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Traditions bring families together. They provide us with a sense of belonging an can bring meaning to our lives.
As my children grow and our family changes, there are still come Christmas traditions that we have maintained. I know that they are important to my teens when they ask, “Hey Mom, are we still going to …. (insert tradition) …. this year?”
Perhaps our most unique Christmas tradition, is what we do every single December 24. Every Christmas Eve, we haul the firepit over to our patio area. We bundle up warm and roast hotdogs over the open fire. With Christmas carols playing in the background, we drink hot chocolate and talk about our favorite memories from the past year. This is one tradition that my teens absolutely insist on!
Here are a few other traditions that might help to make your Christmas even more memorable.
Each Christmas season, host a tea for family and friends. Have everyone bring gifts for a needy child or a senior who is alone. During the tea, decorate shoe boxes and put the presents inside. End the tea with an outing to a charity that collects/accepts gifts for children or head to a seniors’ home.
To teach children what Christmas is really all about, celebrate the birth of Jesus with a birthday cake. Enlist the help of children in baking and decorating the cake. Sing ‘happy birthday’ and blow out the candles together.
To show respect for family members who have passed on, host a special family meal. Set a place for relatives who ‘can no longer be seen’. This gives children an opportunity to remember and learn about relatives as others share stories about them. This activity also provides a sense of spirituality for the holidays.
Have all family members bring wrapped, inexpensive gifts to family gatherings. Everyone takes turns rolling the dice. If doubles are thrown, the person gets to take and unwrap the gift of his/her choice. This continues until everyone has thrown doubles and received a gift. Once doubles are thrown, people are able to ‘steal’ gifts that have already been opened. The person who has had his/her gift stolen, may then, in turn, steal from someone else or open up a new gift.
Each Christmas, bake ‘hand’ cookies. Roll out the dough and trace children’s hands. Decorate the hands with sprinkles for fingernails and rings and the bake. Eat the cookies Christmas day, after photos of everyone posing with their hands have been taken.
Camp out under the tree on Christmas Eve (provided that Santa can sneak in and hide the gifts without waking the children).
Buy an ornament for each of your children every Christmas. Ensure that the ornament has the year on it. (If the year isn’t part of the ornament, write the year on the back or have it engraved on the ornament). If possible, try and buy an ornament that is symbolic of the child’s interests for that year. (As examples, we have Dora the Explorer, Hannah Montana, soccer, and rugby ornaments on our tree). When your children leave the nest for good and move out on their own, gift them each of the ornaments that you purchased for them each Christmas. Their first ‘I’m-on-my-own’ Christmas tree will be all that more special!
Mommas, I invite to take a look at some of my other posts on life with toddlers and elementary school-aged children.
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