Family Christmas traditions are the best ways to celebrate the holiday. Years down the road your kids won’t remember what presents they got when they were 6 years old. But they will remember the traditions you celebrated together.
Like the lesson, the Grinch learns. Christmas still comes without boxes, packages, ribbons, or bows. Presents are not what we will remember but it’s the traditions we create with each other.
Fun Family Christmas Traditions
Wrap Christmas books
Wrap 24 Christmas books and use them as an advent calendar. The kids get to unwrap one book each night to read. You’ll get to snuggle together each night enjoying a Christmas tale. 24 books are a lot so try borrowing some from the library. If you don’t already have that many.
Make Cookies
Making Christmas cookies is a fun tradition that you can always do with your kids no matter how old they are. Sugar and gingerbread cookies are what we like to make. The best part is decorating the cookies with frosting and sprinkles.
Wrap Christmas Movies to watch together as a family
There are many fun Christmas movies to watch with your kids. Some of our favorites are Home Alone and The Christmas Story. These were my favorites when I was a kid and now my kids love watching these movies too. To make it interesting wrap each movie. Then have your kids choose one so it’s a surprise for which one you will watch for family night.
You can also stream many Christmas movies on Netflix, Amazon Prime, and Disney Plus. So a fun idea would be to write the titles on a piece of paper of the movies you want to watch as a family. Then fold the paper up and put it into a bowl. Everyone can take turns choosing a movie to watch.
Make a Gingerbread House
Making a gingerbread house is always fun and a good way to spend an afternoon. We like to buy a kit to make it easier to make. Our houses usually don’t turn out well but we still have fun trying to make it. Plus we get to eat it either way.
Explore the Neighborhood
Drive through the neighborhood to look at all the lights and decorations. You can fill a thermos of hot chocolate to enjoy on the ride. When I was a kid we used to drive through a certain neighboorhood that went all out with Christmas lights.
Visit Santa
Visit Santa at the mall or at a special event. It’s always fun for the kids to get to tell Santa what they want for Christmas. And if you get a picture of your kids with Santa every year you can see how much they have grown.
Attend a Christmas Event
Go to a tree lighting in your town. Or check if there is a festival of lights you can attend. The zoo in my city has a special event called Zoo Lights. There are light displays all around the zoo. It’s fun to walk around the zoo at night since you are not able to do that any other time.
Cut Down a Tree
We have cut down our own Christmas tree every year since my daughter was two years old. It’s the one tradition we keep each year. Of course, my husband has to make sure we have the perfect tree so we end up driving for hours until we find it.
However, you don’t have to drive up in the mountains and go for a trek through the snow as the Griswald family did. Check your area to see if there are any Christmas tree farms. These are easier to get to and most will give you a saw to cut down your tree.
If cutting down your own tree isn’t possible. Make it a tradition to go to the same Christmas tree lot every year. Then have your kids help in choosing the perfect tree.
Make a Christmas Ornament
I love crafting with my kids. Many years down the road I would love to decorate our tree with only ornaments they have made. You can have them make ornaments out of popsicle sticks or make shapes with salt dough.
Decorate the Christmas Tree
Last Christmas we let our kids decorate our tree. We hung the lights and they did the rest. We did help put ornaments on the tree where they couldn’t reach. The kids like being in charge of decorating the tree because they get to tell us what to do for once:)
Buy a New Toy to Donate
A way to teach kids about giving is to have them pick out a toy to donate to a local toy drive. Your local Target or Walmart will most likely have a bin for them to place the toy in to donate it to the toy drive.
Make Presents for Friends and Family
Every year my daughter and I make candy sleighs and hot cocoa Rudolph’s to give to friends and family. These are easy to make and my daughter can help with a lot of the work. Even when she was young. She was able to arrange the candy for the sleighs. Or pour the hot cocoa mix into the plastic bags.
Family Christmas Traditions
Your kids will always remember the family Christmas traditions you created together. At least that’s what you hope for when they’re grown.
My daughter is already 8 years old. That means in 10 more years she will be an adult. So during these years while my kids are young I want to create lasting memories. Memories we will all have for the rest of our lives.
I remember the Christmas traditions I had growing up. Like my brother and I watching The Christmas Story marathon on TNT every Christmas Eve. And going to the same neighborhood every year to see the houses decorated with lights.
Fun Christmas traditions
- Reading Christmas books together
- Watching Christmas movies as a family
- Baking Christmas Cookies
- Making a gingerbread house
- Explore the lights in the neighborhood
- Making ornaments
- Decorating the Christmas tree
- Cutting down a Christmas tree
- Donate a new toy to a local toy drive
- Visit Santa Clause
- Attend a Christmas event
- Making gifts for family and friends
What Family Christmas traditions do you celebrate with your kids? Let me know in the comments:)
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