Start a New Holiday Tradition w/Sue from Chocolate Cake Club |

Start a New Holiday Tradition w/Sue from Chocolate Cake Club (2 comments)

Posted on on November 27th, 2009 in: Articles, Articles & Guest Blogs, MoM Thoughts, Parenting, The Day in the Life of a Parent.

5 Ideas to Start a New Family Holiday Tradition

The Holidays are a great opportunity to have fun with your family and create some traditions that everyone looks forward to each year. There’s nothing like anticipation to make a family activity even more special. Whether you need inspiration on creating a tradition for your family or you want to add a new one, here are 5 ideas to ring in the fun.

5 Ideas for Creating Holiday Traditions

Here’s just a sample of ideas for creating enduring Holiday Traditions for your Family.

1. Hide ‘n Seek Traditions. A fun way to usher in the Holiday Season is with Holiday hide and seek traditions like Elf on the Shelf or the Christmas Pickle. Hide the object in the house during the season and the kids will have a blast finding it. As your kids get older, they can take turns hiding to keep the tradition going.

Bake Holiday Cookies. There is no better way to spend quality time with your family than in the kitchen cooking, eating and talking. Have a cookie exchange with your extended family, neighbors, or friends. Teach your kids or grandkids how to make their favorites.

2. Create a Holiday Scrapbook. Together as a family, create a scrapbook of the previous Holiday family gathering. Everyone can decorate their own page and it’s a nice way to sit and talk about what you enjoyed last year.

Holiday Movie Marathon. Pick a day, keep your jammies on, and watch your favorite Christmas specials or movies. Everyone can choose their favorite show and you can watch them back-to-back together. If you have any home movies of Holidays past, this is the perfect time to watch.

3. The Competitive Holiday Spirit. Why not organize a Holiday Olympics to get the competitive juices flowing? If you have a Nintendo Wii console, your family can see who’s the best at bowling, tennis, or 3-Point Shoot-Out. Or, make a contest out of the Holiday tasks you need to do – Who can wrap a present the fastest? Who can untangle the first string of lights?

4. Extreme Gift Exchange. Sometimes the weirdest gifts are the most memorable. Why not inspire some creativity in your family by creating an oddball gift exchange? Have everyone in the family come up with some silly ideas for a gift theme and then sit back and laugh as the gifts are opened. Some ideas we have done in our family include:

* Give a piece of funny (or incredibly ugly) artwork (kids and adults can draw pictures for their contribution, too)
* Funny T-shirts
* Socks (the uglier the better)
* Pick a country out of a hat and buy a funny gift that represents that country
* Choose a letter out of a hat and the gift must start with that letter

5. Have Fun Giving Back. Teach your kids the importance of helping others. Help pack Christmas Care Packages for the troops. Buy gifts from the giving trees at our local libraries and YMCA for kids in need. Have a wrapping party where everyone in the family wraps their “giving” gift. Create cookie care packages for a local nursing home. Make bird seed “ornaments” with Styrofoam, peanut butter, and bird seed to decorate trees outside and feed the birds in winter.

9. Make the Annual Ornament. Every year, pick an ornament that everyone will make together. Put them on the tree or give them as gifts.

Don’t forget to mark the year.

10. Create a Neighborhood Decorating Contest, Progressive Dinner or Tree Looking. Get all of your neighbors to put out Snowmen each year. Then have a party and ask everyone to vote on who has the best “themed” decorations. Or have a progressive dinner where people get to go “tree looking” and see everyone’s Holiday decorations.