How To Create Fun Family Holiday Traditions

Creating Holiday Traditions

A tradition is something that a person or family does year after year. Traditions are often the one thing that stands out when an adult looks back on their childhood. They bring smiles to their faces and help them remember their family and where they come from. Holidays are one of the times when traditions become prominent. It’s easy to create a tradition during the holidays because they are annual events and because they are special.

Why Traditions Matter

For a parent, a tradition may seem silly. Everything changes so why bother creating a tradition? Also, there’s the pressure that you’ll have to uphold the tradition every year. Your children will come to expect it. That’s also the amazing power of traditions. They provide children with a sense of unity.

They give children something to look forward to and to count on. When families create holiday traditions, they’re creating something unique to that family. It’s a powerful bond. As your children grow up, they may hold onto their family traditions and share them with their own children. Even if they don’t hold onto the tradition, you can rest assured they’ll remember them fondly.

Creating Holiday Traditions – The First Step

The first step to creating holiday traditions is to look at activities or events your family has enjoyed in the past. For example, perhaps you went to see the Nutcracker as a family last year. That could become a holiday tradition. Maybe your family enjoys baking cookies, decorating your tree or caroling with the local church. Take a look at the opportunities you’ve already taken advantage of. Is there a potential family tradition there?

Next, take a look at activities your family might enjoy together. Traditions don’t have to be elaborate; they can be quite simple. For example, you might read The Night Before Christmas together on Christmas Eve.

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Once you’ve pinpointed a tradition or two to adopt this year, relax. Don’t go overboard with too many traditions. You can wind up exhausted from trying to meet everyone’s expectations. Additionally, make sure to get your family on board with the traditions. Make them responsible for some aspect of the tradition so everyone is involved.

For example, if your family tradition is to decorate the tree to holiday music, assign one child to choose the music, one child to retrieve the ornaments and the adults can put up the tree. When everyone has a role to play, it brings the entire family together.

Some of our Family Traditions

Some examples of our own family traditions are:

1. Every year since our eldest Nyla was about 3 (she is now 17!) we all hop in our truck, drive up the mountain and pick out, cut down, set up, and then decorate our Christmas tree.
2. Ever since my husband was a kid, his family gathered at his paternal grandma’s house on Christmas Eve for a big family Christmas meal and present opening with as many of their extended family that could make it. When his grandma passed away several years ago, her daughter (my husband’s aunt) took over that tradition and so every year on Christmas Eve (except the year we went to Calgary and Edmonton) we gather with his side of the family and eat and visit and exchange gifts. Our kids look forward to this tradition every year!
3. Another tradition is actually right after the meal above and it is when we leave auntie and uncle’s we drive around and check out all the Christmas lights on houses all around our town. 
4. Some smaller traditions include new Christmas pjs opened on Christmas eve, putting out cookies and eggnog for Santa, reading Christmas books and watching Christmas movies together as a family, and baking and decorating cookies. 

Family traditions are a fun way to remember the holidays. Traditions that you establish from year to year will stick with your children long into adulthood. They’ll become part of the story of their life.

What are some of your family’s favorite traditions? What are some new traditions you are planning to try this year? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook or Instagram.