Christmas Traditions To Start This Year
What is Christmas without the traditions? They start when we’re young, whether it’s baking with your mom or a Christmas festival you attend yearly with your family. The best thing about these Christmas traditions is that they are done with the people that we love, maybe that’s why we decide to do them every year. Now that we are grown up, we can decide to carry on the ones we shared with our family and even add some new traditions. Some activities are part of the heart of Christmas, the ones I am about to share with you may be the ones you continue on for years to come:
1. Ice Skating
I am an incredibly clumsy person, and there is no exception when it comes to ice skating. If it’s any excuse, my first time was when I was eighteen, so I was out of practice before I even had a chance. I didn’t leave the wall, but that hasn’t stopped me from wanting to go again. It is now one of my new Christmas traditions that I would like to continue on. Now, I know we live in Florida, but if you check your area, I am sure that you will find some sort of ice rink near you. They may even sell you some hot chocolate to keep you warm. Maybe it’s just me, but those ice rinks get even colder than I thought.
2. Build a gingerbread house
Building a gingerbread house typically turns out to be a disaster unless you’re a skilled artist or baker. I choose to buy the premade ones at the store and then put them together with my family. They always turn out unconventional, to say the least. The premade ones can be found at Target and Walmart for relatively inexpensive and then you can use the icing as a glue for the candy and designs. Or, you can even try to make the recipe from scratch if you like.
3. Pick out an ornament
For as long as I can remember, my family has made this one of their Christmas traditions every year. The purpose of the ornament is to represent something that that person experienced that year. There is one ornament for each person in your family, or even for your friends. One I recall the best is a Bratz doll ornament from my childhood, which I hang in the back now, but it’s like I’m reliving the ghosts of Christmas past as I decorate. The goal is to pick an ornament that represents that person and something that stood out to them about that year.
4. Make sugar cookies
Making sugar cookies can be one of your Christmas traditions for the whole family. Even though my families’ turn out just about as good as our gingerbread house, the tradition lives on. You can either make these from scratch or buy the store-bought dough, I won’t tell. The fun part about this tradition is just getting to laugh and spend time together. Using some Christmas cookie cutters, you can cut them into cute shapes that you can decorate. We love to use the old fashioned recipe of powdered sugar and milk to make the icing, and then add food coloring. These are great to bring to your holiday parties this season as well.
5. Watch The Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve
I know there are twenty different versions of The Christmas Carol by now, but they all take place on Christmas eve, so it only seems right to make our Christmas tradition that night. The black and white version is, of course, a classic. However, the newest animated version by Disney is easier to understand and so fun to watch with your entire family. Enjoy the movie with a Christmas Eve dinner, and maybe just one present you can open early.
6. See the Christmas lights
If you’ve seen the movie Christmas Vacation with Chevy Chase as Clark Griswald, then you may be familiar with the decorations that covered his entire house in the movie. When my brother and I were little, we used to beg to go see the Christmas lights on the houses, the best one was always known as “The Clark Griswald house”. It was one of my family’s favorite Christmas traditions. We loved getting to see the lights. To this day, I love to take a drive around random neighborhoods to see the lights on all of the houses. As a pro-tip, go in the middle of December so everyone has had the chance to put their lights up. Also, if you see me driving past a house really slow, don’t worry, I’m just looking at the lights.
7. Make some ornaments
I’ll have to give Pinterest all of the credit for this one. I have never been the person who makes every decoration on the tree from scratch. However, there are just some ornaments you can’t find in stores. It’s super simple to make you own. Go to your local craft store and find some clear, plastic ornaments and then supplies like glitter, glue, feather, ribbons, paint, and anything else you might need. You could stuff the ornaments with green feathers and paint a red heart on the outside to make a Grinch ornament. Or pour the paint in the ball and swirl it around and then decorate the outside in whatever style you like. The sky is the limit, check Pinterest for some cool ideas.
8. Make your own ugly Christmas sweater
We both know that ugly sweaters are something you may only wear once or twice in December, so why not save some money and make your own. Besides, I think we just came up with another great Christmas tradition. Start with a simple sweater you don’t mind gluing and sewing and then decide on your design. It could be a Christmas tree, presents, bells, Rudolph, anything really. Then find the supplies at your local craft store. You can use adhesive felt, hot glue, or needle and thread to make it all stick. Just make sure you don’t wash it if you do end up using glue.
