Christmas Gift Guide and Resources

It’s that time of year where we start to think through our Christmas shopping lists! This year we have a baby due the first week in January, which means I need to be on the ball about getting my Christmas shopping done on time.

During the holidays one of the questions I receive the most is “what Christmas traditions do you have?” and “how do you give gifts?”.

I thought I would share some of my favorite gifts to give boys, girls, men and women. And also share a few of our favorite Christmas traditions below!

Gift Giving

We don’t have a rule of thumb when it comes to gifting. Typically we’ll do a larger gift and a 2-3 smaller gifts as well.

Stockings are a big deal in our home and they’re what everyone looks forward to the most! We open them up first thing on Christmas morning once everyone has woken up.

There is something so special about sitting on the couch with a cup of coffee watching the kids dig into their stockings!

Growing up we all had hand made stockings that my mom and Grandma made. We have carried on this tradition into our family and our stockings are my favorite Christmas decoration!

I’ve listed a few below that you can see for reference. We typically use the Bucilla stocking kit brand.

They’re a beautiful heirloom that our kids will take with them when they leave the house. Each stocking typically takes 30-40 hours to make (my mom timed herself one winter making one).

Whenever a new baby comes along, we’ll pick out a stocking and start making it before they’re born. It’s a sweet tradition that I love!

Top 5 Gifts Purchased

I always find it fascinating to see what everyone is purchasing! I thought I would share the top 5 gifts that have been purchased through my Christmas Gift Guide and Stocking Stuffer recommendations.

  • Paint by Number: this is the perfect gift for any teen or woman in your life! My girls have both loved them in years past!
  • Mini Sketch Pads: I am popping these into stockings this year with some fun crayons and pens! My kids love to write and draw!
  • Paper Airplanes: my big boys received these in their stockings last year and they were a hit!
  • Neck and Back Massager: this thing is incredible!!! It doesn’t just do an annoying and light rub, it really gets into those deep knots on your back. I highly recommend!
  • Water Arcade: my kids love little games like this! They’re each getting one in their stocking this year.

Stocking Kits

Gift Guide for Girls

This little gift guide for girls is geared more towards elementary and teen ages (my girls are 8 and 13). Sometimes those age groups can feel a little daunting to shop for.

My girls love to create and craft! These gift suggestions are perfect if you are wanting ideas that don’t revolve around technology.

  • BUILD A MINI GREEN HOUSE: Emma received this mini green house kit last year and loved it! It was a more advanced gift that would be perfect for teenage girls. Every little detail on it had to be put together and the finished project was beautiful! It even comes with little lights that you can add to the inside of your greenhouse.
  • Build a Fairy Garden Kit: this was one that caught my eye for any aged girl! My girls love to make little scenes and this Fairy Garden Kit would be perfect for any aged girl!
  • Paint by Number: my girls have both loved doing various paint by number projects over the past few years. This Paint by Number owl would be a fun gift for older girls!
  • Mandie Collection Books: if you have a girl who loves to read, I HIGHLY recommend getting the Mandie Collection books! I read them as a little girl and both of my girls have enjoyed them too. They’re a fun mystery series that’s set in the late 1800s.
  • Beading Set: both of my girls love to make beaded bracelets! This set comes with everything they would need to make quite a few fun bracelets!
  • Personalized Journal Set: is there anything better than getting your own journal to write in?! I bought one of these personalized journal sets for both of my girls. They’re going to love customizing them!

Gift Guide for Boys

As a mama to five boys (ages ranging from almost 2 to 12), I love finding gifts for boys that spark their imagination! We don’t do a ton of technology in our home (really, none at all besides tv).

These gifts are perfect for your younger boys (and girls) and also older boys. I hope this helps to get your wheels spinning as you’re shopping!

Gift Guide for Men

The gift guide for men is going to be a fairly simple one. All the things that I know my husband, brothers or dad would love!

They’re manly men who aren’t big on things or gifts. So, if you have men like that in your life… this gift guide is for you!

  • Carhartt Leather Gloves: all of the men in my life love a good pair of leather gloves to work with. These would be a great gift for any man!
  • Multi-Purpose Tool: a great gift to give if they don’t already have one!
  • Yeti Travel Mug: my husband is on the road quite a bit with work. He loves having a travel mug to keep his coffee hot.

Gift Guide for Women

If you’re shopping for your mom, sisters, friends or even wanting to give suggestions for yourself, then this gift guide is for you!

I’ve compiled a few of my very favorite things that would make lovely gifts for any women in your life.

  • Favorite Skincare Products: I’ve been using Beautycounter products for over 3 years now and LOVE them! This little Holiday pack (grab it before it sells out) comes with my favorite Overnight Resurfacing Peel and All Bright C Serum. Both products are excellent for brightening overall skin tone. What woman wouldn’t love that?!
  • Ceramic Travel Mug: I prefer drinking my coffee out of a regular mug. I normally steer clear of a typical travel mug if we are on the go (I think it makes the coffee taste weird). This Ceramic Travel Mug is one of my favorite purchases this past year. It keeps my coffee hot, has a great lid and also makes it taste like normal coffee (anyone else with me on this?!).
  • Favorite Winter Boots: I’ve had these boots for over five years now and still love them! They’re perfect to wear out and about on rainy or wintery mix days (not a lot of snow here in Texas).
  • Heated Neck and Shoulder Massager: my friend recommended this earlier in the year and I am so glad she did! I hold a lot of my stress in my shoulders and neck and this massager melts it away. Highly recommend!
  • Gel Nail Kit: this is a super fun kit that is perfect for yourself or a teen daughter! I love having painted nails, but prefer gel to regular polish because it holds up better.
  • Heated Milk Frother: another recommendation from a friend! I bought it a few months ago and use it often. It makes the best hot or cold milk froth for your drinks. My kids also love to use it to make yummy hot cocoa!

Artificial Christmas Trees

I love to go all out in the tree department at Christmas time. We do an artificial tree and also a real Christmas tree.

The artificial tree typically goes up the very beginning of November. I’ve included a link to the one I bought this year!

It’s a beautiful 7.5 ft. flocked tree that is pre-lit. My previous artificial tree had bit the dust last year.

Every year after Thanksgiving we go to a local Christmas tree farm to cut down our real Christmas tree. It’s a sweet tradition that we have carried on every year since my husband and I were newlyweds.

  • Flocked Artificial Christmas Tree: I bought this tree this year and absolutely LOVE it! It’s the perfect size and doesn’t look super “fake”. Highly recommend if you’re in the market for a new artificial tree.
  • Star Tree Topper: I bought this star topper last year and it was absolutely gorgeous! A fun change from a traditional tree topper.

Favorite Christmas Garlands

Favorite Christmas Decor

One of my favorite ways to decorate around my home for Christmas is to use assorted strands of greenery and beads. I’ve linked a few of my favorites below!

I also love having bakers twine and bottle brush trees on hand at all times as well. The bottle brush trees are perfect for creating little scenes around your home.

Place them in jars with fake snow to make little snow globes, set them next to a favorite picture frame, etc. They add instant Christmas to any area!

And the red baking twine is just a great item to have on hand during the holidays. I love using it to tie on ornaments or adding to gift tags.

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514 Comments

  1. I made stockings for our Bowery were newborns and made a stocking for our little grandson. Hubs and I still have our childhood stockings, so all stockings plus one for our DIL are hung on our mantel.I love finding treasures for everyone’s stockings! Hubs fills mine! We open our stockings together on Christmas Day. 💕

  2. Stockings are our family’s favorite!! So many sweet little memories tucked inside, little festive bath bombs, favorite treats and special experiences all in one little spot. Special year after year!

  3. We love stockings! My husband and I fill each other’s stockings. I love finding small, fun treats for the kids stockings. Some special candy is always included as well as some small toys, games and useful items.

  4. We always do stockings! My husband and I use our childhood stocking and my great aunt made special stockings for our boys. They are hand decorated and beaded with fun Christmas scenes and have their names cross stitched on them.
    What we stuff them with varies from year to year. Usually my husband and I go on a date night and pick gifts to put in them. Usually we go to the Dollar Tree and pick snacks, candy, Small toys, coloring books, and things like that!
    The boys usually help me fill their daddy’s stocking as well!

  5. Our family definitely does stockings and gifts and we go all out for Christmas! Growing up, I didn’t get gifts, stockings, a tree, none of that, so my husband and I try to make it extra special for my 4 daughters. 🙂

  6. We’ve always done stockings, but my favorite change in recent years has been only including special food/treat items that will be consumed. Less clutter left after Christmas is over!

  7. Our favorite Christmas tradition with the kiddos is riding around with hot chocolate and looking at Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music.

    My favorite Christmas tradition with my husband is staying up late one night and wrapping all the gifts together. It’s a way to reconnect during the busy season and we always reminisce about Christmas when we were kids.

    My husband does the stocking stuffers and the kids always brag about how awesome they are. He gets them the typical holiday stocking candy, lip glosses, nail polish, hair ties, costume jewelry, and cute little hand sanitizers. We have all girls if you can’t tell already. Haha.

  8. We do stockings of small treats and toys! Gadgets that probably won’t last a day like the flying drone that cost $7. 😝 Mom and Dad are getting new electric toothbrushes. 😙

  9. Yes! Stockings are really our favorite aspect of Christmas gifts. We try to always include one piece of personalized jewelry for the ladies and something personalized for the guys as well:) Thanks so much for doing this!!!

  10. My parents still make up stockings for all six of us kids plus spouses and children but my own family has yet to start that tradition. This is the year! 🙂

  11. One of our favorite traditions is the Christmas Angel. He makes an appearance (my husband named him Victor) 10 days before Christmas. I stage him each night for the kids to find the next morning with an emphasis on serving, helping others. Then Christmas morning he is found under the tree with the open bible to the Nativity story to be read before gift opening.

  12. A few years ago we started buy a real Christmas tree. It by far is my favorite part about Christmas. The excitement that’s in the air as we drive to the lot to pick out the tree as a family, the smell of the Pine all Christmas long and even the watering it , all brings joy to my heart ♥️♥️♥️🌲🌲🌲.

  13. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is hiking out to pick out our tree, then bringing it home and going over so many memories as we pull out ornaments from years past. We decorate the tree while listening to The Nutcracker soundtrack, and almost always sip some eggnog and order pizza for dinner…maybe it’s a strange combination of things, but it’s so much fun!

  14. Christmas Eve candlelight service at church followed by appetizers at home has become one of my favorite Christmas. It centers our hearts to the true meaning for the season. It’s also finally the day I let the whole family dig into the Christmas cookie tray!

  15. My favorite holiday tradition is looking at Christmas lights together. Hearing the kids oooh & ahhh over the beautiful lights and seeing the joy on their faces is all I need. I remember doing this as a kid and it felt so magical.

  16. I have two favorite Christmas traditions: Our family does an advent study, and it is just so sweet to share that with our boys. We also put our boys in their Christmas pjs and drive around our town to look at Christmas lights after dinner throughout the season.

  17. We write Santa a letter every year. Letters can be mailed and will be answered by Santa’s Elves if received by December 18, 2021. Send your letter to:
    Santa Claus
    P.O. Box 1
    Santa Claus, IN 47579
    It’s so magical when the kids get that letter in the mail and it REALLY brings the Christmas Spirit alive for them! (And me)

  18. Our favorite Christmas tradition is listening to Christmas music while decorating the tree, there are a few special songs we play in memory of my dad and we dance the same silly dance every year. Now that my daughter is grown I still do it even if she can’t make it.

  19. One of our favorite Christmas traditions is watching Its a Wonderful Life. We have a snacky dinner with lots of goodies while we watch. 🎄❤️

  20. My favorite tradition is singing Christmas Carols as a family. We typically do this for at least an hour every Sunday of the advent season.

  21. On Christmas Eve, the kids get a Christmas Eve box with new Christmas pajamas and hot chocolate so we can load up and go look at lights. When we get back we do popcorn and a Christmas movie (also in the box). 🍿 🎄

  22. Loved all these ideas and traditions. One tradition that we have carried year to year since our oldest was 2 is on Christmas Eve we have special appetizers and watch Prep & Landing. It’s the perfect high point before Christmas morning.

  23. We love to chop (slay is another preferred term 🤣) our own tree down. We celebrate on Jan 7 – Orthodox Christmas, so being a little later we try to ride those post dec 25 sales too!

    Our advent calendar this year is simple and I’m looking forward to seeing my kids move the star closer each day to anticipating Christ’s birth.

  24. Thank you so much for recommending the Mandie mystery series. I have a 10 year old who loves to read and those sound right up her alley!

    My girls and I make gingerbread houses, but neither of them are fond of gingerbread cookies so we use graham crackers.

  25. We have cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning and not really any other day of the year so it’s special. My boys look forward to it! We also enjoy watching Christmas movies, reading Christmas books, and looking at lights as a family.

  26. One of our favorite Christmas traditions is the Jesse Tree. The kids love hanging the ornaments each night and reading the stories.

  27. I love decorating with the kids for Christmas! It makes the house feel so magical 😀 I also really enjoy reading all of our Christmas picture books together as we count down the days of advent.

  28. Every year we go out and get a real Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. When we get it home, we decorate it together while listening to Christmas music and drinking a hot beverage – virgin Snowblower is our favorite!

    1. We definitely do stockings!! Always candy and other small things, different for each kid depending on what they like. Art stuff, hair stuff, baking stuff or cars/dinos, etc. I love stockings 😊

  29. So many amazing traditions!!! One of our favorites (even though my girls are adults) are the Christmas pj’s they open on Christmas Eve. The tradition now includes the son-in-laws and one grandson! We are so very blessed!!!

  30. Watching Charlie Brown Christmas with my kids, making a “Christmas bucket list” with them and watching their excitement just coming up with things to do, and Christmas Eve morning we go to breakfast together to kick things off!

  31. Favorite tradition is getting the kids in their Christmas pajamas, giving them hot cocoa and hopping in the car to look at Christmas lights!

  32. One of my favorite traditions for Christmas is our special breakfast of egg casserole and cinnamon rolls. But before that, we always open stockings which is so fun and special. It’s such a cozy and special morning!

  33. We celebrate the O Antiphons(the last 7 days of Advent)in our home by focusing on activities that relate to each anitphon. We also have specific prayers we read on those days. It is a time of final preparation of heart until we rejoice on Christmas morning.

  34. The first weekend in December, we go cut down our real Christmas tree! You never know what the weather or tree will look like but thats what makes it so fun!

    *When my grandpa was alive, my absolute favorite tradition was he would sing “Oh Holy Night” at the Christmas Eve service. It was so special that we had his nephew sing it at his funeral! Still to this day, each time I hear it, it brings me to tears thinking about my papa!

  35. Milkshakes while touring the Christmas lights is one of our favorite traditions. We also enjoy the Jesse tree advent tradition!

  36. Every year about 5 days of so before we celebrate Christmas (with a blended family it can be anywhere from the 23rd to the 30th) we go out back, as a family and cut down our own tree, out of the back field. Then in the Spring for Arbor Day, we go, again as a family and plant another Cedar or Fir tree (depends on what we cut down) so that we will have more trees for future years.

  37. Love the sweet traditions of Christmas time. Stockings are my favorite too! We always make Christmas cookies to gift to friends and have a gingerbread house decorating party as well as watching all the Christmas movies we can. Jesus and family is the best reason to celebrate.

  38. Sounds pretty basic, but the day we go cut a REAL tree down 😉 & bring it home to decorate and blare some Christmas tunes as we decorate!

  39. One of my favorite traditions is our advent reading. Each night we read a Bible story and talk about how it points to Christ. The kids then find the coordinating homemade tree ornament and hang it on the tree. There are 25 ornaments and stories. It’s been a wonderful way to focus our hearts on Jesus during the Christmas season

    1. Thank you for all the good ideas for guests! It’s easy to go overboard when buying for kids. We like to use the four gift rule but sometimes I get a few extras and stick those in the stockings. My favorite Christmas tradition is seeing all of my seven siblings on Christmas Eve especially now that we are all having kids!

  40. My most favorite tradition is going to Christmas Eve Service and seeing snow gently falling to the ground after the service. At the end of the service candles are lit and the lights turned off while we sing Silent Night. This brings tears to my eyes every year.

  41. Our family started a new tradition for Christmas last year. We make soup and bread and cookies, bundle up with Santa hats and lights, and deliver meals to several of our neighbors. Our boys talk about it often and can’t wait to do it again this year!

  42. We all wear matching pajamas on Christmas Eve, and after opening presents we start a huge puzzle that the whole family works on completing.

  43. This is such a fun, joyful post! Love the Christmas season with family! One of our favorite traditions is a delicious breakfast- usually cinnamon rolls, hot cup of coffee, and a good long time enjoying stockings. Then the Christmas story. Then gifts. family time all day. 🤍

  44. Our favorite family tradition is eating a piece of Cranberry Orange Pound Cake while reading the Christmas story. And of course opening gifts 🎁❤️
    Cranberry Orange Pound Cake
    1- 1/2c. Soft butter.
    2-3/4White sugar. (Cream together)then add 1egg@ a time
    6eggs
    1T. Orange peel
    1t.Orange juice
    3c. White flour
    1t.Baking powder
    1/2t. Salt. (Mix together well… then add. 1C. Cranberries
    An Fold in 1c. Sour cream
    Bake at 350° in a Bundt cake pan for one hour . Then check with a toothpick when it comes out clean it is finished😊
    Glaze cake once it is completely cold. 1/2c. Cream
    1/2c. Butter
    1c. Sugar
    1T. Orange peel
    1t. Orange juice
    Mix all ingredients together and boil for two minutes😁

  45. My favorite Christmas tradition is: my husband or my father in law reads the Christmas story aloud to all of us on Christmas Eve before we open presents. I love that this points us back to Jesus and the ultimate reason we celebrate.

  46. My favorite Christmas tradition is on Christmas Eve my entire family including Grandkids and now a couple Great Grandkids going to 4:00 Mass together and than gather at my parents house for any evening of good food and games, we sometimes have a Tripoli game going late into the night. Such great family togetherness.

  47. We love to start off our Christmas traditions by loading up the family to go search for and cut our tree down. Once back home, we turn on Christmas music and hymns and begin decorating the tree and house. The holiday season also always has to include a couple days of baking- the kids love to cut out and decorate sugar cookies!

  48. One of our favorite family traditions is Mexican Christmas Eve. My husband is from Mexico so we have all the yummy Mexican food on Christmas Eve and then traditional food on Christmas Day. So gooood 🤤

  49. Oh my…I have been big on traditions and my 15yr old still looks forward to them happening. We have butter making battles, a Charlie Brown Thanksgiving(we make the meal from the show the week before ..toast, popcorn, gummy bears(we don’t like jelly beans), and pretzels. We bake all the cookies, do all the crafts, watch all the movies. But my favorite is the sheer amount of read aloud time we get with earlier nights. Hot cocoa and a good book…always a good book.

  50. Just like you….stockings were important in my family when I was young. Now, my kids LOVE to dive into their stockings and see what’s inside. I try to keep it personal and wrap each item.

    1. My favorite Christmas tradition is having our annual children’s Christmas party lunch. It’s just me and my sister and our children but it’s fun to make the food, crafts and they exchange little gifts with each other ❤

  51. Favorite traditions:
    Picking out a tree with friends! New Christmas jammies on the night we decorate the tree! And hot cocoa bar on Christmas Eve!

  52. My favorite tradition is definitely ba(ing Christmas cookies & other goodies with my family. I also love to decorate the tree & the house.

    1. We have a 4 present rule. 1 thing they want, 1 thing they need, 1 thing they can wear, and one thing they can read.

      It really simplifies Christmas and helps us to focus on the true reason for Christmas!

  53. My favorite tradition is getting in pajamas on Christmas Eve and going to look at Christmas lights. Then we go home and have hot chocolate and watch Home Alone.

  54. I’m sure my kids and husband would say opening gifts is their favorite but it’s never been mine even growing up! I love the baking and crafting and decorating!

  55. My favorite tradition at Christmas is our whole family writes a poem, it can be a song or an instrumental, or a written poem and we recite it after the Bible reading . Then we have rice, milk, and cinnamon then open gifts.

  56. Our favorite tradition is driving to see Christmas lights and then going to our favorite family owned Christmas store that is all decked out. The kids get to pick one new ornament that is special to them.

  57. We love to make cookies, open up new pjs on Christmas Eve, drive to see lights and love on our neighbors with goodie baskets.

  58. Sleeping by the Christmas Tree on Christmas Eve as a family. We started this tradition the year before our oldest w as born and have continued it every year since then! It’s fun to wake up with the kids in the excitement of Christmas morning. We also use the Shepherd on the Search and love to see the kids try to find him every day leading up to Christmas in his search for Jesus. This has allowed for conversations about Jesus’s birth and his coming again for us and how we look for Jesus in our daily lives. My oldest now knows that in fact the sheperd does not move on his own so this year will be the first year he gets to help move the sheperd for his little sister to find! 🙂

  59. My favorite family tradition (and the kids) is when I wrap all of our Christmas picture books, and the day after Thanksgiving the kids take turns unwrapping one to two books a day and reading them all the way up to Christmas Eve.

  60. We love memorizing part of the Christmas story from Luke 2 and sharing it with others. We enjoy a fun snowman breakfast for Christmas Eve with a Grinch Punch followed by opening an ornament, pj’s and a new game to play. We snuggle on the couch in new pajamas and watch a Christmas movie. We also love looking at Christmas lights with hot cocoa and making gingerbread houses.

  61. Our favorite Christmas traditions are drives to look at Christmas lights, baking and decorating gingerbread houses, and Christmas Eve service at church. We love spending Christmas day just a quiet peaceful day at home, opening gifts and relaxing while the kids enjoy their new toys.

  62. I have a few! 1. Christmas cookie decorating with my sons. 2. Going to look at Christmas lights with my husbands parents. 3. Gingerbread house decorating with my family and my brothers in laws! We LOVE Christmas time and all the family time together! ❤️ Merry Christmas!

  63. We always drive through the neighborhood next to ours and look at Christmas lights while we all drink hot chocolate and wear Christmas jammies! Our kids have named it “the ultimate Christmas neighborhood”

  64. My family always got together Christmas Eve and had drinks and desserts! It was a nice calm time before at the chaos that happens Christmas morning.

  65. We bake a birthday cake, light a candle on it, and sing happy birthday to Jesus on the evening of the 25th. It is such a special way to teach my kids the significance of Christmas.

  66. We also had hand made stocking from our grandmother. Such a special item that we always cherish!! Have a beautiful Christmas!

  67. We always gathered with all the cousins on Christmas Eve at my grandparents. My grandparents have been gone for years, but I carry on the tradition by making homemade Wassail like my grandmother did and homemade chex mix like my mom. Hoping these will be traditions my kids want to carry on in their families!

  68. We love driving around and looking at Christmas lights, cookie baking, and matching Christmas pjs! As well as doing an advent study together.

  69. My favorite Christmas tradition is having Christmas morning breakfast with my family after all the gifts are open 💗

  70. My favorite Christmas tradition is going to Christmas Eve church service with my family and having a special dinner after.

  71. This is definitely my favorite time of the year. Our family tradition that I hold near to my heart is that every year since I was little we get (and now give as parents myself) a Christmas ornament that reflects the previous year. It was so nice as a kids to look back and be reminded of things I was into or did that year. And also when I moved out into my own home, my first Christmas tree was filled with personal ornaments! Merry Christmas to you and yours.

  72. My absolute favorite Christmas tradition growing up was going to pick out a live Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving. We’d go as a family and it was a joy filled time together. Picking, bringing it home, getting it inside, set up and decorated. Once it was done we’d enjoy wassil or hot chocolate and usually a Christmas movie (It’s a Wonderful Life was a top pick). I look back with much fondness at that experience. Now my little (or some would say big) family does it now too and I absolutely love creating this experience with my husband and children!!

  73. Our favorite tradition is getting all the cousins together and making cookies to decorate for them to leave out for “Santa”

  74. My favorite tradition is wrapping baby Jesus and putting under the tree. We unwrap it last as the best gift under the tree.

  75. First of all, I love your gift guides! Secondly, I love when we gather around the tree and read the Christmas story from the Bible on Christmas Eve, allowing that to be the last memory before bedtime. I love all things Christmas, my favorite holiday❤️💚

  76. One of our favorite Christmas traditions is to put together the same lego set every year and add something to it. We are a family who enjoys legos so much and came up with a fun way to have a tradition that reflects us. We get to work on it together over a few weeks and then have it displayed until decorations go away. Then we break it all down so we can start again next year!

  77. Some of my favorite Christmas traditions are making cinnamon rolls for the morning of Christmas, opening presents with the kids and than spending the rest of the day at the in laws house with all the siblings and cousins. On Christmas Eve we love going to church and than going over to grandparents house for ham and bean soup…. A tradition that has lived on for many many years.

  78. My favorite tradition is called the “musical Christmas gift box”, it’s like musical chairs. I fill the box with many small gifts and if you are holding the box when the music stops you get a gift. This creates so much excitement and laughter, the adults enjoy this tradition as much as the kids do!
    I loved reading through so many beautiful traditions everyone has shared ❤️.

  79. This is a great list! Thank you for some great ideas! I also love your holiday decorations! They are colorful and so cozy! One of my favorite Christmas traditions is getting matching pajamas for everyone and giving the kids a basket full of fun activities and treats for the holiday season. It is full of pjs, holiday movies, books, treats, hot cocoa, holiday mugs, a holiday puzzle and a new ornament for each of them to put on the tree! We love getting in our matching pjs to drive around and look at Christmas lights (I even deck out the inside of the van with colorful Christmas lights) and then we order take out and watch a Christmas movie. The kids love it!

  80. We make cookies every year with my mama and my kids. We also go to the local drive thru lights show, and let the kids ride in the bed of the truck with popcorn and hot chocolate ( now that they are older).

  81. Our family tradition is going to Christmas Eve service st church every year, then spending time with my parents and siblings (since we don’t see them on Christmas Day.) Something new we are doing this year, is instead of giving our kids a bunch of toys for gifts, we’re giving them different trips, a couple examples.. an indoor water park, movie theater night, a trip to Sky Zone, etc .. a couple bigger trips and a couple small trips. Something we can all enjoy as a family 🙂

  82. We do a 12 days of Christmas countdown! Cute decorated bags with activities in each bag. Some are movies, decorating cookies, service projects…my kids ask for it every year!

  83. My favorite Christmas tradition is on Christmas Eve we go to the church service and then as many of my siblings who can make it all go to my parents house to eat food and watch It’s A Wonderful Life!

  84. A few of our favorite Christmas traditions are playing Christmas music while decorating the tree, Christmas Eve service, and making gingerbread houses together.

  85. Some of our favorite traditions are getting matching Christmas pajamas early in the season so we can enjoy them for awhile, watching Christmas movies together, reading our Dent book each night, and going on drives to look at Christmas lights!

  86. Our new Christmas Eve tradition is going out to eat dinner. Then we take the kids to look at Christmas lights in their pjs. We pack hot chocolate and popcorn to eat while we look and then come home and go right to bed.

  87. Some of our favorite Christmas traditions include making Romanian and Mexican foods and desserts, as well as traditional American foods, reading a Christmas book each night before bed with the kids, letting them open up one gift on Christmas Eve, stringing popcorn to put on our living room tree, going through an Advent study, doing tons of crafts, watching lots of Christmas movies (Home Alone is a must each year!), decorating the house inside and out, and basically just spending quality time with loved ones. We have learned to not take life for granted – my dad passed away 7 years ago and it looks like my father in law will pass any day now, too, so we are all definitely trying to make the holidays even more special this year….. 🙂

  88. Our favorite tradition is going the Christmas Eve service at church. It’s so special. Then we open our stockings. Christmas Day we always go to my parents around lunch and spend the day there.

  89. When our children were all little we started going through the Jesse Tree, hanging the ornaments as we read through each day. That has been a great way for us to prepare our hearts and minds for the coming of the King.
    We also love baking and gifting our goodies, friends and family look forward to all our homemade love in sweet form. 🙂 A couple years ago we started leaving our packages of goods on doorsteps at night. The kids like the thrill of sneaking up, leaving the package, knocking on the door and then high-tailing it out of there as fast as possible. Haha

  90. We love to watch Frosty the Snowman and Rudouph’s Shiny New Year and drink hot chocolate. I love to bake cookies with my grand kids and let them put up my Christmas tree. Thanks for the chance!

  91. Our entire family and extended family puts candles on every headstone at the cemetery on Christmas Eve. The candles are in white bags so they glow. My mom started doing it about 34 years ago when a lady from somewhere in Europe moved to our little town and she told my mom that it was a tradition in her village. Now the town board buys the candles and bags because the entire shows up to either help put out candles and light them or just to look at them. It’s truly magical to be in a place remembering those who can’t be with us on Christmas. Afterwards we go have a family dinner and play games.

  92. My favorite Christmas tradition is our wrapping night! My husband and I started it 10 years ago. We wrap ALL the presents after the kids go to bed while we watch Christmas vacation.
    We always make our favorite drink. Eggnog with a sco0p of peppermint icecream, 7up & rum!

  93. My favorite Christmas tradition is riding around and looking at Christmas lights. We all get some hot chocolate or coffee and just ride all over town looking at all the beautiful displays.

  94. My favorite tradition is spending Christmas Eve together with family. In Mexican culture it’s customary for the celebrations to be on the 24th. All the family gets together, there is lots of food. Later there is coffee and pastries. Lots of storytelling and reminiscing, kids running around. Everyone counts down to midnight kind of like New Years. Then everyone hugs and wishes each other a Merry Christmas. And then the kids rush to open presents! It’s been like this since I was a little girl and now the same with my boys!

  95. Our Christmas traditions are similar to yours! My mom’s family (10 kids) has knit all of our Christmas stockings and continues to as our family has grown. Now some of us are learning how to carry the torch. My immediate family makes an ornament each year and bakes lots of Christmas cookies.

    Thank you for the lovely gift guides!

  96. Loved this post! We have many traditions as a family that we all love, both with our little family and with extended family and am so thankful for them! One though that’s so special is Christmas School…we also homeschool and I pick a random day in the beginning of December and announce to my kiddos it’s the official start of Christmas school! We all love it so much. We come up with a list of all the fun things we want to do during our “normal” school hours, one fav being make homemade Christmas gifts for them to give to aunts and uncles and grandparents and cousins. Many days are spent in Christmas pjs and we really try to just slow down this season and savor it. Such a sweet, special time 🥰

  97. My favorite tradition is having a big Christmas cookie tray full of all the sweet things people have given you during the season.

  98. I love all of Christmas. But my favorite thing is that on Christmas Eve we get together with my siblings and their families. We have ham and pancakes for dinner. We read Luke 2 and enjoy our time. We give our kids new cute jammies and get to have a lazy Christmas morning.

  99. Christmas time has always been a warm comforting family time for us, most of the traditions we fallow I started after I had my first baby. We watch Christmas movies, having Christmas music playing with the fireplace on the tv. I also always make peppermint hot chocolate for treats for the kids during the season. And of Course doing an Advent countdown as we get closer to Jesus birthday.

  100. My favorite part of Christmas is all the little things we do leading up. I love the day, but I making memories along the way that have to do with Christmas… daddy making cinnamon rolls with the kids Christmas Eve, reading the Christmas story before stockings, Christmas jammies, making gifts, baking for neighbors and hosting for our bug fam:) picking out all the things I know they will love on Christmas morning and surprising them🥰

  101. One of our favorite traditions is visiting the “Galaxy of Lights” display at our local botanical gardens. They have dog walking nights and we load up our kids and basset hound and meet our neighbors and their kids and basset hound and walk through it together. It is loads of fun spending time with friends and seeing all the dogs. It really kicks off the season for us.

  102. We love having matching Christmas pjs, letting the kids each decorate their own little tree, and opening one gift on Christmas Eve!

  103. We love having matching Christmas pjs, letting the kids each decorate their own little tree, and opening one gift on Christmas Eve!

  104. One of my favorite traditions is our Christmas Gingerbread house competition! It’s girls against guys and the winner is decided through a poll on Facebook from friends and family.

  105. Some of our favorite Christmas traditions are…. reading an advent study together through the month of December, going on drives to look at Christmas lights, building gingerbread houses, watching Christmas movies, and reading all the Christmas pictures books! 🎄

  106. Growing up we used to always go as a whole family (mom dad and four kids) to eat at a nice restaurant. We went sometime around Christmas and at the end of the meal my parents would bless the waiter or waitress with a $100 tip. We had to get out of there before they saw and it was just the best way to bless someone!

  107. We do Christmas Eve with my parents and Christmas day with my in laws. My husband is in law enforcement so he’s worked many of our Christmas days. We usually gather the kids once the last gift is ready. “IT’S TIME!!” Shouted out like every movie portrays a woman in labor. We read Luke chapter 2, then open gifts. I LOVE surprising my kids like this. (We don’t do Santa so it works for us.) I think the earliest we’ve opened gifts was December 16. My oldest is almost 17 and I don’t recall ever waiting until December 25. I often think of Mary, wondering as I did the last few week’s of pregnancy, is it time? That anticipation of knowing it could be any day, that’s what I want my kids to feel. I want them excited for Jesus, I think they understand.

  108. Our favorite tradition would be driving around and looking at Christmas lights. We love to get hot cocoa and listen to Christmas music and go enjoy all the pretty lights. Another one of my favorites is watching the original Miracle on 34th Street with my kids every year, I love this movie.

  109. I got some great ideas! Thank you! My favorite tradition is decorating gingerbread houses on Christmas Eve 🙂

  110. It is hard to pick a favorite tradition but all of them involve spending time with family and friends while listening to Christmas music. On the top of the list is making a new special ornament, our blessing tree which we fill with handmade paper ornaments and write something we are blessed with.

  111. Our favourite Christmas tradition is baking our grattimaa (Swiss bread men) and having them for breakfast on December 6th!

  112. One of our favorites is our church’s Christmas Eve Candlelight Service. After we get home the kids open one gift and it’s always matching Christmas jammies they wear that night and a new book.

  113. Love these recommendations! My boys would love that dino track.
    The night before Christmas we gift the kids with new Jammie’s, hot coco, and some other kind of treat. Then depending on the roads and weather we’ll head out to drive around and look at lights and then watch a Christmas movie and head to bed. We love having a quiet Christmas morning just the 5 of us before heading off to spend the rest of the day with family. We have cinnamon rolls for breakfast, open stockings and gifts, then just enjoy a couple of hours together playing and relaxing. Then late afternoon we head to spend the rest of the day and enjoy a big meal with family.
    Same thing every year and I love it!

  114. Your posts are so helpful and just the best! Thank you! One of my favorite traditions is looking at lights with festive treats!

  115. A childhood favorite tradition that I am most excited to pass down to my son is gingerbread house decorating get together with his cousins! There is no shortage of creativity as they grow and expand their “once simple four walls and roof pre-made by parents” to architectural wonders that impress us all! Muffin tins full of candy end up all over the floor and frosting EVERYWHERE, but the laughs are many and the annual sugar rush leaves lasting memories for years to come!

  116. We love doing The 25 Days of Christ advent study each day of December and driving around looking at Christmas lights.

  117. Some of our favorite family Christmas traditions include going around and looking at Holiday lights while having hot chocolate and marshmallows, completing the Advent blocks where we turn around 1 every night and read the Bible passage that is corresponds to, and one of my favorites is splitting up the family and running around the store and everybody having stocking items while trying not to allow the others to see!

  118. A favorite tradition of mine is baking Christmas cookies. We use a secret family recipe and the tradition goes back at least five generations.

  119. One of our favorite Christmas traditions is doing our Jesse tree devotions in the evenings before bed. We put an ornament on the tree every night in December and learn about the lineage of Christ for the 24 days leading up to Christmas Day. My husband built a custom wooden Jesse tree so it is very special to us.

  120. Every Christmas Eve night, we open our stockings. The kids get an ornament every year that they can one day take with them, and other fun things. Then we watch White Christmas together. ❤️

  121. Love this! A few of my fave holiday traditions: making hot chocolate and going to look at Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music. Opening Christmas jammies every Christmas Eve. My kids love that we wrap 25 Christmas books each year and every day we sit by the fire and they get to unwrap one book to read together. We also like to sing happy birthday to Jesus on Christmas 🙂

  122. My favorite traditions are reading Twas the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve also my kiddos making cookies and decorating them!

  123. My husbands family always comes over for Christmas Eve and I cook a traditional Italian meal because my family’s Italian. When everyone leaves and the kids are in bed, my husband and I watch the Family Stone by the Christmas tree!

  124. One of our favorite Christmas traditions is making Christmas cookies and crafts for neighbors and family! We also love driving around looking at Christmas lights!

  125. What a generous giveaway you’re hosting! Some of our favorite traditions are opening up a gift of xmas jammies the day we decorate our tree. Cinnamon rolls for bfast, picture books all month long and a “shepherds dinner” on the floor Christmas Eve ❤️

  126. Our Christmas tradition is doing a Christmas advent. Every day leading up to Christmas we open a bag with a notecard on it that has a fun holiday activity we do together as a family. It can be as simple as everyone picks out their favorite Christmas song to listen to and we all dance, making a special treat to thank one of our city’s helpers, or something more extravagant like our city’s holiday boat parade. It helps us to pace out December still get everything done and focuses on doing things together as a family.

  127. We host a candy making party every year. Everyone brings ingredients to make a “candy” and we all cook together in our kitchen and then everyone goes home with an assorted plate of treats. There is also a contest on the best!

  128. I put a lot of time and thought into our advent calendar each year amd it is a special tradition. Each night we read, sing and enjoy a little treat.

  129. Fave tradition at our house is going to look at Christmas lights in our pajamas on Christmas Eve with cocoa in the car!

  130. Hi, friend! I’ve been following you on social forever it seems! I remember when I had more kids than you! Ha! 🙂 One of my favorite traditions is Christmas Eve where the kids dress in matching pjs, open gifts from one another, and then we drive around and look at lights (hot cocoa is usually a must) before we read ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas and tuck the kids into bed!

  131. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is my dad giving us a story, lesson, mini-sermon on Christmas Day. We always read the Christmas story and now that there are grandkids he adds in more special things to make us all think and grow.

  132. I love all these ideas for Christmas traditions! I love lighting our advent wreath and doing a reading or activity each night leading up to Christmas. Also love our blueberry stuffed French toast we always eat after opening presents!

  133. A few of our favorite traditions: 1) We love to eat pizza on the floor of the living room as a family and read the Christmas Story of Jesus on Christmas Eve. 2) We also love to pack up cookies and go to our local drive through light show. It’s always a highlight for us.

  134. Every year since I was born my family would travel 9-10 hrs (from MI) to MA so we could visit my dad’s side of the family. Every Christmas memory involves this journey… good weather and bad…being the oldest grandchild of 18, this trip meant lots of family time which was the best gift of all! Now 36 years later, my husband and I continue to carry this tradition out with our own children. Over the years, we have lost many dear to us and some other dynamics have changed but we have also gained lots of babies…and in the end our close-knit family still comes together in order to share in much love and Christmas traditions (like my Meme’s Christmas brunch… pass the quiche!)

  135. We always have homemade cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning. The kids get to open one present Christmas Eve and it’s always matching pjs. A few days before Christmas we pack hot chocolate and drive around looking at light s

  136. One of our young family’s favorite traditions is reading our Advent book every night leading up to Christmas. The kids are already looking forward to it this year!

  137. My favorite tradition is using The Jesus Storybook Bible as our advent readings. Two years ago we made felt ornaments that go with each story. After we read the story we hang the ornament on a small tree! I love that we made it and that it shows Jesus is revealed throughout the Word from creation on.

  138. Favorite tradition – watching “prep and landing” the day after thanksgiving, decorating, and driving a round looking at lights 🙂

  139. We always watch It’s a Wonderful Life together around Christmas time. It’s such a food reminder to appreciate our lives and family.

  140. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is putting together a gingerbread house with my girls and making treats to give to people! ☺️

  141. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is decorating the tree! We turn on Christmas music and dance around. I collect ornaments from every place we travel and I love hearing the kids reminisce about different things they remember from each trip!! It’s magical and makes my heart warm!!

  142. We give our boys new pajamas on Christmas Eve every year. Their 21, 16, and 11 now and we all still look forward to it each year..

  143. Three years ago we started putting together stockings for homeless people, filled with snacks and some toiletries and essentials. My oldest was 5 years old when he came up with this idea. Now all 3 of my boys look forward to this and talk about it all year long. I love that it is some way to serve and give rather than focus on receiving.

  144. My favorite Christmas tradition growing up was being able to open up a gift of my choosing on Christmas Eve – we didn’t do many traditions besides trimming the tree and the opening of the Christmas Eve present, but it was special!

  145. Love your stocking stuffer ideas!! Thank you for putting those together. My favorite Christmas tradition is RAK, random acts of kindness. We try to do something big or small every day in December to lift/encourage/help others. It helps us focus on others and to remember the real reason for the season which is Christ.

  146. My favorite tradition is the sibling gift exchange. Fun seeing each child think about the sibling they are buying for. It’s kept a surprise until Christmas morning.

  147. My favorite Christmas tradition has been opening up one gift on Christmas Eve which is always a new set of Christmas Pjs. I started doing this with our boys and they love it. We also started doing Christmas movies every night from December 1st up until Christmas Day! The older they get the more fun it has been!!

  148. My favorite Christmas tradition is when we travel to a live tree farm and pick out our Christmas tree. We get hot cocoa, go on a hay ride, and let the kids help us pick out the tree. Then, we come home, watch Elf, and decorate!!

  149. One of our favorite traditions is making ginger crinkle cookies each year. So yummy and sweet memory making too!

  150. We decorate gingerbread houses every year, I’ve been doing it since I was a kid! It’s so fun to have the kids, friends or cousins come over!

  151. I love just about everything at Christmas, but one of my favorite things is baking for my family and friends. This year, my daughters get to join in, and I can’t wait.

  152. One of our favorite family Christmas traditions is Jammy Cocoa Christmas. We wear matching family pjs, grab a hot cocoa, and drive around in our pjs looking at lights. Grandma even comes with us every year!

  153. Reading Luke 2 with the family on Christmas morning. The newest reader always reads it and the youngest sibling acts it out with the nativity set!

  154. What a great idea to get people sharing these special traditions! The timeless tradition I love is baking sugar cookies with my mom & sister (which has now grown to happy chaos with all our small kids❤️).
    We also do the Shepherd on the Search (instead of elf on the shelf) to keep our kids searching for Jesus throughout the month, which has been a sweet memory.

  155. My favorite Christmas tradition would have to be our Cocoa Jammie Christmas because of the fun family time together and of course the laughs over getting to wear jammies in to get cocoa! Also Christmas Eve service has to be one of my most favorite/special traditions because of just feeling the real meaning of the season! Thank you for these awesome stocking gift guide ideas….I most certainly need all the help in the teen boy department, so thank you for taking the time to do that!!💙

  156. My favorite family tradition is baking cookies with my kids. Also, love driving around looking at lights with hot chocolate.

  157. I absolutely love your mantle! One of our favorite traditions is to bundle up, put the kids in the stroller/wagon and take hot cocoa to walk the neighborhood looking at lights. We also always do Christmas jammies and a Christmas book to open Christmas Eve.

  158. We always went to the mountains and took a picnic of chili and hot chocolate and cut down a beautiful tree. The kids learned how to count the rings on the tree. We also had a cool fake fireplace in the living room. Of course there was Christmas Eve and Christmas Day church along with Sunday school programs of the nativity. And a wonderful big christmas dinner with all the homemade goodies. Grandma’s famous fudge was always a hit. Lot of love and pretty lights and the true meaning of Christmas.
    So many wonderful memories.
    Love – Grandma S.

  159. Awesome ideas thank you! My favorite tradition is my Dad reading Polar Express on Christmas Eve to my daughter just like he did for me as a little girl. I love keeping family traditions alive 🎄✝️

  160. My favorite Christmas tradition is being with my family! Yes we do it a lot! But there is something about taking specific time to celebrate the birth of our savior! We love doing our candle light Christmas Eve service at church. Baking together, decorating together! Reading a chapter of luke each night before bed. There’s just so much!

  161. Our kids look forward to the annual drive out to the same house in the country that boasts a magical light display set to music! We have been going since they were little.

  162. Our favorite tradition is making cookies. My girls are getting old enough that they are super helpful and so fun! Now they are taking part in the decision making and all and it is so neat to see their personalities come out.

  163. Last year we started a tradition of making a prayer chain at the beginning of December, with enough chains to get to Christmas Day. So each evening, we took the next link off and prayed for that person/group!

  164. As kids, we had an Advent calendar that my brother and I loved. It was so fun to countdown to Christmas. My oldest is finally old enough to understand so I bought a nativity Advent calendar. We can talk about the story of Jesus’ birth while also getting excited as Christmas approaches!

  165. Great ideas that people will actually like! 😉 Favorite traditions include, trimming the tree, Christmas music, Christmas movies, Advent read aloud. All the things really. Gingerbread house….

  166. We love to decorate the tree together, make Christmas cookies, and on Christmas Day after getting home from family, we snuggle up together and watch a Christmas movie!

  167. Your Christmas is so sweet! We sing hymns year round in the evenings, but after Thanksgiving when all our songs turn to Christmas is my favorite ❤️ I’ve been eyeing those stockings and think I may start working on some for my crew!

  168. Just love your blog!
    My favorite Christmas tradition actually celebrating Christmas Eve. We look forward to our candlelight Christmas Eve Service at church. Our family has ham dinner and then we get all dressed up and go. The service ends with everyone standing around the sanctuary holding candles singing Silent Night. We come home and the kids get in their new Christmas jammies and head to bed. Then, my husband and I watch a certain version of Scrooge that my dad got us hooked on. My dad went to Heaven this year, so it’ll be really bittersweet, but I am still looking forward to it.

  169. We pick a night to open our Christmas PJs, make homemade hot cocoa and drive around town looking at Christmas lights. One of my favorites.

  170. I will be borrowing some of your wonderful traditions!! We have been stationed overseas so much of our life that our traditions changed so much. But one we always do is celebrate the birth of Christ by sitting by our manger and talk about the story of the birth. My kids love it!!

  171. Love all of these ideas!
    My favorite Christmas tradition has changed over the years but going to the Christmas tree farm to get our Christmas tree has always been special! We’ve gone when it was warm enough for just a sweatshirt and cold enough to need all the winter gear! A couple years ago we moved away from my hometown but we still make the special2 hour trip to get a Christmas tree from the same tree farm! Amazingly enough when I was in grad school I found out that my classmate whom I also shared a apartment with, her boyfriend’s parents own the Christmas tree farm we go to! Now when we go it’s an extra special trip to catch up with her!

    1. I love this blog post full of beautiful ideas. I especially love your stocking tradition, it’s so special.& it was fun reading everyone’s favorite tradition.

      My favorite family Christmas tradition is letting the kids open a gift on Christmas Eve and it’s the same every year, lol, Christmas PJs and a movie or book. That evening we drive around to look at Christmas lights, go home cuddle up with goodies and hot chocolate and watch a movie .

  172. Our favorite tradition is reading the book The Legend of the Candy cane with tells the story of the gospel and making salt dough, candy cane ornaments to gift to neighbors, etc. They share the story of the candy cane with whoever they gift it too 🙂

  173. Loved this post! And love seeing how your sweet family does Christmas. One of our traditions is to open our Christmas jammies in November the night we put up the tree. 🖤 me and my girl also love doing the dried orange garland. 😍

  174. One of our favorite traditions is having fresh baked cinnamon buns on Christmas morning and sipping coffee as the kids dig into their stockings wearing their matching pjs from Christmas Eve ☺️

  175. My favorite tradition is making and decorating Christmas cookies. Now that I have my own kids I have struggled a bit balancing the old traditions with the new so I love hearing how others make it work!

  176. My favorite Christmas tradition is watching “It’s a Wonderful” on Christmas Eve. And reading the Christmas Story from the Bible with my family.

  177. I have so many favorite Christmas traditions, but I especially love reading Christmas books and our advent books throughout the season!

  178. My favorite tradition is on December 1st when we pick out our Christmas tree & spend the evening decorating while watching a Christmas movie in our jammies. We always make breakfast for dinner too!

  179. We love getting into our pjs, loading up the car and driving around listening to Christmas music and looking at lights!

  180. Sunday evenings we load up the car in Christmas Jammies, hot coco and look at lights. We did this when I was A little girl and I love carrying it on with my family!

  181. Baking seasoned pecans and making Christmas pickles as my mom calls them. Sweet, sweet memories of growing up!

  182. One of my favorite childhood Christmas traditions that we have continued with our kids is cutting down a live tree to bring home to decorate. The whole event feels special. Getting all bundled up, walking through the field of trees together and finally coming home with the winner. We blast Christmas music, make hot cocoa, and eat candy canes while we decorate the tree together that night.

  183. One of my favorite traditions is being home together on Christmas Eve and letting the kids open their Christmas presents from us. I try to pick presents that we can all enjoy together throughout the day.

  184. We always act out the Christmas story while we read from the Bible on Christmas Eve. Our kids are getting older, so I hope they always stay good sports about it!

  185. One of our favorite traditions is having a shepherds meal on Christmas Eve! With just my husband and our kids, we share a meal together by candlelight, eating foods that we envision the shepherds may have eaten that night. It’s so special.

  186. My favorite Christmas Tradition is the big family dinner with everyone gathered together. I love seeing everyone together and getting a chance to visit and catch up!

  187. One of our favorite Christmas traditions is cutting down our tree followed by stringing popcorn, cranberries and dried oranges to decorate it with, while watching Home Alone!

  188. We have several favorites – baking a birthday cake for Jesus, putting up the navy ivory set and Christmas tree, and looking at lights!

  189. We have a few favorite Christmas traditions! Our most favorite though is going up to the mountains to cut our Christmas tree down. We make a day out of it. Pack lunch, bring the sleds, and hike through the mountains looking for our perfectly imperfect Charlie Brown tree. It’s $5 to get a tree permit in our state so it’s super adorable and the best memories are made! 🙂

  190. We are still in the process of creating traditions in our family. But have intentionally made monkey bread every Christmas morning the past couple years. And it’s fun thing for even my diblings who come over and share Christmas morning with us.

  191. We love our tradition of A Star from Afar. We don’t do the Elf on the Shelf, so this is a different daily reminder of the reason for the season! We also always have a Christmas candy baking day with my mom . . We have done this since I was a kid.

  192. One of my favorite traditions with my kids is wrapping up the nativity scene pieces, and the kids open one a day. On Christmas, we open baby Jesus, add him to the nativity scene, and then sing Jesus Happy Birthday! It’s so sweet and special for the family 🙂

  193. We hide our Little People Nativity set characters all around and our kids have a blast finding them and rebuilding the nativity before we open gifts on Christmas morning!

  194. Thank you for everything you do with the time you spend pouring into these adorable seasonal units. Our kids (and myself) love them so much and they are just sooo adorable!

    Our kids favorite Christmas tradition is driving around in our pjs, with hot coco looking at all the Christmas lights! They ask to do it throughout the year, so when the season is finally here they are so excited for that special evening.

    God bless you and your family ❤️

  195. Our Christmas morning tradition is to make gingerbread waffles with eggnog whipped cream. It’s so festive and delicious!

  196. So many beautiful traditions. 🎄

    I like to find a new kids Christmas book each year and add to our collection. I then place them on the coffee tables throughout the house.

    xx

  197. We love singing Christmas hymns as a family, sometimes for the elderly around us. Our children are able to memorize them if we sing them enough! Thanks for the gift ideas!

  198. A lifetime, generational Christmas tradition is our annual cookie day. It’s an absolute favorite that has continued to grow, now including lifelong friends. We bake cookies, frost cookies and laugh all day long. We’re already preparing for this years cookie day!

  199. My favorite Christmas tradition is making hot chocolate and watching Home Alone. We have young children in the family again and it’s such a delight to see them crack up at the antics and the soundtrack is so good, we hum it for days after!

  200. We love doing Christmas puzzles and watching holiday movies. Cookie exchange with friends is another big favorite!

  201. One of my favorite traditions is getting kids new pjs and a new movie that they get to open on Christmas Eve. Wear the new pjs and watch the movie before going to bed that night 🎄

  202. Our children are still very young (5, 3, and a newborn!), so we’re still creating our family traditions. But one that I love is reading to the kids the story of Jesus’ birth on Christmas Eve night, while snuggled on the sofa together drinking hot chocolate. ❤️

  203. Every year we go to Main Street Bethlehem, a live reenactment of the birth of Christ. There are camels, donkeys, ducks, hens, and people dressed in character time period. Cookies and hot chocolate afterwards too.

  204. One of our favorites is wrapping and opening a Christmas story each night in December. Our stash of books has grown over the years, but in the early days of this tradition I even wrapped library books!

  205. Favorite tradition:
    Serving iced cinnamon rolls with birthday candles lit, singing “Happy Birthday” to Jesus. Simple, and keeps the focus on Him before we open gifts/stockings.

  206. My favorite family tradition is hiding a pickle ornament on the tree! Whoever finds it first gets a small gift. Was always so fun growing up!

  207. My favorite tradition is spending a night together with all of us driving around looking at Christmas lights. Our oldest is moved out now and we still have four at home but they are teens and almost teens so everyone all together is more rare.
    We go get hot chocolate, coffee,’or milkshakes, drive around, visit a walk through Christmas display, and then head home and watch Elf.
    This will be our 10th year doing this!

  208. Our favorite Christmas tradition was inspired by Sally Clarkson’s Life -Giving Home series of books. We have our “Shepherd’s meal” every Christmas Eve after church, with simple chicken and rice soup, crusty bread, and a cracker/cheese/fruit plate. It’s a candle-lit dinner where we read the shepherd’s part of the story and imagine Jesus’ birth from their perspective. We pray together and feel the excitement of the morning to come. Afterwards we watch the movie version of Max Lucado’s Alabaster’s song. It’s simple and sweet and what my kids have come to look forward to the most at Christmas!

  209. My favorite family family tradition is cutting down a tree on the weekend after Thanksgiving, surprising the kids with a little gift on December 1st along with the return of our kindness elves, and baking Christmas cookies.

  210. My favorite tradition for the holidays is the tradition of gathering. Gathering for meals, decorating, holiday movies, crafts, delivering cookies, looking at beautiful light displays and all things that bring us together. ♥️

  211. We love to get hot cocoa or coffee along with a sweet treat and go look at Christmas lights in our pajamas! Such a fun way to get into the spirit of Christmas and spend quality time together!

  212. My favorite Christmas tradition comes from my childhood years. Growing up, we always had a real tree to decorate, and when it was time, we set the mood: oil lamps and candles lit, living room spotless, and the most important part-Luciano Pavarotti’s Christmas concert playing on the VCR. It was always magical, and I’m carrying that tradition on to my husband and four little girls. Buon Natale!✨🎄

  213. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is decorating the tree together as a family. We listen to carols, eat treats and enjoy hot cocoa. There is something so satisfying in making our home beautiful and special as a family!

    I love the ideas in this post as well! Recommending that fairy garden for a friends daughter. And we are making an orange garland this year!

  214. We spend Christmas with my whole extended family, almost 30 of us. It’s such a great day of love, laughter, and fellowship.

    1. Our family Christmas tradition is to always get new Christmas pjs, decorate gingerbread houses together, and drive around look at Christmas lights.

  215. Our favorite tradition is all getting matching Christmas pjs, piling on my parents bed with the grandkids and taking a family picture 🥰

  216. My father was a Lutheran minister, so we always had advent wreath devotions. Christmas eve opening presents with my five siblings before the midnight candle light service. Getting new Christmas clothes, usually handmade by my sweet mother. He always climbed to the top of the church to decorate it with lights too. Then Christmas morning back to church to announce the birth of our Savior. Lots of good food, the smell of mom’s turkey as we arrived home. To this day my niece claims it is the best turkey ever! Can’t wait to visit her on the farm this year and have a slice or two!

  217. Our family enjoys a french toast casserole every Christmas morning after presents. I love seeing how your family celebrates!

  218. Oh goodness, there are so many! My favorite is probably Christmas Eve with my family. We have a traditional Norwegian meal, go to church & play bingo. Kind of random but it’s so fun!

  219. Merry Christmas!! My favorite Christmas tradition is Polar Express night. We get in our jammies and we all have a train ticket and snuggle up to read the polar express and then watch the movie. Hot chocolate and Christmas treats are enjoyed!! It’s such a fun night!!

  220. I love going to look at Christmas lights with my family & I love making Christmas cookies with them. Prob my two favorite traditions 👍🏼

  221. One of my family’s traditions is a spaghetti dinner on Christmas Eve. My grandfather grew up doing it and now my kids get to!

  222. Thanks for all the great ideas!! One of our favorite traditions is our Advent we do every year and the Rocking Chair Service at our church! For the service, the kids go up on the stage while our pastor sits in his rocking chair and reads the true Christmas story to them. It’s one of the most sweetest things! These things always help us to remember the true meaning of Christmas!❤️

  223. We love all the classic traditions…finding our perfect tree at the Christmas tree farm, doing neat advent activities, baking cookies, seeing lights. But Christmas Eve service followed with chili, movies, Christmas bingo, and opening Christmas pjs is my favorite part of the holiday.

  224. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is drinking coffee and eating my Grandma’s apple cake while the kids open their stockings. Loving all of your recent posts! I’ve been following for quite a few years and always look forward to reading your blog. Merry Christmas 🎄

  225. Our favorite tradition is putting up Christmas tree every year , watching our first Christmas movie of year and having hot cocoa and popcorn. The best!

  226. My favourite Christmas tradition growing up was running downstairs as soon as we woke up to see if baby Jesus was in the manger (we had a huge nativity set & my mom would always wait to add baby Jesus until Christmas morning). Now I am carrying on the tradition with my own kids!

  227. Thank you for the blog posts this season! I love to hear the gift ideas. My kiddos have similar stockings that their great grandmother made for them. They are such a cherished labor of love in our home. For favorite traditions..I love when both sides of our family get together on Christmas Eve for dinner, baiting, and opening “bonus gifts”. It’s a sweet time for us all to get to be together.

  228. Thank you for the stocking ideas!
    One of our favorite traditions is cutting down our Christmas tree. We get all bundled up, listen to Christmas music all the way there, all work together to pick out a tree at a local tree farm, and drink cocoa with candy canes afterward!

  229. I remember going to my grandparents’ house Christmas Eve and then heading to church for a Christmas Eve service. Now that I have children of my own, I really enjoy taking my children to a Christmas Eve or Christmas service. Maybe it is the fond memories of doing the same thing as a family with my parents and sister, yet even more so, I desire my children to have their focus be on the Lord Jesus coming to earth as a baby and the sacrifice that He made for each one of us! Merry Christmas everyone! 😊

  230. I love Christmas Eve church service, something about fellowship celebrating the gift of Christ with other believers is so beautiful.

  231. So many favorites but with my kids getting a little older, we’ve really enjoyed filling Operation Christmas Child Shoeboxes together! Every person fills their own (usually for a kid their age) and we all shop together and fill them at home. Love practicing the art of giving with my family!

  232. We have a gingerbread house making competition every year. Every year we take photos and send them out to extended family that participates and votes. The prize is bragging rights.

  233. Our family loves to have our favorite family elf come visit every Christmas Eve! He gives one gift from Santa and then we sing songs with him. We laugh a lot. It’s more of a fun and silly tradition we do 🙂

  234. We have so many traditions, but probably my favourite is we have our big Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve at “grandma and grandpa’s.” We have a program after including the nativity, good music,, and sharing in each other’s company and conversation, and singing happy birthday to Jesus with a birthday cake. It fills my bucket and my kids to just be around family. And a benefit of having it on Christmas Eve is that we have leftovers on Christmas Day and we just get to play with the kids on Christmas instead of cooking.

  235. A recent favorite tradition is having a fire in our driveway while we watch the parade of lights our amazing town puts on. Semis and tractors all covered with lights! We invite friends or family and keep warm by the fire with lots of hot cocoa.

  236. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is going to our hometown’s
    “Parade of Lights” ♥️ It’s a nighttime parade and all the floats are decorated with Christmas lights. It’s magical!

  237. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is the excitement of Christmas Eve. Church, h8memade pizza, sugar cookie decorating, watching the old Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer in bed with all of the kids!

  238. Our favorite Christmas tradition is having Christmas breakfast together. It started with my grandmother having us over. She always made her famous baking powder biscuits, and fresh squeezed orange juice. When her home became too small to have all of us over, we continued at my Dad’s (having grandmother come to his house). To this day we continue this favorite Christmas tradition.

  239. We are a military family and have a tradition of taking Christmas breakfast to the gate guards before opening presents! We love watching it brighten the day of those having to work on Christmas day!

  240. My favorite tradition is having an Advent devotional, wreath and singing together. My family did that growing up and we’re implementing this and other traditions as the years go on.

  241. Love all of this- especially the stockings! My favorite tradition is decorating our tree- the girls all get fresh Christmas jammies, we eat sugar cookies and drink apple cider. Love these sweet family traditions!

  242. One of my favorite traditions is eating on the floor on Christmas Eve with straw, and having a very humble meal of soup, in memory of Christ being welcomed into the world in a manger. Our big fancy meal is on Christmas Day.

  243. One of our favorites is our annual gingerbread house decorating party – my grandma has been having them for over 60 years!

  244. Preparing for this season while anticipating your own new bundle was always a reflection period, for sure! Congrats on your new babe!

    Growing up we had a big family night doing gingerbread houses and making candies to give out, and I love continuing that tradition even though we live far from family now.

  245. Hunting for the perfect tree and cutting it down together has been a family tradition for us since my childhood! We listen to christmas music, decorate it, and drink hot cocoa together before reading the Christmas story and heading to bed. One of the most special parts of christmas to me each year!

  246. Favorite Christmas tradition is getting take out for dinner on Christmas Eve and driving around looking at our favorite Christmas lights.

  247. In November, I wrap one Christmas (or winter themed) book for every day of advent and number them. We countdown by opening one each day! It’s a joy to gather daily and focus on the greatest gift of Jesus!

  248. We’ve had so many “wonky” things happen over Christmas the past 5 years it’s hard to say what our traditions are. The only constant has been the coffee my husband and I drink Christmas morning.

  249. Watching the classic Christmas movies… Charlie Brown, frosty, etc. We do lots of movie nights with hot chocolate during the season.

  250. I love your Christmas posts and gift guides, Ashley! I am giving my kiddos the Dino pull back cars you linked in the stocking stuffer guide. So fun! One of our favorite Christmas traditions is of course the advent celebration and the Jesse Tree ornaments. We also like to have a birthday party for Jesus on Christmas Eve with birthday cake. (When Santa comes to our house, he gets cake instead of cookies.) So much fun celebrating Christmas with little ones and seeing the wonder in their eyes!

  251. My favorite tradition is baking cut out sugar cookies and decorating them. I did it with my mom and sister and now my 3 girls and I love it too.

  252. One of my new favorite traditions is to have quiet early mornings next to the christmas tree all lit up before the kids are awake. Also baking cookies and pies!

  253. Our favorite family tradition is carrying on putting up a homemade large-scale village handmade by my Great Grandpa during the Depression. My Grandma and her siblings would go to bed early on Christmas Eve so her parents could put up the village, and Christmas morning they would look to find the new piece my Great Grandpa had made that year. It is priceless and means more than any gift to all of our family.

  254. We look forward to opening new PJ’s on Christmas Eve, putting them on, and then going to look at Christmas lights with hot chocolate and snacks. We also have a slow Christmas morning of breakfast, reading the story of Jesus, singing Christmas songs, and gathering with family.

  255. My favorite Christmas tradition is every Christmas Eve with my cousins and aunts and uncles and now my kids and my cousins kids we make homemade dumplings 😍🥟 it’s now my husbands favorite too!

  256. We make a snack board on Christmas Eve- crackers, cheese, salami, sparkling cider and listen to Christmas music/look at our tree.

  257. I love getting a picture of my kids in their matching Christmas pajamas every year. They are so cute to look back on!

  258. Loved this post! 🥰 So many great ideas!! We do a lot of fun Christmas traditions like we always get a new pair of holiday pajamas on Christmas Eve that we unwrap. Then we have hot cocoa and watch It’s a Wonderful life together! Earlier in the week we always get blankets and put hot apple cider in to-go cups and get in the car to drive and look at Christmas lights in our fav neighborhoods!! So fun!❤️ happy holidays!!🎄

  259. We love making the whole month of December about activities rather than just the gifts on Christmas. We try to focus on Christ honoring things and my favorite is the church Christmas play that my kids get to be in. We’re due with our 4th on jan 4th so this season may look a bit different

    1. One of my favorite traditions is our Christmas morning brunch. My kids look forward to our “Snowman Breakfast” on New Year’s Day too!

  260. I have so many, but one of them is that each year my husband and I exchange ornaments on December 1 that sum up that year. Additionally, I get my kids an ornament that kinda sums up their year. It’s been such a fun thing to see each year when we unpac the ornaments.

  261. I feel like this is so cheesy but decorating the Christmas tree is really my favorite tradition. I loved doing it as a child and now I love watching my children pull out their special ornaments and find the perfect spot to hang them. Thank you for putting together this guide, it gave me so many great ideas!

  262. Our favorite Christmas tradition is driving around looking at Christmas lights in our jammies! We love to get ice cream at a local place here in town and listen to Christmas music while we are looking for lights! My sons birthday is December 14 so we usually do it on his birthday or close to it!

  263. My favorite Christmas tradition is reading through an advent calendar through the month of December with each day having a book dedicated to a part of the story of Christmas. Each miniature book is an ornament to hang on the tree. It keeps the Christmas spirit high the whole month and helps the kids focus on the true meaning of Christmas.

  264. Our favorite tradition is reading 25+ books each evening leading up to Christmas. Some nights there are snacks added in here and there for the readings. Other nights its simply being cuddled up on a couch together sharing a giant throw blanket. Its an easy way to make sure togetherness happens in our busy family lives during the holidays.

  265. This gift guide is fantastic! I just added the dino race track and miniature greenhouse to my shopping cart. I’m eyeing the straw building kit too. My favorite Christmas tradition is our countdown to Christmas with books. I wrap 25 books and my kids take turns opening one each day. We’ve been doing this for many years!

  266. Following church service, we watch it’s a wonderful life and the polar express with our girls. I still get up at 4 am to sleep on the couch and marvel at the lights we keep on all night🎄✨🎁❤

  267. In our family kids range from ages 24 to 4. We started traditions with our older kids that have continued with our younger ones. One favorite tradition is decorating the tree with ornaments from when our older kids were younger. Every year they pull out their box and add their favorite ornaments. They get a new one each year but my favorites are from when they were little and have pictures on them.

  268. Thank you for such a beautiful blog! I love reading through them each week! We have a few Christmas traditions that I love! We make my grandmothers recipe of sugar cookies and decorate together! Another is the family gets a special present to open on Christmas Eve, it’s new matching family pajamas and we snuggle up and watch a Christmas movie. Sounds so cliche but we’ve all come to love it so much!

  269. Christmas Eve with my whole family and Christmas morning when the kids open their stockings before Mass and then coming home and opening gifts one at a time while eating brunch.

  270. My favorite Christmas tradition is putting together a box for my kids and my husband with Christmas pajamas and a new book in it that they open on Christmas Eve!

  271. Thank you for the gift guide, it’s a good one! We love driving around looking at Christmas lights as a family. In our Jammie’s with hot cocoa. It’s been a tradition for years and we all look forward to it.

  272. I love reading the Christmas story on Christmas Eve once we’re home from church and all settled in. Such a great way to make sure our focus is on the real reason we celebrate!

  273. Christmas traditions have evolved over the years for me as we’ve moved away from family, I work every other year. But in general my favorite tradition of you want to call it that, is just simply being with family. Whoever it may be at the time, my family is a treasure and I love to spend time with them!

  274. There’s so many beautiful moments this time of year for our family, but we love to sing Christmas hymns together around the tree and make epic gingerbread houses! ❤️

  275. We love going into the mountains to cut down our tree in the snow! Another favorite is looking at Christmas tree lights with hot cocoa for everyone!

  276. I love traditions! Loading up in the car with ice cream to look at lights while listening to Tolkien’s Letters from Father Christmas is one of my favorites!
    I’ve loved your Christmas guides and bought several things! Thank you!

  277. One of my favorite Christmas traditions from my childhood that we still do is my dad will make everyone omelets for breakfast and we drink coke out of glass bottles.

  278. My favorite Christmas tradition is an old fashioned Christmas Eve candle light ceremony. We also like to drive around and see Christmas lights

  279. Our family of (now) 7 has a special Christmas Eve secret Santa tradition where we all draw a name of mom + dad + siblings to shop for. We open on the eve of Christmas when the hustle bustle of gift opening isn’t happening. A slow appreciation for gift giving 🎁

  280. Every year we do a baking day with all the cousins and aunts. And all the kids decorate cookies. We also all go to watch my niece in the Nutcracker. She is always playing a different part and they put on the best performance.

  281. Favorite Christmas tradition is getting a new ornament for the kids every year.. my parents did this and I just love looking back over the years of ornaments and how special they are !

  282. One of our favorite Christmas traditions is reading the birth story of our Lord, Jesus, on Christmas morning before anything else <3

  283. We let the kids buy inexpensive gifts for each other and it’s so fun to take them out shopping for their siblings and letting them help wrap and put the gifts under the tree. It encourages a love for giving, or that’s the hope at least! We have 4 kiddos and limit to gifts to $5 so it doesn’t break the budget, but they love it every year!

    I love your gift guide, thanks for putting that together! My 10 year old daughter loves Mandie books so much!

  284. Love these ideas, thank you so much!! We have a lot of Christmas traditions but one of my favorite is making and decorating sugar cookies. The kids get to help with all of it. It’s really messy but seeing how excited they are to make their own and show off their final creation is so much fun!

  285. One of my favorite Christmas traditions is the “Shepherds” dinner we have on Christmas Eve. We have a simple soup like potato soup, with freshly made bread, and a board of meat and cheeses. We do this every Christmas Eve to remember the night before Jesus’ birth and what the shepherds might have been doing before hearing the joyful news!

  286. What a great gift guide! One of my favorite traditions is getting together on Christmas Eve with my extended family. We eat, visit, sing Christmas carols, and do a present exchange. This list has given me some great idea for the exchange, thanks!

  287. My favorite tradition is one we are JUST starting with my 2 year old and 4 month old. We plan on making an advent chain where we remove a chain as it gets closer to Christmas!

  288. At a nearby town they have a walk through Christmas display that my family goes to each year. They serve hot chocolate and the kids get to pick a small gift from their tree!

  289. When I was growing up my grandmother made sausage Bisquick balls for Christmas morning every year, and as I got older I learned to make them and eventually it became my job. When I got married I continued the tradition and now my kids expect it and are learning to make them.

    Another fun thing we’ve done a few times with our kids is pick up pizza and eat it in the car as we drive around looking at Christmas lights. There’s something about the pizza in the car that makes it feel extra fun 😊

  290. This is such a helpful gift guide, thank you! One of my favorite small Christmas traditions is making bread bears with my kids. My mom made them with me and my sisters when we were little!