I love traditions. Some of my favorite memories are the Christmas traditions that our family does year after year. Today I’m sharing with you three of my favorite Christmas traditions with kids!
The first tradition, which is a new one to us, was inspired by my dear friend and neighbor. Each year at Christmas time, we do a handprint on our tree skirt. I started at one end and label each print with the year. Noah’s handprints are done in green paint and Liam’s will be done in red! Over time, we will end up with a tree skirt of their growing handprints from year to year. I know this is something that I will treasure forever as my boys keep growing! It’s already fun to compare Noah’s handprint from his first Christmas to now. It makes me a little sad to be reminded of how fast they grow, but I’m so glad I have a print of his teeny tiny hand!
The second tradition that I love at Christmas is our Christmas Eve family dinner. Rather than doing a formal dinner where one person (Mom) does all of the work, we all get in the kitchen together and have fun! Each person picks an appetizer to make. We play Christmas music in the background and the kitchen is sheer madness, but man, do we have fun! We then fill our plates with our appetizers and eat together before opening gifts. This works great with little ones who are just too excited to eat before presents because they can come back and graze later! (Same kitchen, just pre-renovation if you’re curious!).
The third tradition that I love at Christmas is giving our boys each a pair of cute Christmas pajamas (I’m currently obsessed with the pjs from Hanna Andersson), warm socks, and a Christmas movie. It’s so nice during the holidays to just take a couple hours to cuddle up as a family and watch a movie. Just to stop and be together.
What are your family’s traditions that you cherish?