Guys guys guys guys!! It’s finally here… it’s Christmastime! You have no idea how excited I am that it’s finally my absolute most favorite time of the year. Ever since I was a little girl I have LOVED Christmas. From the decorations, to the music and all the yummy cookies, there’s not much to not like about this season. I think one of the reasons I love Christmas so much is because of all the memories and traditions I have associated with it. I am all about traditions, because they give me something to look forward to, and they are things I hope to pass on to my children. And, lucky for you, today I decided to share some of those traditions with y’all. So sit back, sip on a mug of hot cocoa and enjoy!
My Favorite Christmas Traditions
Decorating the Christmas Tree
Almost every year, my family decorates the Christmas tree the Friday after Thanksgiving. We have so much fun dressing up in ugly Christmas sweaters and listening to our favorite Christmas music. Each of us has our “special” ornaments that we put on the tree every year, and I love sharing this time with my family.
Driving around to see Christmas lights
This is one of my favorite things to do during the month of December. Isaac and I load up in the car with hot chocolate, and drive around local neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights. It’s so much fun, and reminds me of how my grandpa used to decorate their house every year.
Christmas Movies
My family has a special DVD case for only Christmas movies. Every year we watch, without fail, White Christmas. We can quote almost the entire movie, and it’s my favorite movie to watch while decorating my apartment. We also love The Santa Clause (1, 2 and 3!), Elf, and almost every movie on Hallmark. I love snuggling up on the couch and enjoying a heartwarming Christmas movie.
Baking Cookies
My mom is the queen of cookies, and I enjoy helping her bake them almost as much as I enjoy eating them. My favorite holiday cookies are Spritz cookies, because the only time my mom makes them is in December, and they scream “Christmas” to me. I also like finding new recipes to try on Pinterest, and I know my little sisters and I will be baking up a storm of “Pinterest Cookies” this year!
Christmas Eve Present
Every Christmas Eve after the candlelight service and dinner, we get to pick out and open one of our Christmas gifts. When I was little, I would have that special Christmas Eve gift picked out weeks in advance, and it makes me smile seeing my younger siblings do the same. We call it “the first gift of Christmas” and it’s a great way to get excited about the day to come.
Opening Christmas Presents
I don’t know how or why this tradition began, but we’ve been doing it ever since I can remember. Christmas present opening at my house is no joke, and we take it very seriously. Every year we pick an order (oldest to youngest, youngest to oldest, ping pong, every other, and so on) in which we open the presents. We go one by one, and yes… it takes hours. But I love it, because we see what everyone else got, and we can laugh, talk and hang out all morning.
Playing Cards
Granted, we play cards almost every time we’re together, but we do it a lot around Christmastime. A few years ago my cousins taught us the amazing game of Hand and Foot, and it’s been our go-to card game ever since. It works great with larger groups, and all of my siblings are old enough to really enjoy it, which makes it a lot of fun.
Christmas Music
I have a confession to make… I’ve been blasting Christmas music for about three weeks now. My excuse is “why can’t I celebrate Jesus’ birth year round?!”, but the truth is that I just couldn’t wait till Thanksgiving. Among my favorite Christmas albums are Christmas by Michael W. Smith, Christmas by Michael Buble, A Christmas Story by Point of Grace, and A Family Christmas by The Piano Guys.
Now it’s your turn to talk! Answer one of these questions in the comments below:
What are your Christmas traditions?
What is your favorite Christmas movie or album?
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These are some great traditions! White Christmas is one movie I always have to watch to make it feel like the holidays for me. Thanks for sharing these!
Me too!! I haven’t watched it yet this year, but I think tonight’s the night! I may have to conference call my family so they can quote it with me haha.
I love these traditions! We love watching nothing but Christmas movies all December long!
Ahh I love it! I wish I had cable so I could watch ABC Family’s 25 days of Christmas and Hallmark.. I’ll just have to suffice with whatever’s on Netflix and Hulu!
So much fun! We open one present Christmas Eve and its usually a new pair of pajamas! LOL And we have the inlaws over for Christmas Vacation and eggnog. We watched ELF last night and will be having another movie night next weekend too!
Aww I love that!! My aunt always has us wear matching pjs when we’re at her house for Christmas! Christmas Vacation is one of my hubby’s favorite Christmas movies. And I hate to admit that it’s been slowly growing on me over the years of watching it with him haha.
White Christmas is one of my all-time favourite Christmas movies as well! One year I was away for work in December and hadn’t had the chance to watch it with my family but they had it on the plane on my flight home and it made me so happy!
How fun!! It just doesn’t feel like Christmas without watching it at LEAST 5 times, amiright?! ;)
I love all of these traditions! Christmas Vacation & Charlie Brown Christmas are my favorite Christmas movies.
Christmas Vacation is one of my hubby’s favorites… And it’s slowly been growing on my the past few years. I honestly don’t think I’ve watched the Charlie Brown Christmas movie since I was a little girl! I’ll have to watch it this year. :)
This was such a fun post! I love reading about other’s traditions!
Thanks Kathryn!! What are some of your traditions? :)
This was so much fun reading! Love your traditions! Ugly sweaters to decorate the tree – that is awesome! And I love that you get to open one gift on Christmas Eve. Here in Germany we open all the presents on Christmas Eve – but I love the American tradition as well!
Isn’t it?! The best part is when over half of the ugly sweaters end up being pulled from my mom’s closet. ;) And that’s what we used to do with my mom’s side of the family! All the presents on Christmas Eve, then Santa’s gifts on Christmas morning. I love either tradition. :)
We have to watch Charlie Brown Christmas a million times :) Great list of traditions for your family!
Can I be honest with you?? I haven’t watched Charlie Brown Christmas since I was a little girl! I need to change that this year!
We have a lot of the same traditions but I love the sweaters whie decorating!
Haha it’s so fun, isn’t it? We get way too excited when we see ugly sweaters at Goodwill.
I love hearing about other people’s traditions because everyone celebrates differently. Love the throwback photos too!! So very cute!
Me too!! What are some of your traditions? And thanks… I had a lot of fun going back on Facebook to find them! Lots of memories. <3
We celebrate with my family on Christmas eve. Christmas day is for a big feast at my grandmas/celebrate with Colton’s family. On Christmas and Christmas eve, we say “Christmas gift” and you want to be the first to say/text it.
AWw that sounds like so much fun!! I love Christmastime! <3
Awww, what sweet family traditions <3 I love baking cookies, listening to Christmas music, and also driving around looking at lights. I just love everything about this time of year!
XOXO
Me too!!! I am already dreading December 26th when all the magic ends. My husband says I have some serious problems. ;)
We always go look at lights with cocoa and see home alone in the theaters!
That sounds like so much fun!! What theater do you go to to watch Home Alone?
These are great traditions. We love to see the lights every year with our to go mugs of hot chocolate. I love this time of year.
Me too, girl!! And a mug of hot chocolate sounds SO good right now… Yum!
Watching White Christmas is definitely my favorite tradition! We used to watch it while decorating the tree but now that my sister and I aren’t home, it tends to be the Christmas morning movie. :)
I would LOVE to watch that on Christmas morning… I may have to start a new tradition with my family. :) And we always watched it after decorating the tree. Funny how similar some of our traditions are!
i didnt grow up celebrating christmas but i love everything about it. i love your traditions with the family.
Thank you Dixya! What do y’all celebrate instead?
What a fun “opening presents” on Christmas day thing! We just open all at the same time :)
It’s a lot of fun, and our record was 6 hours one year. We had to take a breakfast AND lunch break haha! When we had Christmas with my mom’s side of the family, we would all open them as fast as we could, throwing the paper into the air. Basically our present opening traditions were on opposite ends of the spectrum!
You and me both! It’s such a magical time of year. <3