Family Christmas Traditions

If you know anything about us, you’d know that Christmas is our jam. You may not find us on one of those extreme lights shows or dressing up as the Clauses themselves, but we get pretty into the holiday spirit as soon as October ends. Pumpkins are great and all, and by God nothing beats summer, but Christmas is our super bowl and let me tell you a little more on why.

Christmas for me and my husband has always held a deep meaning of family. Growing up, it was the family traditions, like cutting down a tree together or staying up all night baking cookies with my mom, that were some of the best memories of my childhood during the holidays. It wasn’t the presents I got as a kid – honestly I can’t remember most of those – but the moments spent together with the people that meant the most. When my husband and I got married, we talked a lot about the traditions we wanted to start as a family (even just the two of us). When Aden was born, our traditions grew to be things we wanted our kids to look forward to. Traditions are an important thing that I want my kids to take with them as they grow older and start families of their own. (Even though that’s a long ways away, because we all know they’re not allowed to leave until their 40!!) Here are just a few highlights of some of our favorites that we’ve really started to look forward to.

Stockings, were hung…

It’s not Christmas unless stocking are involved and for us, it’s one of the first things we do when we get decorating. I’m that mom that loves personalization, so these stockings from Stuck on You were a must-have for my kids. I loved the old school look of a real sock and the tree print was too adorable to pass up for mr big personality, Hudson.

Nightly Christmas movies

As soon as we could, we had the boys watching some of favorite Christmas classics like Rudolph and Frosty the Snowman. This year, it’s even more fun with their ages, so we’ve carried the tradition nightly by introducing them to a new movie each night. We all cuddle up in our king size bed in our jammies after dinner to unwind.  Some of our favorites like Home Alone, Miracle on 34th Street and Jingle All the Way have been a hit for our 3 and 4 year old. So much, they’re spontaneously quoting them around the house during the day. Seeing my husband bond with his boys over some of his childhood favorites has made this Christmas a new one for the memory books.

Holiday Story-time

We do story-time every night in our house right before bed. It’s been a nightly ritual for our babies to instill a good bedtime routine since they’ve been only a few months old. Around the holidays, we switch up our normal library to the seasonal books and Christmas is no exception. We pull out the big guns with books like Jingle, the talking dog and a recorded rendition of The Night Before Christmas read by mum-mum. Anything personalized is a hit, so this year I scooped up this one by Stuck on You that  appears to be written about the boys, with their names throughout the book.

Decorating the gingerbread house

This is a new one for our family, but the kids absolutely loved helping build the house and decorating it with loads of candy. Seeing them light up when it was finished and being so proud of what they made, was totally worth dealing with their sugar rush from taking the icing bag to the head a few times when we weren’t looking. 😉 Boys.

Matching Christmas jammies

Yes, I make us be that family. Doesn’t every mom?! I only have a select few years where I can get everyone to comply with my dreams of a well-dressed family photo on Christmas morning, so I’m rolling with it for as long as I can. It also makes for some great memories and it’s one of my favorite things to plan out during the season.

Santa sacks + personalized gifting

My husband and I started this one when we were married, but I carried it over from my Christmas’ as a kid. My parents always used different wrapping paper for each person under the tree, so you always knew which one was yours without ever looking at the name tag. It made us feel really special, like Santa prepared the gifts just for us. When J and I got married, we got really into the type of wrapping paper we chose to use on each others gifts. To this day, I choose printed holiday paper based on my kids personalities and interests and I rarely give a family member a gift without choosing the bag and tag that I feel fits them to a tee. I’m also so excited to introduce these personalized Santa Sacks to the boys this year and I can’t wait to see their eyes light up thinking about how Santa brought that down our chimney just for them.

That’s just a few of our holiday traditions that I love, but there are so many more. What are some things you do as a family that you’re handing down from your childhood? Tell me in the comments below!

We received product from Stuck on You Official in exchange for this post. Thanks, Stuck On You!

Pin Me!