Our Favorite Christmas Traditions

In our family, I think all of us unanimously agree that Christmas time is the best season of the year, we all look forward to. Not only is it a beautiful time of the year filled with Christmas lights and delicious desserts, but I guess part of it has to do with the fact that majority of our family members were born between middle of November to end of December; so we have a birthday blast these 2 months! We always keep our birthdays very simple, and celebrate mostly only within our family, unless it falls on a day that we have a gathering. Otherwise, who can do 6 parties in 1.5 months?

There are some things we do traditionally at Christmas time, which has become part of our Christmas Traditions. We also try to adopt new ideas as we grow, so that we have a rich Christmas experience. Traditions are very good for each family to have, as kids remember such things, and this might be what helps them come back home after they leave the nest.

In the hustle bustle of the Season, we try not to lose focus on the real ‘reason for the season’. Advent being the time of watchful waiting of the greatest gift that God has given us, so we too have to make room in our hearts and minds to receive this gift. The greatest gift that we can give Jesus back in return, will be a pious heart full of love and good deeds!

Some of our favorite things to during this season, which have become more or so like traditions have been the following:

(1) Baking Christmas cookies and distributing to close friends and neighbors, have been something we have been doing for years now, and something we look forward to. I love baking cookies and cakes and our oldest daughter definitely ‘inherited those genes.’  Together, we make a whole lot of cookies. We have the younger boys take part in their favorite steps, like putting on the antlers, eyes and nose for their favorite reindeer cookies.  We pack them up in cute containers and make a trip to take them over and spend time with families.

The following cookies have been our all-time favorites.

Chocolate Crinkles,  Jam Thumbprint cookies, Peanut Butter and Jam Thumbprint cookies, Reindeer Cookies, Sugar Cookies,Butter Cookies,Raspberry Poinsettia Blossoms,Peppermint cookies, Holly Cookies, Espresso Bark

Each year we try to make 4-5 new ones to add to our list.

Other ones we have tried and like include:

Molasses cookies, Peppermint Pinwheel cookies, Chocolate Mocha Cookies, Stained Glass Cookies and Maple Cinnamon Stars.

Some of the treasures we made last year are:

These are some of the ones we added this year ….

In addition to cookies, every Christmas we also make Indian version of fruitcake, cranberry cake and candy cane cake. We easily go through 25 lbs of flour in just the month of December!

(2) Viewing Christmas lights with hot chocolate and candy canes. We spend a few evenings, after dinner, to see Christmas lights and decorations in the nearby neighborhoods, as a family.
We usually print out a scavenger hunt list and the kids check off decorations they see from the list. We put on Christmas music while driving around, and we have hot chocolate and candy canes. Some kids prefer not to do the scavenger hunt, but just enjoy the lights full swing without the hassle of ‘checking off’.

(3)Everyone tries to do ‘one good deed for Jesus’ every day and write it on a paper and keep in a container. We then read it out on Christmas Day. This is our ‘gift to Jesus’. I encourage them to do and write different things every day, so that they just won’t be writing the same thing for all the 25 days!

(4)We make an advent prayer chain with a special prayer to say every day in addition to our usual family prayers. We hang the chain near the mantle so that we will remember to do it daily. They love, and actually fight, to detach that day’s link and lead the prayer.

(5)Random acts of kindness– We try to do some random acts of kindness during December. Some things we have done are keeping dollar bills in dollar store aisles, packing up meals for homeless and distributing to ones we find, giving cookies to UPS/ USPS/ Amazon delivery personnel. It is so heart-warming to see the happy expressions on people’s faces when they receive something unexpected. We have also participated in nursing home visits and try to avail of other such opportunities.

(6)Time capsule Ornaments-We were introduced to this 4 -5 years back by one of the moms in our homeschool group, and have been doing it ever since! We make our own ornaments with important notes of that year, and a family picture, and decorate differently different years. We used to hang them on the tree, but this year, I decided to keep them all together in a different spot, so that it will be easier to see them all together.

(7) We try to watch a Christmas Movie a day– Though this is something we would have loved to do every year; with constraints of time, it hasn’t happened daily. But we try to see few good Christmas movies a week, to get the spirit of the season.

(8) During Christmas time, I actually put away a lot of the toys, so that everyone will get more time to engage in Christmas themed activities, family, or just huddle around the lighted tree and read.

There were few things we did couple of years that I wish to bring back. For example, one year we made felt ornaments of saints, inspired from the blog Catholic Inspired. (If you go to their home page and search in ‘Liturgical Ornaments ‘, you will be able to see all the various patterns they have. They are really cute!) I did however find it very time consuming to do during the month of December, so hoping to do it Novembers now on.

This year, we worked on a miniature Christmas Tree Village. I assigned my artsy daughter as the project manager, and this is what she came up with.

It is so lovely! It even has a tiny nativity scene near the church!!  We are hoping to keep this on our living room shelf, right next to our nativity set, in the years to come.  Thank you Anita, it is lovely!

Christmas is a time to bond with your family and step away from the routine, mundane busy life, to another world of busyness. I hope you are able to embrace the season in great spirits. Merry Christmas to you all!

What are some of your most favorite Christmas traditions?