my boys are starting to come of age to start understanding what holidays are etc...I'm wanting to establish some easy simple things that we can continue every year. Would love to hear what others do.
Thanks!
My boys aren't old enough yet to understand the holidays (they're 21 months), but when I was a child, my family would all decorate the Christmas tree together and make candy, for Easter we'd dye eggs and make cookies, etc. There are many happy memories and I hope to continue the same traditions and instill the same values with my children. Enjoy making memories with your family. It goes by so fast!
My dad would drive us around to look at Christmas lights every year now that's one thing that I've kept a tradition with my kids. (now my dad's not here with us anymore). Also just make sure that you spend it as a family I know all the hussle and bussle that goes with holidays and it wears me out. This year I'm going to try to stay home on Christmas and just spend it with my kids and hubby playing with their new toys and games. Good Luck Sandi
I am a single mom of a 14 year old daughter and a 12 year old son and have been a signle mom for 12-1/2 years. It is a tradition in our family to go Christmas shopping and to see/get a picture with Santa the day after Thanksgiving. This has been a tradition since my mom was a child and that is 62 years now. We have also always decorated the house together the weekend after Thanksgiving. It is a fun time. We play Christmas music and get out out Christmas movies. When the kids were younger and not so involved in so many things we use to try to watch a Christmas movie every weekend. It was a good thing to do together. We also each year make ornaments for the family. We make approximately 24 ornaments for grandparents, great-grandparents, aunts, uncles, cousins, etc. It is fun do as a family and it is a gift as well. Everyone looks forward to the new ornaments each year. Yes, they aren't as exciting as when they were young but we haven't stopped doing it. The only other tradition that I have kept going is wrapping all gifts from Santa in Red and Green tissue paper. This is how I was raised and I decided to keep it going. We also pick one night between Thanksgiving and Christmas and drive to look at Christmas lights. It could be just driving through the neighborhood or going to one of the parks to pay to drive through. Traditions are what every kid will remember for a lifetime and chances are they will carry them on with their kids as well.
You can always make up some ideas of your own or you can use some of mine. Enjoy the Holidays!!!!!
My hubby actually came up with a great tradition that we have started. Every year we go to Hobby Lobby or a similar craft store and look at thier "charms" everybody gets to pick out one out that represents their year and I sew them on to their stockings. It's fun, memorable, and my boys are just starting to pick out their own and having a blast with it. They like to look at the past years as well.
We have several Christmas traditions we look forward to each year with our boys (4, 6 and 8)
1. Each year, we buy our children a Christmas ornament for the tree showing something special that happened that year, or something they really enjoyed, ie-a bike ornament the year my son learned to ride a two-wheeler, thomas the year my son slept with a thomas train every night. It's fun to pull them out each year and talk about why they have them.
2. We also go for "christmas light walks." Most nights we bundle up and go out to enjoy the neighborhood lights.
3. We also spend one whole weekend baking Christmas cookies. Then, the end of the weekend, the kids help deliver them to some residents at a local nursing home.
4. We actually started this before we even had kids. We buy a Chritmas book each year. We write the year in the front of the book. Each night during December, we read a book around the Christmas tree. The kids take turns choosing which book to read.
Michele- Great questions! I have enjoyed reading the answers. Here are some of my favorites:
1. On Christmas Eve everyone (even Mom) gets a new pair of PJ's. Everyone looks great for Christmas Day Pictures
2. Plaza Lights- Like many others we pack up with hot chocolate and drive around to the Plaza- the kids go nuts
3. Advent Calender- My kids fight over whose day it is to unveil the next charm to go on our Advent Calender
Hope these help! Good luck!
Meg
Christmas is so much fun! You can do basically anything and make it a tradition. My oldest is 5 this year and we've been making gingerbread houses for the past 4 years. We cheat and buy the premade ones. Dad usually constructs it and the whole family decorates it. We usually do it on Christmas Eve or right before so we can leave it out for Santa. The kids love getting his notes in the morning commenting on their creativity. Last year for preK we had to shareour traditions with the class. I made small graham cracker houses for all her friends to make thier own.
Alos, 2 years ago, I started having a cookie decorating party about 2 weeks before Christmas. My oldest and I baked and baked and friend came over to decorate them. We have moved since last Christmas and my daughter just asked me if we are going to baked cookies again in our new house.
There are tons of ideas online too. Have fun...keep it simple, remember its all about the time you spend with your family!
Hi! Every year at Thanksgiving we have extended family over, and they help us set up the tree while we play Christmas music (it lives in the tree box). Then we read the story of Jesus and the story of Hanukkah (my husband's Jewish) for the rest of the season as much as we can. We talk about what we want to give other people, which we try to make (this year, knitting scarves, last year, recipe books), and we make a big deal out of putting money in the donation buckets. Two weeks before Christmas we clean out our own stuff and we have our son pick out 10 toys of his that he would like to give to children who don't have as much, and we take it to the local Salvation Army thrift store. He understands better now, but it helped at first that we said it also made room for his Christmas presents. :) We pick out a new toy and hygiene products and take them to a women's shelter drop-off point, too. He and his dad light the Hanukkah candles together all eight nights. On Christmas Eve we go to church to sing, listen to the story of Jesus, and light candles. On Christmas Day my father comes over, we open gifts-- usually one quality gift for each of us and two for my son (my dad brings Mordecai a gift, but by agreement not my husband and me), we dump out our stockings full of candy, and then make a huge breakfast. After that winds down, Dad and Mordecai play with his toys, I start cleaning up Christmas while blasting my Christmas CDs, and my husband goes for his annual Jewish guys' movie-and-Chinese-food party. Our extended family usually does something the week before or week after, so it's not as much pressure. We've done this for three years now, and we love the simplicity of it. My parents used to do a billion cheap plastic presents (for which they went into debt every year) and we had to do two families' worth of parties and church all in the 48 hours of Eve and Day. Ick.
I'm glad you are starting early! It will make your Christmases really wonderful to remember!
One of things we did (and still do)is make gingerbread houses out of graham crackers. Real gingerbread houses can be a daunting task. You just put graham crackers together with Royal Icing. Then, let them decorate.
When they were young on Christmas Eve we would go to church, drive around town and look at Christmas decorations, come home and have hot chocolate, then read Christmas books and send them to bed. Now, that they're older, we watch "It's A Wonderful Life" together and do all that other stuff. So, of course, it's a very late night! On Christmas morning we read Luke 2 before opening presents.
Several years ago we also starting cutting down our Christmas tree. There are several tree farms around the St. Louis area (Illinois side). However, now that we have children in college, that tradition may have to end for us this year. :( We always have stories to tell about the tree experience!
Hopefully these will spark some ideas that will work for your family.
Hey Michele,
You have gotten some wonderful ideas. Here are some of my fondest memories with my family that I plan to continue with my children.
My family would purchase an ornament on every trip we traveled or place we visited. Then we would decorate the tree together - remembering all the fun we have had.
We would help my mom bake cookies and then on Christmas Eve my dad would read all of us "Twas the Night Before Christmas" and we would leave out cookies and milk for santa and carrots for the reindeer.
Christmas day my dad would make us breakfast before extended family arrived. That evening (after the adults had a few drinkds to loosen up) everyone would gather around and sing christmas carols (and laugh hysterically at our bad voices). Someone in the family had put together a book of lyrics so we all had the words. And if we had a piano player that was fabulous - if not we would use a cd or do it acapello (spelling??)
Have fun creating traditions your children will remember and treasure forever.
I have 2 boys, 7 and 9 months. There are several things that I do with my 7 year old:
1. He helps me decorate the christmas tree. He loves looking at all the ornaments and remember when he got them.
2. Every year from Santa he recieves a new ornament to add to the tree.
3. Every night we sit down and read "The Best Christmas Pagent Ever" It is something my Mom did with me and my sisters as we were growing up and it is a wonderful book, he enjoys reading it with me every year.
Now this year I was wanting to start something new with him. I'm wanting to teach him the meaning of Christmas. Every year it's all about what preasents is he gonna get and so this year I want to teach him the importance of giving. I've decided to find a Soup Kitchen and one day before Christmas we are going to donate our time to help those less fortunate than us.
Michele,
I have two children one is almost 7 and the other 3. With al of the Christmas,Santa,presents hype I make sure as a family we still understand why we celebrate.
I, with the help of my kids, bake a cake and we decorate it for Jesus' birthday. Then after dinner we sing happy birthday to Jesus, thank him for dying for us and then we read a bible story from the kids bible. The kids absolutely love it and have a blast singing happy birthday to Jesus =)
During the week of Christmas we will load up the family and drive around to look at lights as well as go to "Christmas in the Park". We live in Ozark and theres at Finley River was great!!!
We also set out cookies still for Santa. The gifts that Santa leaves are left unwrapped cuz the elves are so busy they cant wrap them. I still like giving the kids the excitement of knowing the big man in red still visits =)
Good luck on you new traditions, just remember it is about the innocent excitement and joy that our kids show that make Christmas the best family holiday.
I don't know if you practice any religion, but there is a special tradition that we started when our almost 13 year old was born. We buy a cupcake (Hostess is fine, and we place it by the Baby Jesus. Then we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus, because that is what it is truly about. We have raised our 3 kids that we give gifts to each other at Christmas because Jesus is in each of us. Our kids always remind us to not forget the cupcake and candle when we're shopping for Christmas dinner!
Here are a couple of things we do:
1. Every year I get them new pajamas that they get to open on Christmas Eve so they have new PJs for Christmas morning pictures.
2. I try every year to bake a cake, cookies or something on Christmas Day and we sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.
3. We go see the Longview Lights every year sometime before Christmas.
4. When the kids were big enough to do this, I had them go pick out a gift for each other.
Not too exciting but that is some of the things I do.
One thing we do that's fun is to make Christmas cookies on Christmas eve morning, and leave 2 out for Santa and take the rest over to Grandma's for Christmas eve dinner. My girl loves to help with baking, so it's fun for everyone. We did it when I was little and it's always been one of my favorite parts of christmas.
We started our Christmas tradition when my oldest was 2 years old. I made a tree skirt & every year our boys put their hand print on it, when it is dry I write their name, age & the year on it. I saw it in a magazine where a lady used a flat white sheet & wrapped it around their tree once the handprints were dry. It is neat to see how big their hands have gotten from year to year. For our youngest boy's 1st Christmas we did a foot print instead of a hand print because he was only 6 days old.
I hope this helps!
God Bless!
Kim
Every year on Christmas eve we go and eat at one of the Japanese Steak houses, the kids love the show and going to what they consider a fancy restraunt. When we come home each kid gets to open one present that is always pajamas or a robe to wear on Christmas morning. Christmas night we go and look at lights.
What wonderful ideas some of the rest of the Moms have already given you!!! I wish I had some of them when my girls were growing up!!
We always allowed the girls to open one present on Christmas Eve...and for the last 20 years or so it has always been new PJ's for everyone...so everyone looks spiffy for the Christmas morning pictures. They even decided to start buying new ones for me a few years ago....lol. I still buy a Christmas Ornament for each of the girls each year ( could I suggest that you also buy an ornament for yourself...I found after my three girls moved out and took their ornaments that our tree was really really BARE!!! ) It might be a good idea to have the childs name and year painted on each one...so that there is no problem remember who belongs to what ornament in the future when you start to divide them up for their own homes.
I think it is a great idea to remind them that Christmas is NOT all about getting presents...it is also about Christ's birth...the greatest gift of all. I like the idea of volunteering at a soup kitchen or community holiday meal...adopt a family for Christmas and let the children help pick out the gifts for the children. Let them start learning to care for others that are less fortunate than themselves.
Most of all...dont load yourself down with so much "stuff" that you cant enjoy the holiday with them....take tons of pictures...and really enjoy your time together!!
Do a simple meal the same each yr. We do Chicken Enchiladas every christmas eve. Read a Christmas story at bed time or before you open presents. Always let your boys know what Christmas is really about. The day our Savior was born. That is the most important one. You could even make a birthday cake for the special day to celebrate His birthday.
It is a perfect time to start a family tradition while they are young. Heck any time is a good time to start! We have started to let ours decorate the tree instead of Mom and Dad. We watch and sing songs. Have Fun!