Why Christmas Traditions are Important and 20 Kid Preferred Traditions.
A good bit of Christmas tends to be focused on presents when you’re in it. But, think back to your Christmas past. Is it the presents you remember? Or is it the experiences you remember? I’m gonna guess that your powerful memories are triggered by more emotional memories. The overplayed Christmas songs, cheesy Christmas movies, the spicy scent of Christmas, decorations, the lights, traditions, houses crowded with family members you may or may not want to see. Emotional memories are powerful because those are the ones that put a stamp in our brains.
Sadly, Christmas isn’t always a super positive emotional memory for everyone. Some find it filled with the feeling of loneliness, hurt, trauma and find it difficult and painful. Some may even view it as simply just trying to endure it, not celebrate it. The most important thing we can do with ourselves is to be honest about what the Holiday’s and Christmas means to us and move through them from there.
Let me not downplay it - I’m one of those people. As in, Christmas is kinda a big deal for me. As soon as the Halloween decorations go down, Christmas is all my girls and I can think about. The fall jammies come out and we go straight to Christmas Jammies. The next week, the throw blankets and pillows get swapped out to red and fuzzy white. Slowly the house starts to transform into a Cozy Christmastime abode. Before Thanksgiving comes I’ve got our Christmas sheets on our beds and the living room rearranged to perfectly accommodate our Christmas tree. The day after Thanksgiving - it’s on! Christmas music, Christmas movies, outfits…all of it.
Christmas has always been my favorite time of year. As a child, teenager, college, young adult, always! As if my love for Christmas couldn’t get bigger, I became a mom and the excitement shot up ten-fold. It was like now I had someone to share my joy with and who is the MOST excited about Christmas? KIDS!! As I sit and reflect on Christmas past, it’s registering in my head that my joy and love for Christmas was built from my childhood experiences. My parents weren’t rich, we didnt do a bunch of crazy things and we never had elaborate Christmas parties or anything like. Rather, my memories of Christmas as a child are more simplistic, cozy and calm. We all have little traditions we do around Christmas, but truly Christmas as a whole experience greatly impacts us as children and shapes us as we grow into adults.
This Christmas, is a little different for me and my girls. It’s our 3rd Christmas post-separation/divorce but our 1st where we’re in our own home instead of nesting at friends houses or cramped in my parents basement. That change in itself is a big one but, on top of that, I also lost a lot of Christmas decorations and momentoes in my divorce. Things I cannot simply replace. I’m also financially unable (how about “financially more savvy”) to do a lot of the traditions my girls have grown to know and love over the years. These hard realities sent me straight into a total depressive state when normally I would be so full of Christmas spirit I’d be bouncing off the walls . Nearly two whole weeks.
I finally forced myself to sit down and reflect on my childhood and the Christmas memories I’ve worked so hard to build for my girls over the years. I then had to force myself to accept the hard reality of change. Change is never easy but, I feel like it’s especially hard when change requires letting go of traditions. You create traditions with the intent to never change them. You do the same thing, over and over again. Maybe some minor tweaks, but it’s the same thing!
As I’m sitting there fighting the internal battle with myself on change and trying to accept that I am still rebuilding emotionally and financially from my divorce, I remember how simplistic my childhood was. Why was I sitting here sulking. Did I want I my kids to remember a self-loathing mom who couldn’t get her shit together for the sake of Christmas? NO you @sshole. Now snap outta it before you waste this opportunity to strengthen your bond with the girls and create new beautiful memories in this new stable life you’re working so hard to give them.
The truth is, yea my girls love the picture frames and personalized ornaments and “thing”, but what they really love about Christmas was being with me (cue the tears). It won’t be like that forever so I have to make the most of that while it lasts. While in this the “days are long but the years are short” mentality, I realized that maybe it’s ok to let go of some traditions. The question was then - how do I preserve the core traditions, which can I and do I refine them, and what new Christmas traditions can I or should I start for my girls? Oh, the cherry on top - I have my girls ½ as much as I’m used to and supporting them off 1/8th as much income as I’m used to around the Holiday’s. So, this means I gotta think about condensing things, consider what’s going to make an actual and meaningful impact, and figure out what they actually enjoy and look forward to doing each year?
Some traditions we may feel obligated to keep doing because that’s what we did as kids. I found myself wondering if the traditions were for ME…or for my kids? And do they even actually enjoy them? And….Down the rabbit hole I go! I wanted to know what traditions kids actually looked forward to each Christmas. Not just my kids, all the kids in my circle of influence. I reached out to a bunch of moms and asked them what family Christmas tradition they looked forward to the most each year. What I have found as I collected responses is that they don’t have to be expensive, elaborate or time-consuming. Small moments seemed to be most popular. They were all so great that I wanted to share with you. As moms we try hard all the time, and it’s exhausting. My hope is that this list can help you be more efficient and impactful with with our efforts.
20 Christmas Traditions that kids actually look forward to each year
1. Baking Christmas Cookies
I guess I’m not totally surprised that this was the most mentioned tradition. Who doesn’t love Christmas cookies?
For my family, this may be one of our bigger traditions that my mom leads. When I say “big…” I mean BIG. To give you and idea, she starts the process of making batter a few days before the actual Annual Hudak Cookie Baking day and we go until after dinnertime most years. It’s literally a production and never gets old. The kids usually wear Christmas jammie’s all day and bounce in and out from helping us bake to tormentig Poppy and playing with eachother. Every year we make 15 to 20 different kinds and yield well over 150 dozen cookies!! When we’re done, we all make platters and boxes to pass out to friends, family, neighbors, teachers, co-workers, coaches, clients…everyone.
Other family’s do other kinds of Christmas baking – bon bons, cinnamon rolls, irish tea rings, and Fruit Cakes were some mentioned.
2. Christmas Jammies
This was a common one too. When my kids were first born this was a tradition I started right away. Every year the entire family has at least 1 set of matching Christmas Jammies that we wear on Christmas Eve. The Christmas Jammie love doesn’t stop with 1 matching set of jammies for us. In years past, I would literally box up our normal, everyday, PJ’s and replace them with Christmas Jammies. We wear them from the week of thanksgiving until New Years Day. It’s something I kind of fell into with my oldest because, you know they grow outta clothes so quick and one year I ended up having to get her all new jammies right before Christmas. I then realized how nostoligc and fun Christmas jammies are for them so I tried to do this every year for them. This year, however, financially I didn’t want to splurge as much so but wanted to continue this traditions on for them. hit the Black Friday sale at Old Navy for our whole family matching set and then went to a few different second hand shops and found some great pairs that didnt even have tags taken off of them.
3. Elf on the Shelf Craziness
If you have kids then you more than likely also have at least one Elf on The Shelf. You’ve got your dedicated Pinterest moms whose Elf is super naughty and present, totally crushing every single Elf landing with amazing creativity and spirit. You’ve got your wanna be Pinterest moms (hi, it’s me) who start out super creative and then most of your days consist of jumping outta bed as you hear the kids start to wake up, grabbing your elf and throwing it across the room hoping it lands in a secure place where the dogs wont eat it. And then you’v got your I’m just here because I don’t’ want poor Johnny to feel left out at school so your efforts start with your elf on your shelf and then travels to other ledges, just chilling and creepily stares at you.
The thing is –you don’t have to get extreme with it for you kid to enjoy it. Coming soon is a list of simple Elf on The Shelf ideas for really good moms who just don’t have the time and energy to keep up with the Pinterest moms.
4. Cutting down the tree
For me, the tradition of going to a Christmas Tree farm and cutting one down is about just that – it’s a tradition. We don’t make it this elavorate thing where we trek into the middle of the woods for endless miles and fight of wildlife to cut down our tree. We go to a local Christmas Tree farm, hunt for our perfect one, cut it down and boom. Done.
Not all traditions have to be elaborate and crazy. The simplicity of some is perfect. Maybe spice it up by make apple cidar or having the kids take turn with the saw?
5. Decorating! (the Tree and House)
Have you ever noticed how in 80’s Christmas movies the families were always busy putting up their Christmas trees and decorations on Christmas Eve? Like, whaaaatt??
There is so much excitement and joy that comes from Christmas decorations. The sooner they’re up, the sooner the Christmas JOY arrives! For me, the weekend after Thanskgiving is dedicated to decorating for Christmas, every single year!
One little girls I asked was so sweet – her favorite Christmas tradition was putting the star on the Christmas tree. How precious, yet significant?!
6. Out with the Standard, in with the Christmas Themed!
Replace your standard, everyday, home décor with CHRISTMAS THEMED ITEMS! For example, replace a set of dinner plates, appetizer plates, bowls and glasses every year with Christmas themed ones. It doesn’t have to be a matching set, the more eclectic the better! Coffee mugs too.
Table top pictures too! In my pre-divorced house I put every single regular framed picture we had in the empty Christmas boxes and replaced them with framed Christmas pictures of the family from over the years. Every year I framed a pictures of the girls with Santa and I framed our Christmas card from that year along with whatever stamp I used that year.
Throw pillows and blankets, out with the standard, in with the Christmas themed ones. Door mats, shower curtains, towels…oh and SHEETS! My favorite is when I get out our Christmas Flannel Sheets!!
The trick to avoiding clutter is physically taking out the everyday items and boxing them up in empty Christmas decoration boxes.
7. Decorating their bedrooms
If you’re like me, you are particular about your Christmas home decor. A great solution is to make a little box of decorations for each kids room. It’s their own personal box of decorations. My girls LOVE this and every year they add a new item to their collection. Again, don’t go crazy. My girls boxes consist of small table top Christmas trees with lights and a dozen ornaments. They also have a string of lights for their window, their Christmas sheets, a few table top decorative pieces, and window jelly’s.
8. Going to see Santa!
When you take your kids to see Santa, how many of you want to scream “OMG! IT’S SANTA!” as loud as you can like Will Ferrel? No, just me? Ok.
Well, going to see Santa each year is something your kids and YOU will remember for the rest of your lives. First, you’re guaranteed to have a least one year with a funny story to tell. Second, 9/10 of us will have at least one kids who is PETRIFIED of Santa and that picture is PRICELESS. Third, think about how freaking exciting that is for a kid?!?!?!
9. Advent Calendar
To make it extra special, make your own. Now, hold up this can get really expensive! So, first the dollar store is your friend and, second, get things they NEED. For me, I could give them 5 differenct chapsticks 5 different days and they’d be stoked because they’ve already lost the ones from prior days. Or, better yet, instead of filing the days with gifts, write notes to your kids on some days. Maybe the notes are for Sants, your Elf, you, or grandparents this is something you can keep for them when they’re older.
10. New Ornaments
Gift them ornamens! It could be something about them,or something they’re into that year. Or give each child a specific them and stick with that each year. For example, my mom gives a Santa ornament to one of my daughters every year and the other a snowman ornament of some kind every year. When your child grows up you can pass them on and in the meantime it’s a fun way to go down memory lane.
11. Christmas Lights
In an attempt to keep my kids occupied during car rides, I made up a thing where as we’re driving we yell out a specific word for the different Christmas decorations we spot. For example, if we see a Santa we say “HO HO HO”. If we see a Frosty we say “Merry Christmas”. If we see a reindeer we say “Rudolph”. If we see all white lights on a house we say “Holly” and if we a house with multi-colored lights we say “Jolly”.
Regardless of those shenanigans we make driving around to see all the lights a tradition we do after dinner one night leading up to Christmas. It can be as simple as bundling up and driving around your town to see decorated houses. Or it can be a bigger tradition where you go see to a Christmas light event or go to a big city to see their tree and lights.
12. Christmas Movies
Maybe it’s ALL you watch during the season? Maybe it’s just once during the season. Some families have movies nights every weekend. If you have a cray schedule (or only ½ your time with the kids) maybe having a family movie night once during the season and making it a big deal is more ideal. For example, have a hot choco bar and Christmas themed munchies!! Don’t forget the Christmas Jammies!!
13. Christmas Game
So much fun!! And what a great idea. Here are some fun, kid friendly, games you can do with your family. Find Family Christmas Game Ideas Here!
14. Going to see a the Nutcracker
This is something I have done with my daughters every year since my oldest was two. We get dressed up in our Christmas dresses, put on our crimson red lipstick, go to dinner, and walk to the local theatre to see the Nutcracker.
15. Reading The Night before Christmas Story
This is a tradition that I did for my girls when they were little and after hearing a kid say it, it reminded me how something that simple can be full of comfort and love.
16. Their Stockings
I was a little surprised with this one. Literally thought kids could care less about the stocking. But I guess it’s in the way it’s delivered that makes it so special. One mom puts the stocking at the foot of her kids beds and it’s a huge hit. Another mom does a scavenger hunt for their stockings (mostly to keep them occupied while the parents make their coffee). I love these ideas and definitely steeling htem.
17. The Presents.
I mean, come on, one kid was bound to say it. You know they were all thinking it.
For my girls, I have a Santa sack with presents from Santa in it. With the gifts from me, some are wrapped and some are unwrapped (usually any bigger presents). I set up the unwrapped present as center and then organize the wrapped ones around it in a cute way.
18. Christmas Morning Breakfast
SANTA CAME! Everyone rushes to the tree, starts ripping open presents and not a sole (but maybe dad) is thinking about breakfast. If your family is on full speed from the moment they wake up, I’d suggest something you can make ahead and just pop in the oven. Whatever it is, turn it into a tradition and make the same thing every year!
Pre-divorce we did Christmas Tea Rings. Post-Divorce I started making home made Christmas Cinnamon Rolls. Both of these are sweat treats that you simply just pop in the oven and cook while everyone opens presents. One of Polly’s friends said they make breakfast pizza every Christmas morning! How fun!
As a fitness pro, I definitely suggest something more than sugar loaded baked goods. A healthier option to add is an egg casserole of your choice. Make it the night before and pop it in oven while presents go down. One of my favorites is Christmas Overnight Oats!! Here are a few different Christmas flavor ideas.
19. Christmas Dinner / Christmas Eve Dinner
My friends little boy said “Eating with the family”. At first I was like he totally did what my kids do blurted that out because they were eating dinner when she asked him. But, then I thought about it from a 6 year olds perspective.
Um, three words – THE KIDS TABLE!!! It’s the best spot around. A table full of you, your siblings and crazy cousins who you are overly excited to see you because it’s been a minute and ya’ll are probably jacked up off sugar from Grandma’s sneaky treats so everyone is super extra. Oh, and, NO direct adult supervision telling you to use your fork or not to wipe your hands on your pants. Best TIME EVER!
Maybe you don’t have a kids table. Maybe you get together with family on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. Maybe you have 3 family dinners you have to attend. Either way, it’s an event surrounded by a feast where the kids get to see cousins, grandma spoils the heck outta them and crazy Uncle Ron is a guaranteed to be a HOOT (aka: drunk and goofy).
20. Good old fashion quality time
When I asked my youngest this question she said “Being with my mommy and snuggling with her under the cozy Christmas blankets.” (again, with the tears). Gah. This was pulled hard at my heart strings. My personal favorite thing about Christmas is the chill in the air, the warmth of the throw blankets and fuzzy socks, coziness the lit tree and Christmas decorations make of my home.
In winter we spend a lot of time snuggling under warm blankets and enjoying our time together inside (have I told you how much I hate the cold weather?). Sometimes we’re watching movies, other times we’re coloring or drawing, playing board games, taking turns judging fashion shows or performances, or using the couch to perfect tumbling and cheer skills. THIS RIGHT HERE is something I will cherish so so much as they get older. Them letting me snuggle them and them wanting to be in the same room as me, all-the-time! I joke that I’m going to make them sign a contract saying I can snuggle them until the day I die. I think they’re starting to get scared I’m not joking (I’m def not joking).
So there you have it. A complete list from kids perspectives. Let’s not forget that although when we hear the word “traditions” we may automatically go to Christmas, but traditions shouldn’t start and end there! We can build them all year around. Whether it’s a special recipe to ring in the new year, a special Valentine letter, family recipe for birthday cakes, birthday letters from you, Leprechaun pranks, Easter scavenger hunts, 4th of July BBQ’s and fireworks, going to the beach with extended family members, annual camping trip, Halloween haunted trails, or family game nights. No matter the time of year, how big or small, traditions are opportunities we can take to create positive memories and a great way to build strong bonds within your family.
I would love to hear what traditions you and your family do at Christmas and throughout the year. Please share in the comments section below!!