As I have started creating routines and habits for every part of my homemaking, the idea of having traditions that we cycle back to every year is life-giving. Habits ground us in a way that I cannot fully explain. They provide structure and safe boundaries creating a place that we can flourish in.

One of the biggest times of the year to keep traditions is Christmas. There is something nostalgic, an old fashioned loveliness about returning to the same celebrations and experiences, renewing them for one more year that speak life and refresh us as homemakers.

Each year, I attempt to bring a new tradition or two while keeping to the meaningful ones from the previous years. Here are 9 Christmas traditions that I have either started already in my home or am looking forward to starting this year and in the future.

Advent Wreath

An advent wreath is a wreath with five candles symbolizing different parts of the story preceding Christ’s birth. The themes highlighted by different candles are the prophecy of Christ’s birth, the place of his birth which is Bethlehem, the shepherds coming to worship, and the angels and their message of “Peace on earth”.

There are several ways to celebrate advent or the anticipation of Christ’s coming (both the birth and the second coming)with an advent wreath. Traditionally, I believe, one candle is lit on each sunday (starting the night before each Sunday since traditionally days actually started the evening before each day) adding another candle each Sunday until all are lit on Christmas eve. They are also enjoyed on Christmas day as the celebration of Christ’s coming draws all the pieces of the story together.

Different scripture is read everyday for the whole advent season not just on Sundays; however, this can be a lot especially if this is your first time really celebrating Advent. You can also just highlight each Sunday.

Here’s how you can make your own Advent wreath along with the scripture readings.

Jesse Tree

This is a tradition new to me, but is one I’m looking forward to including this Christmas season.

If you have not heard of a Jesse tree, the idea of it is to walk through the Bible stories from creation all the way to the birth of Christ. Typically, there are scripture readings for everyday or you can also follow a devotional written for this purpose. There are also 28 ornaments that symbolize each story. You can either hang them on your Christmas tree or have a separate one just for the Jesse tree ornaments.

There are also a lot of other ideas of what do with the ornaments online.

Most Jesse tree traditions start on November 28 which allows for one ornament to be hung each day leading up to Christmas Day.

What an exciting and meaningful way to anticipate the celebration of the coming of the Christ child!

12 Days of Christmas

You know the song…On the first day of Christmas, my true love gave to me…but have you ever considered making this a part of your Christmas celebrations?

How come we only celebrate Christmas for one day? It seems the typical way our society today celebrates Christmas is by spending all the days from the day after Thanksgiving towards Christmas hustling to prepare for Christmas Day and throwing parties. Then we do one big shiba g on the 25 and call it good. Sounds chaotic and not very meaningful!

A More old fashioned way to spend the holidays would be to celebrate Advent and then Epiphany or the 12 days of Christmas. You spend the advent season anticipating Christ and then celebrate Christ for 12 days. Who doesn’t want to celebrate for longer?!

This tradition starts on Christmas Day and goes through the next 12 days (Dec 25 – Jan 5) and is full of meaning and life-giving experiences.

There are many ways to keep this tradition so here are a few ideas to inspire and help you incorporate a longer more meaningful celebration.

A Sacred Journey – a very intriguing celebration with a focused word for each day. It draws out the theme of each of the feasts that or religious celebrations that were traditionally celebrated.
A gift a day – I have often wondered as a parent the disservice we do ourselves and our children by overwhelming them with all the the gifts all on one day. My oldest specifically gets overstimulated very easily which can make Christmas Day a struggle. Some people celebrate the 12 days of Christmas by spreading out the gifts over these days. What a wonderful idea!
12 days of Christmas books – What child doesn’t love a new book?! Wrap 12 Christmas books new or old and open one and enjoy on each day to prolong the festivities.
12 dates of Christmas – Whether you have children or not, this is a fun way to celebrate through experiences (with a little more planning, of course) by doing 12 different things together.

Crepes for Breakfast

This is a running joke in our family. My husband is convinced that his mom made crepes every Christmas morning for breakfast while in fact she has only ever done it once or twice.

The idea is fantastic though! Why not start the day with a small but scrumptious feast of your choosing?! It doesn’t have to be a lot of work since you still have other things to make for Christmas dinner, but you could make something simple and spruce it up like pancakes with a special cider syrup or something like that or make something ahead of time the night before that can be warmed up and enjoyed as you get started on other preparations like homemade cinnamon rolls.

Bake Cookies

A simple but wonderful way to celebrate is to bake something together. Kids love it and what adult will pass on a scrumptious little bit of sweets with a cup of milk or cocoa?

If you’re feeling more ambitious, you could decorate them, too.

My favorite cookies to bake are…

Sugar Cookies
Chockerdoodles – snickerdoodles, but with chocolate
Gingersnaps

Decorate Gingerbread Men

I love to make gingerbread houses, but…why go through all the trouble of putting a a gingerbread house kit together if you can’t even eat it because it’s old and not to mention the mess? And if you’ve tried to go the homemade route with homemade icing, it doesn’t always look pretty or hold the house together.

So to solve all these little issues, we decided to decorate homemade gingerbread men instead this year. It solves all the problems and is much easier to do with children, too.

Make a Christmas Ornament

If you are creative soul like me, you are going to love these DIY ornament ideas!

Advent Calendar

Counting down the days until Christmas Day is a fun little way to anticipate this holiday. Oftentimes, each day on the calendar holds a little treat in a pocket or a box or something (depending on the type you get or create) so you get a little something on each day as you look forwards to Christmas, but the Advent calendar traditionally has more to it than just anticipating Christmas Day and all the gifts. It counts down the days until the day celebrated as the birth of Christ using the Christmas story.

Here are some ideas…

Bible Verses and Chocolate – Each little baggie has a date on it on which you open it, read the verse, and enjoy some sweets.
Scripture, Songs, and Service – Three cards are inserted into the Advent calendar of your choice (This post also includes several DIY Advent Calendar ideas.): one witha scripture to read, one with a Christmas song to sing, and one with an act of service to do for others.
Felt Nativity Scene – Each day, you pull out part or character and add it to the board to recreate the nativity scene.

Handmade Christmas Cards

Whether you are crafty or like to draw, take the Christmas card tradition to the next level with some old fashioned charm by creating your own Christmas cards. The kids will love getting involved in making them, too!

I like to sketch a little Christmas something on the front of blank cardstock like…

Candles
Bells
Pine Cones
Greenery
Ribbons

Drawing each card can take a lot of time though so this year, I have contemplated doing something with fabric on the front. Here are a few of the ideas I have gathered…

Final Thoughts!

Christmas is just around the corner or it maybe here as you are reading this. Are you ready to make the most of this holiday season and embed the richness of Christmas deeper within your hearts and home? Even if you have very few Christmas traditions that you keep every year, now is as good a time as any to change that!

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