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christmas traditions familiesDo you enjoy Christmas Traditions? If you are like us, you probably do. 🙂

Thanksgiving was just a few days ago, and I have a rule that there is no Christmas music played in our house until after Thanksgiving.

But I am beginning to rethink that rule.

As we started our family, holidays started to have a new meaning to me.

And has brought a whole new excitement back from when I was a child, eagerly counting down the days until Christmas.

I have always had an idea about how I want Christmas and other holidays to go for our family; thoughts of warmth, the Christmas spirit, Love, Joy, and of course, Peace.

Creating a list of Christmas traditions

Over the years, I have collected these Christmas traditions in my head, and on our Pinterest board.

As our daughters get older, it makes it so much more fun to include them.

And I thought this would be the perfect time to share our ever growing list of Christmas holiday traditions with you because some start December 1!

Not all of these-if any are my original ideas, but they have remained in my “ideas” list for so long I don’t know who to credit them to.

Great Christmas traditions for the holidays.

I hope these twenty-two Christmas Holiday Traditions will help inspire some of the warmth from our family to yours this holiday season.

1) Read a favorite Christmas story such as “A Christmas Carol” a little bit each night before Christmas.

2) Volunteer somewhere together as a family.

3) During Christmas Eve open one present each filled with something special. We get the kids a new pair of PJs, a special snack, hot cocoa, and a game we can all play together.

4) Have a cookie decorating party!

5) Make Christmas cards for everyone!

6) Create fun Christmas crafts (off Pinterest of course!) 

7) Make homemade ornaments.

8) Bake cookies.

9) Decorate Gingerbread houses of course!

10) Watch your favorite classic Christmas movies.

11) Drive around and look at the Christmas lights in your neighborhood.

12) Have a Christmas party. This is great to do with friends who don’t have anyone to celebrate with as well as anyone else who wants to join.

13) Decorate the tree and your home while sipping hot cocoa and listening to Christmas music.

14) Christmas morning the kids receive stockings that are hung on the bottom of mom and dads bed for morning Christmas snuggles (especially awesome if you don’t have a fireplace).

15) Have a big Christmas breakfast. I like the idea of homemade cinnamon rolls, fun shaped and colored pancakes, the list goes on!

16) Sledding or snowball fights if it has snowed.

17) Take family pictures.

18) Surprise random strangers with monetary or kind gifts. This is especially fun to do at restaurants with the waits staff. 

19) Make baskets with cookies, chocolates, and goodies for your neighbors.

20) One neat idea is to buy your spouse a gift card for something you want to do. Then they do the same of something they want to do, then you can surprise each other sometime with a trip to do whatever you each wanted!

21) 12 days of Christmas: This I found on Pinterest. You can do it for your spouse and for your kids. I like to do it the 12 days leading up to Christmas with lots of their little favorite things. Day 1 you give 1 gift, day 2 your give 2…day 9 you give 9 things.

For example:

My husband likes a certain type of pen; I bought him a 12 pack and wrapped them to give on the 12th day of Christmas. On day 10 I gave him 10 of his favorite Werthers toffee. Get the idea?

22) Wrap books for the kids leading up to Christmas, and read a different story every night before bed. (Doesn’t have to be Christmas stories)

That’s all I have so far on our evolving list! I hope this brings some inspiration and light to your Christmas holidays this year!

Your Turn

What are some of your Christmas traditions? We are always adding to our’s and will love to know yours.

– Ashley 

Image: (CC) Gellinger

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