25 Days of Christmas Traditions… I need your help!

My family always used to get kids’ angels and fulfills their wishes. Now that I’m on the other side of the country, I like to do that, too! Although NYC kids’ requests are things like Nintendo DS’s and UGG boots…

Other things we’d do would be advent calendars (candy every day yum!), baking cookies, and having “dance parties” to Christmas music when I was really little.

Y’all should get a puppy.
And then every Christmas, you can dress little Dogbert up in various holiday gear. It’s fun, I promise. Just be sure to have plenty of treats around. :) This is a big Christmas tradition I have with my fur baby.

But if actually acquiring a puppy is not an option, y’all could create a Christmas gift basket for your local shelter or Humane Society filled with treats/necessities or volunteer your time to walk some puppies at your local shelter. Hope y’all have a great start to this Christmas season!

Every year my parents get my sister and I an ornament….they started when we were babies so that by the time we were ready to get married/move out of the house, we would have some ornaments for our tree, and each year on Christmas Eve before we would go to sleep we would read Twas the Night Before Christmas…..whenever I’m at home, I still do it! When I’m not, I make Brandon read it to me to continue the tradition :)

The Christmas parade in my hometown is always a highlight. I also look forward to the Christmas party I have with my girlfriends every year. We make the same delicious desserts, and this year we are thinking of doing an ornament exchange or a “my favorite things” party. I also love collecting ornaments each year. My mother’s Christmas tree is like one giant memory book. And, of course, I try to make it a point to help give a good Christmas to a child who might not otherwise have had one. There are opportunities for giving all around! And giving always brings joy – to any season. Happy holidays! :)

One of our family traditions is to open up new pajamas on Christmas eve and do a little fashion show with them. They always have to be Christmas themed. Now that I am grown up and married, my husband and I do this. We will wear those pajamas all night and Christmas day!

We also used to have an ornament set that went along with the “night before Christmas”. After each page there was a little ornament that went with that passage that the kids would take turn putting on the tree. It was my favourite tradition.

And of course we would always get a new Christmas dress then wear it to visit santa and have our photos taken. Have to look your best to see the big guy!

We make cookies and give them to older people in our church or the local nursing home….and we make a party out of the cookie making :). We set up a decorating table and have Christmas music :). I must say ,y kids also love the elf on the shelf!!!! They just think it is SO fun! I don’t do it every night but I try to….there are 4 million cute ideas on pinterest.

A book is such a good tradition to do. My family has every christmas book from when I was little that we would read every night and my mom’s keeping them for my kids. My sister and I also got an ornament every year that was significant to something new that we did that year like a sport or accomplishment or new hobby. My family cut down our Christmas tree every year, would take our dogs, take funny pictures, and then grab burgers from the same joint every year. Also, we got to open one gift on xmas eve, usually new Christmas pjs! We also always had my dads incredible baked ziti every year after Christmas eve church service. Makes me sad just thinking of how I’ve grown up and will get to be starting new traditions with my family one day.

This also my first year in your “situation,” so I’m probably not the best person to answer! But I will anyways :)

I’ve noticed that I’ve gone a little overboard in creating traditions and making Christmas memories, since this year is so different for my son. We’ve already decorated the tree and house. We’re going to go for a walk (son in decorated wagon) around the neighborhood with hot chocolate to look at lights. I went to Michael’s and picked up a ridiculous amount of holiday crafts to do together. We’re also going to a paint your own pottery place to make our own ornaments.

That’s such a great idea! I love that picture of Brooke by the way. I really admirehow your focus has been to build yourself up for the future in so many ways! I think baking/ decorating sugar cookies, seeing Santa, you know the typical stuff. And maybe going to see Christmas lights. Donating a toy for another child. I think being around family you build traditions that really aren’t even on purpose. My sister & I watch the same Christmas movies over & over again.

This year my daughter is 4 and we are doing Elf on the Shelf. Today was Day 1 and she was sooo excited!
I’m also doing an advent calendar, but instead of candy in it, it has a slip of paper that has something holiday-oriented to do together. At first my daughter was upset there wasn’t a treat, but when I read it to her “Paint your nails in Christmas colors” she was super psyched and can’t wait to read the next paper tomorrow!

I’m Jewish so our only Christmas tradition is that we serve Christmas dinner at the local homeless shelter so the Christian volunteers can spend it with their families

Don’t forget about Gingerbread Houses! You can make them pretty inexpensively by using royal icing (milk and powdered sugar) to “glue” graham crackers to those small milk cartons. I’m sure I don’t need to tell you about the candy decorating part :)

We just got our Christmas decorations put up today! Other things I love are baking yummy treats at least once a week and giving them away to people, adopting an Angel from the Angel Tree at my church, watching the 25 Days of Christmas on ABC Family, driving around looking at Christmas lights, and hanging with my loved ones :) this is such a fun season!

I love this time of year too!! Some things I do that I always look forward to are getting and decorating the tree (probably something everyone does:), wrapping presents on Christmas eve with Wade while we watch The Christmas Story (you’ll shoot your eye out), and a Swedish breakfast on Christmas morning to celebrate my heritage. We could always run around early in the morning and leave random presents on peoples doorsteps…..

Yours is one of my favorite blogs to read. I’m always inspired by your motivation and positivity and I’m so sorry that your Christmas traditions having to change this year. However, I’m sure that you and Brooke and the rest of your family and friends will develop wonderful new traditions. I hope this is your best Christmas yet. Also – that picture of Brooke in her Santa suit is absurdly adorable. I can’t wait for you to find her a new one and post pictures.

I love this idea! As I just got married, I am looking for traditions to start to make sure it’s a good month! My husband and I are going to put together different things we want to do and pick one out every day. Drive around to see the lights, watch a Christmas movie, decorate the tree, disconnect and listen to Christmas music, go for a walk to look at the lights after dinner! Just a few ideas :) Can’t wait to hear what you do!

I’ll bet your puppy-lover would get a kick out of doing something animal shelter-related. Could be super simple like buying some chew toys and dropping them off.

Going to see Christmas lights, reading Christmas stories, playing Christmas music, baking cookies…my daughter mentioned these first :) But her favorite: one thing I’ve done for 18 years starting with my stepkids is the Santa presents get hidden and are found via treasure hunt with a series of clues. The kids have always LOVED it. It’s a ton of work but worth it. I’d suggest you and Brooke get your own little tree to complement grandma and grandpa’s. And decorate your little space for yourselves. This gets to be how YOU want it. There is a certain freedom in that. I was in a similar ‘situation’ last spring for my BIG birthday and Mothers Day. I started sad but then realized I could do it how I wanted and it was amazing and fun and wonderfully memorable. Wishing you the most delightful, shiniest holiday season ever! Sending you love and joyous energy :)

When we were little, we used to drive around with my parents and look at all the Christmas lights (as was said by a few other people). My dad STILL reads us “Twas the Night Before Christmas” on Christmas Eve…even though we are 30, 23, and 21. On Christmas Eve, we also go to my aunt & uncle’s house in our ridiculous pajamas (last year’s theme was footsie pajamas) and eat a lot of food and enjoy a lot of time with family. On Christmas Day, we sit at the top of the stairs in our PJs so mom can get a picture before we head downstairs to open presents. We are not allowed downstairs until that has happened!

-We always drove around the fancier neighborhoods to admire the Christmas lights. -My mom would take me every year to pick out a new ornament for our tree.

I love Christmas movies, books, and music, so there’s a lot of that going on in December. We take the kids to a Christmas store every year and let them choose a new ornament. Lots of baking, of course. We also do something called Christmas Love. It’s sort of like the 12 days of Christmas. 13 days before Christmas we secretly leave a letter explaining what’s going on, a letter, and a gift that starts with that letter. Each day a new gift and letter (spelling out Christmas Love) gets left secretly. Always fun for the kiddies, and we never reveal ourselves. We also have a Christmas Eve program where everyone has to share something/a talent with the family. When we’re in warm climates, on Christmas Eve we fly a kite, in colder climates we go sledding. We also have a simple Advent that we do each year. It’s in the 2000 Friend magazine, and we just reprint it each year, and let the kids take turns reading the scripture, and putting the picture on.

Have you ever seen “Christmas Eve on Sesame Street”? It’s actually one of the greatest movies ever – my family and I watch it together every year.

We make simple gingerbread houses with graham crackers, put together a stocking for the Salvation Army to give to a family, bake Christmas cookies with red and green M&M’s, stay up late one night and drive around looking at Christmas tree lights in our PJ’s, have a picnic in front of Christmas tree, watch Christmas Vacation, although Brooke is probably a bit young for Cousin Eddie. ;)

And on Christmas Eve, we all wear Christmas PJ’s and make homemade pizzas.

We haven’t done this for several years, but we would always go to Christmas lights at the botanic gardens in Denver with my grandparents. It was always (and still is) amazing to look at the billions of lights they would put up every year. The cool part is that I live a block away from the gardens now so I can see some of the lights when I run around my park.

No matter what traditions you do, they will be special to you and Brooke. I feel like the most special memories I have are ones that are unique with my mom and the rest of my family :)

Our FAVORITE tradition is ding dong ditching. Wait! It’s not bad! We bake goodies and make plates to deliver. We each pick a family that we want to take the goodies to. Then, we park away from the house, leave the plate on the door step, ring the doorbell and run. Seriously! THE MOST FUN!! We have been doing this for 25 years (I know – I’m old!) When I ask my kids who are in college what they want to do when they get home for the holidays, this is the first thing they all say. We started when our oldest was about Brooke’s age. It’s hard to be stealthy when you are running away with a toddler. We got caught a lot when they were little. Now we enlist our friends help and go a few times every December. Last year we had 4 mini vans/SUVs traveling together. Imagine 14 kids and 3 parents running away from the door – so fun!

I’m not creative enough for 25 days, so we do Family Fridays. I wrap all the little clues and put them under the tree. The first Friday is the day after thanksgiving . “Put these on, grab a blanket and let’s watch Charlie Brown Christmas”….and they get new jammies.

I have little craft things for one Friday night, bring a treat to the fire department to say thank you for keeping us safe, family game night with a new game, learn about Christmas carol composers and sing a few songs together (but this usually turns into a dance party to Christmas songs on the iPod), ding dong ditching treats to Primary teachers , get a new Just Dance Wii game and everyone has to participate, seeing the lights up at Temple Square, go to the live Nativity in Alpine, pay for the person behind us in the Mcdonalds drive thru, and etc. I try to not to have a “present” of every Friday, but more of a family activity.

Good luck Janae! You will handle all of this with grace and dignity!

I’m doing a 24 day countdown for my son who will be 2 yrs old next week. I’m hoping to get a blog post up tomorrow with all the days. I found a lot of my ideas on Pinterest!

Our favorites: Christmas movie (pick a favorite to be YOUR movie…ours is Elf), driving around looking at lights, shopping for Toys for Tots, making cookies, wrapping presents, putting up the tree, getting out our Christmas village, seeing Santa…

Go Christmas caroling :) Or just sing them at home!

The friend magazine has great ideas for christmas (and all year long). They had a fun advent calendar a few years back that i laminated and use every year. I love it bc it has a scripture for every day and a simple question to teach about the xmas story.

We also do a craft every day from dec 1-25; lots of snowmen, rudolph, elves, coloring. My 5 kids range from almost 2-9 and they love this! We bake cookies for the neighbors, drive around and look at lights, have hot chocolate and watch the polar express, take the kids to the dollar tree to buy their siblings gifts, but their absolute fav is the pickle prize! We have a small pickle ornament that we hide on the tree on xmas eve. Whoever finds it gets a special gift!

My mother is German, so my brother and I always had our shoes filled on December 6th (night before) with chocolate and other treats, but always something very personal to each child. Might have been new pencils, erasers, coloring books, whatever we loved, fit in the shoe, and was under $10. Could be extra special given your family’s proclivity to running shoes. :) Merry, merry Christmas!

Every year my mom buys me and my sister 1 extra special Christmas tree decoration. she started it so when we left home we would have enough to start our own tree :)

Ice skating!! And we always create a gift shoe box as part of the local church donation!

I’m a fan of new traditions. Traditions (old and new) = new stories = more memories.

Some of my holiday traditions are:

-Fondue on Xmas Eve
-Going to see a play downtown Chicago – half the time it’s holiday oriented, the other half the time it’s whatever’s showing
-KRINGLE (O&H Bakery will deliver the BEST pastry you will ever try in your life. —-Trust me on this one…..unless you actually happen to be eating Kringle while in Denmark)
-Running group holiday morning run followed by breakfast of kringle

We watch The Hangover every year on Christmas Day before we either go to relatives houses or they come to ours! It has been going on since the year the movie came out. I bought it for my brother and my parents fell in love with it and so it is something we always look forward too!

She’s a little young for this, but I make ornaments with the kids every year…we keep one to put on our tree and give the rest away. I try to do it early enough in the season that it’s fun and not stressful…and I’m not very crafty so I keep it simple :)

When I was younger, I’d bake with my mom and grandma every Christmas.

Christmas is my favorite time of year, and you are my fave blogger, so I wanted to share my tradition! Each December, I pick a day (usually two!) to bake hundreds of Christmas cookies, which I send or give out to family and friends. During the week leading up to the big day, I sit by the lit Christmas tree, watching a movie and selecting the top ten cookie recipes I’ll be using that year. Then, on cookie day, I blast the Christmas music, allow people to “enter the kitchen at their own risk,” and bake away for hours! It’s my most treasured Christmas tradition, especially because it’s something I do on my own, which is why I decided to comment the idea to you :) And I love being able to give cookies out, spreading Christmas cheer! The best! For the last 5 years it’s become quite the privilege to receive a box of my Christmas cookies! Ha! Enjoy your holiday season, I hope you found some fun new ideas for Christmas traditions for you and Brooke!

Watching A Christmas Story.
Volunteering at a clothing drive station

The Live Nativity in Alpine is the first weekens in December and is great to appreciate the real meaning of Christmas. My stepmom always does a cookie exchange party which ia fun to see everyone’s creativity and of course you get to sample tons of different cookies!