Christmas traditions make the holidays meaningful for kids and offer special moments to look forward to each year. Here are 10 ways to add holiday traditions to your home this season.
These are traditions that can be done throughout the month of December, in the weeks leading up to Christmas, or to sprinkle in as needed. These are simple and easy activities to do with your family to bring everyone together and find connection, even as the holidays get busy.
In this blog post:
- 10 meaningful Christmas traditions for kids and families
- Questions about creating Christmas traditions with kids
10 meaningful Christmas traditions for kids and families
If you are looking for ideas for holiday traditions that are simple and meaningful, here are 10 of our favorite ideas to try with kids.
1. Create a simple Advent calendar.
Make the entire month of December special by making an Advent calendar for your children to open each day. An Advent calendar is a holiday calendar used to count down the days until Christmas. As you count down the days together, you can add a small treat or activity to do together to make each day feel exciting and special.
One easy way to make your own DIY Advent calendar is to line up miniature paper bags or small envelopes and put a slip of paper inside each bag with a simple activity. You can write in fun activities to do together, like “listen to Christmas songs” or “wrap presents,” or you could list Scriptures for the Nativity story in order and read them as you count down the days until Christmas. This is a low-cost activity that will bring Christmas cheer without spending a lot of extra money or buying extra things.
2. Wrap your favorite Christmas books.
If your children love reading Christmas stories, try wrapping each of your family’s favorite Christmas picture books in wrapping paper, then unwrapping one or two to read each day during the holiday season. This is a simple and easy way to offer young children an exciting thing to do each day, and an easy tradition to do year after year. Kids will love unwrapping a new story to read together each day, and will enjoy the surprise of unwrapping each book to find out what’s inside.
Consider our free Christmas book lists here.
3. Making festive orange garland to decorate for Christmas.
The holiday tradition of putting oranges in children’s stockings is a reminder of the gold coins Saint Nicholas generously gave to those in need. Children will love stringing oranges together with needle and thread to make a beautiful garland to display in your home. Use the instructions in A Connected Christmas to make your own.
4. Create a Christmas giving list and plan gifts for others.
Teach children to focus on generosity and consider others as Christmas Day approaches. Ask children who they want to give gifts to during the holiday season, whether that is baking for family friends or giving to someone in need. Write down all of the people you want to give to, what to give each person, and make a plan to gather gifts for each person.
Use the free printable giving list from the Saint Nicholas Unit Study.
5. Practice giving by making DIY gifts.
Giving doesn’t always mean going to a store or ordering something online. There are tons of simple and easy gifts for children to make for friends and family. Children can measure hot cocoa mixes, make no-sew blankets, do simple sewing projects, or make bars of soap to give to others. Even babies and young kids can make cute handprint crafts for grandparents. Here are 50 of our favorite DIY gift ideas for kids to make.
6. Make Christmas cookies kids will love.
Make Christmas cookies a tradition and bake cookies to share with others or enjoy together. We love these peppermint Candy Cane Cookies from A Connected Christmas that kids will enjoy twisting together and forming into Candy Cane shapes.
7. Recite a Christmas poem.
Whether you read poetry regularly in your homeschool or not, reading poems aloud to children is a special way to bring beauty to your home during the holiday season. Read one of the holiday poems in A Connected Christmas and see what your children think. Simply enjoy reading the poem together, or encourage your child to memorize and recite the poem from memory.
8. Read aloud a Christmas chapter book your whole family will love.
If your family loves to read aloud and enjoy great books together, find a holiday-themed story to read to your family this Christmas. Try a classic story like A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens, or a new favorite like The Best Christmas Pageant Ever. Homeschool families can use Treehouse Book Studies for coordinating recipes, activities, and discussion questions to make reading together a memorable learning experience. Then, watch the movie adaptation and see which one you like best.
9. Turn your homeschool into holiday school with a Christmas unit study.
Make homeschool days special with a Christmas unit study that turns school lessons into meaningful traditions kids will love. A Connected Christmas is a three-week Advent study with 15 lessons that connects learning with the Biblical Nativity story. The study brings in living picture books, poetry, art study, copywork, hands-on crafts, recipes, and more. This study is created for family-style learning and is recommended for children in kindergarten through 5th grade.
10. Encourage children to retell the Nativity story with a Narration Notebook.
As you read the Nativity story in your home and learn about the birth of Christ, give children a chance to write out the story and illustrate it in their own words by making a Christmas Narration Notebook. The Charlotte Mason practice of narration encourages children to retell something they’ve heard in their own words to make learning more personal and show their understanding. What better way to learn about the birth of Jesus than having your child retell it in their own way? Create a Narration Notebook and save it as a keepsake you can revisit year after year. This Narration Notebook is included with A Connected Christmas and coordinates with the holiday unit study, or can be done as a standalone project to work on over the holiday season.
Questions about creating Christmas traditions with kids
What Christmas traditions can you start with babies?
Reading aloud is a tradition you can start with a child of any age, even babies. Children will love reading beautiful picture books together, and then re-reading the same books each Christmas. See our free Christmas booklists here.
What are some new traditions to start this Christmas?
Giving to others is a wonderful tradition to work on each year. It’s natural for children to get excited about what they are going to receive each year, so Christmas can be a great opportunity to turn the tables and encourage children to think more about giving to friends and family, or those in need.
What if my child no longer enjoys a Christmas tradition?
As children grow older, they may not be as excited about a tradition as they were previously. If a child no longer enjoys a tradition they used to like being a part of, use your judgment to decide whether it is important enough to do anyway, or you could continue the tradition and let them watch from the sidelines and offer it again next year. If a tradition no longer serves your family, feel free to adjust and create a new tradition your family will enjoy.
What are some free Christmas traditions?
Some fun and free Christmas traditions include singing Christmas carols, reading Christmas books (reserve them at the library a few weeks in advance), reading the Biblical Nativity story, and driving around your community to look at Christmas lights.
What are your family’s favorite traditions to do each Christmas? Share your favorites in the comments below.
Meredith Qualls has worked for Treehouse Schoolhouse since 2023, where she helps develop curriculum and writes about motherhood and home education. She was homeschooled in the 90s, has a master’s degree in journalism, and previously worked in traditional print newspapers.
