve we all get together, make poorman pizzas,watch a Christmas movie, and exchange gifts. The exchanging gifts was added as family’s grew. I enjoyed reading your ideas. Very doable.
Suzanne
I love spending time with family! Before reading this, I was feeling like I haven’t done many Christmas things this year but I guess when you list them all out, we’ve actually done quite a few! Caroling with our homeschool group is near the top of my list of favorite holiday traditions!
JoEllen Gibson
Love traveling the countryside to check out the Christmas lights!
Merry Christmas!
Nancy Mistretta-Werle
Hi Sarah…first of all, I just love your family ♥️ We do a few of the traditions that you do. The Glory of Christmas program at my church. It really is beautiful and it gets us in the Christmas spirit. We also have a big Italian family dinner Christmas Eve with my siblings….my parents both passed away the past 2 years. This will be our first Christmas without either of them. So it will definitely be different. My husband’s parents also passed away in the past two years as well. So we are nowaking new memories with all our siblings and their families. Merry Christmas to you and yours and may you have a happy, healthy New Year 🎉**p.s. I bought your book and it’s going to my nephew for Christmas 🎄💖
Catherine Vaughn
Every year we do twelve days of gifts for my nana. This year we added two elderly couples who have no family. It’s a blessing for us to think of others and for the kids to think of neat ideas!
Another favorite tradition is a Happy Birthday, Jesus party with a birthday cake.
Emily Youngren
I love going to cut down a tree every year and decorate it!
Brianna Philipp
As someone who just had their first baby and just moved cross country from the only place I had ever lived I cannot wait to make and decorate cookies every year with my family. This is something we did with the one friend I have here in WA! So much fun and we definitely will do it again.
Lucy Campbell
Love these!! My favorite tradition is getting the tree and decorating! Our old house really shines at Christmas and I love to dress her up!
Lucy Campbell
Great ideas! My favorite tradition is getting the tree and decorating! Our old house really shines at Christmas and I love to dress her up!
Amy Wright
We love building gingerbread houses and hope to continue it every year
Tanya Sheremet
My husband and I make ornaments for each other each year. We find that they are our favorite ornaments that we hope to gift our children! Also, we tried doing the Jesse Tree this year and absolutely loved having to read the Christmas story all the way from creation. Will do it next year too
Julie Austin
We love to read a different Christmas story every night to our kids when they were little. We have a big collection of favorites. This always puts a sweet Christmas spirit in our home!
Ashley Whitehead
Some of our favorite traditions are decorating the Christmas tree together, making Christmas cookies and gingerbread houses. We always go to my moms on Christmas eve and go to church and then back to her house for dinner.
Amy Heylin
Matching pjs for the kids, and Piling in the car, grabbing Starbucks and driving around looking at Christmas lights.
Kayla Rowden
We love driving around scouting out all the Christmas lights, with warm drinks and blankets!
Justin Davis
It’s the only time of year I make prime rib for our Christmas Eve dinner.
Ashley P.
We LOVE making ornaments together each year!
Kayla Henning
Decorating Christmas cookies has always been one of our favorite traditions!!! And making gingerbread houses as well!! 🥰🍪 Happy holidays!!❤️
Patti Kopkau
Thank you for all of these great ideas. I love following you!
Crystal Brady
My favorite tradition is Christmas cookie baking!
Montica
We love our candlelight Christmas Eve service!
Lacey Ruonavaara
We love having a white elephant SILLY gift exchange on a different night of December. Also we have started having 1 family get together where everyone brings something homemade as the gifts. Whether that be home baked/canned/cooked or embroidery or knitted etc. Makes the evening so simple and takes us back to what Christmas used to be like way back when. ♡
Jessica
We go to late night Christmas Eve church (10pm) & then come home a have a wrapping frenzy all night! Passed down by my mom.😂
Naomi Lyford
Missionary family in Cambodia – our tradition is a little random but we go out for noodles (Cambodian breakfast) Christmas morning and treat everyone in the shop as well ❤️
Galina
My kids always enjoy going to our church for the kids Christmas program when they all get bags of candy afterwards. They are always excited for that program.