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Kids will remember family Christmas traditions long after the batteries in their new toys die out. Time spent with family during the holidays is definitely well spent, and establishing family Christmas traditions will help you spend quality time with your kids year after year. The following ideas can help you get started with family traditions of your own.
Gift Giving
The retail industry has all but commercialized the meaning out of Christmas, but setting down some gift-giving rules for your family can help put some meaning back into gift giving.
Limit gifts among family members to items they can make themselves. You can find books at the library or bookstore full of homemade gift ideas, especially in the children’s section. Your children will take more pride in their gifts if they’ve spent time and energy in creating them rather than picking out something at Wal-Mart that will soon be abandoned for Santa’s more tempting (and expensive) gifts.
Or set up a Secret Santa gift exchange among family members. Since your children probably don’t have much money, allow them to focus their efforts and funds on one person. Draw names out of a hat, but tell them to keep their name assignments secret. You can expand a Secret Santa exchange to include service. Tell your children to do something in secret for their person each day: make a bed without being noticed, stick a note in a lunchbox, iron a shirt, etc.
For neighbors and friends, give plates of homemade cookies and fudge. Choose an evening close to Christmas (or an entire day if you’re really gung-ho) and have the children help you make and frost sugar cookies, bake fruit breads, and stir fudge. Then assemble paper plates with a variety of your goodies and deliver them with Christmas cards. Your kids will love taking turns running up to your neighbors’ doors to deliver them. If your family enjoys singing, deliver your plates of treats on your Christmas caroling route.
Serving Others
The Christmas season is an ideal time to instill selflessness in your children. Opportunities abound for serving others, and making service a family tradition at Christmastime can help your children develop lifetime habits of service.
Adopt a family through a local agency (Red Cross, county welfare programs, etc.). The agency will provide you with the names and ages of the family members you choose to “adopt.” Sometimes they’ll even give you a wish list to guide your purchases. Take your children with you when you shop for the family, and have them help you wrap and deliver the gifts. Your children will learn how wonderful it feels to sacrifice some of their own gifts for others.
A nursing home is a wonderful place to visit during the holidays. Your children will lift the spirits of the residents simply by being them-selves. Take small gifts or candy canes to distribute. If your children play musical instruments or like to sing, put on a show at a local nursing home. Call the nursing home ahead of time to schedule an appropriate time to perform.
Decorating
Christmas decorations not only brighten our homes; they also remind us of past Christmases and happy memories. The following decorating ideas can easily become family traditions.
Encourage your children to make a special Christmas tree ornament each year, complete with their names and year (example: Rebecca 2000). Every year when you decorate the tree they will be proud of their contributions.
Spend an evening during Thanksgiving weekend making a gingerbread house each year. Take pictures of each gingerbread house and keep a Christmas memory scrapbook. The kids will love looking back at all of their ginger-bread houses and remembering each year’s construction.
Don’t be a dark spot in your neighborhood. Brighten up the season with Christmas lights, and involve your children in putting them up. Drive around the neighborhood looking at all the lights.
Don’t forget to create your own family Christmas traditions. Your children’s lives and memories will be bolstered by your efforts, and your family will be strengthened with each minute you spend together.
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