Holiday Traditions

Multiple people have asked me about Holiday Traditions and I wanted to open it up to you readers. What types of traditions or memorable moments do you have in your home during the holidays? If you have children, how do you make this season magical for them?

This year, we are having a very low-key Christmas. On both sides of our family we are not exchanging gifts, and my husband and I opted to keep it very simple. We're having a "less is more" Christmas and so far, are thoroughly enjoying it. In fact, it wasn't until last night that I bought our daughter her first gift.

Regarding traditions, we are still working on creating new ones for our little family. Having our child more attentive this year has encouraged us to seek out more 'kid friendly' and family-oriented traditions. To date, one of our most memorable Christmas evenings was snowshoeing up in the mountains under the bright moonlight, something I definitely want to repeat. Hmmm... do you think they make snowshoes for a 2-year-old?

Here are a few traditions that I have heard about, and liked.



Stephanie shared this gift giving option with me from Dandee. The idea is to give each person/child 4 gifts. Something to 1: wear 2: read 3: want, and 4: need. I love the simplicity of this.



Another friend told me about a tradition she started with her child. The idea is to wrap up all of your holiday books (and others or library books if you don't have them) and allow your child to unwrap them every evening before reading starting Dec. 1st. On Christmas Eve they get to open a brand new holiday book to enjoy.

(A Christmas Carol - shown above)

Please share your holiday traditions.

8 comments:

Unknown said...

they do have snowshoes for 2 year olds....my two year old did not appreciate them, however. they were kind of hard for him to walk in.

since we have two little guys, our traditions are just starting...we always go to the mountains to cut down our own christmas tree (they last the whole month) and open one package on christmas eve that conveniently ends up being pajamas EVERY YEAR!

i just discovered your blog recently and think it is lovely! happy holidays!

Caroline said...

I have friends, a married couple, who give each other and their daughter exactly three gifts each - one for body, one for mind, and one for spirit. I love this idea - kids tend to get so many gifts from relatives anyway, and the categories and small quantity keep it meaningful.

AMM blog said...

Great ideas, thanks!

Nicki's Notebook said...

My grandmother is hard to buy for, she has so much of everything after a long life that every year i make her a calender with our family photos for each month...and she loves it!

she uses it daily and loves that its personal, good for someone who has everything!

paula said...

we do three gifts for the kiddos, want, need and a surprise. Christmas eve the kiddos get matching pj's, funny when they turn 16. finally we make Jesus a birthday cake to remember the reason for the season.

Emily said...

Look for these snow shoes 'Pacific Outdoors Monster Dino kids Snowshoes'- they leave dino prints. I saw them at Target last year and wished I had someone to buy them for.

We have a new years tradition of writing predictions for the coming year (and reading the predictions from the past year) it's always entertaining.

Joslyn said...

i LOVE the book tradition. we're going to start doing that for sure. We always bring the girls to a holiday play or show, like the nutcracker or something at the children's theater and dress up. we also do the avent calendar every night.

Jordan said...

When we finish the tree-trimming, that night we all sleep "under" the tree in a megabed! Of course, hot chocolate and cookies are consumed and christmas books read.

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