Decorating the Christmas tree and wearing pajamas all Christmas day are common family traditions that have stuck throughout the ages. Here are a few new ideas for Christmas traditions that are sure to bring families closer together.
To start with, one of the most fun parts of Christmas is the night before! Christmas is often a time for a home baked meal that Mom spends hours preparing.
Instead, a fun tradition might be to get takeout and bring it back home to eat with the family. This allows everyone to enjoy Christmas Eve, including Mom.
Another fun tradition for both parents and children is when Santa comes down the chimney. Parents can buy fake snow and spray it on their shoes.
This is a fun idea to walk from the chimney to Santa’s goodies and then, after eating the treats, heading back to the chimney. Parents then take off their shoes, giving the real impression that Santa coming down the chimney!
If families do not have a chimney, a new tradition has been taking place throughout the past few years. Parents can decorate or buy a fancy key to hang from the front or back door.
This allows Santa to get inside the house using the “special” key. Perhaps children could even take part in helping to decorate the key each year.
Another fun tradition is to keep the Christmas tree in a room that is separate, yet close, to the living room. This is especially fun for big families because on Christmas day they can make an assembly line and pass the gifts, like a bosch kitchen mixer for mom,along to the living room.
Candlelight caroling is another fun idea for families around Christmastime. Whether it is on Christmas Eve or any other time throughout December, families can go out into the woods or country and sing Christmas carols by candlelight.
Going along with this idea, if weather permits, it might be fun to have a campfire and roast marshmallows and drink hot cocoa while reading Christmas stories. If weather is too cold, maybe the family could find a way to creatively accommodate this idea indoors.
An untraditional Christmas idea is to keep kids up until midnight and open Christmas presents then. This might be more fun with older kids who no longer believe in Santa Claus.
Many churches allow anyone to attend midnight mass on Christmas Eve, which can become a fun tradition for families. While at mass, Santa’s “reindeer” can come and bring a present for each child while leaving a note saying that they wanted to make sure they could find the stockings for Santa.
This is especially fun for kids because they get to open a present before Christmas morning. A common gift from the reindeer may be a pair of pajamas or socks.
Whether kids are young or old, traditions are what hold a family together and they are bound to make many fun family memories.