Three Christmas Traditions.

On December 1st, we’ll begin our holiday celebrations. Of course, this year is a bit different (with social distancing and whatnot) but I don’t see any reason why we can’t have as magical a time as always. I wanted to share some things we do as a family that make the month special. I’m sharing now in case you want to join in on the fun! 

Here are three December traditions we have — 

Advent Activities:

Rather than a piece of candy or chocolate each day, we complete advent activities. Each year, I brainstorm family activities that we can do together, acts of kindness we can do for others, and general winter/holiday bucket list items we’d otherwise do anyway –and compile them into Advent Activities. I have a small wooden calendar and I put one slip of paper into each compartment that says our activity for the day. The order doesn’t matter (as long as you’re prepared for any activity your child chooses.) The children love to open one door each day and very much look forward to finding out what’ll be doing. It’s a fun little spin on things we would probably do anyway around the holidays so it’s nothing too overwhelming or complicated. 

25 Days of Books:

Another thing we do in December is wrap 25 holiday/winter books and open one each night leading up to Christmas. When I say this, people get really worried that it costs a lot of money, but I assure you there are ways to do it for next to nothing! 

1. Reuse: January through November, I actually store away all of our holiday books so that the children don’t have open access to them. This way, when I wrap them up in December they are “like new” even though we’ve had them for years.

2. Borrow: You can absolutely borrow books from the library or buy from second hand stores.

3. Start small: I started out by doing 12 days of books. By the third year, I had enough books to start Dec. 1st — so now, I do 25 days.

You can see some of our choices here.

Christmas Eve Box:

I started this when Javi was born — have you heard of a Christmas Eve box? I got ours here. 

I fill it with items the children can use on Christmas Eve or Christmas morning:

1. Christmas-themed pajamas

2. Cozy socks and/or slippers

3. Blanket and/or a bathrobe

4. A special snack for Christmas Eve

5. Healthy snacks for Christmas morning 

I’ve seen other ideas, too. You could include a movie you’ll watch together, or a book you’ll read together, new water cups, or a fancy outfit for Christmas day. I’ve seen stuffed animals, hot chocolate and a mug, or a puzzle. The options are endless!

What are some of your December/Holiday traditions?