The holiday season is my favorite time of year. It’s when my heart is at its fullest. I thrive on family traditions. However, as we get older, some of the family traditions we grew up with are no longer around, so we’ve learned to make NEW Christmas traditions with our children.
Over the years, I’ve learned that I love the holiday season because of routine.
Yes, I said routine—the busyness of the season, the gatherings, food, giving, and the traditions.
As you get older, though, some family traditions shift with the times. People move, families grow larger, and the inevitable loss of life of family members.
While I would love to keep every Christmas tradition I had growing up, that isn’t always feasible. So our family came up with a way to make new Christmas traditions.
New Christmas traditions can take many shapes and forms.
When we decided to start new traditions, we knew we wanted to make the season festive for the kids while also building memories to last a lifetime.
My husband and I started thinking. At first, we made a mini muffin pan, put magnets on the back of chocolate, and then taped a number to the front. We made our first homemade advent calendar, and the kids loved it.
The following year we took it a step further, and instead of having chocolate each day, we decided to have a daily activity advent calendar. The kids alternated opening envelopes each morning that revealed our activity for the day. For twenty-five days, we had thought of an activity for each day.
Now, before you think that’s too much, it’s not (you can see the list below.)
Over time, it’s become a family tradition. Even though it didn’t start that way, that’s how traditions work. Usually, you don’t set off to make a new tradition, but over time it turns into a new Christmas tradition.
Think back over the years. What’s something you do now that you never did before? You may do it every year now with your kids. See a Christmas play? Drive around looking at Christmas lights? Bake cookies? Family movie night? Shopping for foster kids? Adoption of a family at Christmas time?
See, all those simple tasks can already be YOUR new Christmas tradition.
There are no set rules in place. Think of a core memory you had of a child, then think of a way to incorporate something each year at Christmas time that will now be one of your child’s core memories or a tradition they look back on with fondness in their heart.
Because, after all, that’s part of the Christmas season.
I would love to hear about your family’s Christmas traditions – new or old.
If you’re curious about our Daily Advent Activity Calendar … keep reading.
We now have an elf, Jessi Right There, who visits us daily. She brings back an activity from the North Pole. The kids, large and small, can’t wait to wake up each day and visit our Advent Box to see what our daily activity will be. Some are free, and some require no planning and not leaving your house. Sometimes our elf duplicates activities so that we may have two game nights in twenty-five days.
Here is a list of activities she’s told us to do over the last few years:
ADVENT ACTIVITY IDEAS
- New Christmas PJs (Dec 1)
- Christmas Parade
- Make Cookies
- See Christmas Lights (drive or walk)
- Game Night
- Dance night in the living room
- Go to a movie (We check to see if there are any outdoor family movies playing)
- Movie night at home
- Playdate with friends
- Donate toys to charity
- Slumber party
- Spend the night with grandparents (we do this so we can go Christmas shopping)
- Make a family ornament
- Craft night
- Stay up late
- Visit Santa
- Popcorn night
- Hot Chocolate night
- Breakfast for dinner
- Date night in with mom or dad (we usually will hang out with each kiddo doing what they want that night. An example would be my husband playing video games with my son or my daughter and I watching a girly movie …all at home)
- Wrapping presents night
- Shopping for foster kids (we usually adopt a few foster kids to buy presents for at Christmas time)
- Kids pick dinner night
- Watch Polar Express as a Family
- Dinner out See A Play
- Sleep on the floor in our room
- Ice Cream Parlor
- Walk around downtown
- Go to a museum
- An Afternoon at the Library
- Go to a tree farm
- Go skating/ice skating/bowling
- Have a cousin or friend spend the night
- Go to a Christmas concert at church
- Read A Christmas book
- Kid’s choice (kids can choose anything they want to do at home)
- Do something kind for someone else
- Shopping for the school gift exchange
- Indoor Picnic/Outdoor picnic
- Fun trip to the Park
- Bass Pro visit
- Indoor trampoline park
- Fort in the living room
- Make a gift for siblings and grandparents
- Making a Christmas wish list
