Christmas Activities for the Whole Family

Christmas is all about family -- or at least it should be. There are many fun traditions that you can start at Christmas time. These traditions and activities bring the family together and help you create lasting memories.

Holiday Books

There are many books out there meant for the holidays. For every night of December up until Christmas, you can read together around the tree. There are collections of Christmas short stories (Christmas in My Heart), as well as individual stories (The Polar Express). And, of course, my personal favorite is 'Twas the Night Before Christmas (originally: A Visit From St. Nicholas). My family did this as we were growing up, reading before presents, so that we could take a few minutes to reflect.

Christmas Campout

Choose one day of the month (or two or three) to have a Christmas campout. Bring out the sleeping bags and place them around the tree. Leave the lights on for a good long time, and tell stories, share memories and eat snacks (I like popcorn). Play Christmas music and sing carols. We often use Pandora on our laptop, set to a holiday station, to keep the tunes coming. It's great fun. You can sleep out all night, or you can just have a "campout" for a couple of hours.

Christmas Scrapbook

Start a Christmas scrapbook. This can be a special memory book just for Christmas. Each year, add two or three pages. Include a copy of your Christmas letter to others (if you write one), a sample of wrapping paper, an especially good Christmas card received and pictures of your family opening presents and doing Christmas activities and crafts. It can be fun to pull out the Christmas memories every year.