15 Very Merry Family Christmas Traditions to Start Now!

It’s the most wonderful time of the year and that means the return of some of our favorite family Christmas traditions!

Traditions mean so much to children. 

They bring back happy shared memories of the past and help kids feel a part of something bigger than themselves.  Hey!  They mean a lot to adults, too!  Traditions bind us together and define what makes our family just that – our family.  These are the unique things we do together, the things that make us smile and bring joy.  

Every family’s holiday traditions are slightly different, so it’s always enjoyable to glimpse into another home and see what family Christmas traditions they repeat year after year.  You might just find one you want to begin with your crew!

Here are some family Christmas traditions our family enjoys each holiday season:

15 Very Merry Family Christmas Traditions

1. Matching Pajamas

When December 1^st rolls around, out pop the cozy, fleece matching jammies!  We love this family Christmas tradition so much!  We’ve had the same set now for YEARS!  What?  Wait!  Don’t the kids grow?  Yep, but they’re gender neutral so as each kid grows, they just pass them on down to the next child in line.  We’ve been blessed to find new sizes we needed on Ebay or even in consignment stores to fill in the gaps.  So, now we own enough of the jammies for a family of 10 instead of 6!  Ha!

2. Making Buckeyes

Baking Christmas cookies is a cherished family Christmas tradition in many homes.  But in our house is just wouldn’t be Christmas without no-bake buckeyes!  My mom first started making chocolate covered peanut butter buckeyes when we lived in Ohio many years ago.  I have lots of happy memories of all us children gathered round the kitchen island rolling the little peanut butter balls in our palms.  So now, I do the same with my kids!  Fun to make and even more fun to eat!  Yum!

3. Advent Calendar Countdown

Using the advent calendar was a tradition we first started when the oldest children were just beginning to learn how to count.  They had so much fun counting and opening up the little treasures on the advent calendar one day at a time!  We’ve continued the tradition ever since!  You can fill the boxes with little candies or sweet messages, but most years we have used Playmobil Advent Calendars.  The kids get one little toy each day that together makes a really fun play set they can enjoy all through the year.

4. Decorating the House

Growing up, my mom decorated the house for Christmas while we were at school.  When we would come home one day, the house was transformed!  Since my kids are homeschooled, though, they’re always hanging about!  So, we started a new tradition of decorating together!  They help me put away the regular décor, dust and clean, and pull out the buckets of Christmas décor.  We turn up some Christmas music and start decorating!  It’s a joint effort and the kids are so proud of their work when it’s all accomplished!

5. Holiday Movies & Books

Some of our favorite evenings are cold nights gathered around the fire, snuggled in our Christmas jammies with hot chocolate, goodies, and a holiday movie.  We have so many favorites!  We love the Home Alone movies, the Santa Clause movies, and Elf.  Some of our favs come from treasured books like the Polar Express and the Grinch.  But we also have plenty of other adored holiday books we like to read at this time of year, too, like The Night Before Christmas and Rudolph.  This year, my husband is reading Charles Dicken’s A Christmas Carol out loud to the children at bedtime each night.  Christmas stories make wonderful Christmas memories.

READ: 100 Must-Read Classic Books for Kids

6. Picking & Decorating the Tree

Just after Thanksgiving each year, we go Christmas tree hunting and pick out the perfect tree together as a family.  We bring it home and decorate it.  Each child has a stash of personal ornaments to hang.  Ornaments bring back treasured memories, and we laugh and fill the evening with, “Do you remember…?” and “Oh!  Look at this one!” 

Kids grow quickly. As hard as I try, it is such a challenge to remember precisely their sweet little faces at each age. Long ago, I decided I would rather fill our Christmas tree with memories of my kids instead of random ornaments. So, at least every other year, we try to make photo ornaments that freeze time. Some years we find the perfect Pinterest photo ornament craft and enjoy an artsy afternoon in creation. Other years, I buy pre-made photo holder ornaments and just slide in the picture. Done!

7. Gingerbread House

Decorating a candy gingerbread house has been a fun holiday tradition for several years!  This is another tradition I used to do as a child with my family, then I continued it with my students when I was a classroom teacher.  When my kids were born, we kept the tradition alive!  I’ve baked homemade gingerbread, used graham crackers glued with frosting onto milk cartons, and tried store bought gingerbread house kits.  No matter the style – they are all fun!  We set our gingerbread creation out to look pretty throughout December but when New Year’s Eve arrives the wait is over.  It’s eating time!

8. Christmas Kindness

God has been good to us and blessed us so very much, so one of the most important family Christmas traditions we have is giving back to others during the holiday season.  This can take many forms!  In the past we have completed a Kindness Calendar and done one, small, good deed each day.  We often buy gifts for Toys for Tots or an Angel Tree, too.  Many years, we make homemade crafts or take a small plant or flowers to the elderly and widows we know or bring them some homemade goodies we have baked.

Last year, my daughter wanted to give up her own gifts to give to those in need, so she adopted a needy family of children through the local school and bought them clothing and toys.  She also contributed money to St. Jude’s Hospital.  Many families enjoy donating used toys to homeless shelters or collecting canned food for local food banks.  This time of giving is a wonderful opportunity to teach our kids to think of others and show gratitude for their own blessings!

9. Sing Carols

This year we decided to start a new tradition of singing a Christmas song together!  I guess we were inspired by some of our favorite Christmas albums – Pentatonix.  We don’t sound nearly as, um, professional as them (ha!), but it sure has been fun to try harmonizing on a song together! In the future, since the kids are getting old enough, we want to go Christmas caroling in the traditional old-fashioned way around our neighborhood.  Just maybe not this year due to COVID.

10. Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt

Another fun family Christmas tradition has been to all pile in the car and go looking at Christmas lights!  Some years, we print off lists we find on the internet that require us to hunt for certain objects.  Super fun!  If you decide to try this one, be sure to go through a drive-through first and get everyone a cup of peppermint hot-chocolate!  Makes for a fun night!

11. Pictures with Santa

One of our favorite old-fashioned family Christmas traditions are photos with Santa. From the darling baby photos to the screaming toddler photos to the adoring elementary age photos – it is so funny to watch each kid go through their love-hate relationship with the man in red! Snapping this picture is a must every holiday season.

READ: 120 Pretend Play Ideas for Nurturing Imagination

12. Christmas Cards & Prayer

Call us old-fashioned, but we still send out paper Christmas cards!  I’ve thought and thought about dispensing with this timeless tradition – going digital – but there’s just something I love about sending and receiving cards in the mail each December.  So, we snap a family photo each year and send out our cards.  As we receive cards from others, we punch a hole in them and place them onto a ring.  We spend January and sometimes the next several months choosing 1 family each day to pray for.  Their card or photo stays out on the kitchen table and we humbly ask God to watch over them and care for them that day.

13. Elf on the Shelf

I was a slow convert to Elf on the Shelf.  I resisted for years.  I didn’t like the idea of telling my kids an elf was spying on them for good behavior.  But I finally gave in and boy, is it a lot of fun!  We don’t make a big deal about having to behave for the elf because we want our kids to behave for better reasons than that.  But our elf moves around the house each night and it’s a super-fun hunt to find him (and his pet reindeer) each morning to see what antics he has been up to through the night.  Today, sadly, our toddler got a hold of him and he is currently sick and recuperating.  Oops.  Sorry, Santa.

14. Christmas Eve Cookies & Stockings

One of the sweetest family Christmas traditions each year is setting out cookies and milk for Santa.  Oh – and carrots for the reindeer, of course.  I like this innocent tradition because it’s a gentle reminder to children to be grateful and appreciative for the gift they expect to receive.  A small recompense.

Also on Christmas Eve, call it unusual, but one of our family Christmas traditions is to open up stockings just before going to bed.  It stretches out the joy of Christmas morning just a little bit longer.  I think this tradition began when the kids were small and so eager to peek into stockings.  They were about to burst their buttons waiting to open gifts!  So, we decided to let them do stockings that evening and voila!  A new tradition was born.

15. Christmas Morning Joy

My favorite family Christmas tradition might just be the pitter-patter of little feet on Christmas morning!  My husband and I sleep in and let the kids come thundering down the stairs to wake us up.  They joyfully jump all over us until we roll out of bed.  We run into the family room together – in our matching jammies – and start the Christmas unwrapping!  After we finish, I cook a big breakfast of pancakes and scrambled eggs while daddy cuts open all the toy packaging and the children explore their new stuff.  Treasured memories!

What are your favorite family Christmas traditions?

There are so many ways to do Christmas as a family.  These traditions are the building blocks of happy family memories and treasured moments.

Please share yours! I would love to hear the memories that make your family unique!