Holidays mean a lot to many people. The sene of togetherness, the feelings of warmth stemming from familiar faces and familiar locales mix together. The most important holiday feelings, though, rise from the history of shared traditions and rituals.
If you’ve not enjoyed a long history of this sort, or are looking to add your own stamp to the season, consider doing your own. There are many fabulous Christmas traditions to start now and enjoy for years to come.
Tradition helps you to build on the opportunities presented by the togetherness of the day. Doing the same thing each year is neither boring nor represents a lack of creativity. People draw comfort from the similarity of experience.
Read on to learn more about the warmest, most fulfilling, and fun, traditions to start for your own celebration.
Christmas Traditions to Start Now
Christmas traditions prompt us to enjoy ourselves in a world that frequently seems to forbid that. To let our guard down and simply be for a time. Check out these ideas to get your next tradition going.
1. Family Photoshoot
The idea behind this particular tradition isn’t to create a quick greeter for your extended family and friends but to see the joy of a family growing over time.
Unlike a greeting card photo, you don’t want to get something staged or overproduced. The aim is to take a few photos with similar backgrounds that will let you show the progression of time from year to year.
Consider this a good primer for the rest of the list as it lets you record the efforts and traditions being established.
You can pick whatever moments are most important to you, but here are a few examples.
- Snap a few the day before the big day
- A few more as the presents are revealed
- Children in the midst of the wrapping carnage
- Making dinner/cookies/snacks
- Catch an outdoor snap to commemorate the weather
Don’t worry if you aren’t the best shutterbug, you can also use this tradition as an excuse to watch your skills improve.
2. Gingerbread Housing Projects
Open your very own branch of the Gingeperson’s Construction (and demolition) Company.
Start with a set of plans and designs, encourage the kids to plan out the houses BEFORE you pull out the sweet bits. This leads to a bit more structure for the occasion.
Particularly if you have younger kids, make certain to stockpile some other edibles to prevent rugrat termites from savaging the local building codes.
If you don’t want to have a whole village of little misshapen structures, build a grander house where each kid gets to decorate three walls and then you can carefully apply a roof.
This gives kids all the creative license while reducing the frustration of crumbling walls and broken roof chunks.
As always, snap a few photos to ut in a remembrance book and show the kids before next year’s event.
3. Dress Up
Whether you do it on the day of or before, dressing up as Christmas characters add an extra level of pomp to the festivities.
Perhaps you want a bunch of elves to go caroling with or maybe you want a Santa to make an appearance. Don’t forget that a visit from Mrs. Claus and here own bevy of baked goods resonates with toddlers and kids alike.
it’s easy enough to find an assortment of Christmas costumes if you head online. You can even go a bit outside the usual characters and mix up your own holiday tales.
Perhaps this year its the snowmen working for the big man in red. Pick a theme from one year to the next or have the kids help build and improve costumes. Be sure to store those hand-built units to be worn by the next generation to enjoy decades fo family memories.
4. An Eventful Night of Movies
With so many Christmas movies releasing and replaying through the month, it’s easy to let watching these rare feel-good films become background noise to other activities.
As an alternative, make a bigger event out of a single night of movie watching. Pick a staple film you will watch each year and then a swither or two. Bake some cookies, do up the cocoa, and let the kiddos act out their favorite bits. As they grow, you can look into swapping some of the snacks and acting for a trivia bout.
5. Pajamas and The One Present
For a retro (or antique) change of events, consider this pre-television favorite. Gifts of matching pajamas bring the family together visually and in spirit. These make it easy to determine pictures from one year to another and provide a useful excuse to force some children to even wear pajamas.
You can give the matching pajamas as part of an ‘open one gift early’ event or lay them out beforehand.
Children, of course, love to open gifts the very first moment they are allowed. So, consider if the excitement might make the night easier, or harder, for your particular brood.
6. Advent Calendars of Giving
Everyone loves an advent calendar. It takes all the anticipation of waiting for the big day and makes it into something tangible day by day.
Use the creation and/or unveiling of an advent calendar to solidify the spirit of giving back. Rather than getting a thing each day, make suggestions for crafts and donations to others.
Kids can help build something or select from their own items to pass along to others. Not only does this help teach children to think of others for the season, but it also gives you a good way to clean out some closets and shrink some inventories before the explosion of new arrivals on the 25th.
Learn More, Be More
You may not want to make a run at all of these Christmas traditions to start with, but jumping on one now will help you reap the benefits throughout the year. You can also mix and match to blend something unique that touches on your sensibilities and encompasses how you feel about family and the holiday spirit.
As always, come back for more tips and ideas on all things home and hearth.