It’s the most wonderful time of the year, right?! But also often the most stressful time of the year. I’ve spent a lot of time over a lot of years thinking about how to make Christmastime magical while not turning into a complete stress case.
I’m definitely not there yet, but I do think creating intentional Christmas traditions helps me along the way. For our family, intentional traditions means focusing our holiday on remembering and worshipping Jesus, building stronger family bonds, and serving others to help spread God’s love. Here are some of our most concrete Christmas traditions, designed with those ends in mind.
*For reference, Ada is currently 5 years old and Holly turns 2 this month.
Christmas Cards
My family always sent out a Christmas card and letter at Christmastime, so I do it, too! I love writing our family newsletter, so even if no one else reads it, I’m happy I do it. It gives me a chance to reflect on all the wonderful things that have happened over the last year, and to catch a snapshot of what our lives looked like that year. I also put our Christmas letter at the beginning of the family photo book of that year, so it gets good use!
I used to do physical cards, but I switched over to email format last year. I LOVE this decision, because it frees up so much time and money, and it reduces waste! Not only that, but instead of spending around $100 (and a lot of time!) to send ~30 cards, I now spend $0 to send 80+ emails.
I’m a little sad not to send physical cards, because I do think people enjoy receiving them (I know I do!), but it’s so much less stressful for me to do it this way, so it’s worth it! Plus, by sending an email, it makes it easy for people to reply with a quick update on their family even if they don’t send out Christmas cards of their own.
I do still buy 5 physical Christmas cards so that I can keep one card for myself, as well as send a few to great-grandparents who don’t use email. At Christmastime, I display all of our old Christmas cards!
3 Advent Calendars
Felt & Velcro Nativity Advent — each day, Ada puts up a character from the story of Christ’s birth to build a cute nativity scene (Holly will probably join the rotation next year). My family had a Christmas tree advent calendar like this (each day had an ornament for the tree), so it’s a little nostalgic for me to have my girls do a similar calendar. I like that the one we have is focused on Jesus, though!
Scripture Advent — Years ago, I found a scripture countdown for Christmastime. We make a paper chain and put a scripture reference on each chain link, and then rip one off to read and discuss it each day leading to Christmas. We do this during breakfast.
I like this format because it’s just a short scripture/story each day. When I was young, we always read the whole nativity story on Christmas Eve and I remember feeling impatient and bored, like “when is the FUN stuff going to happen?!” I think keeping the scriptures short and engaging makes it more fun for my kids. If we forget to read scriptures at breakfast, Ada always asks about it later in the day, so it seems like she likes it! miss a day, I’m inclined to just do it the next day, but Ada has asked (multiple times!) when we’re going to read scriptures later on in the day
Advent-ivities / Gifts of Togetherness — This idea came from Ralphie of Simply on Purpose. Each day, we do a (usually simple) Christmas activity together as a family. As Ralphie says, the greatest gift of all is time! Check out this blog post if you’re interested in how I schedule our activities, as well as a list of the ones we did this year!
Gifts & Santa
When I think about Christmas as a child, I think about a mountain of gifts under the Christmas tree, and it was always so exciting!! But as an adult, thinking about a mountain of gifts makes me cringe. I’m something of a minimalist, so when it comes to most things, I’m constantly looking for ways to have less stuff and more space. Check out this blog post for more details on how we’re trying to make gift-giving more intentional this year, as well as how we handle Santa.
Bethlehem Dinner
Every Christmas Eve, we eat by candlelight (and Christmas tree light), dress up like shepherds, eat some of the foods they may have eaten in Jesus’s time, take on Bible names, and speak as though we live in that time — sharing Bible stories and specifically the nativity story.
The first year was more authentic when it came to the food, but we quickly decided we weren’t fans of many of those foods. A few years into this tradition, we now usually have sourdough bread (with olive oil & vinegar), various meats and cheeses, crackers, olives, grapes, and sparkling grape juice.
Last year, Ada wanted to be Mary, and when she said the prayer over dinner, she so sweetly prayed, “I'm so grateful for my baby Jesus who has been born; I love him so much!” Taking on the role of people from the time of Christ helps it feel more real and more fun for the kiddos!
Gifts for Jesus
On Christmas Day, after things have calmed down, we sit down as a family and each think about a gift we want to give Jesus in the upcoming year. We write it down on a piece of paper and put it in a white stocking. These are usually gifts of action or being.
For instance, one year I gave the gift of repentance (I wanted to focus more on being someone who repented and improved daily) and last year I gave the gift of scripture study (I wanted to study my scriptures more regularly). I can only speak for myself on this one, but even though I’m never anywhere close to perfect in my gift to Jesus, I always exert more effort in that specific area than I would have if I hadn’t taken the time to think about it and choose it. It’s something I remember all throughout the next year!
Of course there’s always room to change, add, or remove traditions, but for now, these are working pretty well in helping us focus our time and attention where we really want it during the holiday season.
What are your family’s favorite Christmas traditions? :)