Family Christmas Traditions

This season has been my most favorite Christmas. We packed in so many fun activities, but most of all MEMORIES that will always be with us. Out of all the activities we did, my four and five year old said their favorite was having a sleepover by the Christmas Tree.


  • Decorate the Tree and turn on some Christmas Music.
  • Christmas Elf. Every year, my kids know that "Snowflake" is going to visit our home in December. She leaves us notes with activities we're doing in the day (like Grinch Night or Sinterklaas) and little surprises (like a box of lights to decorate our room, money to Christmas shop for siblings, or a lamb stuffed animal for our sleepover under the tree). 
  • 25 Days of Christ Advent Tree from New Tradition Crafts. This year, one of my main goals was to focus more on Christ. Starting on December 1, we read a scripture about Christ and added a corresponding ornament onto a small tree (you can sometimes find a small tree at the Dollar Store around Christmas time). We did this every night until Christmas. I love that this kit has everything done for me. Two years ago, we did a similar idea, but my kids made the ornaments. Click here to learn more: Stories of Jesus Advent Tree. This was my husband's favorite Christmas Tradition this year. 
  • Read Christmas Books & Drink Hot Chocolate by the Tree. Every year we add a Christmas Book to our selection. I usually switch off taking kids to Barnes and Noble to pick out a new book, but this year we chose a few winners from the library. My kids requested to read these three books daily - Samarai Santa: A Very Ninja Christmas by Rubin Pingk, Gingerbread Pirates by Kristen Kladstrup and When Santa was a Baby by Linda Bailey. 
  • Grinch Night. Click the link to learn more. This was one of my favorite traditions this year.
  • Decorate Room with Christmas Lights. Snowflake hid with a note that reminded us how Christ is the light of the world. We decorated my boy's room with their favorite color lights.

  • Sinterklaas Night. This is a Danish Tradition. You paint wooden shoes (or just grab a pair of regular shoes), eat Danish Pancakes and leave your shoes out overnight. In the morning, there's a surprise! Click the link to learn more about Sinterklaas. 

  • Donate Old Toys/Books. 
  • Buy & Wrap Sibling Gifts. Snowflake brought us money to shop for siblings. I took both my older boys together this year, and it was so cute watching them ask each other and discuss what they wanted. I think my favorite part was watching my older boys wrap the gifts and write each other's names and little hearts on the wrapping paper. 

  • Christmas Symbols Family Night. We learned about how Christmas symbols remind us of Christ and went on a scavenger hunt afterward. This was a lot of fun! My six gave a talk in primary and taught the kids all about these symbols.

  • Polar Express Night. My parents took us on a Polar Express train ride in Heber, Utah! You could also simply watch the movie together and eat popcorn/hot chocolate or read the book and give your child a bell afterward. 
  • Christmas Science Experiments. I absolutely loved these Christmas Science Experiments from Lessons for Little Ones. We built gumdrop towers, learned which liquid dissolves candy canes the fastest, practiced color mixing with Santa's Magic Milk and explored with jinglebells/magnets. There are recording sheets for each activity. My boys loved them!




  • Make a Christmas Craft. This year we made these huge 3D Snowflakes out of white lunch bags, hot glue and scissors. They needed some adult help, but they turned out so cool. We hung them on our wall to decorate!
  • Nativity Gingerbread Party. My boys and I made the dough together, cut out Nativity Shapes and hosted a Nativity Gingerbread Party. Click the link to learn more.
  • Invite the Missionaries Over to share a Christmas Message.
  • Indoor Snowball Fight. Read Santa Samurai: A Very Ninja Christmas and use these Soft Snowballs to have an indoor snowball fight!
  • Watch a Christmas Movie.
  • Play Christmas Music & Dance in the Kitchen. I had no idea how much my boys would love dancing with me in the kitchen. I'm going to start doing this more.
  • Make Cookies for neighbors or friends.
  • Lamb Stuffies. We read the Little Lamb of Bethlehem book and I bought all of my boys a stuffed animal lamb to remember Jesus. We opened the lambs right before our sleepover under the tree, so they'd have their lambs to sleep with. 

  • Sleepover by the Christmas Tree. We brought a mattress downstairs and all snuggled up by the tree. It was really sweet. I already mentioned that this was both of my boy's favorite Christmas Tradition this year. 
  • Waffles & Santa. We did this last year, and knew we had to do it again. We invited friends over to eat Belgian Waffles for dinner, sing Christmas Songs, and visit with Santa. This was magical. Click the link for more details.
  • Play Board Games. For Christmas Eve, we open up a new board game and play games together. We played Bingo last year and Pie Face. This year we got Clue Jr. and Ticket to Ride Jr. 
  • Cake for Baby Jesus. For Christmas Eve, we made these Chocolate Molten Lava Cakes. Christmas is to celebrate a birthday, right? And all birthdays have cake. 

  • Christmas Thank You Letters. And after all the gifts and kindness shown from family and friends, we are going to draw/write Christmas Cards. I found these really cute ones from Fantastic Fun & Learning.

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