Favorite Holiday Traditions
This special time of year can be one of the best times to create family traditions with your little ones. But it can also feel overwhelming when it seems like this is the time of year that is so hectic. Trying to make magic on top of everything else can be too much. So we’re here with some ideas for special holiday traditions that you can incorporate into your family, without breaking the bank or stretching your sanity to the breaking point.
Baking/Decorating Special Treats
For many families, this time of year means special dishes or recipes. If you have a special family treat, what better way to celebrate it than by passing it down to the next generation. As your children get older, they will not only enjoy eating that special treat, but joining you in the kitchen to make it. This could be cookies, latkes, egg nog, or a standing roast. Whatever. But it’s fun to highlight a family dish, foster a love of it with your kids, and pass the recipe down.
Or even if you don’t have a special family recipe, what better time than to create one. Every year, our family bakes sugar cookies and decorates them. My sugar cookie recipe has become near and dear to my kids’ hearts, even though it’s one I found and adapted myself. It’s something we normally only make this time of year, though, so it’s become a long-awaited treat every time the holidays roll around.
And if baking is just not your thing, you can find cookie decorating kits at the store that allow you to skip right to the fun part. Some of the best part of these special recipes is just the time spent together in the kitchen. Store bought or homemade, decorating cookies is always fun!
Collecting New Holiday Books
Another fun holiday tradition is to build a library for your kids of holiday-themed books. You can start with just a few board books when they are babies. And each year you can add a book. As your children get older, you can include them in picking their special book each year. Or put some books on your children’s holiday wish list and give them as suggestions for family members. Maybe you’ll end up getting some gifts that you actually want lol!
At the end of the holiday season, our family always boxed up the books with the rest of the decorations and then it felt like a treasure trove of special books each year when we brought them back out. Reading those special holiday books at bedtime when my kids were younger was always a special tradition
Commemorating New Family Members
Adding a new ornament or a new menorah is also a fun way to build special holiday traditions. Whether it’s a brand new baby or baby’s first holiday, commemorating the event with something new is a great tradition. Then every year when you decorate the tree or light candles for Hannukah, you can think about those special firsts.
And as your kids grow, they will start making their own special ornaments or crafts to add to the holiday decor. It can be bittersweet to see your teenage children compare the size of their hand now to the ornaments they made with their handprints in preschool.
Looking at Holiday Lights
Another fun and easy tradition your family can do this time of year is drive around and look at the Christmas lights. Each year it’s so fun to scope out the neighborhoods and keep track of which ones have the best displays. There’s nothing better than making some hot cocao, throwing some cozy blankets into the backseat, cranking some carols in the car and taking a tour around town to see the lights. It’s something our family looks forward to every year. And no matter how big my children have gotten, they have never outgrown this one.