My favorite part of Christmas is all of the special traditions our family does each year. My fondest memories as a Child center around the Christmas season. Having a hard time finding that special tradition or two for your family?
Here is a list with 75 Family Christmas Traditions for you to choose from!
- Have a cookie exchange
- Make gingerbread houses
- Watch a Christmas movie as a family
- Memorize and recite the Christmas story from Luke 2
- Drive around looking at Christmas lights
- Make baked goods for your neighbors
- Visit a nursing home and sing Christmas carols
- Have a kids Christmas party
- Decorate your house together (inside and out)
- Read a classic Christmas story like “A Christmas Carol”
- Give a secret gift to someone in need
- Make a special meal together
- Go to a candlelight service on Christmas Eve
- Cook up the same old family recipe ever Christmas Eve
- Christmas caroling for shut-ins from your Church or community
- Plan a cookie baking party
- Go to a farm and cut your own Christmas tree
- Decorate your tree while drinking eggnog and eating a special snack
- Buy a new ornament for each child relating to a life event that year
- Make a family keepsake craft or project
- Allow the children to arrange the family Nativity scene
- By an Advent devotional book to read throughout the season
- Write a Christmas letter with family news from the year
- Read the Christmas story... and the resurrection story
- Participate in Operation Christmas Child
- Contribute to the Knit Together In Love scarf project
- Deliver cookies and treats to emergency service men and women
- Give your pastor(s) a thank you and Christmas gift
- Sing in a church or community Christmas choir
- Open one gift on Christmas Eve
- Buy or make new Pjs for Christmas morning
- Have a special Christmas brunch
- Skype loved ones who live far away
- Decorate your tree the weekend after Thanksgiving
- Choose an old Christmas recording (Bing Crosby, etc.) to start the season with
- Play Christmas music in the house all season long
- Listen to a Christmas radio station in the car
- Do a Christmas countdown calendar
- Take family photos
- Video Christmas morning
- Watch old home videos
- Have a race to see who can get their Christmas shopping done first
- Read about Christmas traditions in other countries
- Find and read a book of Christmas legends
- Let children circle gift ideas in store catalogs
- Make and share a yearly Christmas list
- Let kids draw names to decide who to buy a gift for
- Give children “jobs” around the house to earn money to buy gifts
- Sponsor a Child or special project from Allow the Children
- Buy each child a fun new pare of sock or slippers for Christmas morning
- Make ornaments for the tree
- String a garland out of popcorn and cranberries
- Make your own Christmas cards as a family
- Make gift baskets with goodies for friends and family
- Let the young kids do their Christmas shopping at the Dollar Store
- Donate clothes or food to a shelter
- Hide a gift or make a scavenger hunt for the kids on Christmas Eve
- Host a wrapping party
- Go see a live nativity
- Go to a Christmas play or concert
- Have kids act out the Christmas story
- Have a game night with hot chocolate and cookies
- Invite someone without family to Christmas dinner
- Tell stories or have grandparents tell stories about past Christmases as a child
- Campout in the family room with sleeping bags after you’ve decorated the tree
- Memorize a Christmas poem or write your own
- Construct a manger out of wood and place it under the tree
- Make birthday card for Jesus
- Make a birthday cake for Jesus
- Have a birthday party for Jesus with the neighborhood kids
- Look at old Christmas photo albums
- Make Christmas treats for pets, wrap and place under the tree
- Buy a mini tree at the dollar store for each child’s bedroom
- Decorate a tree or house for an elderly person (after Christmas go back and help put the decorations away)
- Secretly give gifts for the 12 Days of Christmas to a neighbor
What have I missed? Add any additional tradition ideas in the comments below!
Merry Christmas!
Ashley Schnarr
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