Top 5: Christmas Traditions

 As it gets closer to Christmas I was reflecting on some of the traditions we have as a family.  Most, if not all, of these are ones that we have started with our own kids.  This year we did something a bit different and all agreed that it needs to be added to our annual traditions.  What are some traditions you have at your house?  Are these passed down from your childhood or new traditions begun with your own kids? 

1) Christmas Eve Service - I love the Christmas Eve service.  Our church does a candlelight service and it's always such a cozy, beautiful time of singing and rejoicing in the birth of Jesus.  

 

2) Reading the Advent Story Book - We have an Advent Storybook that we read every year.  It follows Little Bear as he journeys to Bethlehem.  Each day is a simple story of something he encounters along the way and each reading ends with a moral lesson or truth about God. You can read more here about this book and the advent calendar I made to accompany the book.

3) Baking Treats - As mentioned in my last post we love to bake at Christmas.  The kids look forward to having their favorite treats.  For many years I made Gingerbread pancakes for Christmas breakfast using This recipe from a Gooseberry Patch book.  More recently I have switched to making overnight cinnamon rolls for Christmas breakfast.  It is much more convenient as I can just pull them out in the morning and bake them while the kids open their stockings. You can find the recipe for the Overnight cinnamon Rolls in this previous blog post

4) Drawing names for gifts - We are very fortunate in that our kids are pretty content kiddos.  They rarely ask for things that they don't need and they have a hard time coming up with any sort of list at Christmas.  As we had more kids, and as they got older, it became very clear that they didn't need or want a lot.  So, we decided to start drawing names within our family.  This is probably one of their favorite traditions.  They look forward to seeing whose name they get and finding the perfect gift for them.  It's so fun to watch because often they know more of what their sibling would want than I have picked up on.  The kids get a stocking and one gift from mom & dad and then they get the gift from the person who drew their name.  In recent years we have expanded this tradition to the cousins also.  The focus shifts from "my list" to the excitement of finding the perfect gift for their sibling and cousin.  

5) Christmas Pajamas - This tradition is the one we tweaked this year and will be continuing with the new way!  So, for many years I bought the kids all matching pajamas.  Again, as we had more kids and they got older this became harder and harder with the large range of sizes (and I refuse to pay $50/pair for the specialty family sets).  For a few years we did themes, so one year it was character "footy" pajamas,  we did Among Us shirts from the game, and last year we did Disney Side-kick character shirts with black pants.  This year we couldn't decide on a theme so one of the kids suggested we draw names for pajamas too.  This drawing is separate from the gift name draw.  Again, they had SO much fun choosing pajamas for each other.  Last night we did the Great Pajama Reveal where everyone gave the pajamas they chose to their person.  It was really fun and one of the kids remarked on how it was like getting an early Christmas present.  I'm currently washing all the new pajamas and they will be worn Christmas Eve as normal.