Family Holiday Traditions
Family holiday traditions are what make memories. It’s experiences and gifts you remember for years to come that are repeated annually. There’s lots of family traditions including annual cookie swaps, trips to the Nutcracker Ballet, or Ugly Sweater competitions.
Every tradition requires planning and organization. Most important are dates and deadlines. When will you host your tradition? Invite early to be sure your guests are available. Be sure to make a list of what you need and have it available.
Here are my family holiday traditions. Each family holiday tradition shares memories of the year that has passed.
Annual Dinner
Each year we take our grandchildren for a fancy holiday dinner in downtown Houston. It’s just the grands and Gigi and Paps (that’s us!). It’s our time together to enjoy the holiday lights and drive. We spend the dinner talking about our holiday together and each of their interests. It’s a special night together.
Christmas ornament
Since each grands birth, we have given them an ornament for Christmas. I order these around September in be sure they arrive early. The theme of each ornament depends on something special each year. Some year’s the ornament is about a special activity that year, like baseball or gymnastics. This year it was an beach ornament for each grand celebrating our beach trip together. These ornaments are a treasure each year as they place them on the tree. The ornaments have their names and year on each one.
Pap’s Photo Album
My husband, aka Paps, only Christmas gift is an annual photo album. I started these albums when we had print photos! It takes time to gather the photos from the year. I gather these from all the spots that photos comes from including my camera, my phone, his phone, and all my family. I upload these and create an annual photo album filled with all the year’s fun. Throughout the year I organize the photos with this album in mind and work on it throughout the month of December. It’s the gift cherished by my husband everyone in the family looks at it all year.
I’d love to learn about your family holiday traditions too! Post these in the comment please.
Happy organizing and Happy Holidays!
I have so many traditions at the holidays that I couldn’t list them all. Here is one we enjoy… we read “A Visit from St. Nicholas (aka Night Before Christmas)” around a table. Each person has a wrapped less than $5 gift. Each time we read the word “and” we pass the gift to the left. At the end, we open the gifts (and the trading begins!) It is fun and gives the little ones a chance to open something on Christmas Eve. Thanks for sharing your holiday traditions:)
@Seana – what a fun and festive way to celebrate on Christmas Eve! Thanks for sharing.