Merry Christmas from Wells Family Travels
Favorite Christmas Traditions
There are so many exciting ways to celebrate Christmas!! If you’re anything like me, you love the idea of Christmas traditions but, at times, have difficulty making them happen. This year, to get organized, I made a list of all of the traditions we’ve enjoyed with our children through the years. In addition, I added a few new ones that we’ll try.
Traditions are a wonderful way to create memories that bond your family together. It’s the traditions that your family most likely will remember years after they’re grown. May your Christmas be filled with tradition, love, memories, giving, and moments taken to celebrate the birth of the Savior of the world as a baby, Jesus.
Count down with an advent calendar or Jesse tree, reading a Scripture each day
Put out the Nativity Scene, moving each piece closer each day
Learn the true meaning of Christmas
CHRISTMAS EVE
Attend a Christmas Eve Candlelight service at your church
Special Christmas Eve Meal:
Eat a simple meal on the floor with a blanket, as Mary and Joseph might have in the stable. Use candles and some of the following food:
- fish, poultry, eggs, goat cheese
- lentils, chickpeas (hummus), onions, olives
- almonds, pistachios
- honey and pita bread
- figs, dates, grapes, pomegranates
- grape juice
CHRISTMAS DAY
Talk about the real reason for Christmas. You could simply read the story in the Bible or be creative! We like to wrap up the nativity pieces and have each child choose one and unwrap it. They then try to retell part of the story from that characters’ perspective. We’ll add in more from the passage that pertains to them. You could have a costume box for them to try to dress up in character to tell their story.
Have a formal meal complete with candles, fine china, and a birthday cake for Jesus later in the day.
Pick out your Christmas tree from a local tree farm
Visit Santa Clause for fun, but give him a gift before you leave.
Christmas book unwrapping. Gather up your Christmas books adding a few new ones each year. Every few nights, unwrap a book and read it with hot chocolate by the tree.
Make homemade ornaments (We made wooden bead garland this year.)
Have a dance party to decorate the Christmas tree.
Hot chocolate and a Christmas movie
Wrap presents together (let a different child help you each time)
Invite friends over and decorate sugar cookies
Pick out a new family ornament that describes the year: our 2020 ornament.
Go see a play, concert, or special local event while social distancing. lol.
Ice skate outdoors with friends
Build a huge living room fort and decorate inside with Christmas lights, read a Christmas story with popcorn.
Decorate gingerbread houses
Get pajamas on. Load everyone into the car for a spontaneous drive around town looking at Christmas lights and playing Christmas music.
Listen to a Holiday Story by Candlelight. (Try this audio play version of Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol, )
CHRISTMAS EVE
Our kids ALWAYS sleep in sleeping bags under the Christmas tree on Christmas Eve. It’s their favorite tradition!
Open Christmas Eve gifts (We give pajamas and a new family game.)
CHRISTMAS DAY
Christmas Breakfast is a BIG DEA in our house. We make Santa pancakes and other favorite breakfast foods.
Unwrap presents. This year we are putting funny names on each present (Sparklepants, Fuddledud, Snickerdoodle, etc.) Each child will have a crossword puzzle with their silly names in it. Each time they find a name in their crossword puzzle, they can go search for that name under the tree. This allows me to put presents under the tree early without anyone knowing whose presents they belong to.
Bake cookies or make a homemade Christmas gift for your neighbors.
Put together “Blessing Bags” to keep in the car for someone who is homeless or in need.
Learn how other countries celebrate Christmas
Serve a meal at a homeless shelter, Ronald McDonald house, or donate to a food bank
Buy groceries and deliver to a family in need
Salvation Army Angel Tree
Operation Christmas Child box
Deliver baked goods to local firefighters or police
Make picture books for grandparents
