Can you believe Christmas is almost here?! Like every year, I countdown to Christmas but this year is very special for me because Kitana is starting to understand what’s happening around her. I’m extremely excited to teach her family traditions and create new ones.
Every family as their own traditions and today I’m sharing some of mine with you.
1. Christmas Tree/Decorations
This is the first thing I do when December starts, it always gets me in the mood and excited for the holidays. It’s tradition that we put up the Christmas tree together. This year it was all about Kitana, she was overwhelmed at the amount of decoration we had and was so happy to hang them up. We don’t get real Christmas trees here so we bought this one that can be used yearly.
2. Baking
Nothing is better than a home that smells festive. It’s a great way to bond with your child and have some fun in the kitchen. I’ve already baked one batch of cookies and plan to bake more this week. Kitana loves helping me in the kitchen.
3. Advent Calendar
The perfect way to countdown to Christmas is with a special advent calendar. I bought the one with chocolates so everyday Kitana has a little treat.
4. A letter to Santa
I never wrote a letter to Santa but I really want to encourage Kitana to believe in him. Every child needs some fantasy. We plan on leaving some milk and cookies for Santa under the tree this year.
5. Christmas Movies
I absolutely love Christmas movies and can watch them over and over again. Every afternoon Kitana and I catch up on a movie.
6. Give to others
Every year we donate to charity. It’s a great tradition to teach kids about sharing and the importance of giving.
7. Christmas Carols
What’s Christmas without some carols ? Hope this gets you in the mood too! I love listening to music in the kitchen while I prepare meals for the family.
8. Christmas Books
Teach your child about the festive season with a book that teaches the importance of Christmas. Many of us forget the true meaning behind the celebration and sometimes a book can remind us how special it is.
9. Christmas Pictures
Capture those perfect moments with pictures and create your own album. Every year we take out tons of pictures and now we’ve created a collection from the past 2 years with our daughter.
10. Christmas Eve
I got so many plans for Christmas eve! I’m so excited to be starting new traditions with my family this year. From toddler crafts to reading the bible to learn about this special day. I will be giving Kitana a night before Christmas box filled with some lovely goodies including a bible for toddlers.
I’d love to learn about your Christmas traditions. Please share them in the comment section below.
This post was featured for #Countdown2Xmas with an amazing group of bloggers worldwide.
Thank you Krista – The Quintessential Mommy for giving me this opportunity. Sending you lots of hugs from South Africa.
47 comments
You and your family have some wonderful traditions. We sat down and watched Rudolph last night as a family 🙂
We had some wonderful traditions when my kids were still little. I miss having them around the house these days but I hope they will continue those traditions with their children.
those are all great! we do a lot of the same things 🙂 Although we have the elf on the shelf so when the elf comes she brings a gift and a note…Have you heard of http://ptxmas.ptxofficial.com/# ?? They are amazing. we listen to them constantly around the holidays!
My baby is 6 so it is so much fun at this age and watching her be able to do more and more with the holidays and how much she loves it. I was barely allowed to decorate the tree lol. She knew exactly where she wanted everything to go, but it was so great watching her little brain go crazy trying to make it perfect lol.
Have a wonderful holiday!
Jess
We really miss seeing our family as part of our holiday traditions. We’re hoping next year will be different. Your little one looks so precious! 😀
We decorate together, bake, do some crafts, and watch Christmas movies. I love all the holiday movies and cartoons that are out this time of year.
So many great traditions! We love watching Christmas movies & baking cookies!
For us, I always watch Muppet Christmas Carol (and a few other Christmas movies) many times during the Christmas season, but it’s always the first one I watch and always while decorating the house!
We do all of these things! Decorating is an all time favorite though.
We have some Christmas traditions at our house. We didn’t do the Advent calendar this year though.
We do all those and a lot more. I’m just love Christmas!!!
Great photos. We love Christmas in this house. Christmas eve is the best. Our tradition is throwing “reindeer food” (aka silver sprinkles and oatmeal) on our front porch. Supposedly it helps guild Rudolph to our house.
Love your list! Christmas traditions are so important, especially Santa- a magical time that never leaves your heart.
We’re doing the Night Before Christmas box for the first time this year.
We do Rudolph on Christmas Eve and then drive to see lights 🙂
We always go to look at light displays, and use an advent calendar. We also go to a Christmas tree farm and buy a real tree.
Aside from the tree, the advent calendar is my favorite tradition. My kids love it, and it causes so much excitement.
Some wonderful traditions! We plan to start a new pjs and Christmas movie night on Christmas eve tradition this year.
We always watch the Doctor Who marathon every Christmas day. We have for years the whole family loves it. We bake lots of snacks to have during the day.
Sharing your blessings is the real deal. Christmas carols never get old.
We actually o all of those – and here I am always saying that we need to start more traditions! lol. It’s true – we already have so many!
I love our family’s Christmas traditions. I can’t wait for Christmas!
I LOVE all of your family christmas traditions! We have always done an advent calendar…with and without chocolate. Love your photos.
Baking is a big tradition; we do it every year with the family!
I love these traditions! Thanks for sharing!
We do every single one of these traditions. I absolutely love this time of the year and spending lots of time with my family 🙂
What a great list! Thank you for sharing! I’ve been trying to think of some things to add to our Christmas month.
Such beautiful and lovely traditions your family have! My son and I do a lot of this already. We also have a lot of big family gatherings around December to celebrate Christmas.
We share a lot of the same traditions! Every one of those really gets the Christmas spirit going! We have Christmas music on at all times during Christmas and bake nonstop!
What great family traditions you have. Thanks so much for sharing. We have really been enjoying all of the Christmas shows.
I’ve written about our family Christmas traditions too. And after reading your post, I’ve realized there were some that I haven’t shared on my post. 🙂
I love this post! Some of our traditions include, decorating the Christmas tree and the house, baking cookies for Santa and opening gifts at Midnight Christmas eve with my in-laws. We open gifts Christmas day at our house! Of course, you can’t forget the Christmas parade and all the wonderful movies! =)
I love hat you are making new traditional with you little one. Happy Holidays to you.
Y’all have some pretty fun traditions!!!! Happy holidays y’all ❤❤❤
Great list! I love this time of year!
I love all these family Christmas traditions. Brings back some great memories.
Right now, our only tradition is decorating the Friday after Thanksgiving. I would like to create more, but they’ve just never stuck. Yours are beautiful tho!
We want to do an advent calendar and Elf on the Shelf one year. We haven’t started yet!
We share a lot of the same traditions. I’m going to have to find one of those chocolate advent calendars!
I love your post and traditions. We do most of the same things. We love watching “The Santa Claus” every year.
We started the Christmas stories and movies this year. Growing up my family would act out the nativity each year.
I love any excuse to break out the Christmas movies. We just finished Charlie Brown’s Christmas tonight. 🙂
Awh, I love the old Christmas movies.
We actually have a few traditions too- every year I make an ornament with the kids so, as time passes, we’ve got wonderful keepsakes to look back upon. We also open all of our presents Christmas Eve in our house, even with extended family- Christmas day is all about the kids and Santa 🙂
Good list!!
Christmas decorations is a must! And we also do family games during Christmas 🙂
I love the night before christmas box! My mom always did that for me, now I do it for my kids. Its usually a little toy and some christmas jammies!
i love this! Tradition is so important! 🙂
Your traditions are awesome. I agree with Stephpk, traditions are really important. This year, we cut down a fresh tree at a farm, and I’d like to keep that a tradition in the future.