Starting Holiday Traditions

My girls (well at least my first born) is at the age now that starting traditions will be exciting for them. My first born can finally start to participate in fun things around the Holidays. I grew up with many traditions during the Holidays. Christmas Eve was filled with all the traditions. We will go to a tree farm and pick out a tree and enjoy some hot chocolate after. This would happen anytime during the month of December. Christmas eve, my mom would make baked ziti, we would listen to Christmas music all evening, and then right before bed, we would get our Christmas pajamas as our "first gift", and my dad would read The Night Before Christmas. The Holidays was definitely my favorite time of the year as a child. My family made sure to make it special for us.

My husband's side of the family like to do cookie baking contests as a tradition. I even participated in some and won one year when I first joined the family. They would also have their big Christmas Eve dinner. They had other traditions like going to a tree farm and cutting down a tree as well, but the cookie baking was all I was a part of.

I am so excited to start my own traditions with my girls because growing up, the traditions was a big part of the Holiday season. I plan to start this year and continue to do it every year so it becomes a tradition every Holiday season until the girls are old enough that they can start their own traditions with their own families. Continue to read what I plan to do this year!

Cookie Baking:

I will make a batch (or buy haha) of sugar cookie dough and make different Holiday shape cookies. This is inspired by my husband's family tradition of their cookie baking contest. The only difference is, I will make the cookies ahead of time. What I want to make the tradition is the decorating of the cookies. I'm sure as my girls get older, and if they're interested, they will bake with me. But until then, I will bake by myself. The girls, myself and my husband will sit together and decorate the cookies together. We will have different colored icing, different colored sprinkles and just have fun. These cookies will be for "Santa" as well as dessert for the week up until Christmas. Gotta say, I'm pretty excited about this one. I know it will get messy, but I've accepted anything with food gets messy a long time ago!

Christmas Tree Shopping:

I am going to be completely honest, I am 100% content with a fake tree. Yes, I grew up with going to a tree farm and picking out a tree together, however I was not a fan of the clean up. And yes, us kids always had to clean it up. So now that I am an adult with my own family, the idea of cleaning up all those pine needles on carpet is not something I get excited about. However, my husband is all about it and absolutely despises fake trees, so going to a tree farm it is. He wants to do it about two weeks before Christmas. So the plan is to do it during the second weekend of December. This is our first year committing to that, so hopefully to please my husband, we will continue to do that every year. My husband and I did compromise though. I still get to put up a fake tree, but it is not our "main tree" that will get all the gifts under it. I placed my fake tree in the basement, so I can enjoy it when I'm watching my shows or blogging!

Christmas Pajamas:

I will also do the Christmas Pajamas tradition I grew up with, but not on Christmas Eve. After we set up our real tree and put lights and hopefully (crossing fingers) ornaments on the tree, I will give my girls their first gift of the Holiday Season. That first gift will of course be their pajamas. I figured that way, it really gets them excited for the Holiday season and then they can have adorable pajamas for the remaining two weeks before Christmas! I was also considering gifting a Christmas book as well at this time, but I haven't decided on that yet.

Elf on the Shelf:

My husband really wanted to start this tradition this year. He already read the book that introduced the elf to my girls and then they met the elf for the first time. They are actually enjoying it! The elf's name is Elfie. My husband puts her in a new "high" spot every evening after the girls go to bed and then the next day, they find Elfie. I've seen families that have the Elf do comedic things around the house. We are not there yet. The girls are too young to understand, but learning the Elf's name and finding it is definitely a fun tradition for them for now. This tradition is however my husband's tradition. Since I do all the gift wrapping, Christmas Shopping, making food for Christmas and Christmas Eve family meals, the Elf on the shelf is his responsibility. It is also something he can get excited and creative about during the Holiday season. I honestly wasn't going to do Elf on the Shelf at all, but when my husband said he would take full control of it, I got pretty excited about it becoming a new tradition every Holiday Season.

That's all the traditions I plan to start this Holiday Season! What traditions have you done, or grew up with, or plan to start? I'd love to hear it!

Thanks so much for reading and I hope everyone is enjoying this wonderful Holiday Season!

Susana