6 Christmas Traditions to Start Today

It’s almost Christmas, y’all! I love this time of year (I think I’ve said that 10000 times) and all of the cooler weather and fun Holiday activities. But easily my favorite thing about this time of year is spending time with family and friends carrying on old traditions and starting new ones. I love that every year, I know what to expect in our Christmas dinner spread: like my personal favorite, bread pudding. I love opening gifts on Christmas eve with my family and I love reading the Christmas story with my Grandfather. But I also enjoy new traditions. So, I’ve decided to share some of my favorite traditions along with some new traditions we’re thinking of starting. These are all great new Christmas Traditions to start with your family, friends, or just even by yourself.

Christmas Eve PJs

My family and I have been doing this for as long as I can remember. Every Christmas Eve, everyone opens a gift containing new PJs from Mom and Dad (mostly Mom because Dad has no idea what’s going on!). We all run up stairs and put them on and then we’re ready for bed. We loved it as kids because they were your ‘Christmas Jammies’ and it made that night feel even more special. My mom loved it because she was always sure that Christmas Morning pictures would be cute because we were all dressed in new (sometimes matching) PJs. It’s such a fun thing for littles but trust me, we still enjoy it as adults!

New Ornaments

This tradition was actually my dad’s suggestion 25 years ago when I was born. Every year, my siblings and I each get a new ornament that is reminiscent of that pervious year or that means something to us. My first year as a competitive cheerleader, I had a cheer ornament. The year I got my drivers license,  I had a license plate ornament. The year I apparently felt super glamorous and cool (every year!!), I chose this random sparkly, tassely, fabulous ornament! Getting to choose our new ornaments was always a treat, but the best part is putting up the Christmas Tree every year and pulling out all of those old memories! Mom always wrote our name and the year on the bottoms so that we could all put our ornaments  in order and hang them up by year. She did it until my 18th Christmas (which was actually my 19th birthday) and I love looking back at all 20 (that’s right because I have one extra Christmas because I was born on Christmas)!

Sing Happy Birthday to Jesus

Now this my just be my family and it may have something to do with the fact that it’s my birthday as well. But, Every year, we have some sort of cake or dessert with a candle and my whole family sings Happy Birthday to Jesus (and to me). I think it’s a great way to remind yourself of the reason for the season. We are celebrating our Savior’s birth and what better way to do that than to sing a little chorus of Happy Birthday to let Jesus know that we’re thinking of him and his sacrifice even as we’re eating our dessert! I think it’s important that we teach our children that the gifts and the food are just ways that we celebrate the best gift of all, Jesus.

Christmas Morning Breakfast with Family

This is a new tradition for Keith and I that started last year on our first Christmas. We decided that at least while we’re single and our (future) children are young, we’re going to spend every Christmas Eve at my parents house so that we can wake up on Christmas Morning open gifts and have breakfast with my parents and siblings. My sister and I (and Cody but he’s too young to thing about stuff like this) would love to make it a tradition so that when we have kids, we all stay at Mom and Dad’s and celebrate Christmas Morning together! Luckily, my parents are all for it! This also helps because Keith and I need SOMEWHERE to stay when we come in town for Christmas.

Even if you can’t swing a night away from home, I encourage you to wake up early Christmas morning and make plans to have breakfast (in your jammies) with your family. I love the feeling of togetherness that sharing a meal on Christmas morning brings. I know several families who wake up and head to their parents house with the kids for a mid morning breakfast (Hellooooo Perkins Family… Love you guys!) and I hear about nothing but wonderful things and great memories for all involved.

Mario Cart Tournament

My brother is only 12 and so he, of course, has several gaming systems and every Christmas, he typically get a new game or two. Several years ago, we got our first Wii and the Mario Cart game to go along with it. We LOVE it! So every Christmas morning after we open gifts and eat breakfast and break in some of our new gifts, we have a Mario Cart Tournament. I don’t know why we starting doing this, but we look forward to it every year. I love lazy Christmas mornings but it’s also fun to have plans for the day. This plan allows you to stay in your PJs and drink your eggnog in your recliner. So weather its Mario Cart or a new game or a board game, play a game with your family and everyone will be laughing!

Christmas Carol Karaoke

This is a new one for me (though my family often sings carols). Keith’s mom loves to sing Christmas songs so last year (my first Christmas with them) she chose two songs for the family to sing together. One, we knew, the other we didn’t. She was great enough to put the youtube video with words on the TV to help us out. The only rule is that EVERYONE has to sing! We had a good laugh because we all butchered the song we didn’t know and went ahead and attempted it a second time to try and make it sound just a little better. We had a great time laughing and singing some new songs and some old favorites (multiple times).

Read the Christmas Story

This is easily my favorite tradition and one I believe to be the most important. Every year, my grandfather choses one grandchild (typically the youngest one who knows how to read or the newest family member… Keith) to read the Christmas story from Luke chapter 2 in the bible. It’s always so much fun to hear the kids (sometimes the adults) butcher all of the big words and stumble through the sentences. Even though I’ve heard them hundreds of times, it’s always great to reread the words describing the night our Savior was born. Nothing puts me in a more worshipful Christmas mood than hearing the words, “It came to pass in those days…” If you don’t have a bible, here is a link to a place where you can read the Christmas story by yourself or to your family.

I hope you all have wonderful traditions for this time of year. If not, feel free to borrow from my family and try one of the ones above.  Also, I’ve linked my outfit in the widget below in case you’re wondering. This little brown poncho is on sale at Forever 21 for $14 and I’m loving it! Also, the scarf is old, so I’ll link something similar! Merry Almost Christmas, Everyone!

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