There are so many things we do for tradition with our family for Christmas! Each activity has let my family create priceless memories that I hope will carry on through our children and their families.
This month, I'm kicking off a series of Christmas traditions, starting with this list of 25 Christmas traditions you'll want to start doing with your family this year. If you're looking for new and fun things to make memories with your families, you're in the right place!
1. Christmas parades in Michigan
Who doesn't love a parade? The Victorian Sleighbell Parade happens in Manistee on the first weekend of the month each year. No motor vehicles are allowed in the parade, so you'll see many Belgian draft horses, Clydesdales, and others walking through or pulling carriages. You'll also see bagpipers and carolers dressed in Victorian-era clothing.
The highlight of the event is seeing a team of draft horses at the end of the parade. They're pulling an erect, 30-foot Christmas tree down the street. When they stop, it's lit, and everyone sings carols.
2. Family Christmas photos
I always have plans for photos with our red truck, but I have yet to get it out on the hill because of the snow. There was a time when we got the truck stuck and had to have the neighbor come to drag us out with his tractor.
It's fun to have family photos taken at a tree farm, and in the next few years, we'll have photography spots throughout the farm.
3. Pick your own Christmas tree
We always visit a Christmas tree farm and hunt for the perfect tree for our home. Before we bought this tree farm, we would drive from our home in Illinois up to Manistee and visit a farm. If you've never had a live tree, I highly recommend it. The smell will enhance your holiday experience, and there's pride in cutting your own tree. Plus, running through the forest of evergreens with your family is fun!
Most tree farms offer cocoa by the fire and sledding if there's snow. It makes for a fantastic day!
4. Cocktails at the Iron Fish Distillery
There are tons of festivities for families and kids, but adults need some play time, too, and the Iron Fish offers a unique winter experience. We've made an annual event of enjoying cocktails with our friends in their outdoor tents. The fire is always burning if you need to warm up!
5. Sledding at Timberlee Hills
Once a popular ski hill, Timberlee Hills is the place to go tubing in Northern Michigan. Tubing there is always fun, and they have a rope to pull you back up the hill!
6. Horse-drawn carriage ride
Fantail Farms offers carriage rides through their farms and they provide horse-drawn surrey rides at Crystal Mountain.
7. Drive around to see the lights
Every year, we throw on our pajamas, pack our hot chocolate, and head into Bear Lake, where we take a drive through the Sparkle In The Park Christmas light show. Then we we walk around our downtown area, where everything is decorated and holiday music plays.
It's also tradition to go to Glen Lake, where we can see a Christmas tree floating in a rowboat. This year, the tree will be decorated with 3000 lights!
8. Annual party with a gift exchange and gingerbread contest
This event is always a fantastic laugh - especially with my nieces, who never follow directions and always hahave us in stitches!
9. Holiday pinata
The adults are always just a bit better at this than the kids are.
10. Christmas cookie decorating
Every year we make cookies, decorate them, and have the Griswald Family Christmas movie playing in the background.
11. Hot cocoa bar
We go through the cocoa during the holiday season, but everyone loves it when we set up a cocoa bar with lots of treats for your cup. Our favorite adult beverage is hot cocoa and peppermint vodka.
12. Decorating with fresh wreaths
I usually spend a month making fresh wreaths, decorating, and lighting up every room possible inside the house and every corner of the house outside. It's a lot of work, but I find it relaxing. Last year, the wooden trees blew off the porch, and we had to nail them down. Twice!
If you aren't a DIYer, Pleasanton Greenhouse in Bear Lake holds events all through November and December to assist.
13. Ski at Crystal Mountain
Even if you're not a skier, this is a great place to see decorations and sip a beverage.
14. Visit a reindeer farm
We visited Snowman's Reindeer Farm in Canton, Illinois, one year. The owner is also a children’s book author. You can find unique ornaments in their shop that each have a poem inside them.
15. Decorate the tree with the kids
Our last home had high ceilings and we had a few trees we had to trim down quite a bit to make them fit.
16. Write a letter of gratitude
My family's tradition is to write a letter describing what we're each thankful for. Even when you're not feeling the holiday spirit, shifting your mind to look for things to be grateful for will change your outlook. When you make gratitude a daily practice, you'll start seeing more and more to be grateful for.
17. Christmas scavenger hunt
These are fun to host whether you're inside the house or outside. You can have small gifts as prizes, or lead your family on a hunt where each clue leads to the next with a present at the end!
18. Travel as a gift
People tend to forget the things they've been gifted, but they'll never forget the experience of traveling and making memories. You can go to many places, but cruising is an affordable option for families.
One year we did a cruise and I used a series of clues for the kids to find, ending in t-shirts that said, "I like big boats and I cannot lie."
19. Christmas party games
If Monopoly makes you want to throw the board, you can play Christmas party games instead. There are gift exchange games like Switch, Steel, Unwrap, or Rob Your Neighbor. Or you could play an active Christmas game like Minute to Win It, or Christmas Olympics. One of the favorites around my house is the shrink-wrap game, where you wrap small prizes in a big ball of shrink-wrap and see who can unwrap their gift the fastest.
20. Watch An Evergreen Christmas
The writers of this movie have a link to our farm, so how could we not watch this every year? Read the history of our farm here.
21. Stuff stockings with unique items
I love to stuff stockings with special gifts that seem to take me longer to find than the gifts under the tree. Growing up, our tradition was to open our stockings before unwrapping gifts, while drinking cocoa. There are 3 things each stocking must have: a giant candy cane, a lifesaver storybook, and an orange (because my mother's grandparents used to bring oranges from Florida for her and her siblings when they were kids).
Etsy is a great resource for unique, one-of-a-kind gifts, or you can make your own. If you want to support a small business while having an in-person shopping experience, visit one of the many shops in Frankfort.
22. "Back in Time" Photoshoot
The last year we lived in the schoolhouse, we did a "Back in Time photoshoot, and it was so much fun! Photos by Rhonda Johnson Photography.
23. Watch Polar Express
...and sing along with Josh Groban's song, Believe:
Believe in what your heart is saying
Hear the melody that's playing
There's no time to waste
There's so much to celebrate
Believe in what you feel inside
And give your dreams the wings to fly
You have everything you need
If you just believe
This song embodies the magic of Christmas and always makes my heart want to burst with gratitude and love.
24. Include the animals
I've always enjoyed having my animals around the tree. My cats, dogs, and even my roo always had a Christmas.
25. Keep the idea of Santa alive
I always try to make Christmas magical and wonderful for everyone - even the adults! My home is always filled with cheer, hope, and gratitude. The most important thing to me on Christmas is my family and taking time to reflect on memories.
I never stopped believing in Santa, and I still look up to the sky on Christmas Eve. I still fill the stockings at 3 AM, even though everyone knows I do it. I still wrap the gifts and keep them hidden until "Santa" comes, a tradition passed down from my father.
Conclusion
Family traditions connect generations, build bonds with family members, teach the value of family, and give everyone something to look forward to.
What you've read here are just some of the holiday traditions my family and I share.
Be sure to watch for come back for the rest of the Christmas series, where I dive into more of these traditions and help you start your own.
Don't forget to comment! I want to hear about your family traditions!
0 Comments