Seeking Family Christmas Traditions

I come from a very large, close family and about 8 years ago, I started the tradition (for my younger cousins) of making Christmas ornaments/decorations. I'm so happy to continue this for my cousins and now my own children (2 y/o and 9 months). It's so neat to see my grandma's Christmas tree every year with the homemade ornaments from previous years.
Besides the homemade decorations, we also make cookies and candies together. It's all fun for the whole family, so have fun whatever you chose to do!

We always watch "It's a Wonderful Life". Seems like we always get something new out of it too. My boys are 12 and 10 and we have been doing this for several years, they love it.

Give them an ornament every year of something they like or are into and then when they leave home, you can give them all of their special ornaments to begin their own tradition with their new family.
M.

The best idea I have gotten was from Kathy Lee Gifford. Santa brings three gifts for each child because Jesus recieved three gifts from the wise men. When I was a child "Santa" brought way too much and now a days he can't afford as much. Three gifts keeps things in persective both financially and more then three and the gifts aren't as special. Plus the story of the wise men ties the spiritual and traditional aspects of the holiday.

Hey M.,

You have gotten some wonderful ideas. Here are some of my fondest memories with my family that I plan to continue with my children.

My family would purchase an ornament on every trip we traveled or place we visited. Then we would decorate the tree together - remembering all the fun we have had.

We would help my mom bake cookies and then on Christmas Eve my dad would read all of us "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and we would leave out cookies and milk for santa and carrots for the reindeer.

Christmas day my dad would make us breakfast before extended family arrived. That evening (after the adults had a few drinkds to loosen up) everyone would gather around and sing christmas carols (and laugh hysterically at our bad voices). Someone in the family had put together a book of lyrics so we all had the words. And if we had a piano player that was fabulous - if not we would use a cd or do it acapello (spelling??)

Have fun creating traditions your children will remember and treasure forever.

My hubby actually came up with a great tradition that we have started. Every year we go to Hobby Lobby or a similar craft store and look at thier "charms" everybody gets to pick out one out that represents their year and I sew them on to their stockings. It's fun, memorable, and my boys are just starting to pick out their own and having a blast with it. They like to look at the past years as well.

What a good question... with a lot of great responses!! I remember several from my own childhood- the advent calendar, opening one gift on Christmas Eve, baking cookies and delivering them to others, going to a tree farm to get our Christmas tree the Saturday after Thanksgiving... etc! When I got married we started some of our own, too. But one of the most important in our home (that we have carried on from my parents' home) is to read the story of Christ's birth from the bible before opening any gifts on Christmas morning. It really helps to remember the true meaning and reason for the whole Christmas season and celebration! My kids love to make gingerbread houses- so we do that too! We do a LOT of baking around Christmas and we always share with others- friends, family, neighbors. I don't do a traditional advent calendar either. We do the '25 days of Christmas' with story books. Reading with your kids is important- so we buy 25 new children's story books every year and start reading them on Dec 1st- reading one new one every night before they go to bed! Last year I bought all winter/Christmas stories. One other thing that we do is so simple- let the kids decorate for Christmas. I let them do all of the interior decorating- it never ends up the way I want it- but they love it and they tell everyone that walks through our door what they did and they are so proud of it! We always go out on Christmas Eve to look at Christmas lights. We give the kids 'hot chocolate' (just chocolate milk :)) and we drive them around to look at lights. We have a gift exchange just between the kids on Christmas Eve- we draw names and each kid uys only 1 gift-- then on Christmas Eve they get to open only that gift! Good luck! And kudos to you for wanting to start traditions!!!

My children are 5 and 2. We bake Jesus a b-day cake and sing happy birthday for X-Mas. The elves come and put up our tree and decorate with lights while we are sleeping. The elves then leave each of them a special X-mas ornament under the tree. When we wake up we all finish decorating the tree. All the ornaments at this time are plastic. This elimates all the stress of putting up the tree. No little hands to worry about and it makes for a very fun time. They can drop all the ornaments they want!

We started our Christmas tradition when my oldest was 2 years old. I made a tree skirt & every year our boys put their hand print on it, when it is dry I write their name, age & the year on it. I saw it in a magazine where a lady used a flat white sheet & wrapped it around their tree once the handprints were dry. It is neat to see how big their hands have gotten from year to year. For our youngest boy's 1st Christmas we did a foot print instead of a hand print because he was only 6 days old.

I hope this helps!
God Bless!
K.

How about making a special ornament together for the tree each year? My daughter is 19 now, and I still put her home-made ornaments on the tree every year. Don't forget to write the year on the back.

Jenny

My dad would drive us around to look at Christmas lights every year now that's one thing that I've kept a tradition with my kids. (now my dad's not here with us anymore). Also just make sure that you spend it as a family I know all the hussle and bussle that goes with holidays and it wears me out. This year I'm going to try to stay home on Christmas and just spend it with my kids and hubby playing with their new toys and games. Good Luck S.

We make food for the reindeer--mix oatmeal and red sprinkles together, and spread on the yard (looks awesome with snow). Very easy for my young ones to help with. We also write a letter thanking Santa for all his hard work. Santa writes a letter back to the kids acknowleding their good behaviour over the year. When opening gifts we make the kids thank the gift giver (if they are there) and hug them--this slows them down and makes them recognize each gift they receive. They also get new pj's (Christmas pj's that coordinate) and wear them to bed Chrstimas Eve. Good luck. I look forward to hearing other ideas.

We used to go to a place where you can cut your own Christmas trees down. There's a place where you can warm up and sit by the fire and drink a cup of hot cocoa. I don't think this place is around anymore (it was called Christmas Tree Valley) but they HAVE TO have a place like this around still.

One thing we do that's fun is to make Christmas cookies on Christmas eve morning, and leave 2 out for Santa and take the rest over to Grandma's for Christmas eve dinner. My girl loves to help with baking, so it's fun for everyone. We did it when I was little and it's always been one of my favorite parts of christmas.

I have 2 boys, 7 and 9 months. There are several things that I do with my 7 year old:
1. He helps me decorate the christmas tree. He loves looking at all the ornaments and remember when he got them.
2. Every year from Santa he recieves a new ornament to add to the tree.
3. Every night we sit down and read "The Best Christmas Pagent Ever" It is something my Mom did with me and my sisters as we were growing up and it is a wonderful book, he enjoys reading it with me every year.
Now this year I was wanting to start something new with him. I'm wanting to teach him the meaning of Christmas. Every year it's all about what preasents is he gonna get and so this year I want to teach him the importance of giving. I've decided to find a Soup Kitchen and one day before Christmas we are going to donate our time to help those less fortunate than us.

Christmas is so much fun! You can do basically anything and make it a tradition. My oldest is 5 this year and we've been making gingerbread houses for the past 4 years. We cheat and buy the premade ones. Dad usually constructs it and the whole family decorates it. We usually do it on Christmas Eve or right before so we can leave it out for Santa. The kids love getting his notes in the morning commenting on their creativity. Last year for preK we had to shareour traditions with the class. I made small graham cracker houses for all her friends to make thier own.

Alos, 2 years ago, I started having a cookie decorating party about 2 weeks before Christmas. My oldest and I baked and baked and friend came over to decorate them. We have moved since last Christmas and my daughter just asked me if we are going to baked cookies again in our new house.

There are tons of ideas online too. Have fun...keep it simple, remember its all about the time you spend with your family!

One tradition I passed down from my childhood to my kids is the advent calendar. My mom was very crafty and she had one that was a tree and ornaments were in numbered pockets underneith and each day of the month leading up to Christmas we put an ornament on the tree (it was made from felt and she still has it). Now with my kids, I found a company years ago that had one with Mary and Joseph on it and a path that they took them to Bethlehem. It was a kit and I spend many hours making it our own (felt also). Now even though my kids are tweens they still look forward to getting Mary and Joseph to the stable so Jesus can be born. In fact, up until a few years ago they thought that Santa changed out the Mary and Joeseph to Mary, Joseph, Baby Jesus, the WiseMen and the barn animals. That was one of the first things they'd do was look at the advent calendar to see if Jesus was born. Now they do it themselves but they still put the calendar up when we decorate. It was such a great childhood tradition in my house I wanted my kids to enjoy it also.
You can find all kinds of reusable advent calendars in stores and online. My moms, she made in her homemakers group back in the 70's and I wish she still had that pattern. Have fun and dig back into your childhood for things to pull from.
Another thing I did with my kids until a few years ago was put whole nuts and a piece of fruit in their stockings. My "Santa" did it also until I moved out of the house in my 20'. Have fun!! Good luck and God Bless.

One thing that I always did with my son when he was younger was to make glitter pinecones. You can buy glue that has brushes and the glitter already included. When you're done putting on the glitter, lay the pinecones on wax paper so they don't stick to anything. Sometimes we attached ribbon to make ornaments. They also look great in the glass containers that were so popular a couple of years ago.

Also, we use my son's school photo every year to make ornaments for his grandparents. He decorates the ornament, attaches his photo and writes the year.

A tradition that was in my husband family was on Christmas eve all the family gather at my husbands grandparents for soup, sandwiches and dessert and a gift exchange. ALL of their kids, their kids etc, and their brothers, sister invited, who cared how crowded, we ate in shifts. After his grandparents died, no one wanted to do or had the room for the big family get togethers, so each family kind of did their own. My husbands parents didn't want to continue it, so we started one for our family, sometimes his would come, sometimes mine would, sometimes it would be for friends who had no family. As the years and our kids have grown the tradition has changed some. We finally came up with a clam chowder, ham sandwiches, some finger foods, dessert. My 3 kids are all grown now and have kids of their own and still we all get together on Christmas eve. This past year we have opened it up to and inculded friends who will be alone at Christmas. I was sick last year and wasn't going to do it, but my kids stepped in and we had it at my son's so now the tradition has passed to another generation.

One of things we did (and still do)is make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. Real gingerbread houses can be a daunting task. You just put graham crackers together with Royal Icing. Then, let them decorate.
When they were young on Christmas Eve we would go to church, drive around town and look at Christmas decorations, come home and have hot chocolate, then read Christmas books and send them to bed. Now, that they're older, we watch "It's A Wonderful Life" together and do all that other stuff. So, of course, it's a very late night! On Christmas morning we read Luke 2 before opening presents.
Several years ago we also starting cutting down our Christmas tree. There are several tree farms around the St. Louis area (Illinois side). However, now that we have children in college, that tradition may have to end for us this year. :( We always have stories to tell about the tree experience!
Hopefully these will spark some ideas that will work for your family.

I have just a couple of suggestions... one is get a little zip lock bag - place some glitter and some sunflower seeds in it... on Christmas Eve, sprinkle it on your front lawn. We call it Reindeer Food... the glitter helps them find the house.

Another beautiful tradition is to adopt a family in need. Teach your little ones the beauty of giving to others... or you could all volunteer at a soup kitchen for a day.

Merry Christmas!

Hi! Every year at Thanksgiving we have extended family over, and they help us set up the tree while we play Christmas music (it lives in the tree box). Then we read the story of Jesus and the story of Hanukkah (my husband's Jewish) for the rest of the season as much as we can. We talk about what we want to give other people, which we try to make (this year, knitting scarves, last year, recipe books), and we make a big deal out of putting money in the donation buckets. Two weeks before Christmas we clean out our own stuff and we have our son pick out 10 toys of his that he would like to give to children who don't have as much, and we take it to the local Salvation Army thrift store. He understands better now, but it helped at first that we said it also made room for his Christmas presents. :) We pick out a new toy and hygiene products and take them to a women's shelter drop-off point, too. He and his dad light the Hanukkah candles together all eight nights. On Christmas Eve we go to church to sing, listen to the story of Jesus, and light candles. On Christmas Day my father comes over, we open gifts-- usually one quality gift for each of us and two for my son (my dad brings Mordecai a gift, but by agreement not my husband and me), we dump out our stockings full of candy, and then make a huge breakfast. After that winds down, Dad and Mordecai play with his toys, I start cleaning up Christmas while blasting my Christmas CDs, and my husband goes for his annual Jewish guys' movie-and-Chinese-food party. Our extended family usually does something the week before or week after, so it's not as much pressure. We've done this for three years now, and we love the simplicity of it. My parents used to do a billion cheap plastic presents (for which they went into debt every year) and we had to do two families' worth of parties and church all in the 48 hours of Eve and Day. Ick.
I'm glad you are starting early! It will make your Christmases really wonderful to remember!

Growing up, my family didn't have a lot of traditions - no matter what time of year it was.. However, I don't think my husband's family would know what to do with themselves if they didn't have traditions! ;) Here are a few things they do around the holidays.. Some of them may be more age appropriate than others.

1) The long-standing favorite is making gingerbread houses. They use graham crackers instead of gingerbread, though - simply because it's easier than baking a bunch of gingerbread. Then they just decorate with icing and candy. As the years have progressed - the youngest is 18 - they still do this, and of course the houses are becoming more and more complicated..

2) I don't know your religious views, but they always love reading the Nativity out of the scriptures and acting it out with the different pieces.

3) And this is a silly one, but when we had our first Christmas together, my husband mandated that I HAD to make sticky buns (some people call it monkey bread - Rhodes rolls dipped in butter and cinnamon/sugar then baked in a bundt pan). They have ALWAYS had that for breakfast on Christmas morning.. Obviously you could choose your own treat that your family loves.

Good luck with this - I hope you have fun! :)

Here are a couple of things we do:
1. Every year I get them new pajamas that they get to open on Christmas Eve so they have new PJs for Christmas morning pictures.
2. I try every year to bake a cake, cookies or something on Christmas Day and we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.
3. We go see the Longview Lights every year sometime before Christmas.
4. When the kids were big enough to do this, I had them go pick out a gift for each other.
Not too exciting but that is some of the things I do.

Well, one seems kind of obvious, but the day after Thanksgiving, we always put on some Christmas CDs and get out all the decorations. It takes us pretty much all day to get them up, but the kids always like seeing them and putting their own little trees in their rooms.
Also, closer to Christmas, we always pick a night where we all put on our jammies and then pile into the car with a cup of cocoa to look at the Christmas lights in and around our neighborhood. That's kind of fun, too.
Finally, usually between Christmas and New Year, if we're in town, we try to go up to Weston to ski for a day. It's not great skiing, but the kids still have fun.

I am a single mom of a 14 year old daughter and a 12 year old son and have been a signle mom for 12-1/2 years. It is a tradition in our family to go Christmas shopping and to see/get a picture with Santa the day after Thanksgiving. This has been a tradition since my mom was a child and that is 62 years now. We have also always decorated the house together the weekend after Thanksgiving. It is a fun time. We play Christmas music and get out out Christmas movies. When the kids were younger and not so involved in so many things we use to try to watch a Christmas movie every weekend. It was a good thing to do together. We also each year make ornaments for the family. We make approximately 24 ornaments for grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. It is fun do as a family and it is a gift as well. Everyone looks forward to the new ornaments each year. Yes, they aren't as exciting as when they were young but we haven't stopped doing it. The only other tradition that I have kept going is wrapping all gifts from Santa in Red and Green tissue paper. This is how I was raised and I decided to keep it going. We also pick one night between Thanksgiving and Christmas and drive to look at Christmas lights. It could be just driving through the neighborhood or going to one of the parks to pay to drive through. Traditions are what every kid will remember for a lifetime and chances are they will carry them on with their kids as well.

You can always make up some ideas of your own or you can use some of mine. Enjoy the Holidays!!!!!

Our favorite things are the usual, Decorating the tree the day after Thanksgiving and playing Christmas music, also baking cookies and delivering them to neighbors and family. Another thing we like to do is make a new Christmas ornament every year... Those are fun to look back at. We also like the countdown calander. The kids like moving the date knowing that Christmas is one more day closer :) You can get them at Hobby Lobby! Hope this gives you some ideas.

When i was age 10 and my younger brother were age 7 & 5 my mom had us start writing (or drawing pictures as may be age appropriate) to each other. There were themes to the letters/pictures ie: my favorite memory of you this past year, if I could ask baby Jesus for one gift for you it would be, my hope for you in the next year etc... Every year (and still now even though we are all married and have kids of our own)we write these letters. They are read aloud on Christmas Eve before we do the family presents. It has been a nice reminder of our love for each other and what the true celebration of Christmas was about. I know my poor mother spend many hours wrestling with young children and teens getting us to write these letters but now as adults I still have my letters from all these years and it is one of my favorite holdiay traditions. I'm so glad that we continue to carry it into our own families.

First - There are A LOT of GREAT ideas on here already & I personally wanted to say Thank You for asking such a good question....

A new tradition we are starting this year since money is extremly tight! We are getting together with the family and making dough ornaments. Each person is to make three. 1 for them to keep, 1 to send to the Grandparents that are out of state and the last for an ornament gift exchange. This is with my kids, my parents and my sister and her entire family, so there will be quite a few of us for the exchange.

I know my sister bakes and decorates cookies every year with her children and now her grandchildren and then those cookies are shared at our gathering.

Well, have fun picking out what works for you!

Hi M.. What a great mom seeking advice for this! I have a tradition that that my mother did as I grew up and I started it with my 3 children; 16, 11, 9. Every year I buy an ornament from Hallmark that fits each of their personalities or life. Like a Chiefs one for my football player, drums for my drummer, etc. They are wrapped and ready to go. Christmas Eve we read Christmas books, sing some songs, put out the cookies and milk, sprinkle reindeer food on the lawn and then each of them get to open the ornament. Of course as they got older they realized what they were getting but that's ok. Now each year when we decorate the tree, each of them has their own ornaments to hang and it is so much fun to get them out and talk about that year and what was special about the ornament they got. You'd be surprised how creative you can get with an ornament when trying to match it to your child.

Good luck with your boys, cherish these young years. They grow up so fast!!

We go to Mass every Christmas Eve around 3:00 or 4:00 p.m. and then out to dinner. While we are gone, Santa comes. Santa hides the presents somewhere different in the house every year, doesn't label the gifts, just wraps one child's all in the same paper and then a different paper for the other one. They love coming home and looking for the gifts and then trying to figure out whose is whose.

We also bake Christmas cookies every year with Grandma, decorating them with sprinkles, etc. They aren't artistic creations but the kids have fun doing it.

One other thing we do is videotape each person in the family in front of the Christmas tree telling about the highlights of their year. The kids tell us how old they are, their grade in school (now) and their favorite memories of the year. We (Mom and Dad) do it to. We keep this tape separate from the normal yearly one so we have all the years back to back and can see the changes when we view it. It is truly priceless.

My boys aren't old enough yet to understand the holidays (they're 21 months), but when I was a child, my family would all decorate the Christmas tree together and make candy, for Easter we'd dye eggs and make cookies, etc. There are many happy memories and I hope to continue the same traditions and instill the same values with my children. Enjoy making memories with your family. It goes by so fast!

Oh, no, I can talk/write all day about holidays.

We have the best neighbors! As a "thank you" to their summer- long gifts of fresh produce, we make trays of cookies & have our sons deliver them a few days before Christmas. When our sons were younger, we actually used a wagon! For me, this was a continuation from my childhood....each year, my sister & I made Christmas gifts for our elderly neighbors (some of whom watched my Dad & Uncle grow up!).

As for other traditions, I also give my sons ornaments. For our daughter who passed away as infant, each year I purchase a Snowbaby ornament (usually angels) & Gracie's ornaments are the 1st to be hung on the tree.

As to gifts, I always try to give my sons: a Christmas outfit, a book, a movie or music (sometimes both), something to further their hobbies/collections, & some fun stuff...in addition to one big item. Sometimes that "big" gift takes up most of the $...other years it doesn't. I also don't try to make everything equal in cost...since there's 9 years between my sons. Instead, I focus on the # of gifts & whether they appear to be equal.

Pretty much the whole season is a tradition, from the menu to the baking to the collection of childrens Christmas books that I set out each year to the Thanksgiving weekend at Silver Dollar City & Branson. We fill the entire month with lots of friends, family, & traditons! Our holiday season is crazy...but we address it with happy hearts, & the time flies.

In the end, we always have two full weekends of family parties....& a nice/quiet Christmas Eve & Day with my Mom & Grandma (who's 87 this year!). I fully embrace our multi-generational family...& have wonderful memories of my own Great Grandparents.

Hi M.,
I get such a happy feeling thinking of our simple but fun tradition. We pick a special night for the family to put up the tree together. This is funny, but we have to have eggnog. The kids are always happy to have a special glass to drink out of and me and dad "spruce ours up some". 15yrs now and we all look forward to it. It sounds so simple! But is makes us all happy!

we started when the kids got to be like 4 i think with a month or 2 before christmas having them go through their toys and picking out what they didnt want anymore and didnt play with that was still in good shape and donating them for kids who normaly wouldnt get presents cause of finacial issues. and explained to the kids that the toys would be going to kids whos parents couldnt afford to buy them presents. my kids loved this idea. and we feel fortuante that we have the money and can buy them things and the kids like the idea that they are helping out someone else too. its been part of our christmas season since and we started doing it a few times a year now too.

Every year on Christmas eve we go and eat at one of the Japanese Steak houses, the kids love the show and going to what they consider a fancy restraunt. When we come home each kid gets to open one present that is always pajamas or a robe to wear on Christmas morning. Christmas night we go and look at lights.

We bake Christmas cookie using an old family recipe for almond cresents. We decorate gingerbread houses using graham crackers rather than gingerbread. We cut down our own tree too. My sister and her family dress up in coordinating pajamas for the build up to the holidays.

My mom and Nana always did a "Treasure Hunt" and to this day, those Christmas Eves are some of my most cherished memories. I have several sibings and tons of cousins (literally... I have 27 first cousins on my dad's side!) and Christmas Eve was when we all got together (Christmas Day was for each individual family) at our house which was the largest and had the most hiding spots! Each child would pick a gift from under the tree (a relatively small one) and then all the moms would get together and write out "clues" for us to follow. It was a few easy ones for the little kids-clever clues to lead to the kitchen cabinets but for the older kids it was a welcomed challenge to really make them work! We'd even have to go outside to the dog house sometimes! We now do this for all my nieces and nephews and I can't wait to one day do this with my daughters!
Also, on Thanksgiving Day we would have friendly family competitions/games (or even Monopoly tournaments) like football, softball, tag, or hide and seek (we lived on a farm, lots of places to hide) and whoever would win those games got to decide the theme of the Christmas Tree (anything we wanted! We had a Barbie tree 3 years in a row... lol)
These probably aren't the most age-appropriate but hope it helps!

I don't know if you practice any religion, but there is a special tradition that we started when our almost 13 year old was born. We buy a cupcake (Hostess is fine, and we place it by the Baby Jesus. Then we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, because that is what it is truly about. We have raised our 3 kids that we give gifts to each other at Christmas because Jesus is in each of us. Our kids always remind us to not forget the cupcake and candle when we're shopping for Christmas dinner!

We have several traditions that stress sharing which include: having chili and clam chowder every Christmas Eve (inviting family, extended family and friends to drop in any time in the evening) and deciding as a family which charitable organization (that adopts families in need) to donate to. But my four kids (now 14 - 30) always remember the Christmas tradition of decorating the tree. When they were little my hubby and I would hide the ornaments all over the house, turn on Christmas music and start baking cookies. The kids would spread out looking for ornaments and race back to the tree to hang them. Yes, this meant all the ornaments were on the bottom of the tree. So when all the ornaments were accounted for we would take turns moving them all over the tree, talking about which ornament were their favorites and why, where they wanted to hang it, etc. The kids still talk about those times. Also, I still hang the calendar that you move a mouse each day marking the days til Christmas and my 14 y/o and 20 y/o still race each morning to get to move the mouse before the other- it's hilarious! Sometimes its the little things they remember the most.

What wonderful ideas some of the rest of the Moms have already given you!!! I wish I had some of them when my girls were growing up!!
We always allowed the girls to open one present on Christmas Eve...and for the last 20 years or so it has always been new PJ's for everyone...so everyone looks spiffy for the Christmas morning pictures. They even decided to start buying new ones for me a few years ago....lol. I still buy a Christmas Ornament for each of the girls each year ( could I suggest that you also buy an ornament for yourself...I found after my three girls moved out and took their ornaments that our tree was really really BARE!!! ) It might be a good idea to have the childs name and year painted on each one...so that there is no problem remember who belongs to what ornament in the future when you start to divide them up for their own homes.
I think it is a great idea to remind them that Christmas is NOT all about getting presents...it is also about Christ's birth...the greatest gift of all. I like the idea of volunteering at a soup kitchen or community holiday meal...adopt a family for Christmas and let the children help pick out the gifts for the children. Let them start learning to care for others that are less fortunate than themselves.
Most of all...dont load yourself down with so much "stuff" that you cant enjoy the holiday with them....take tons of pictures...and really enjoy your time together!!

M.- Great questions! I have enjoyed reading the answers. Here are some of my favorites:
1. On Christmas Eve everyone (even Mom) gets a new pair of PJ's. Everyone looks great for Christmas Day Pictures
2. Plaza Lights- Like many others we pack up with hot chocolate and drive around to the Plaza- the kids go nuts
3. Advent Calender- My kids fight over whose day it is to unveil the next charm to go on our Advent Calender
Hope these help! Good luck!
M.

We have several Christmas traditions we look forward to each year with our boys (4, 6 and 8)
1. Each year, we buy our children a Christmas ornament for the tree showing something special that happened that year, or something they really enjoyed, ie-a bike ornament the year my son learned to ride a two-wheeler, thomas the year my son slept with a thomas train every night. It's fun to pull them out each year and talk about why they have them.
2. We also go for "christmas light walks." Most nights we bundle up and go out to enjoy the neighborhood lights.
3. We also spend one whole weekend baking Christmas cookies. Then, the end of the weekend, the kids help deliver them to some residents at a local nursing home.
4. We actually started this before we even had kids. We buy a Chritmas book each year. We write the year in the front of the book. Each night during December, we read a book around the Christmas tree. The kids take turns choosing which book to read.

We put out the manger but not baby Jesus until midnight.

M.,
Every year we buy ornaments. We each pick out our own, I even pick one out for my son who passed away. My husband and I also pick one out together that has a couple on it. We have a lot of fun looking for the ornaments. I like that it shows all of our individual personalities.

We have several traditions in our family that we look forward to each year. We bake cutout sugar cookies together, make a special breakfast on Christmas Day (scrambled eggs, homemade cinnamon rolls, grapefruit, and a variety of fruit juices. On Christmas Eve, we have a Christmas Eve Feast (all kinds of snack/hordeourves) and watch a Christmas movie. Then, on Christmas Day after our breakfast, we open gifts and spend the rest of the day playing with the kids and their new toys and snacking on our feast's leftovers.
Good luck choosing a new tradition that will work for your family. Remember it should be something everyone will enjoy together. It can be simple too; Christmas is a busy time and sometimes just reading a special story together or watching a movie together will suffice.
Happy Holidays a bit early!
K.

We have several fun traditions, We make a big deal of putting up our tree. It is a special night, everyone is home and everyone participates. Then when the tree is done, we turn off all of the lights except the christmas tree lights and sing carols.
We also bake Jesus a birthday cake, I have girls who love to decorate it.

Do a simple meal the same each yr. We do Chicken Enchiladas every christmas eve. Read a Christmas story at bed time or before you open presents. Always let your boys know what Christmas is really about. The day our Savior was born. That is the most important one. You could even make a birthday cake for the special day to celebrate His birthday.
It is a perfect time to start a family tradition while they are young. Heck any time is a good time to start! We have started to let ours decorate the tree instead of Mom and Dad. We watch and sing songs. Have Fun!