How to create meaningful memories through holiday traditions

One of our family foundations is annual traditions.  What started out as play and fun when our daughters were little has become yearly rituals that form shared memories.  Traditions are created from what we value and hope to impart to our kids while they are still young.  Some of our family traditions started when they were as young as 2 and 3 years old!  A decade later and our teen/tween daughters are the instigators of those annual rituals.

Two seasons, in particular, are heavy in tradition for our family.  One is summer.  For the last 6 years, our family has gathered around a large poster board after school lets out for the summer and we write a Summer Bucket list.  Everyone gets to share their ideas and dreams for what we hope to do together as a family throughout the summer.  Some are experiences that we count on happening every summer and others are novel ideas that we think our family would enjoy. Many are free and some are a higher dollar investment.  But, throughout the course of the summer, we make an effort to do as many experiences as we can on the list, checking them off as we go. The meaningful memories of summer just start adding up!

The other season full of tradition is Christmas.  It kicks off right after Thanksgiving with seasonal fun up to New Year’s Eve.  Since we are at the beginning of the season, I thought it would be fun to share a few of our family traditions with you.  I’d love to say that all of our traditions help to keep us focused on Jesus throughout the Advent season but, we aren’t striving for perfection or legalism here.  We do have some sweet ways that we encounter Jesus but we also enjoy the magic and fun of the holiday season.

Four holiday traditions that are simply fun for our family

1. Watching the Macy’s Thanksgiving Day parade.  This is the kick off of Christmas for our family.  My parents and extended family are from the Boston area so I grew up watching the famous New York parade.  It seemed natural for this tradition to continue so Thanksgiving morning is PJ’s and the parade as we drink hot cocoa and coffee.
2. A Christmas Lights tour.  This isn’t any old drive around the neighborhood to see the lights. We have adopted a local website that gives us a map to the best light displays in Kansas City.  We roll through Starbucks drive-through for drinks and follow the map for 90 minutes while we ooo and ahhhh over our favorite displays.  We’ve squeezed lots of friends and family into our SUV for this tour over the years.  I know you’re going to ask so if you live in KC metro area, this is the site: http://www.kansastravel.org/kansascitychristmasdisplays.htm
3. Visiting the Christmas Tree Farm.  When my husband and I were first married, we agreed that we could alternate years between a real and fake Christmas tree.  His allergies would kick up crazy with a real tree so this was a good compromise.  But, as we grew our family and our daughters started to have an opinion, we converted him over to real trees every year.  This year, we even went beyond the pre-cut tree at the farm and chopped it down ourselves!  What sweet memories we have from picking out the Christmas tree together over the last decade.
4. Christmas movies.  We have a decent list of movies that we watch every year during the month of December. Many are funny. Some are romantic. A few are inspirational.  Every year, Greg and I debate about whether Die Hard is really a Christmas movie.  It’s all in good fun to enjoy family movie time while decorating, wrapping presents, or sharing a bowl of popcorn.

Three traditions that center us on Jesus and His arrival into the world

1. Advent boxes.  When the girls were little, I wanted a simple way to be able to tell the story of Jesus a little bit each night with them before bed.  A few other moms and I collaborated to build these little mini boxes with a treasure and a scripture inside.  All the mini-boxes fit into one bigger box that sits under the tree for us to open one mini-box each day of the month leading up to Christmas. Before they could read, Greg and I would take turns opening the box and reading each one to them.  Now, they take turns with the boxes and reading each one to us! A few days ago, I asked the girls if they wanted to do something different now that they are older and they emphatically said No!  Here’s a similar idea if you want to create this for your family: http://howsweeteritis.blogspot.com/2011/11/advent-calendar-teach-true-story-of.html
2. Annual Holiday baking day.  This might seem like an obvious tradition but, our baking day is always with the intent of packaging goodies to give to our neighbors.  We spend the afternoon making cookies, fudge and chocolate-coated goodies.  We package them up in cute containers and then deliver them to our neighbors as a reminder of giving to others in this season.  During the pandemic in 2020, we moved to a new neighborhood. Even in the middle of that crisis we felt the importance of keeping that tradition and dropped goodies off on our new neighbors’ porches to remind them of God’s love.
3. Communion on Christmas morning.  The girls always jump into our bed with us in the morning before heading to the Christmas tree to scan for presents.  Greg reads to us of Jesus’ birth from Luke 2 and then we take communion together as a family.  This is one simple way for us to start the day acknowledging that the holiday is because of Jesus’ birth but also a reminder of the sacrifice He gave for all of us in His death.  We start Christmas day reminding each other that the God who loves us, entered into the world and left the world with us on His mind.

Learning as we go

The thing I’ve learned most about traditions is that it’s never too late or too early to start something you want to incorporate into your family. You might be newly married and can start traditions this year as a couple.  Or, you have kids rounding the corner into the double digits and you still want to start a tradition.  Even as I write this, I’m thinking about new ideas that my family could start this Christmas season that will become a tradition for years to come. I now recognize the beauty of what we are creating that can be passed down through my daughters to their children someday.  I’m delighted to imagine grandchildren who will someday say that one tradition started with their grandparents, even while that time is far off.  My greatest hope is for Jesus to be shared throughout the generations of my family.  Traditions that focus on Jesus are seeds sown into the hearts of children that someday, will bear good fruit.  

What about your family?  Do you have traditions that you value for the holiday season?  What do you want to bring in this season that will create memories and have an impact in the future?  Share with me what tradition looks like in your family!