It’s almost here! The most wonderful time of the year! We are so excited to celebrate Christmas this holiday season, if you can’t tell. We’ve got Christmas presents already in our online shopping carts, we’ve already picked up more Christmas decorations, and have eyeballed a few Christmas things we want to treat ourselves to also. With Christmas comes family coming to stay. What better way to handle family visits than to turn them into memory making activities like these Christmas traditions. It gets the pressure off of you by not having to ask the millions of questions your family probably have for you to catch up with what’s been going on in your life. Christmas is a time to be surrounded by the ones you love and to create everlasting holiday memories. The best way to remember each holiday season is by continuing the same traditions every year. Especially after last Christmas when many people weren’t able to see their extended family because of COVID, this year means you can go all out. If you find that your Christmas season isn’t full of enough cheer, consider trying out these six Christmas traditions for your family to do this year.
Our first Christmas tradition that we recommend for you and your family to do this year is to make gingerbread houses! Everyone can sit around the table to help build and decorate one huge gingerbread house. Or you can have a small one for each person and then place them all around each other, like you’re all living in your own tiny house on a big piece of property. Buying one of those gingerbread kits is the easiest route to go. Making your own from scratch can be done and will impress everyone who comes over to your house in December.
A lovely Christmas tradition for your family to do this year is go Christmas light seeing. We think Christmas Eve is the perfect night to go Christmas light seeing as it is the night with the most anticipation and is the perfect last Christmas activity to do before opening presents on Christmas morning. You can drive around your neighborhood or the neighborhood that goes all out with Christmas lights and decorations. Or instead of driving you could walk around the neighborhood and get a closer look at the decorations and lights. If you do go decide to go driving, you could stop by a Starbucks to get a peppermint mocha or peppermint hot chocolate to add to the level of festiveness to your Christmas Eve.
Next in our Christmas traditions recommendations is to go ice skating with your family. We love that the cold weather means the temporary ice skating rinks are going up. This Christmas tradition is sure to be available every year since there seems to be ice skating rink set up for the winter season. Ice skating is a fun way to get into the Christmas spirit. Listen to classic Christmas music as your zipping around the rink with your family and loved ones. If you’re not good at it, be sure to hold on to the wall, a family member’s hand, or rent one of those plastic animals you can push around the ice rink to hold onto.
If your family is all grown up now, a great addition to your family Christmas traditions is playing the White Elephant game. Whether you call it White Elephant, Yankee Swap, or Dirty Santa, it’s all the same game. Everyone must bring a wrapped Christmas gift and be prepared to have your favorite gift stolen away from you. Get ready for the competition and laughs as your family plays this fun game. And remember, the weirder the white elephant gifts, the better.
People still send out Christmas cards, right? When it comes time to this, we think a fun Christmas card with a family picture is the way to go about spreading some Christmas cheer, and to raise your own spirits too. Have everyone dress up in their Christmas attire and pose around the Christmas tree and snap a lovely family picture to send to the rest of your family and friends to wishing them a Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year. You can dress up your pets into adorable Christmas sweaters, too. They’re a part of the family, don’t forget to include them in the picture! Don’t put too much pressure on nailing the perfect picture either, have fun with it and maybe listen to Christmas tunes to get everyone smiling for the camera. Choose a cute one where everyone is smiling or a goofy one where everyone is making a silly face, either way, sending Christmas cards is a simple but thoughtful way to show friends and family that you’re thinking about them.
By far one of our favorite Christmas traditions ideas is having a family Christmas movie night. Clear everyone’s schedule or pick a night that every family member is free and plan your movie night. Pick a classic Christmas movie, and set up the living room to accommodate everyone. Pull out your softest throw blankets, Christmas themed pillows, even dress up your furry friends in an adorable Christmas sweater. If you have a projector you could also set it up outside to watch your favorite Christmas movie. Just be sure to have on your coziest pajamas and have enough blankets for everyone, it’s going to be chilly. Be sure to prepare some Christmas goodies for everyone to munch on during the movie. Bake some cookies, get some candy, and microwave some popcorn. You could also make hot cocoa or apple cider, or drink eggnog. Cozy up with your family and enjoy this festive night together. What movie will you be watching? Perhaps How The Grinch Stole Christmas? Or Home Alone?
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