We always watch "It's a Wonderful Life". Seems like we always get something new out of it too. My boys are 12 and 10 and we have been doing this for several years, they love it.
We put out the manger but not baby Jesus until midnight.
My mom and Nana always did a "Treasure Hunt" and to this day, those Christmas Eves are some of my most cherished memories. I have several sibings and tons of cousins (literally... I have 27 first cousins on my dad's side!) and Christmas Eve was when we all got together (Christmas Day was for each individual family) at our house which was the largest and had the most hiding spots! Each child would pick a gift from under the tree (a relatively small one) and then all the moms would get together and write out "clues" for us to follow. It was a few easy ones for the little kids-clever clues to lead to the kitchen cabinets but for the older kids it was a welcomed challenge to really make them work! We'd even have to go outside to the dog house sometimes! We now do this for all my nieces and nephews and I can't wait to one day do this with my daughters!
Also, on Thanksgiving Day we would have friendly family competitions/games (or even Monopoly tournaments) like football, softball, tag, or hide and seek (we lived on a farm, lots of places to hide) and whoever would win those games got to decide the theme of the Christmas Tree (anything we wanted! We had a Barbie tree 3 years in a row... lol)
These probably aren't the most age-appropriate but hope it helps!
we started when the kids got to be like 4 i think with a month or 2 before christmas having them go through their toys and picking out what they didnt want anymore and didnt play with that was still in good shape and donating them for kids who normaly wouldnt get presents cause of finacial issues. and explained to the kids that the toys would be going to kids whos parents couldnt afford to buy them presents. my kids loved this idea. and we feel fortuante that we have the money and can buy them things and the kids like the idea that they are helping out someone else too. its been part of our christmas season since and we started doing it a few times a year now too.
Hi Michele,
I get such a happy feeling thinking of our simple but fun tradition. We pick a special night for the family to put up the tree together. This is funny, but we have to have eggnog. The kids are always happy to have a special glass to drink out of and me and dad "spruce ours up some". 15yrs now and we all look forward to it. It sounds so simple! But is makes us all happy!
We have several fun traditions, We make a big deal of putting up our tree. It is a special night, everyone is home and everyone participates. Then when the tree is done, we turn off all of the lights except the christmas tree lights and sing carols.
We also bake Jesus a birthday cake, I have girls who love to decorate it.
I come from a very large, close family and about 8 years ago, I started the tradition (for my younger cousins) of making Christmas ornaments/decorations. I'm so happy to continue this for my cousins and now my own children (2 y/o and 9 months). It's so neat to see my grandma's Christmas tree every year with the homemade ornaments from previous years.
Besides the homemade decorations, we also make cookies and candies together. It's all fun for the whole family, so have fun whatever you chose to do!
We have several traditions in our family that we look forward to each year. We bake cutout sugar cookies together, make a special breakfast on Christmas Day (scrambled eggs, homemade cinnamon rolls, grapefruit, and a variety of fruit juices. On Christmas Eve, we have a Christmas Eve Feast (all kinds of snack/hordeourves) and watch a Christmas movie. Then, on Christmas Day after our breakfast, we open gifts and spend the rest of the day playing with the kids and their new toys and snacking on our feast's leftovers.
Good luck choosing a new tradition that will work for your family. Remember it should be something everyone will enjoy together. It can be simple too; Christmas is a busy time and sometimes just reading a special story together or watching a movie together will suffice.
Happy Holidays a bit early!
Kathryn
Our favorite things are the usual, Decorating the tree the day after Thanksgiving and playing Christmas music, also baking cookies and delivering them to neighbors and family. Another thing we like to do is make a new Christmas ornament every year... Those are fun to look back at. We also like the countdown calander. The kids like moving the date knowing that Christmas is one more day closer :) You can get them at Hobby Lobby! Hope this gives you some ideas.
Growing up, my family didn't have a lot of traditions - no matter what time of year it was.. However, I don't think my husband's family would know what to do with themselves if they didn't have traditions! ;) Here are a few things they do around the holidays.. Some of them may be more age appropriate than others.
1) The long-standing favorite is making gingerbread houses. They use graham crackers instead of gingerbread, though - simply because it's easier than baking a bunch of gingerbread. Then they just decorate with icing and candy. As the years have progressed - the youngest is 18 - they still do this, and of course the houses are becoming more and more complicated..
2) I don't know your religious views, but they always love reading the Nativity out of the scriptures and acting it out with the different pieces.
3) And this is a silly one, but when we had our first Christmas together, my husband mandated that I HAD to make sticky buns (some people call it monkey bread - Rhodes rolls dipped in butter and cinnamon/sugar then baked in a bundt pan). They have ALWAYS had that for breakfast on Christmas morning.. Obviously you could choose your own treat that your family loves.
Good luck with this - I hope you have fun! :)