Do you have any special Christmas traditions you do with your family each year? If you don’t, this year is a great time to start! Traditions can be simple or elaborate and expensive. Basically whatever works for you and your family.
As moms I feel like we’re the emotional leaders of our families. You know–if mama ain’t happy ain’t nobody happy, kinda thing. Creating a Christmas or Holiday tradition is a great way to bond as a family, to create long-lasting memories and to make your kids feel that special Christmas magic!
Why does it matter?
Life is short. Something could happen to you in a moment and you could be gone. Your kids would have only memories left of you. Don’t you want those to be happy memories?
Family traditions matter because these beliefs, behaviors and patterns of thoughts become legacies. Our kids will look back on their childhood one day and they will want to start those same traditions with their own families.
Traditions matter because they almost always involve some kind of work, right? Your family may not notice it now, the extra money you put away, the getting up extra early to move the crazy elf again, all the effort you put into making the holidays festive and bright. But, guess what?
It matters. Because you are trying. You are doing something. You are engaging with the kids and making them smile.
It matters and one day I promise you, they will notice.
Instead of going through the motions this holiday season, write out a few holiday traditions you want to start or want to pick back up. Plan them in your calendar, tell your family about your ideas and get your list ready.
Family Bonding is so important. I feel like it’s easy to get caught up in the back to school -fall routine. There’s practices and homework and busy school nights. Crazy mornings where you can’t find the little ones shoes and everyone is late– it’s not just me right?!
This holiday season is the perfect time to step back and make sure your family gets some bonding time.
A few days ago we waited until it was dark and went for a walk as a family. We played Christmas music and went around admiring the lights and decor in our neighborhood. Afterwards, we drank hot chocolate together and the kids talked about their wishlists.
It was a simple evening and my kids were happy.
Long-lasting memories. I look back to my own childhood and can remember so many happy moments. I loved going to buy a real Christmas tree. Each year my parents would go back and forth about it. My mom wanted a fake one, my dad a real one. That yearly battle was probably my dad’s only win. 🙂 We always did get a real tree and we would decorate it together.
I didn’t bring in the tradition of a real tree into my family. Funny enough, my husband always says he wants a real tree. He hasn’t won that battle yet! But, we do decorate the tree as a family each year. And it’s one of the moments I look forward to the most.
Creating long-lasting memories is about being in the moment. Feeling and seeing and doing. Really paying attention to each other, I think that’s what it’s all about.
Christmas is a magical time. People are kinder. There’s twinkling lights everywhere. There’s literally happy music in the air. (At least if you’re around me cause I have Christmas music playing 24/7, I love it!) If it’s still magical for me I can imagine how magical it must seem for kids.
Play into the magic, let them be little and let them believe. We started Elf on the Shelf this year. My oldest (he’s almost 11) said he’s only playing along because of his baby sister–but you know what? He’s the first one jumping out of bed each morning to go find that crazy elf.
Christmas was so magical for me when I was little. I remember my grandma making us buñuelos and atole. During Christmas break we could stay up late and fall asleep watching the Christmas tree glow. I loved seeing so much family and best of all cousins at our house. We were all together.
I hope my kids grow up and have fond holiday memories to look back upon.
Holiday ideas you can do this year:
- Elf on the Shelf
- What to do with the Elf once you have him
- Take a drive to a neighborhood with the best Christmas lights
- Walk around your neighborhood and have hot cocoa
- Surprise your kids with a movie and hot cocoa night (my kids are crazy about cocoa and marshmallows)
- Volunteer as a family
- Bake cookies
- Play the Naughty or Nice Bean Boozled jelly bean game
- Make ornaments
- For teacher gifts bake up this DIY marbled clay dish
- Plan an Ugly Sweater Party
- Send out a movie night to family out of state
- Plan a simple Christmas party for your kids, this is what we did for Thanksgiving
- Get dressed up and take family pictures at home
- Build a gingerbread house
- Read a Christmas book
- Share a treat with a neighbor
- Pick out gifts for a local toy drive
- Take a picture with Santa
- Open 1 gift on Christmas Eve
I made this cute printable to keep on my fridge. It helps me remember what we want to do as a family for the week and the kids get excited to see which activity is coming up!
Print out, write in your activities for the week and place it on your fridge!
I’d love to hear your family’s holiday traditions, let me know in the comments. And if you enjoyed this post please share!
Christmas Activities!
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Love this! It’s so important to have traditions and make memories as a family. One tradition we have (it’s kind of Christmasy/New Years-y) is that any fond memory or something the kids did or said that we have, we write it down and stick it in a Mason jar. On New Years Eve, we go through the memories and decorate a Christmas ball with the year on it. We stick all the memories in the ball, and save it for the tree next year. I love looking back through the memories! There are so many things that you would have forgotten!! I feel a blog post comin’ on…. LOL