So many families have so many different Christmas traditions. I remember growing up, I always went to the Nutcracker with one or both of my parents. It always made me feel so special to have that one night where I was the star. I always dressed up in a Christmas dress and did my hair cute.
When Roger was growing up, he had special traditions as well such as an advent candle, getting a special ornament to put on the tree each year, and getting gifts from the 'Christmas Elf' before Christmas. His family also put a lot of their focus on baking and cooking the best Christmas foods you can imagine. I'm always in aw when I go to family functions on his side of the family to see the most amazing pies, baked goods, and savory dinners.
As we have started our own family, we wanted to make our own traditions that were special to just us. It also changes year to year. When we started our family, we were determined to have a live tree every year. And now...I REALLY enjoy my artificial one that is prelit and can be set up in 10 minutes. If you judge me for that, I argue that it gives the kids more time to decorate the tree!
Here are a few of the traditions we have made for our family so far!
We always take a mini photo shoot in front of the tree. Sometimes we dress up, sometimes we are in our Jammies. I always think it's funny how much the kids love their picture taken. Then of course, we have to look at them after and fawn over how cute and funny they are.
We are from Utah. So playing in the snow is a must. It takes at least 20 minutes to get all their snow pants, hats, scarves, and gloves on...for them to play in the snow for 10 minutes. But it's still worth it. Maybe one day, they will be able to build their own snowman instead of telling me what I'm doing wrong when I'm making one for them.
We always make time to see Santa every year. The kids find it magical rather than scary. At our house, Santa brings one special present and Mom and Dad are responsible for all the rest. We also have the kids buy or make presents for each other.
We also really love to bake and cook together. Things like cookie Christmas trees, gingerbread houses, or even Christmas color play-doh. Though we make sure the play doh is safe to eat because...well, you can probably guess why.
We love to go out and about like ice skating, the festival of trees, riding the train at the mall, or anything that we feel up to!
Over Christmas, we visit family and birth family alike! We sometimes swap when we go down to see them or when they come up to see us. We never have a shortage of spoiling from all 5 grandmas! We have family parties where we have large dinners, hit pinatas, and play musical chairs.
We always take a picture of the kids before they go down to open presents Christmas morning!
We love decorating our Christmas trees each year. The kids have one in their rooms that they get to decide how to decorate it. This year, when we decorated the family tree in the front room, they were able to put the ornaments on the middle of the tree instead of just the bottom! They are getting better.
We finish up the year by have a spa night on New Years Eve!
These are not all the traditions we do, but a taste of what are traditions are like. What are they like for you?
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