I've been seeing a lot of posts on TikTok lately from moms asking what Christmas traditions you have so they can see if they'd be a good fit for their family. I love this! My favorite thing (aside from the lights) at Christmas time is the traditions we've started and the ones we've continued from both mine and my husband's families through out the years.
My grandparents loved Christmas. My grandpa loved the lights. My grandma would rope all four of us and whichever cousin was over that day to help her put up her Christmas decorations. It was always a sight to be seen. One year she had 14 trees decorated between outside and inside! I was always in awe of how beautiful she made everything. How festive. How magical.
When the family got too big for the house, they transformed their large Morton building into a space to host Christmas parties!
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(L-R) Me at 18, My mother, and my grandmother at one of the Christmas parties. |
Because my grandparents were so good at Christmas, it made me want to be good at Christmas.
Which is why we started some of our own traditions.
We Stay Home
When my husband and I first got together we were always running from one house to the next at Christmas time. Always. My grandma would do her Christmas during the day on Christmas Eve and we would go to his grandma's house in the evening. Which meant we were out of the house the majority of the day, so any Christmas activities I wanted to do with the kids, were either forgotten about or done days before.
If we're getting home at 8:00pm on Christmas Eve, we aren't going to be staying up until 10:00pm making Santa cookies. Which is something I always wanted to do on Christmas Eve with my kids. So one year I suggested we have a cut off time. I wanted to be home by 6:00pm. I wanted to be able to spend the evening with my kids. To relax and wait for Santa to come. I wanted to actually enjoy the little moments instead of being rushed by someone else's time line.
Ever since, we have made it clear that we don't attend anything on Christmas Day and we spend our evenings at home on Christmas Eve since his grandma passed. My grandma moved her Christmas celebration to a few days before Christmas and it all worked out!
It's OK to stay home for the big holidays friends. Make the memories you want to make with your children. Don't let others dictate how you should make those memories. They're little once.
Christmas Eve Boxes
I love this tradition! I started it when my older kids were probably seven or eight. I got the idea on Pinterest and it has slowly evolved over the years.
In the beginning I put PJ's, hot chocolate mix, popcorn, and a movie in clothing boxes. We graduated several years ago to some hat box style boxes I purchased at Hobby Lobby.
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| Christmas 2017 |
This year everyone is getting:
- Matching family pajamas
- Throw blankets (also something new)
- Popcorn/snacks
- Hot chocolate K-Cup
- Cup
- Slippers
Now on top of that Maggie and Wally are both getting a little popcorn bucket with a cup that I found at Target for $3.00! Maggie is also getting a little coloring book with some crayons and Wally is getting a board book.
The boys don't care about things like that so I didn't get them one.
Santa Cookies are a Must Do
I love to bake. And I love to instill a love of baking in my kids. So far none of them have caught on and enjoy it quite as much as Maggie. So this year, we're going to make some Santa cookies on Christmas Eve while everyone else watches a movie and snacks on whatever is left from Christmas dinner. Then we will set them out on our Santa plate and wait for the big guy to visit.
This year's Santa cookies will be this recipe I found on Pinterest.
I'm toying with the idea of adding the reindeer to the snack list as well.
That's all the traditions I can think of right now. What are some of your family Christmas traditions?
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