Starting a Festive Tradition with Your Family

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Christmas is on the horizon and homes around the globe are preparing themselves for the big day, putting up glittering decorations and sprucing up the tree with tinsel, glowing lights and a vast mixture of ornaments. You might have already finished your Christmas shopping or be filling your freezer with festive delights for friends and family, maybe you are just getting into the spirit as we move into the last month of the year. With all the expected parts of Christmas, the turkey, getting together, gifting each other presents, you might not have thought about your own festive family tradition, or you might not have one yet.

While many people consider traditions as something to be inherited, as a family you can decide to introduce a new family or friend-related tradition to take part in every year and it doesn’t need to fall strictly over the festive period. Here are some classic and fun traditions you could find inspiration from for your family going forward;

Christmas Outfits

While Christmas jumpers aren’t anything new and have even led to a dedicated charity-driven “Christmas Jumper Day” (which falls on 14th December and supports the Save the Children charity). Matching family Christmas outfits are a modern-day addition that became trendy across major brands this year. With matching, named outfits dedicated to grandparents, parents and children, you can kit the family out for the big day or your own personal immediate family celebration around the holidays.

Leaving Something Out for Santa

A great tradition to start with your young children on Christmas Eve. Leaving a glass of milk, a mince pie and carrots out for Santa and his hard-performing reindeer adds to the magic of the season and can become part of your Christmas Eve bedtime routine in the future. You can even purchase personalised “Santa giving” plates with your children’s names on to add that extra special touch and let Santa know who has left him tasty treats to help him on his journey.

Write Your Own Christmas Song

Creative or musical families will love getting behind this fun tradition, as a family, detail a list of the things you all love at Christmas and write your own Christmas song to perform together. There are plenty of available free use music tracks available if you aren’t comfortable writing the backing music or you can have fun thinking up new song lyrics to an existing Christmas song.

Giving to the Less Fortunate

Christmas is considered an important time for giving and it doesn’t just have to remain in your family. Plenty of differing cultures give throughout the year or in different ways. As a family, you could sort through all the toys, clothes and household goods you haven’t used over the year and donate these to a charity or family in need. Alternatively, you could organise a charity fundraiser selling festive cakes, gift wrapping service or handmade goods. You could even arrange with your child’s class for the children to hand-decorate rolls of plain brown wrapping paper and offer it to parents of the children for a donation to your suggested charity or good cause.

End of Year Review

TV shows, magazines even corporate offices have an end of year review, so why not introduce one in your family? Set a day where you all come together and discuss the good times and the bad times of the year passed, things you were proud of your children having completed or achieved, whether in or out of school and behaviours or habits you’d like to see less of in the year going forward. Couples and parents can use the opportunity to discuss household or personal goals for the year ahead and find ways to encourage each other and celebrate each other’s individual achievements.

Christmas is a time for joy, fun and making memories with the people you love, whether they are family or friends. If you’ve got the space in your home, why not reach out to someone in your community that will be alone this festive holiday? Whether your family tradition is something big or something personal, here’s to a fantastic Christmas season.

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