Building Memories through Christmas Traditions

Some of my fondest memories of Christmas as a child center around not the big and flashy, but rather the familiarity of our family’s Christmas traditions.  I think it is one of the reasons why I love incorporating traditions in our family.  And when you think about what we know about kids, it makes sense that traditions are well loved.  Kids love stability and routines and knowing what comes next!  Well traditions are ways for them to have some of that familiarity during a season that is usually different from our everyday life! 

Today, I want to share a few ideas you can incorporate into your holiday season.  Please don’t try to use every idea!  I promise you that will be a one way ticket to Stress-town!  But maybe there is one tradition that sparks some excitement in you and could bring joy in your house for years to come!

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Christmas Books and Movies:

One of our favorite Christmas traditions is to spend some time with our favorite Christmas books and movies!  A few years ago my mom passed down to us all of my childhood Christmas books.  I also try to buy one new Christmas book for our family each year.  This has given us a pretty good collection of books!  I have seen ideas on the internet where moms have wrapped all their Christmas books.  Then each day in December they unwrap one book and read it together.  I honestly have never had the time and space to make this happen, but I do bring one new Christmas book out each day in December.  Once we have read it, it stays out for them to look at and read all month!

Here are a few of our favorites if you are looking to add to your Christmas library!!

How the Grinch Stole Christmas

The Polar Express

Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer

Frosty the Snowman

The Story of Christmas

The Christmas Story

We definitely don’t watch a new Christmas movie every day, but we have a few favorites we try to fit in each December.  We watch some of these during our weekly family movie nights.  Now that most of my kids are older we started doing a movie marathon day.  We bake cookies and watch movies all day!  It was seriously one of the most relaxing days watching Home Along, The Santa Clause and Elf together!! 

Decorating the Tree

When I asked my kids what their favorite Christmas tradition was, decorating the tree was at the top for my kids!  I am sure you all put up a Christmas tree, but I think being intentional about decorating it together is a great tradition.

We put Christmas music on and sing along as we add ornaments to our tree.  If I am honest, this is a tradition I have had to work at though!  The kids are always really excited to put up the tree and there is a lot of energy!!  That usually means they are loud and not very careful!  And of course, they are short which means most of their ornaments are on the bottom half of the tree. 

Our pastor last week reminded me of something that I think is true in this situation.  He said we need to be careful to put people over projects!  So I have been working to enjoy the chaotic experience of putting up the tree with young kids.  My ideas of perfection should not rob me of the joy of spending time with my family.  We definitely try to reign in the chaos by having one child at a time hang up their ornaments, but ultimately how much we all enjoy this activity depends on our attitude!

A New Ornament

While we are talking about the tree another of my favorite Christmas traditions is buying a new ornament for each kid.  This was a tradition my own family did when we were kids.  Once I graduated from college and had my own Christmas tree my mom passed down to me the box of ornaments that I had picked out through the years.  She has a piece of paper with each year and a description of the ornament for the year.  Some years we had store bought ornaments and some years we had ornaments that came with our McDonald’s Happy Meals!  I can see through adult eyes now that some years we didn’t have a lot of money for fancy ornaments.  But I honestly don’t remember ever being disappointed about my ornament.

And that is what I love about this tradition!  It is more about the trip to the store to pick out the ornament.  Or about opening your box of ornaments and remembering each year as you put the ornaments on the tree.  We all remember together the year my second was all about Minnie Mouse and got a “Mimi” ornament.  The story is told of the angel ornament we got for our oldest when we were pregnant with her.  Each ornament has it’s own sweet or silly memories that bond us together! 

The Food

We love incorporating special foods into our traditions every year too!  Of course we make Christmas cookies!  We use my mom’s sugar cookie and frosting recipe and they are hands down the best cookies ever.  We do this the week before Christmas after my big kids are out of school.  Everyone’s favorite part is decorating them!  As they have gotten older it is fun to see their creativity shine.  We have done this every year with my kids, even the year after we had just had a baby!  My mom tried to tell me I could just skip it this year, but I love my traditions!  So with her help we made it happen!

Another Christmas food tradition is our Christmas Eve meal.  I grew up going to Christmas Eve service at my grandparents and then coming back to their house and eating cream cheese and tuna sandwiches.   My kids aren’t really on board with cream cheese and tuna, but my husband grew up having soups on Christmas Eve, so we have taken that tradition on!  For me these traditions, tie in the safety and comfort of years past and bring warmth to today.

Christmas Lights

I seriously almost forgot this tradition!!!  I don’t know how!!  Every year we pick a night sometime in the week before Christmas and drive around looking at Christmas lights.  We live in a little bigger city so our newspaper usually publishes some of the best neighborhood displays.  Everyone puts their PJs on and grabs a candy cane and heads for the car.

We typically do a Christmas Light Bingo game with the big kids too!  I have it HERE if you want to take a peek!  We play all together and try to get a black out!  It is typically harder than it looks!!  I have purposely made my Bingo with pictures and not just words for our littlest members! 

I hope whatever traditions you do or don’t do with your family, your season is special and full of family memories!

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