Christmas Traditions

I love reading what other families do as their holiday traditions. It makes me smile to think about the things that were sacred to my sister and me during Christmas. We would always decorate our Christmas tree and house together, and I loved pulling out my favorite ornaments and decorations. I have so many great memories of the holidays, and I really hope for that for my kids.

We ALWAYS:

Decorations - I love decorating for holidays but mostly just have a few pieces for smaller holidays. For Christmas though...I have A LOT. And in the new house, I need more! I also love using a lot of the same pieces year after year and even have decorations from my Granny that are super old - talk about lots of memories!

Looking at lights - Where we go might be different from year-to-year {last year we did a drive thru place that was super neat but Brent almost lost his mind, so I had to give him a reprieve this year}, but we always look at lights. This year it's been fun to drive through our neighborhood in the golf cart to look at lights. We have a house that is NUTS with the computer program that times the lights to music. We might go by that house multiple times a week!

Listen to a ton of Christmas music - I constantly have Pandora on our TV and Christmas carols blaring in the car. Trent already recognizes a lot of songs, and we sing together.

PJs/Clothes - The kids always have something Christmas to wear - pjs and regular clothes. Now how much I have to fight them to get into them might be another matter!

Movies - I love watching Christmas movies. Not non-stop and every Hallmark channel movie ever made but the classics - Home Alone, White Christmas. Brent and I even watch White Christmas together every year.

Christmas cards - I love making our Christmas card and then collecting the ones we get - checking the mail is so fun in December! I need to figure out a good way to display them now because I used to use magnets on the fridge, but we got a new fridge 2 years ago that magnets don't stick to!

We SOMETIMES:

Make Gingerbread house - We started doing that last year, and the kids freaked out when they saw the kids in the store this year, so I think this will become an always tradition pretty soon!

Christmas crafts - This is another one that I think will become an always as the kids get older {and I get craftier}, but we've done some fun crafts here and there.

The latest Swope grandkid craft given to Babs!

What are your traditions?