The weather is finally turning colder! Even though it’s still Fall, we all know that Fall just doesn’t last long enough, and before we can blink, Christmas will be upon us. And this got me thinking. P&K are 2 years old now, and I’ve thought a lot about the family Christmas traditions I want to pass down to them, as well as the new Christmas traditions I want to start with them.
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Growing Up- Family Traditions
Growing up, there were a couple special traditions that I had with my family.
24 Hours of A Christmas Story
Every year, we would watch the Christmas Story all day on Christmas .TBS did and still does play it on repeat for 24 hours on Christmas Day. This is my Dad’s favorite Christmas movie. He and my Mom even went to the house where they filmed the movie in Ohio, and he has his own mini version of the leg lamp!
Christmas Mornings
We also spent Christmas morning at home. Mom would make breakfast, and then we would open our stockings from Santa and then our Christmas presents. (To be honest though, I think when we were younger, we opened presents first, and then had breakfast! My brother and I learned a little more patience as we got older!) To this day, we still get stockings from Santa at Mom’s on Christmas morning. Mom says that as long as you believe, Santa will still visit. So I still believe!
We’ve maintained these traditions even after my brother and I moved out, with just a few slight variations. Christmas morning memories are so precious to me that I knew this was one tradition I wanted with Peyton and Kayden. So, now, on Christmas morning, Thomas and I get up with Peyton and Kayden and check out what Santa brought and open presents. We still go to Mom and Dad’s on Christmas morning, but just a little later. Breakfast turned into more of a brunch, but Santa still comes, and Dad still has the Christmas Story on repeat.
New Christmas Traditions
Christmas Eve Traditions
Starting new Christmas traditions was very important to me, even before we had P&K. After we got married, Thomas and I started a new Christmas Eve tradition. We spend Christmas Eve driving around to look at Christmas lights, going out to dinner and then settling in on the couch to watch Home Alone. When P&K came along, dinner out was swapped with pizza take-out, and we added matching pajamas for P&K to the mix. Maybe this year, I’ll get the whole fam matching jammies!
Elf on the Shelf
Last year, the Elf on the shelf also showed up at our house! Before having kids, I swore that I would NOT be one of those parents who had an Elf on the Shelf that pulled all sorts of crazy pranks in the middle of the night. Heck, I didn’t even put up Christmas decorations or a Christmas tree before having kids! But here I am, decking out the house in Christmas decor, putting up a Christmas tree, and creating an Elf on the shelf Pinterest board to keep all of his little shenanigans organized and on point!
Letters to Santa
Last year, I also bought a Santa mailbox. I thought this would be a really cool thing for P&K to do as they got a little older. I plan to have them write a letter to Santa and then put it in the mailbox. Honestly, I think this is more a tradition for Mama. I’ll cherish those letters to Santa when they are older.
Baking with the Bestie
Another fun tradition that my best friend and I try to squeeze in every year is a baking day! I absolutely love to bake (My ultimate dream would be to open a bakery one day!) and Christmas time gives us the perfect opportunity to not only bake, but catch up with each other and even drink a little wine!
Family Christmas Traditions Round-Up
As I thought about all of the warm Holiday traditions that we hold as a family, I became curious as to what traditions other families hold dear. I reached out to some of my fellow Mama bloggers to learn what traditions warmed their hearts during the Holiday seasons, and I want to share them with you too!
Jennifer C.- Christmas Eve Boxes
Jennifer and her family love to make gingerbread houses, go on a hayride at a local farm to see the beautiful lights, watch Christmas movies, bake treats, leave cookies for Santa, drink hot cocoa, and open their Christmas Eve boxes.
Christmas Eve boxes were a new concept to me. I love this idea, and will definitely be adding this to our Holiday traditions! You can read more about her Christmas Eve boxes on her blog here!
Mallory R. – Christmas Jammies
“We have started several family traditions over the past few years. My favorite tradition takes place on Christmas Eve. Every Christmas Eve we go to Honeyโs house (my MIL) to open Christmas presents. One of our gifts are Christmas pjs. Last year, we all received matching pjs. Dad wasnโt super thrilled about that, but he was a great sport and wore them all Christmas Eve. Once we get back to our home, we all put on our new Christmas pjs and get ready for Santa! The boys absolutely adore this tradition!”
You can learn more about Mallory on her blog, Mom of W.A.R. Hear My Roar
Jo D. – Secret Santa Exchange
“Every Christmas my immediate family holds a Secret Santa gift exchange. The best part of our tradition is what we do on Christmas day before opening our gifts. We all get together (over phone for those who are not nearby) and each person has to guess who everyone else had. The winner (or whoever has the best guess) gets a prize. We look forward to it every single year!”
You can check out Jo at The Budgeteer!
Ashley- Orange Cinnamon Rolls
“In the Irish Twins Momma’s house we have a tradition of getting new pajamas on Christmas Eve that we wear that night. My theory is you never know who you could meet in your dreams. I often coordinate so everyone has matching (pajamas) and have even gotten the grandparents involved in it as well.
Christmas morning I make orange cinnamon rolls and bacon. My family absolutely loves it because it makes the house smell amazing. While the cinnamon rolls are cooking we start with our stockings, and then it is breakfast before opening up gifts from Santa.”
You can check out Ashley’s blog, The Irish Twin’s Momma, and her recipe for orange cinnamon rolls here!
Amanda P- Decorating Christmas Stockings
Amanda’s family has a tradition of DIY Christmas stocking decorating. Each year, everyone gets to paint and decorate their own stocking to hang up for Santa. The kids will love this one! Amanda says, “The best part, though, is being able to look back at previous years and remember a little part of your familyโs personality for the year.”
Read more about Amanda’s DIY stocking tradition on her blog, The Winding Willows!
Traditions have always been very important to me. They became even more cherished once I had children of my own… both long standing family traditions and the new traditions that my family and I have recently adopted. I can’t wait to start a few more Christmas traditions this year too!
Before you go, don’t forget to snag my FREE Holiday Traditions checklist! You can hang it on your fridge (or wherever!) to help remind you to start a new tradition (or two!) and to cherish the memories you make with your family this Holiday Season!
I’d love to hear which traditions you plan on starting with your family this year or what traditions your family holds dear too!
Merry Christmas, from my tribe to yours!
With love, Amanda
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Christmas traditions are the best! I love watching Christmas movies with the kids–our favorites that are new for them!
So many great tractions! I think even as adults itโs hard to finish breakfast without opening the presents haha
Traditions ** ๐ฉ๐
I love christmas so much. Traditions are the best and I love learning about others.
We recently started the Christmas eve pajamas and Secret Santa too.
I love Christmas traditions also. It seems like we just keep creating more as the years go on with our kids, but I have kept a lot from childhood also – like giving pajamas, a Christmas book, and a new ornament to the kids on Christmas Eve.
Such a wonderful post on Christmas traditions. Loved it! I have a similar post on my blog about Indian’s biggest festival, Diwali.
Thanks!! Iโll have to check your post out too! ๐
Now that my husband and I have a baby boy, I am going to make sure we start coming up with yearly traditions for the holidays when he’s old enough to understand them. His birthday is Dec 29th too, which stinks so we are going to have to figure out a way to make him feel special during the holidays!
Yes! Definitely start as soon as possible! ๐ itโs so much fun explaining the traditions to my twins. They are 2 so they kind of comprehend but are also baffled sometimes! Itโs the sweetest thing to see!
Thatโs definitely hard with his birthday so close to the holidays! I know others who have celebrated half birthdays with a party when their birthdays fall in the chaos of the holidays too. Or maybe he could have a whole birthday weekend! Iโd love to hear how you decide to make his day special! ๐
What great tips and ideas you have for this coming holiday season. I so want an Elf on the shelf just for my purposes. I want to Instagram the heck out of it, doing things that an Elf shouldn’t do. G-rated of course.
Well I think you should totally get yourself an Elf then!! Iโd love to follow your Elfโs journey! Iโll need ideas for my own Elf!
We have a lot of Christmas traditions also. For the past 7 years, we have driven up into the mountains to cut down our Christmas tree. We all look forward to it every year. On the way back we get hot chocolate.
That sounds like so much fun!
It has been so much fun creating traditions with my girls around the holidays. The holiday’s with the kids has brought back so much of the magic that I remember as a kid myself and the traditions that I had with my parents at christmas time. I can only hope that when my girls grow up they will look back fondly like I do at the fun we had as a family during such a busy time.
Isnโt it amazing how much magic kids bring back to the holidays for us as parents! ๐
Christmas is so fun! I love that you still have your family traditions even after you moved out. I like the new tradition of looking at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve, I bet that is so fun! ๐
Totally loved reading this! Everyone has their own traditions – it was an absolute delight reading about yours!
These are really nice Christmas traditions! I am getting married and hopefully starting my own family soon. I can’t to create new traditions with my family ๐