It’s here again! The holiday season is upon us and we thought we’d do an episode on some of our favorite traditions. Not to add to your stress or to-do list! Not so you think you have to do all or any of these yourself!
If you’re looking for something fresh or new for your family this year or want to start some meaningful traditions if you’ve got young kiddos still around, maybe some of these things will give you some ideas.
First, a note about Advent Season. Depending on your faith tradition, you may or may not have celebrated Advent. Typically, this season is from more of a “high church” calendar, (catholic, episcopalian, Lutheran, methodist). The word advent is derived from the Latin word adventus, which means coming. The season is about anticipating the coming of Jesus as a baby. It’s a time full of reflection, excitement, and hope as we prepare to celebrate his birth. It begins 4 Sundays before Christmas and ends on Christmas Eve.
More commercially, you’ll see “countdowns to Christmas” ideas like the Advent calendars where you open little flaps or doors and get a little piece of candy or small trinket. You might light a candle each night and read a verse from the nativity story each night leading up to Christmas Eve. The calendars are cute and fun for kids, but they originate from the Advent Season of the church.
Fun Ideas from Listeners
Friend and prayerful man of God, Bob, wrote: Over the years, we’ve always had a policy that our children could invite at least one, if not two, guests. Sometimes we would have 24 to 30 people crammed into our dining room and kitchen. Many of them had no families at all, or they were elderly, or were college students, or international visitors, or foreign guests that were studying or working in the region where we were living. They were always interested in American traditions, or Christian traditions. And of course, the Thanksgiving story.
We always saw this as a great opportunity to develop and show hospitality, love, and the gospel of good news, and the redemptive nature of telling the “his story” history of America’s formation, through the Pilgrims’ eyes.
Sharon and I begin Thanksgiving morning praying over the list of our guests and family members who are coming over for Thanksgiving.
I pray Ephesians 1:17 over each table setting as I set the table: that the Lord would draw them to him, that they’ll experience goodness, experience life, experience the hope found in the Gospel.
We usually set Thanksgiving dinner for late in the afternoon at 4pm. When people come into the home, our table would always be set as beautifully as we could. Water in the glasses. If we had china, we would use those dishes. Candles, flowers, colorful leaves, maybe some fall-looking decorations. Anything that made it look like harvest celebration.
When we gathered around the table and took our seats, the guests would see five kernels of corn on each empty large plate.
I would take a minute or two to tell the story about the first Thanksgiving, and pray a prayer. (Not a long prayer! I don’t want the food to get cold!)
Then we would eat our meal.
After people were full, after the main course but before the desserts, we would have a time of giving thanks.
All of our guests would have already been notified about this ahead of time. The person who invited them would tell them, and when I would say the blessing before we ate, I would remind them that after the main meal, and before dessert, we were going to have a time to give thanks, like the first Pilgrims, and the first Thanksgiving in 1621.
I would usually go first to model it.
“Take one or two minutes and share one or two things that you’re thankful for. This is optional. You don’t have to say something if you don’t want to!”
That last statement is there to help alleviate the stress, but I think we probably have had about 100% participation. Even children say something. (I suspect that the parents might prepare their children before they come: “When we go to Thanksgiving, Grandpa is going to ask what you’re thankful for. Are you thinking of something to say?”)
Children might say a sentence or two, but as they grow older, they talk more about it.
People share all kinds of things that they’re thankful for. Some of them are thankful for health, or a parent who’s still living. (That can be emotional, especially if the parent who they thought had cancer was not going to make it to Thanksgiving.)
Some thanksgiving concerns provision. Or reconciliation. Or getting in to a particular school, or buying a house, or getting a job.
After that, I pray a short prayer—a 30 second prayer of gratitude and thanksgiving.
Lord, give us a great rest of the year, and then into the next year. May we have the favor of God, your blessing.
A prayer of Jabez, a Luke 2:52 prayer, and a Psalm 90:17 prayer all tied together.
Then we eat dessert!
I encourage especially the man of the house, the father of the house, the older brother in the house—even if you don’t feel like you’re as spiritual as your spouse or your mom—take your role as a man of God.
When men take their place, even just sharing the five kernels of corn story or giving thanks, the Lord moves. Even with just a short prayer of blessing.
Lord, move in our nation and in our families! Amen!
Danielle with preschool and elementary aged kids from Murfreesboro: One of my favorites has been my grandparents hosting their kids and then grandkids and then great grandkids for a sleepover every Christmas. It’s usually the Friday night before Christmas and we wake up the next morning and open presents. We have a big family meal, like turkey ham, dressing, etc that Friday night and then have a huge breakfast after opening gifts. The last year we did it, all 26 of us were able to come and there were pack and plays everywhere, pallets in the living rooms, air mattresses….just wherever you could find a spot! We haven’t done it since covid, as some have moved out of state and kids getting married and having obligations with their spouses family. I plan to institute it with my kids when they move out.
I also host a brunch for grandparents and friends Christmas morning after opening presents. The grandparents love to see what the kids got and watch them play. It’s become a special tradition that my family loves!!
Corrie (mom to a preschooler and an infant): My mom always made breakfast casserole for Christmas morning. It would be baking while we opened presents!
Marissa with all ages in Africa wrote: We start with our Thanksgiving Tree Nov 1 then move into the Jesse Tree on December 1. Dec 1 we also start a Christmas Countdown of activities including a Backwards Dinner. We dress backwards, say our names backwards, sometimes sit under the table. We might start with dessert first. Sometimes we try to come up with backwards meals. Like an inside out hotdog or something. It’s just fun and silly and one of our Christmas traditions.
We watch the Muppet Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. We read the story of the birth of Jesus from Luke on Christmas morning followed by Christmas Tree waffles!
Allyson who has older kids wrote: Christmas begins on Black Friday with music and decorations, and we start our annual Christmas Movie Marathon (this has grown so large as to get its own Google calendar and almost of the movies are in a digital library so the kids can watch wherever they happen to be (esp important since we have military kids)).
We finish up on Christmas Eve, watching The Nativity Story and The Polar Express before opening gifts (now that the kids are older). Each night has a movie, cocoa, cookies, or treats.
We used to get brand new Christmas pajamas on Christmas Eve, but this year they will be opened on Black Friday.
BJ (mom to three girls (almost all grown) and grandmother “Tooie” to two girls) wrote: We watch It’s A Wonderful Life EVERY Christmas Eve! On Christmas morning (after presents) I make a big breakfast (biscuits and gravy, fried potatoes, scrambled eggs & bacon.
When the kids were little, Santa would leave a candy cane under their pillow and that was how they knew that he had been there. They still talk about this!
Now, we have added a family night to the season. Last year, we went to the North Pole via train! SO CUTE! This year, we are going on another train ride around Chattanooga to see the lights. The babies LOVE the train ride! And then dinner after.
Sarah, mom to a college aged girl and elementary aged boy wrote: 1) Santa never brings the biggest present. His presents are usually PJs and a toy or something similar. The “good” stuff comes from Mom and Dad. But they keep getting Santa presents forever – my mom bought us Santa presents until the adults agreed no more gifts.
2) We don’t take our presents on the road. We do our own Christmas (before Christmas if necessary!) before we visit family. That keeps my kids from getting overwhelmed with all the stuff on Christmas Day.
3) I set up a nativity scene every year. It’s something my parents did too. I have tweaked it with my own spins – Jesus isn’t in the manger until Christmas morning and the wise men “travel” to get there on Twelfth Night.
Katie, mom to a kindergartener, wrote: We enjoy our thankful Turkey tradition (add 1 feather each day with something Daisy’s thankful for written on it) in the month of November 
Since our families live in different states, we’ve always alternated Thanksgiving and Christmas 
We do “Star from Afar” in December (Advent calendar and book) and take advantage of the many resources shared by our wonderful children’s ministry. https://www.amazon.com/Star-Afar-Christmas-Calendar-Playset/dp/0578868679/ref=sr_1_2_sspa?hvadid=178100920005&hvdev=c&hvlocphy=9013165&hvnetw=g&hvqmt=e&hvrand=10293905848100976465&hvtargid=kwd-270453861002&hydadcr=3905_9609498&keywords=a+christmas+star+from+afar&qid=1700673321&sr=8-2-spons&sp_csd=d2lkZ2V0TmFtZT1zcF9hdGY&psc=1
When we are with my husband’s family, we always make “Christmas cookies” and when we are with my family we always make gingerbread houses. As you can imagine, there is always singing involved (when I was a child my mom would accompany the extended family on piano 
Our friend and play therapist, Jamie, has two grown boys. She wrote: Our Christmas decorating begins the weekend after Thanksgiving. (The boys are home to help lug everything from our attic!) This is a tradition started with my mom, as in as much as we love Christmas, she didn’t want to take away from Thanksgiving- and we love our fall decorations. (We used to get a live tree and would wait until the first weekend in Dec for the tree decorating.)
Even with everything fully decorated, we wait and my husband puts the Christmas Star on the top of the tree on Christmas Eve night. This tradition happened at first by accident, as one year we had an issue with our star not working and had to get a new one. We’ve done it that way ever since, though our sons sometimes put on the star now. My husband then reads ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas. We gifted both our sons their own copy too for their future traditions.
We watch a bunch of Christmas movies during the season, and save special ones for when our sons are home. Our favorites for Christmas week are the classics like White Christmas, Holiday Inn, The Bishop’s Wife and Christmas in Connecticut. Our sons day Christmas isn’t Christmas without these movies. (In recent years we have often changed Holiday Inn until New Years Eve.) We also used to buy one new Christmas movie each year to watch too, something more modern. I have a huge stack of Christmas DVDs! (With streaming options, we didn’t do this last year.)
We developed a tradition of Christmas Eve lasagna over the years. We play board games, watch one of the above movies, and decorate Christmas cookies. They also get to open one gift for Christmas Eve, often has been pjs to wear that night, new soaps, etc. Fun socks have been added in recent years.
I don’t have grandchildren yet- so Santa still comes and brings a manor gift and stuffs stockings with really cool things and special candy. My husband and I stuff each others stockings and give remaining gifts- so Santa doesn’t get all the credit. (I’m learning to scale back a bit in gifts.) We ask for a wish list now with something big, something fun, something needed, and something small. Once we get grandkids? We will see.
We give a new board game each year too- sometimes as a family gift, sometimes individual. We went to WDW last year for the week of Thanksgiving, so everyone got a WDW game last year as their fun gift.
We get together with extended close family on Christmas evening for dinner and gifts. The youngest family member acts as the elf to pass out gifts. (My youngest has had this honor for 25 Christmases now.)
We get a new family ornament each Christmas. Usually to represent something from the year- a vacation destination, event, etc. We also bought our boys one too each year. They are all in a designated box for both sons. When my younger son got married a few years ago, he took his box of decorations to help start their tree decorating. My older son isn’t married yet, and when he comes home he picks a few from his box to add, and he still gets a new one from us too. My younger son and his wife but a new ornament each year as their own tradition.
We also have purchased the boys a new nutcracker each Christmas and they both have quite a collection!
These are all the things I can think of. This year will be different as my younger son won’t be home for Christmas for the first time, as he and his wife are spending Christmas in Miami with her family. (So not sure yet how we will do things differently without him here.)
We had one Christmas where we had several losses. It would be the first year without three of our family members, incl my mom. So our extended family rented a cabin in Gatlinburg. We even brought all the fixings for Christmas dinner and Santa’s stuff too. The boys say it’s one of their favorite Christmas memories- so things can change when needed.
Vickie in Indianapolis (all grown kids and a grandma too) wrote: My kids were blessed to grow up with many cousins nearby. There are 14 grandchildren in a 16 year age range. We have spent Christmas Eve night having family Christmas at my in-laws with many Polish traditions. The one thing the kids started doing was to produce their own Nativity Play for the grown-ups. I loved this so much. Hasn’t been done in a few years as the kids all grew to adulthood themselves. I am looking forward to a Christmas (maybe next year) when the next generation will start.
Kristin, mom of three almost-grown kids, wrote: We’ve continued a tradition that I grew up with. Every Christmas Eve the kids unwrap an ornament that is a memento from something we did that past year. A trip or special event.
One of my favorite traditions when the kids were small was wrapping up 25 Christmas/Winter themed books and letting the kids unwrap one each night to read together by the tree. Some of the books were my childhood ones. They were hardly ever new books, just ones we already had.
Brandi, mom to three pre-teen and teen boys, two of whom are twins, wrote: When the kids were toddlers we starting baking Jesus a “birthday cake” on Christmas morning and ate cake for breakfast. We still do it to this day (ages 11 and 13) because, well … it’s the one day a year they know they can do it!
Jennifer, mom of teen boys, wrote: We always have monkey bread for breakfast on Christmas morning. We brought that tradition from my family of origin. We also put the tree up the Friday after Thanksgiving and every year my mom gets one of those family ornaments from the Christmas Store in Gatlinburg, the ones where you can write names on them. And also on Christmas Eve night before bed, we always read Luke 2 together.
Kinsey wrote: As children and young adults, our (my husband and I) parents each traveled with us to relatives homes on Thanksgiving Eve, Thanksgiving Day, Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, etc. The holidays were stressful on everyone.
We made the (unpopular) decision to protect our holidays from the stress. If we go anywhere for Thanksgiving, we go to one place so we don’t have to rush from one place to the next. We don’t schedule anything between 4pm 12/24 Christmas Eve and breakfast on 12/26. This schedule allows us to enjoy the holidays much more. We miss some gatherings, and, for us, that’s okay.
For the last 4 or so years we’ve hosted our niece and nephews for a sleepover on 12/23 to allow our siblings the time to prep their own homes for their Christmas morning traditions. We build gingerbread houses, decorate cookies, watch Christmas movies, sip on hot chocolate, drive around to see the Christmas lights, and other fun, festive activities. Our son is an only child so it brings him lots of joy to do these things with his cousins.
This is one we did NOT do; in fact, we just learned of it recently, but it might be something you want to incorporate as a holiday tradition as part of the Advent Season.
Listener, Marissa, from Africa wrote: Jesse Tree is a daily reading along with an ornament that you place on a tree. This idea is rooted in Isaiah 11:1: “A shoot shall come out from the stump of Jesse, and a branch shall grow out of his roots.” It starts in Creation and tells our entire story and you can see each day how it all points to Jesus. We have really enjoyed it through the years.
Each day of Advent, read a Bible story about someone on Jesus’s family tree and hang an ornament symbolizing the story on your Jesse Tree. As you decorate your tree, you’ll see how God prepared for Jesus to be born through many generations. You can go online and get a devotional that goes with the tree, ideas for ornaments (printable DIY or other).
Straw in the Manger
This is one you did, Renee…where throughout the month of December, to encourage being others-centered, whenever your kids did something nice or thoughtful for someone else, they got to go add a piece of straw to the manger in the nativity scene. The goal: for baby Jesus to have a nice soft bed by Christmas day.
Countdown with Gifts
We didn’t do an advent calendar, but at some point when the kids were in middle school or so, I came up with doing small gifts under a small tree. This was meant to kind of curb the sort of mania kids could get worked up into around Christmas. We started Dec 1 and went to Dec 24, with one child having odd numbers and one having evens. On Dec 1, the child with odd numbers opened present #1 and so on until Christmas Eve. It gave them something fun to do each morning after breakfast and kind of “paced them” with the frenzy of presents that can happen on Christmas morning.
Wrapping Paper, No Tags
I used to recycle one year’s Christmas cards into the next year’s gift tags. Something one of my favorite aunts used to do. Nowadays a lot of Christmas cards are photos of people’s families, and that’s kind of weird… So I went back to regular tags. That didn’t solve the problem of all the shaking, sizing up and shifting around of the presents under the tree as curious kiddos wanted to see which ones might be theirs. At some point at our house, I started buying individual wrapping paper so each person had his or her own and no one knew whose was whose. Santa would leave a tiny folded up square of the paper in the toe of each person’s stocking on Christmas morning and only THEN would they know about the presents under the tree.
Christmas PJs
Christmas Socks
Tablecloth with Signatures
Saw this idea online and thought it was sweet. Start a holiday tradition –at thanksgiving or Christmas—where each year, those present sign the tablecloth with sharpie. Little kids might make a handprint only if they can’t write yet. Each year it’s a precious reminder of how some have grown and some have left us.
Practice Giving
Help younger kids make gifts for grandparents and parents. Better yet, have older siblings lead the charge for this project. The goal is not money spent but focus on others and being generous.
Samaritan’s Purse, Local Toy Drive, Angel Tree, Journeys in Community Living, …. Where else can your family team up to save up and give together?
Live Nativity?
Do you have a live nativity in your area? These are worth visiting! Check your area church list and see if you can go one evening. We had a Fisher Price nativity set that our kids loved playing with. The stable is now barely standing. They played with it so much & my daughter loved it so much that over the years she’s come to collect nativity sets from travel they’ve done. She inherited my dad’s and loves to set it up every year.
Muffins Christmas Morning
I make miniature muffins Christmas morning with a tiny ornament in one of them. Whoever finds the ornament gets to open the first present.
Some people always make the same Christmas breakfast. Maybe it’s Nana’s cinnamon rolls! Or a favorite breakfast casserole that’s a yummy break after stockings are pillaged. Find an easy recipe that everyone loves that you can make the night before & have ready to stick in the oven Christmas morning.
Sharing Christmas With Family
If you have family and older relatives still around, then you’re blessed! Include them in the holiday with something special. Can you drive around and see the lights one night? Go to a local holiday market?
Family and Holidays can be stressful…. Instead of hopping from event to event until everyone is miserable, pace yourselves. Host an open house night one night so you can visit with some family early and not cram it all in on THE ONE DAY.
If you’re the parents or in-laws, GIVE YOUR KIDS SOME FLEXIBILITY here! It does make it weird and hard and “not what we always do,” but that’s ok. It’s the togetherness that’s important and people’s well being here. If Christmas isn’t fun and memorable for the good stuff, then what’s the point?
Routines & Kids
Give your kids some grace during the holidays. How many events are you asking them to show up for? How many hours are they “visiting” where they have to have conversations? They’re going to miss naps, eat stuff not on their normal menu, and have a lot of stimulation.
It’s like daylight savings time on steroids! Remember CONTEXT and try your hardest to maintain some naps, limit the sugar and sweets.
Do some ROLE PLAYING: you’re going to be opening presents….someone has picked out something nice for you. Practice how they’ll react when they open socks versus the newest tech gadget. What are thank yous FOR?
We’re going to be at a dinner with other kids and adults. Do they have table manners? Are they able to sit and converse? What a great time to practice all this before hand! Give them some “table topics” so they can ask their own questions and learn how to become conversationalists. Practice what to do when someone puts something on their plate that is YUCKY.
QUIET TIME
The holidays are a great time to get off the clock and let the kids take a break from school stress. No one says you have to put anything on your calendar. EVERYTHING IS ALWAYS ON THE TABLE.
Take some breaks and read some books quietly together in the evenings. …. We have a whole basket of children’s Christmas books from when the kids were little. We used to read 2-3 every evening of every day of December.
Now—for grandkids or younger kids—you could wrap those books and let the kids pick one or two from under a book tree as an evening activity. Not necessarily new books—just their favorite old ones!
Remember the reason for Christmas. We’re celebrating an actual event in history!
Scripture is filled with the various angles of the good news we celebrate at Christmas.
“God sent forth his Son, born of woman, born under the law, to redeem those who were under the law, so that
we might receive adoption as sons” (Galatians 4:5) and that
we might live through him” (1 John 4:9).
we may have life, and have it abundantly” (John 10:10).
Jesus came
to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many” (Mark 10:45).
to bear witness to the truth” (John 18:37).
to seek and to save the lost” (Luke 19:10).
to proclaim release to the captives and recovering of sight to the blind, to set at liberty those who are oppressed” (Luke 4:18).
to destroy the works of the devil” (1 John 3:8; cf. Hebrews 2:14-15).