25 Christmas Family Traditions and Sunday Morning Coffee
For years we have enjoyed Christmas family traditions and today I am sharing my 25 favorites. I would love to learn about all of yours too.
It’s Day Twelve, our last day of Twelve Days of Getting Ready for Christmas. Today my dear friend KariAnne @Thistlewood and I are sharing our favorite Family Christmas Traditions. I wanted to pass on a special thank you for joining me these past twelve days. I hope I inspired you and eased the stress to get ready for the holidays. It’s also Sunday Morning Coffee!
Season 3 Volume 45
About Me
I am a bit crazy when it comes to traditions. Of the twenty-five on this list, seventeen are things we do (or have done) for years!
I would love it if you all would add some of your family Christmas traditions in the comments. I would love to read about every single one and I am ready to add some more.
My Favorite Family Christmas Traditions
Sibling Shopping Day
I used to take the boys on a special shopping trip in December. The three of them each had a list of everyone they needed to buy gifts for and the four of us went to Target. Andrew and Matt usually finished in about an hour. Michael, on the other hand, spent hours finding the perfect gifts. As much as his brothers complained, Michael’s gifts were incredible and well-thought-out.
Watch a Favorite Holiday Movie Together
I love having a special family movie that you can watch with your family. When I was growing up, my sisters and I loved watching “White Christmas” every year. I think I know every word of every song and most of the dialogue throughout the entire movie! As hard as I have tried to get my boys to watch the movie “White Christmas”, they haven’t shown any interest.
Of course with the boys’ input, we are more likely watching Elf or A Christmas Story. Times do change!
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Family Cook-a-Long
I love cooking in the kitchen with our family. A few years ago we started a tradition where we team up and each team cooks a course. We all cook together and it is so much fun.
This evening is one of my favorites in the holiday season. And of course, it relieves the stress of yours truly having to cook another meal!
Gift Wrapping Night
Our family has always wrapped gifts on Christmas Eve. I am hoping we can change that plan this year and start a tradition of doing it earlier.
I have actually started wrapping my gifts much earlier and I love it so much better.
When do you wrap your gifts?
Making Gifts
Many of you are aware that I made gifts for my family every Christmas for about thirty years.
I will be sharing a lot more homemade gifts between now and Christmas. I would love to ask our boys to make one handmade gift. How do you think they would react?
Adopt a Charity
When the boys were younger we used to participate in the Adopt a Family program. We sponsored a family and shopped and bought all of their Christmas gifts. I love this program and it’s really a fabulous idea.
Buying the Tree
Buying our Christmas tree has been a huge tradition in our family. We have always bought our tree at the YMCA and the boys always played hide and go seek in the tree lot. Somehow we were never kicked out!
Sadly the YMCA doesn’t sell trees any longer but still buy our tree in our hometown. Now it’s usually Dave and I but we still love it!
Decorating the Tree
We always have a fresh tree in our living room that holds all of our treasured family ornaments.
Until the boys grew up and moved out, we decorated the tree together every single year. We have so many wonderful handmade and family ornaments and we all love decorating the tree because of the fond memories that are cherished.
See the gingerbread ornament? I made that when I was six. It is truly vintage now. Hehe.
Hosting a Christmas Party
This year we will be hosting our 36th annual Christmas party. This is my favorite party of the year and it has grown from 40 guests to 250 guests. I still cook all of the food and it’s quite an undertaking! Stay tuned for lots of party preparation!
Citrus Singers
You may not be familiar with the Citrus Singers, but this college singing group is out of this world talented. We always get together every December with some of our closest friends for dinner and a performance by the Citrus singers. It is one of my favorite evenings during the holidays.
Reading the Night Before Christmas
When the boys were really young, ages 8 months, 2, and 3, Dave started reading “Twas the Night Before Christmas” every Christmas Eve. He still reads it every year even though the boys are now 32, 31, and 29!
Traditional Dinner (Beef Tenderloin/Pasta)
We always have a traditional Christmas dinner on the 24th, and it’s always enjoyed at the dining room table.
Since Christmas dinner is always a traditional turkey dinner, I prepare either beef tenderloin or a pasta buffet. Every year I let the kids decide!
Ice Skating (even in California)
Ice skating is such a fun sport and it feels as if most large towns have an ice skating rink. This has always felt like such a fun thing to do during the holidays. When my inlaws had their home in Lake Arrowhood we used to ice skate every December.
Opening the Stockings – youngest to oldest
We open our stockings in order of age, youngest to oldest. This is the time I have to remember that I am the oldest in our family. I am two and a half months older than my husband and somehow this feels more real on Christmas morning. We have done this every since we got married.
Opening Gifts – Oldest to youngest
After we open the stockings, we open our gifts. But this time we open them from oldest to youngest. I love this tradition so much.
But unfortunately, I am still the oldest.
Christmas Morning Brunch – family recipes
I love the fact that every Christmas morning, in three different states, my brothers and sisters and I (and our families) are enjoying my Mom’s Overnight Sausage Casserole. This recipe has been a tradition in our family for as long as I can remember. You can only imagine how hard I cried when my daughter-in-law, Charlotte, gave me this gift a few years ago. It was so thoughtful!
If you look closely, you can read the recipe!
Mimosas at Christmas Brunch
I started this tradition last year when I made special ice cubes for mimosas. Not only do these ice cubes add flavor they also keep the champagne cold which is wonderful. Head to my blog post for all of the details.
Game Night
We have played some games over the holidays but last year my youngest son took it to a different level. Michael assigned each of us to be in charge of two evenings during the holiday. My favorites were Rummikub, Ticket to Ride, and Qwirkle.
Fun Family Competition
We have had many team competitions in our family. We played golf inside our home a few years ago and it was so much fun. You can see the highlight reel here.
Making Ornaments for the Tree
When the boys were really young, I used to host Christmas craft workshops where the kids would all make gifts for their families, teachers, and pets. This is so much fun!
Making/Decorating Cookies for Santa
We used to make special cookies for Santa and I loved it so much! I know the boys are grown but in a few years, I hope to be doing this with my grandchildren.
Can you tell the cookie is a replica of our home?
Writing a Letter to Santa and His Reindeer
There are so many fun traditions you can start with your kids. Making cookies for Santa and writing a letter to Santa are perfect opportunities for sure.
Open One Gift on Christmas Eve
We did this when I was growing up and I do remember that most years we received new pajamas! We haven’t done this with our family but I know a lot of people love to open at least one. I would love your input and to share why/how it works well.
Looking at Christmas Lights
The last tradition I am sharing is one we have enjoyed for many years. Every Christmas Eve we put on our pajamas, pile the dog in the car, and we head out to St. Alban’s street to look at the Christmas lights. I put Christmas carols on the car radio and we have so much fun.
I hope you have enjoyed the twenty-five Family Christmas Traditions. Feel free to make any of these your own! Now it’s your turn to share your traditions.
This recipe looks yummy! Cranberry Bacon-Wrapped Water Chestnuts.
Before and After: A Plain Kitchen Goes from White to Wow with a Retro-Inspired Makeover. I am curious what you think about this!
Who doesn’t want to see Another Two Story Penthouse in Paris?
My absolute favorite! A recipe for Carmel Macchiato. I cannot wait to try this!
Gosh! What a fun week it was. This is the last post of a very fun series with KariAnne Wood from Thistlewood called 12 Days of Getting Ready for Christmas.
KariAnne’s Getting Ready for Christmas Post
My dear friend KariAnne at Thistlewood Farms is sharing her Day 12 post for Getting Ready for Christmas. She asks, what is the only thing better than celebrating the holidays? Celebrating the holidays with family. Here are 25 things to do with your family for Christmas.
25 Things To Do With Your Family For Christmas
I shared a lot of my Christmas finds this past week. Tap any photo for more.
Martha Is Inviting Guests to Her Home for a Thanksgiving-Inspired Retreat—Here’s how to attend. I want to go!
We have lots more holiday fun to share this week. I have the cutest Christmas tree cupcakes, an easy DIY wreath, gorgeous holiday decor, gingerbread ornaments and gingerbread houses, and a fun feather tree DIY.
If you missed any of my Twelve Days to Get Ready for Christmas, you can find them here:
- Day 1 – How to Choose Christmas Colors for Your Holiday Decor
- Day 2 – Creative Ideas for Christmas Gift Tags
- Day 3 – Stocking Stuffers for Christmas Morning
- Day 4 – Decorating with Christmas Ribbon in the Dining Room
- Day 5 – Gift Wrapping Ideas and Sunday Morning Coffee
- Day 6 – Easy Christmas Button Crafts
- Day 7 – How to Tie a Bow with Ribbon
- Day 8 – 7 Creative Ideas to Set a Christmas Table
- Day 9 – Holiday Make Ahead Party Desserts
- Day 10 – Handmade Mercury Glass Ornaments
- Day 11 – My Favorite Christmas Tree Skirts and Tree Collars
- Day 12 – 25 Christmas Family Traditions
You can also find KariAnne’s amazing blog posts here:
- Day 1 – How to Choose a Christmas Theme
- Day 2 – 27 Ways To Decorate With Ornaments
- Day 3 – 21 Unique Stocking Stuffers for Christmas Morning
- Day 4 – How to Hang a Wreath On the Back of a Chair
- Day 5 – 21 Easy Gift Wrap Ideas
- Day 6 – 7 Easy and Simple Christmas Crafts
- Day 7 – How to Tie a Christmas Bow
- Day 8 – 15 Simple Ideas You Can Use to Decorate For Christmas
- Day 9 – 5 Of the BEST Food Gifts For Christmas
- Day 10 – 7 Creative Ideas For Christmas Tree Toppers
- Day 11 – 14 Unique and Creative Christmas Tree Skirts
- Day 12 – 25 Things To Do With Your Family For Christmas
- Gift Wrapping Ideas – S3/V44
- Holiday Crafts Week – S3/V43
- How Many Days Until Thanksgiving – S3/V42
- Holiday Crafts – S3/V41
- Amazon Prime Big Deal Days – S3/V40
- Amazon Creator Summit – S3/V39
- Eat, Drink, Relax – S3/V38
- Happy Weekend – S3/V37
- A Healthy Lifestyle – S3/V36
- A New Trek Electric Bike – S3/V35
- The Fall Color Palette – S3/V34
- My New Craft Room – S3/V33
- Fall is Here – S3/V32
- Thinking About Fall Decor – S3/V31
- A Backroads Bike Trip – S3/V30
- Summer Dinner on the Beach – S3/V29
- Why Do I Love Crafts? – S3/V28
- Our California Beach House – S3/V27
- Enjoying the Ventura Beach House – S3/V26
- Summer Decor Finds and Sunday Morning Coffee – S3/V25
- Looking Back at Provence and Sunday Morning Coffee – S3/V24
- Summer Birthday Week – S3/V23
- Welcome Summer – S3/V22
- Finishing the Exterior of the Beach House – S3/V21
- Happy Mother’s Day – S3/V20
- I Love New York – S3/V19
- A Spring Garden – S3/V18
- Happy National Picnic Day – S3/V17
- Welcome Graham – S3/V16
- Happy Easter – S3/V15
- Shopping Tips – S3/V14
- Happy Spring – S3/V13
- Girls Weekend Getaways – S3/V12
- Exciting News This Week – S3/V11
- Ventura Beach Favorites – S3/V10
- A Happy Family at the Beach House – S3/V9
- A Beach House Tour Deadline – S3/V8
- The Ventura Beach House – S3/V7
- A Busy Week at the Ventura Beach House – S3/V6
- Beach House Move-In Tomorrow – S3/V5
- Martha, “You are Wrong About My White Farmhouse Kitchen!” – S3/V4
- Valentines Day Decor – S3/V3
- Five Things to Organize Now – S3/V2
- Happy New Year 2023 – S3/V1
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Thank you Leslie for all the inspiration you’ve shared. I hope you’re Christmas Season loses none of it’s sparkle even during these difficult times. Best wishes to all of you! BTW I am a year and three months older then my husband. It’s worked for us for 41 years!!😘
Citrus Singers, skating & opening presents & stockings. We have done all the rest from when I was a child & brought it into my own family for the last 43+yrs. All these traditions are so much fun. O ya, and our traditional Xmas Dinner meal is tamales & more tamales for breakfast. Family🎅🏼
That golf tourney was the best ever! A whole lot of creativity. I’ve done treasure / secret spy present hunts. My grandson wanted (at age 7) to be a ninja spy so I hid his gifts all over his house and he had to follow clues written in reverse and find his “handler” (uncle Marc) to help him as needed. He had code words and dead drops and everything I could think of. He had a blast. So did the rest of us watching him.
Love all your ideas-thank you.
Thanks for the tips and ideas! I have bookmarked the Citrus Singers and will be adding that to our Christmas grandkids plans!!
Leslie, you and Karianne have outdone yourselves delivering all of your fabulous Christmas inspiration to us over the past 12 days. Thank you! Our family consists of about 30 when we all get together, and we have started playing Left, Right, Center. It is a dice game that you can find at most stores, and is probably available on Amazon. I have even purchased one at Walgreens. We play with three $1 bills, but you can use pennies, or anything you want to. We have played with as few as six people, or as many as 20 (the more that play, the more money (or whatever you are playing with) you win.) Happy Holidays!
These are awesome traditions! Thank you for sharing yours! Our town has had an ice rink the last two years ago that’s become a tradition for us too. Christmas is such a wonderful time of year!
Love all these traditions! Thank you for sharing. Our family has a few too. We keep a Christmas book where we each write an entry on Christmas. I started it when my daughters were children and we’ve had it over 40 years. We also ask our guests to write in it as well. As the years go by you especially treasure the entries of those no longer with us! We also watch a movie that we created from all of our Christmas’ past, from the time the children were toddlers when we first got a movie camera!
LOVE all your traditions!!
I started this tradition – when my girls were young…..
Every July or August we’d make 100 ornaments (some variation of a snowman).
Then after Thanksgiving all the ornaments are hung a tree just inside the front door. Anyone who knocks on our front door during the month of December gets an ornament. The UPS driver, pizza delivery, neighbors, friends or family – even if you’re at the wrong address. 🙂 My girls loved giving the ornaments away. They are grown-up now – but I still make give-away snowmen every year. XO
I love that! What a fun idea!😊❤️
Oh Leslie!
When we lived in So Pas, St Albans was always a must! And we’ve attended Citrus Singer shows for many years, both Christmas and the Spring show. About 6 years ago we started taking the grandkids to the Christmas show. We are really missing it this year!
My family has made the same breakfast casserole that you make for as long as I can remember. What is the source for the casserole dish? Thanks
My mother was adopted by a German family and they celebrated the feast of St Nicholas on December 6th. This is when they would get their stockings. She carried this tradition to my brothers & sisters and now I do it with my girls. It’s the best time to give Christmas puzzles, coloring book, books, anything Christmasy. It stopped us from saying “when is Santa coming” a million times. It was fun having Christmas related gifts leading up to the big day rather than on that day. My girls are in their 20’s and we’ve already planned a lunch together to celebrate on the 6th.
I love these traditions! Christmas is such a magical time of year with so much joy and cheer that my husband and I decided to get married on Christmas Eve – 10 years ago this year! 🎄
One of our traditions I loved growing up was how my family clipped little candles to our dessert plates. (I think they were actually old fashioned Christmas tree candlesticks). When we had our traditional Christmas (Eve) dinner, we would go around the table and each person would light the candle of the person next to them, while saying something they love about them or sharing a special memory from that year.
When we got married, my husband and I went around and lit the candles of our family members to honor this tradition and signify our two families joining together. Our caterer actually cried and said it was the most beautiful and symbolic thing he had witnessed and he felt honored to be apart of it. Which, naturally, made me cry! ❤️
As for Christmas Eve presents, we open one present which is always no surprise – pajamas. We usually watch a Christmas movie in those pajamas shortly after opening them. You could easily incorporate that tradition, since you already get in Christmas pj’s to go see the beautiful lights. There’s nothing like fresh new PJs on the most exciting evening of the year! And even though we always laugh and say “My, my, I wonder what this could be!” I think everyone knowing it’s new PJs makes it even more fun because everyone is in on the secret.
Oh! And when I was little, my mom created a secret cinnamon roll recipe that is out of this world. We make “Bodacious Buns” each year and the smell of those baking on Christmas morning is divine. The only way to learn the recipe is through marriage, much to the chagrin of all our friends. But worry not, they get plenty when we make them for gift deliveries each year! 😅
Just wanted to share- we have always opened a gift on Christmas Eve. The gift has always been a new pair of pajamas.
Hi Leslie! First of all I love your home and your traditions. Our family has some that will be new to you. One of our traditions is having fried pies every Christmas Eve and that is when we eat them. We have been doing that for 35 years. Another tradition we have is reading the Christmas story from the Bible found in St Luke. That is always a wonderful story enjoyed by everyone. We always open gifts on Christmas Eve and Santa comes on Christmas Day. And we always see Christmas thru the eyes of a child, most always one of ours. That’s what makes our Christmas so special.
Hi. Well I have finally met, so to speak, someone who loves the holidays, butlers pantries , and tables scapes as much as I do. Can’t wait to follow your blog🌺🌺
Oh I am so glad we have virtually met Linda! Yes, I am definitely a fan of holidays, butler pantries and tablescapes and entertaining, decor, recipes and DIY crafts! I am so glad you are following along. I have so many incredible ideas to share! Thank you for reaching out with your kind comment. Have a great week ahead!
So many fun traditions. This year is going to be extra fun with the baby being older. Enjoy!
Oh it’ll be the best! We are so excited. Thank you! ☺️
I used to love Christmas and celebrating at my mom’s house. Since she passed in 2020 and we sold the family home in 2021 it has been hard to enjoy the holiday. It just isn’t the same. I love reading all the traditions though and long for that sort of holiday time again.
I’m so sorry for your loss Leila. I hope that you can make happy memories this year. ❤️