Tips on Starting Your Own Christmas Family Traditions

The Christmas season is the perfect time for you and your family to start your own traditions. These will be memories that will be remembered for years to come.

The kitchen is a terrific space in the home to build traditions, especially during the holidays. One recipe that comes to mind is hot chocolate. I like this idea because it can be incorporated easily into many holiday events, such as tree decorating of gift exchanges. It's also simple enough to encourage children to participate in making it, which ultimately encourages the tradition in your home.

Another tradition you can enjoy with your children is making rice krispy treats. This is another easy idea that your children will love to help you with. To make it more fun and colorful, be sure and add some food coloring in red or green. Another idea is the famous sugar cookies. These are great to do with your kids, and let them have all the fun decorating. It may end up pretty messy, but it will be fun, and something they will remember year after year.

Growing up, I remember going to my grandma's house with my mom and sister. We would get together with my aunts and cousins, and make Christmas candy. We not only went to just make candy, we would go so we could all spend time together. It was nice to take time out of everyone's busy schedule and get together for some fun.

After Halloween, our family would start planning our annual Christmas shopping day. We would all pick one day for us all to get together and go Christmas shopping together. We would start bright and early in the morning, and wouldn't get home until dark. It was a long day, but is still something we do to this day.

A tradition that I remember growing up is stringing popcorn. I remember my mom popping the popcorn at night, and we would all sit listening to Christmas music as we sat there stringing our popcorn. Then when we were done, we would go and place it on the tree. Something else I remember is taking out construction paper and cutting up strips of paper, usually red or green, and making loops out of them to form a chain. Every night before bed, we would tear off a loop to count down the days to Christmas.

All of these traditions are things I remember from my childhood. I remember the fun we had getting together and wanted to continue the tradition in my family. I want my kids to grow up having fun and remembering the things we did together as well. Maybe this year, we will find a new tradition to add to our list.