Fun Christmas traditions for families

Hey everyone and welcome to The Alternative South! Today I want to talk about some fun Christmas traditions to do with your family. This is something that I kind of wish I had started a lot sooner but I always feel like I’m the type of mom who just doesn’t do these sorts of things. I do kind of want to change that.

I want to be more involved and make sure that my son has the best life. My thing is that I don’t exactly remember having much of a happy childhood. It’s not really that I had a bad childhood but I don’t really remember the adults in my life being super involved.

My mom died when I was twelve and then after that, we didn’t exactly do a lot together. We didn’t really have any traditions growing up so the holidays weren’t that fun around this time.

And now that I’m in my thirties I have actually forgotten a lot of things from my childhood. A lot of things are pretty much blank. And that’s definitely something that I want to change with my kids. I want them to have a happier childhood and have more involved parents.

Not only that I do want him to have really fun holidays and be able to talk about them for years and years. Not only that but I do want to make sure that we are a very family-oriented family. Doing things like this will definitely work our way toward becoming a family-oriented family and it might help you as well.

Fun Christmas Traditions

So I have quite a few Christmas traditions on this list. Even though I said that most of these traditions are for families there are still quite a few fun traditions for adults to do alone or together here as well. These are definitely some things that I want to start doing with my son and see what he would enjoy.

Make Homemade Hot Chocolate

You know I don’t think I have had hot chocolate since I was a kid. I don’t recall having any at all since I have grown up. I actually want to work on changing that as well. Hot Chocolate was so good and I know my son would love it when it’s not so hot.

On top of that, he actually may enjoy it with some marshmallows.

To me, this is a great Christmas tradition because I always resonate cold weather with warm drinks. So making your own hot chocolate can be a great idea to get you into the Christmas holiday. I know I always need a little push around this time of year because Christmas really isn’t one of my favorite holidays.

Make a gingerbread house

Making a gingerbread house is actually something that I have never done. Never! Can you believe that?

This is actually what I meant about not really having the experience of some of the fun things that other families have. We never really did any of these sorts of things.

Maybe I didn’t really show any interest growing up and that’s why we really never did it. But I do wish I was kind of pushed to do them and to actually be involved.

Even though I may not really have enjoyed it at the time I probably would still remember it to this day if we had done it. This is something that my son might not fully enjoy yet but when he’s a little bit older I will definitely try doing something like this with him.

Do you make gingerbread houses?

Go look at Christmas Lights

This is something that I think for the most part everyone really knows about. Looking at Christmas lights is something we try to do every single year. Last year we went to quite a few places.

I think more people decorate for Christmas than they do for Halloween and on a certain level that makes me a little sad. I know more people enjoy Christmas than they do Halloween though. Considering that I’m a huge Halloween person I do wish there was more of an effort for that holiday as well.

But going to look at Christmas Lights is such a great way to get you in the spirit. Even though Christmas isn’t really one of my favorites (don’t come at me) looking at Christmas lights does kind of get me into the Christmas spirit.

Not only that but kids are absolutely fascinated with the lights!

Countdown with an advent Calendar

So I have actually never done an advent calendar. To be honest I never really understood them and why exactly so many people get excited about them.

Don’t get me wrong it’s okay to enjoy them but I never really got it. So if you’re someone who actually enjoys them then let me know in the comments why exactly you enjoy them so much!

But these can be a great way to get you excited for Christmas and be able to count down the days until Christmas. It helps that you get little small surprises from them as well! If you are looking to do this then you can find a ton of them on Amazon.

Do Christmas crafts

So this is definitely something that I see people doing more with kids rather than doing alone as an adult. Granted if you’re a crafty person then maybe you are the type of person that would love doing something like this.

This was something that I really never did growing up unless it was something that I did while in school. My family wasn’t really the crafty type so I never did these sorts of things at home. I do kind of wish that we did some of these things at home together.

I know there are those sip-and-paint places but we could have gone when there wasn’t alcohol involved. Since I grew up loving to draw and paint I think this would have been a great way for me to get into the Christmas spirit.

Bake from scratch

After my mom passed this was something that we started doing and I loved it. I’m honestly not much of a cook. I’m not really much of a baker either but I loved doing this!

This is something I might start doing with my son this year and see how he does. Since he’s only four I’m not really sure if this is something he will really like but it won’t hurt to check and see if he likes doing it with me.

Not only that but I do need to kind of loosen up with him and let him learn how to do certain things. Who cares if he makes a mess because you know what? That mess can be cleaned up.

Baking is a great Christmas tradition whether you do it from scratch or find some sort of cookies that you can just throw in the oven.

Take pictures every year in front of the tree for a fun Christmas traditions

This is something I’m trying to work on and so far we have done a really great job at doing it every year.

So, why exactly is this one of those fun Christmas traditions for families? To me, it’s just one of those fun things to see how things have changed from year to year.

I guess it’s just fun having those pictures to see as our son gets older. It doesn’t have to necessarily have to be in front of the tree but just having Christmas pictures in general. The great thing is that you don’t have to have a professional photographer to do these.

All you need is to have a camera and potentially a tripod. If you don’t have a tripod then you can just as easily have someone in your family take the picture.

Fun Christmas Traditions by buying a Christmas Ornament every year

This is another thing that I have been trying to do every single year. I’m not completely sure when I’m actually going to stop buying them because there needs to be a stopping point.

If we don’t stop then eventually our tree is going to be covered in nothing but our son’s ornaments. But for right now I’m going to keep buying them until we have had enough.

To me, this is just a fun thing to do because we can let our son put his own ornament up on the tree. It’s something that’s really simple I know but it’s still fun!

Reindeer mix

So I’m not really sure if this is something that I’m going to do or not. My cousin actually use to do this every single year with her kids and I know she use to enjoy it.

My only thing is that I don’t exactly want to clean it up afterward. So this is something that I actually need to do more research on and figure out the best ways of doing it. I’m actually going to try and do some research this month and see the best ways of doing it. Because I would love to see my son’s reactions when we tell him that the reindeer ate the food.

Is this one of those fun Christmas traditions that you do with your kids?

Christmas storybook Advent for a fun Christmas traditions

This is something that I’m actually planning on doing this year. I really want to make reading fun for my son and I’m actually trying to read more to my son. This is such a struggle to do with him because right now he doesn’t really like it.

On top of that, I can’t really get him to sit down and actually listen. So there are times when I really question if it’s even worth it or not.

But I’m going to keep trying and see if it’s something that actually might grow on him. But with this, you can do however many days that you want to do. I’m actually thinking about doing fifteen days and for those fifteen days he can open up the books. I know a lot of you are probably thinking that this will be expensive but there are ways to make it not so expensive.

If you have those free libraries around your area then you can take advantage of that. On top of that most libraries have shops where they sell books for a dollar or less. If you have an Ollies then please utilize them because their books are super cheap! If anything else then you can go to thrift stores!

I hope this list helps with ideas of what you can do around Christmas time! If you have other suggestions then please let me know in the comments because I would love to hear them.

If you like this post then make sure to check out my post on Halloween traditions.