I’ve been thinking for a while now that I need to write these down somewhere, and why not share it as well? Here is a list of all of the things we do as a family during the Christmas season. We don’t always hit all of them every year, but we do hit most of them.
- Cut down a wild Christmas tree from the mountains (requires permit)
- Decorate the tree together
- Do the daily advent calendar, with scriptures for each day
- Get a new framed picture of Jesus Christ
- Gift one of our old pictures of Jesus Christ to a family friend
- Writing group Christmas party
- Neighborhood Christmas party
- Watch Mr. Kreuger’s Christmas
- Listen to Handel’s Messiah
- Attend a Messiah sing-along
- See the lights at Temple Square
- Visit the SLC German Market
- Buy something with the Giving Machine
- Drive around our neighborhood to see the Christmas lights
- Go caroling together as a family
- Make bread to share with neighbors
- Do the Vasicek extended family holiday book exchange
- Do the Dollar Store gift exchange with the extended Armstrong family
- Get a 2024 calendar and fill it out
- Make a new spread in the family scrapbook for 2023
- Write personal testimonies for the 2023 family scrapbook spread
That’s how the list stands as of right now. I’m sure we’ll add a few more things as the kids get older.
What are some of your family Christmas traditions?
Many of our family’s traditions center around food. We make pasties (a traditional Cornish dish) for Christmas Eve dinner; we make my dad’s orange rolls at least twice and gift them to friends and family before eating an improbable number ourselves; we make puffed rice balls and hang them from the tree to eat Christmas Day.
Usually we end up gifting food to someone who needs it over the holiday, or inviting lonely neighbors to join our festivities. And most years we have a Christmas/New Year’s party with some friends-turned-family.
We always, always read Luke 2 and other excerpts from the Bible/Book of Mormon about the Savior’s birth on Christmas Eve.
We also leave the lights on in the stable that houses our oldest nativity set all of Christmas Eve, as well as the tree, and sing Christmas carols in parts with the entire family gathered around our piano. That last usually happens spontaneously as someone sits down to play something. 😀 We often go caroling – any excuse to sing!
Thanks for sharing, E.C! That sounds like fun.