Christmas Customs

Do you have Christmas customs that you would like to keep alive in your family?

Do you want to start some traditions that your family can look forward to year after year?

Your customs do not have to be anything elaborate. In fact, they can actually be quite simple.

The only requirement for an activity to become a custom is that it be something you do every year. Make it something fun that your family will grow cherish.

Pass Down Your Christmas Customs

If you already have some family traditions that you would like to keep alive, here are some ideas to ensure that your family will know the story behind the custom, long after you are gone:

• Start a Tradition Journal. Write a short story to your family about how the custom started, who started it and why it is special. Each year add a page to your journal telling a funny or interesting story about what happened this year. Include some photos in your journal to make it more personal. This journal will become a keepsake in your family. It will be passed down from generation to generation and it will keep your tradition going.
• Create a Video Diary. Get out the video camera and shoot some footage of your family engaging in their Christmas tradition. Be sure to record the date onto the tape. Save the tape and continue adding to it each year until the tape is full, then just move on to a second tape. Years from now, the entire family will have so much fun watching the video together and reliving all of those wonderful Christmas memories.
• Create a Memory Box. As each member of the family to write a short note about how much fun they had while taking part in your Christmas customs each year. Ask younger children to draw a picture of themselves or their family members taking part in the activity. Be sure to include names and dates on the notes and pictures. You may also want to take a few photos and put them in your memory box as well. Can you imagine the laughter when those children are grown up and you pull out that box to read them the notes they wrote when they were six years old?
• Create a Memory Album. If you are into scrapbooking, this idea will be right up your alley. Turn a plain photo album into a Christmas album by decorating the cover in a Christmas theme. If you do not care for scrapbooking, use a regular photo album with slots to hold photos and fill it with pictures that you take each year while your family is engaging in their traditional activity. If you enjoy scrapbooking you can take this idea even further by filling your album with Christmas paper and getting as creative as you like with photo captions and page decorations. The main idea is that you capture your memories on film.

Start Your Own Christmas Customs

If you are looking for ideas for Christmas customs that you can enjoy with your family, try one of these simple and easy activities. They will, no doubt, get your family looking forward to the holidays every year.

• Get an Advent Calendar, like this Musical Advent Calander. Children of all ages will look forward to counting down the days until Christmas every year.
• Celebrate the 12 Days of Christmas. Draw names with your friends, co-workers or family members. Then buy 12 small, inexpensive but meaningful gifts for the person whose name you have drawn. Give that person one gift each day for the 12 days leading up to Christmas.
• Have a Baking Day. Set aside one day shortly before Christmas to get your family or friends together and bake. Not only is this the perfect opportunity for some quality time together, but you all wind up with an assortment of baked goods for your individual holiday celebrations.
• Find the Pickle. This is a tradition we have been doing in my family for years. Each year the Glass Pickle Ornament is hidden on the Christmas tree and every member of the family tries to find it. The person who finds it gets a small prize provided by the person who hid the pickle. The person who finds it also becomes responsible for hiding it and providing the prize the following year.
• Have a Family Board Game Night. Perhaps it could be on Christmas Eve, after you have finished dinner. Pull out a family favorite board game and start a tradition of fun.

• Have a Family Movie Night. Choose a night to kick off your holiday season by gathering the whole family together for a marathon of your favorite Christmas movies.

Whatever you decide to do, the important thing is that you spend quality time with your loved ones, building memories that will last through the generations.

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