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If you are like me, you love Christmas time as outrageous amount. However, I feel like every year, my busy life gets in the way of being able to celebrate. I am determined to make this year a memorable one, since it will be Evelynn's first Christmas.These 13 traditions to start (or continue) in 2013 will help keep my mind focused on this wonderful holiday season and will create memories that will last a life time!
These are things that anyone can begin. Whether you are a newlywed, or nearing the end of your life, whether you have kids or not. Heck, even if you live with a bunch of college roommates, or by yourself, pick a few of these fun traditions to start and make your holiday season ROCK!
1- Put up Christmas lights:
This is a very important part of making Christmas feel like, well, Christmas. Make it a tradition to put up all the lights with your whole family. If you have kids (or a husband), get them excited by letting them help pick out the lights, or rediscovering the ones you used from last year. If you have older kids, have them jump up on the roof for some additional fun. Offer hot cocoa and cookies to them when they are finished. Coming home every night to the house being lit up will for sure help bring on the Christmas spirit! Here are our husbands and Kirsten's son putting up the lights on our duplex. Bring it on, day after Thanksgiving. We are ready to shine on!
2- Decorate the Christmas tree:
In my family, my parents always were sure to have everyone together while we decorated the Christmas tree. It was a great activity for us all to do. Despite the few years that we protested this "chore", it is definitely one of my favorite traditions that we would do together. I plan to continue this with my own family. To help keep the attention of those who are less interested, this would be a great time to share with your kids the meaning behind all those ornaments you collected, and get them extra excited for Christmas. Again, a key part in making this exciting for the whole family, is allowing them to help you in some sort of way. Whether its letting them pick out the decor or rotating who gets to put up the star or turn on the lights for the first time. What ever you decide, get them involved!
3- Make Stockings:
This is something I have never done, but thought would be a great tradition to start. Every year, pick a simple pattern for a stocking and have each family member make one! Afraid of sewing? Buy plain stockings and decorate them or add names with fabric paint. What a fun way to personalize your stockings, and have a fun craft for your family to do each year. You could even go crazy and make one for the dog!
4- Gingerbread Houses:
What could be more fun than a miniature fun house made of CANDY? I'm not sure if anything in this life compares. Also, one of my favorite traditions. How could it not be when my family always went ALL OUT! We're talking, homemade gingerbread, homemade frosting glue, any candy you could ever think of, and not just homes decorated, but full yards! To help the boys stay interested, they did theme houses. A Zombie apocalypse or one with a gummy bear rock concert in the front yard. If this all seams too complicated to start, begin with graham cracker houses or pick up a kit from Costco (our favorite store). Be creative and HAVE FUN!
5- Christmas Eve pajamas:
I know this is a tradition that many of you already have. I have never had this tradition in my family, but I can always start this year. There is something that seams so magical about putting on a new pair of pajamas the night St. Nick is to arrive. I'm thinking this year, if I get ambitious, I would love to make pajama bottoms for myself, Mike, and Evelynn. We'll see though. I may err on the slightly lazy side and pick up some cute jam jams from the store. Check out these adorable PJs that are definitely way more money than I would like to spend. Found on
http://wanelo.com/p/2500624/reindeer-pajama-set
6- Cookies and Milk:
Whether your kids believe or not, it is always fun to leave cookies out for Santa. This is not something that we did every year growing up, but what a great way to add a little magic in the home! Such a traditional tradition that excites the kids, and feeds the hungry, sleep deprived parents. Bake your favorite chocolate chip or spend time decorating some sugar cookies. Whatever you decide, do it as a family.
7- Christmas book on Christmas Eve:
Pick your favorite Christmas book and read it to your kids at night. There is nothing like sitting around the tree with your family and opening a real life book! Christmas Eve is a good day for those T.V.'s, Ipads, and other electronics to take a break.
8- 25 days of service:
Make a list of things that you want to do to serve others. Have a family list or have each person make their own. Some ideas for a family list could be: volunteer at the homeless shelter, make neighborhood gifts, find a family in need and bring them dinner, donate your gently used toys or buy new toys for a charity. If you are having each person make their own list, add things like, make bed for sibling, shovel someone's driveway, or sit by someone who needs a friend.
9- Make candy:
I wish I had the recipes to share right now, but I will have to add a link in later. However, I know Pinterest has a million recipes for homemade candy. Growing up, we always made caramels, fudge, and divinity. Definitely one of the most rewarding things is biting into some fudge that you made from scratch!
10- Make snowmen or snowmen doughnuts:
Put on those hats, gloves and snow boots for this activity. And, if you live where it snows, this can be done in the convenience of your own front yard! and its TOTALLY FREE! Get creative and make a "snow family" or a "snow dog". No snow? No problem! Check out these awesome Snowman doughnuts you can create as a fun holiday snack from
http://yourlittlebirdie.blogspot.com/!
11- Drive around to see Christmas lights:
Pile the whole family in the car and drive. Drive to see all the cool displays that other families put so much effort into creating. There are several homes in our area with lights that dance to music. They seam to be popping up all over the place! I like to think of driving to see Christmas lights as the winter version of star gazing.
12- Christmas Bucket List:
If your like me, there are too many fun things to do during the holiday season. Use some of these traditions listed, along with other activities or events going on in your community to create a bucket list so you can be sure to take advantage of the fun. Some things that will be on my Christmas Bucket List are: Find an ugly Christmas sweater to wear, bake Christmas cookies, donate to the food bank, find an ornament for our 3rd Christmas being married, visit Temple Square and see the amazing light display, and drink hot cocoa by the tree.
13- Name things that you are grateful for before opening each gift:
I feel that these days, Christmas is over-commercialized. Don't get me wrong, I LOVE all the fun decorations and gift giving. But sometimes, its good to remember the true meaning of Christmas. It's the day we celebrate the birth of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I think that too often we get caught up in all the presents, but how great would it be if we put a little more focus on gratitude.
Growing up, we always had one person open up a gift at a time. Before opening a gift, we were to say something that we were grateful for. This does take a long time, but it was a great lesson my parents were teaching. Patience, gratitude and realizing that Christmas isn't all about ME are a few things that I learned.
And there you have it. A list of some fun traditions that you can start with your family. What are some traditions you like to do with your family? What are some you would like to begin?
Happy Celebrating!
-Karianna
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