56 answers

Holiday Tradition Ideas Needed

I would like to start a "family tradition" of buying my son some sort of keepsake item every year for Christmas. I am at a total loss for ideas. The only thing I can think of is a Christmas ornament, which is kind of boring in my opinion. Does anybody have any good ideas? I didn't have anything like this growing up and I want my son to have some sort of collection that he will appreciate as an adult. Any input will be greatly appreciated. Thanks mamas!!!!

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Do Christmas ornaments with a little twist, like for example, buy ornaments for something he was into that year, like Elmo, or Soccer, or whatever hobby he may have picked up that year. That is one I am starting with my little angel. Another idea would be to buy ornaments you can insert a pic into and take one of him by the tree each year and put it in there. When he is old enough to be on his own and have a tree it would be a sweet trip down memory lane.

1 mom found this helpful

A.,

I do Hallmark ornaments for my kids but I think snowglobes would be cool if you want something bigger. Hallmark puts out collectible ones each year and I'd think other companies do too.

T.

Hi, A.. I agree with D.. When my kids were small, I picked out a dated ornament for them. Now they look forward to the tradition of picking out their own. We have a great time looking through them and remembering Christmases past. One year, my daughter picked out an ugly blown glass santa thing. Every year we laugh when she unwraps it and laments about what in the world she could have been thinking....
Merry Christmas!

More Answers

Do Christmas ornaments with a little twist, like for example, buy ornaments for something he was into that year, like Elmo, or Soccer, or whatever hobby he may have picked up that year. That is one I am starting with my little angel. Another idea would be to buy ornaments you can insert a pic into and take one of him by the tree each year and put it in there. When he is old enough to be on his own and have a tree it would be a sweet trip down memory lane.

1 mom found this helpful

I do the ornaments--- they LOVE them and they are pretty inexpensive. You can always have him make an ornament every year. Handprint projects are always great, either in ceramic form, or with paint. You can have him also start a scrapbook of every christmas. Have him put in a writing sample, color a picture and take a picture of all his gifts each year.( he is young now, but you can talk him through it and help him). Eventually, he will be old enough to do this himself (with your guidance) and it will be a fun project for the family.

We also make it a tradition to pick out our christmas tree as a family every year. the kids LOVE doing this and we take pics to document. We always include a family pic at the tree lot with our new tree. fun for the scrapbook too!

Christmas morning- we always take a family pic in our pj's, hair a mess and all. It is fun to see how the family changes year after year.. may not be "tangable" traditions... but they sure great for us.

Hope it helps- merry christmas!

1 mom found this helpful

-You could go to a ceramic place to decorate dishes, etc. with his handprints or paintings as he gets older.
-How about buying a Christmas book every year that he can read to his children one day. Write the date, a little note about him or to the future grandkids.
-My kids do pick out ornaments every year so they will have some when they move out that will be meaningfull. My hubby and I's first Christmas we only had a handful of special ornaments. The rest were just store bought fillers. Now after 13 years we've acquirred quite a collection. I pick up ornaments from places we travel.

1 mom found this helpful

I actually do Christmas ornaments each year for my step-sons. I buy them based on something new in their life each year. The oldest played Pop Warner this year for the first time so I'm looking for a football ornament. The youngest was thrilled with the Golden Gate Bridge during a trip to San Francisco this summer. There have been musical notes for when a musical instrument was learned for the first time and baseball ornaments for the first year playing baseball. I have a special box for each of them to keep their collection in that gets packed with our Christmas decorations.

Something else my husband and I started the year we got married was to cut a disk off the trunk of our tree, write the year on it and make an ornament out of it. That's something just for us.

1 mom found this helpful

When my daughter was little she would open one present on x-mas eve that was from me. It was always a set of x-mas pajamas and a christmas book. I would write the year in the book so she would know what year she got it. And then she always had new clean pajamas for x-mas morning pictures.

1 mom found this helpful

I just read on mamasource a similar post and thought the idea of buygin an ornament each year was cool. I'm going to begin this tradition : ) Also, if you are in San Diego, I just visited City Light in the Morena District for the first time and it is sooo cool. They have a ton of little villages. All different ones - North Pole, Victorian, Chicago, Farm House, Circus etc. There are thousands of little structures to buy. It's kind of expensive, but would be very cool to have and collect over the years. I might start that this year as well. You should check it out for sure.

1 mom found this helpful

Hi. My mom always got my brother and I an ornament and we really loved it because they were always unique and special (like a cowboy, raggity ann and andy, nutcrackers that when you pull the string their arms and legs move, etc.). It's great now that we're grown because we have all those memories on our trees now. Also, my brother loved Nutcrackers so my mom started a little nutcracker collection for him when he was old enough to play with them and he loved it. It's extra special because they only come out at Christmas time.

Honestly, no matter what you decide to do it will be special and fun to him because it is your tradition. That's what makes those things so great, because it's what your family did to celebrate and bring each other joy. The feelings traditions bring are what memories are made of, more so I think than the actual gifts or items that were given. My brother and my favorite tradition that we continued until I moved out was that every Christmas Eve we would sleep next to the tree :) No presents were involved, just christmas lights and feelings of joy. Merry Christmas!

If you don't like the ornament idea you could pick a theme. like snowmen, or angels. And every year get a new one. It could be a snowman ornament, or snow man snow globe, or snow man cookie cutter etc...

My mom gave me and my brother all of our kid ornaments a few years ago. It was great. And every year I get the kids ornaments. Usually in the theme of what ever they are into. Elmo, Thomas the tank engine, Legos etc...

Have fun.

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