I love Thanksgiving and Christmas time and all the fun things that come with the holidays. I love all the events, spending time with family, and watching Braelynn experience everything.
Some of my best memories with family come from Thanksgiving and Christmas and I hope that Braelynn can say the same when she grows up.
I know that there are so many different fun traditions you could do at Thanksgiving and Christmas but I thought I would share some of our favorites
1.Making treats for Thanksgiving/Christmas
Growing up, our family Thanksgiving was always at my parents house. Everyone would come over and bring food and play games. Every year on the Wednesday before my mom, my cousin, and I would make treats. We made a lot of chocolate covered things like apples, marshmallows, and pretzels. We also would make pumpkin muffins and other sweet treats. I look forward to this every year and can’t wait to have Braelynn help this year. We also make some treats of Christmas eve.
2. Picking out the Christmas tree
We always used to get a real christmas tree and my brother and I would get to pick it out. We typically chose short stubby ones and I loved getting to choose it. Since being married we’ve only gotten a real tree once or twice but I can’t wait until Braelynn is old enough to help pick it out.
3. Decorating the Christmas tree
Who doesn’t like decorating the tree? It makes everything feel like Christmas and it’s a great way to get kids involved and helping.
4. Making and Decorating Christmas cookies
This is a great activity for kids to get involved with. Most kids love helping in the kitchen. They’ll also love that they get to decorate their own cookies!
5. Looking at Christmas lights
Kids seem to be mesmerized by Christmas lights, and I don’t blame them. I used to love riding around and looking at them.
Jeremiah decorates our house with a ton of Christmas lights so I’m sure Braelynn is going to love looking at them too.
6. Watching Christmas movies
This is a great way to spend time together as a family. Some of our favorite Christmas movies are Christmas with the Kranks, Deck the Halls, and Elf.
7. Christmas crafts
So funny story, growing up we always have a christmas crafts day with all my cousins and aunts. Along the way someone accidentally called it Christmas “craps” instead of crafts and so it just stuck and was “Christmas craps day.”
We don’t do this anymore as people have moved away but I plan to make some crafts with Braelynn. I think she will love making an ornament and then getting to hang it on the tree or giving it to someone as a gift.
This is a great way to teach your child about giving.
8. Reading the Christmas story
We do this every Christmas eve to remember why we are really celebrating. We read Luke 2 right before bed.
9. Doing an advent calendar
We don’t personally do this but I know a lot of people that do. This is a great way to keep your kids excited about the season and to make it fun.
10. Making hot chocolate
This could be a great special treat for your little ones. You can make it more fun by letting them add marshmallows or sprinkles. If your little ones are too young for hot drinks, you could just do chocolate milk.
11. Picking out matching Christmas jammies
This would be a great memory for your kids. Let them pick out jammies for everyone to wear Christmas eve and they’ll be so excited.
Other things you could do
- Write Christmas cards
- Make paper snowflakes
- Listen to Christmas music and have a dance party
- Make popcorn garland
- Decorate a gingerbread house
- Donate food
- Donate toys
- Have family game night
- Do a Christmas scavenger hunt
- Random acts of kindness
- Make a paper chain
There are so many different activities you could do to create traditions for your family. These are just some of our favorites but we would love to know, what is your favorite Christmas or Holiday tradition you do with your family?
If you liked this be sure to check out our 20 Fall Activities for Families!
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