Our Family Christmas Traditions

Before I had children I never really enjoyed the holidays. They had always seemed a little dull and repetitive. Now that I have children, I look forward to the holidays all year long. I look forward to the many Christmas traditions we have created with our family over the past few years. Each year we try to add new traditions into our holidays. The traditions we have started already make the holidays more enjoyable than I ever though they could be.

Christmas Tree
Our Christmas traditions actually start in the beginning of December. On the first weekend in December we take our family to go pick out the perfect Christmas tree. The kids love to look around the tree lots for the ideal tree to bring home with us. After we find the perfect tree for our holiday, we take it home and get it cleaned up. After wards, we go to the store to pick out new ornaments for the tree that year. The kids love looking though all the colorful ornaments until they find the ones they want on their tree that year. We take our new finds home, and spend the rest of the night decorating the tree together. Once we are done, we shut off all the house lights, and for the grand finale to the evening, we plug the tree lights in to light up the room.

Pictures
Once December has rolled around, we go and get our family portrait taken. We love doing this every year because we get to look back at the previous years pictures and see just how much everything has changed. We proudly display our pictures through out the home and send them out in Christmas cards to family and friends with our warm holiday greetings.

Christmas Cookies
Two days before Christmas, the fun really begins. That night, myself and my children all gather in the kitchen to bake homemade sugar cookies. I allow the children to make fun Christmas shapes with the cookie cutters. Once the cookies are done, the kids get to decorate their own cookies. Once the messy fun is over, we find holiday tins to place the cookies in and give them to our family and friends.

Christmas Eve
Christmas Eve is a day packed full of Christmas traditions. Just after dark, we go on the hunt for Santa Claus. This involves packing everyone into the car in their pj's, including the dog, and drive around looking at all the Christmas lights and decorations while hunting for Santa Clause. This is a great way to get into the holiday spirit and get the kids excited about the following morning.

After our drive is over, we go home to read Christmas stories together as a family. We will read 2 or 3 stories together with the children to get them ready for the night. After the stories have been read and the children are nice and calm, we put on a marathon of Christmas movies. The children lay on the couch waiting for Santa to come while watching Christmas movies.

Once the children have fallen asleep, we carefully carry them into their rooms for the night. Once all the gifts have been placed around the tree, we quietly sneak back into the kids rooms and leave their stalkings at the end of their beds. Not only does that give them a great surprise in the morning when they first wake up, but it also gives us a few extra minutes of sleep while they open their stalking gifts.

Christmas Day
Christmas day is a fun, hectic, and exciting time. Once everyone is awake, the kids rush out to open their gifts. Once the mess is cleaned up from that chaos, their daddy helps them open the boxes, insert batteries, and play with all the new toys while I am in the kitchen making a great big Christmas breakfast.

After everyone is fed and dressed, we head over to grandpa's house to see is Santa went there too. Of course he did and the whole fun, hectic, and exciting mess starts all over again. Later that day we have a huge family dinner with a grand meal.

These holiday traditions make Christmas the best time of year. The gifts and toys are not what makes us look forward to this day all year long. Instead it is the new experiences my children have and the smiles upon their face that make the holidays so much fun.