Family Christmas Traditions

Mike and I have been married for over 3 years now, but this is our first with a child, so it has taken on a whole new meaning for us. Both of us had wonderful childhoods filled with lots of traditions, and we really want our children to grow up looking forward to and remembering holiday traditions too. It has got me thinking, which traditions will we continue with our children and which traditions of our own will we start? Here are some ideas..

1. Christmas PJs & a calendar opened on Christmas Eve.
2. The weekend after Thanksgiving go and cut down our tree and go home and decorate with hot chocolate/eggnog.
3. A movie in their stockings.
4. Go to a holiday storytime.
5. Read "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve.
6. Leave cookies & milk for Santa.
7. Make Christmas sugar cookies & pass them out to the neighbors.
8. Write Santa a letter and deliver it to Macy's.
9. Go see Santa.
10. Send out a family holiday card.
11. Go shopping for a toy drive with the kids & have them pick out what gifts to give to less fortunate.
12. Do an advent calendar.
13. Do a version of Elf on the Shelf that focuses on gratitude and having a giving heart (see this post A New Kind of Elf on the Shelf )
14. Do a cookie exchange playdate.
15. Watch a Christmas movie on Christmas Eve (It's a Wonderful Life was a favorite in my family, but maybe something like Frosty the Snowman when they are young).
16. Take a drive one night to look at Christmas lights.
17. Have the kids pick out a new ornament to put on the tree each year.
18. Do a holiday craft.
19. Choose a charity to give back to each year.
20. Attend Church Christmas service.
21.  Go see a live Nativity.
22. Let the kids sleep on the Christmas tree one night.
23. Have the kids do jobs around the house to earn money for Christmas gifts for friends and let them shop at the Dollar Store for loved ones.
24. Do a Polar Express train ride at a local train station.
25. Make a snowman.
26. Go ice skating.

I am sure I will think of more ideas as the years go on, but these are just some things I have been thinking about and wanted to get them written down before I forget. I hope these ideas spark some of your own ideas for family traditions and you have a wonderful, magical month of December.

-A