I love a good tradition. There is something so lovely about having a ritual that you can fall back on year after year. With the holiday season upon us, I though I’d share a few, both past and present.
Let’s start with a few “traditions past”.
Hallmark Ornaments. I have seen that this is a fairly popular tradition in a lot of families. Each year, my brother and I would get a new Hallmark ornament. I followed collections (Puppy Love!), but he would pick something that reflected his interests that year.
Wrapping paper. When I was growing up, my brother and I always got to pick out our own wrapping paper for our Christmas presents. I always thought that this was so fun. It also saved my mom from having to label our gifts because we could instantly see which stack belonged to which kid. (Smart thinking, Mom!)
Christmas Eve PJs. Every year, we would get a new pair of Christmas pjs that we would wear that night.
Christmas Stockings. Growing up, our Christmas stockings were always something that I looked forward to the most. Now, I always look forward to finding little goodies to fill my family’s stockings! I was so surprised the first Christmas that my husband and I were married that he was slightly perplexed by the stocking idea.
Thanksgiving Eve Pancakes. A newer tradition for me is one from my husbands side of the family. Every Thanksgiving Eve, we go out for a pancake dinner. I love this kick of to the holiday!
Christmas morning. My grandparents would go to each of their kids houses to watch the grandkids open presents. (All before hosting Christmas dinner!) We were always the last stop because my brother and I were the rare breed of kids that needed to be woken up on Christmas morning… what can I say, we liked our sleep! Well one year, my grandparents came and left while we were still sleeping. They made themselves some coffee and took some pictures of themselves sitting on our couch while we were all still in bed. It’s such a funny memory, and I still laugh when I think about it. After presents, Dad would make breakfast and we would eat and hang out until it was time for Christmas dinner at Mommoms with the entire family.
Those are a few traditions that I enjoyed growing up. We have been trying to cultivate a few of traditions for our own little family.
Christmas Eve. A few years ago, we started hosting a party Christmas Eve. It’s been a fun time to get together and see friends and family.
Daily Countdown. This is the newest tradition, and it is definitely my favorite! It always seems to me like the Christmas season flies by, and it’s over before you know it. I wanted to do something to help soak in the season and have lots of opportunities for memories to be made. So, I came up with a countdown to Christmas that is all activities for us to do as a family each day leading up to Christmas. Most of them are completely free, and we had a total blast last year. We did things like going to watch various Christmas parades, driving around and looking at Christmas lights, reading Christmas books or watching Christmas movies. We also threw in a special trip to the aquarium, which will definitely be on repeat this year- it was so fun! 
It was Drew’s first Christmas, and he was only 8 months old, but I know Steve and I will always cherish the different places we visited and memories we made. 
We will be doing it again this year! Drew is a little older, so I think that I am going to incorporate wrapping up something to represent each activity for him to open up.
I may write up a post, sharing our countdown at the end of it, but I will definitely be sharing our days on Instagram. You can follow along with me here.
I’d love to hear some of your family’s traditions! Tell me about them in the comments below 🙂.
