No matter how long you’ve read my blog, you probably know that we take our Christmas traditions seriously around here.
Growing up, my parents had several Christmas traditions that us Lowes did every single year (all while listening to the Carpenter’s Christmas album). So, when Andrew and I got married, we made a really conscious effort to start our own traditions (while still incorporating some of the old), and 11 Christmases later, we have really fine tuned this time of year.
Some of our traditions cost money, some don’t…some are big, some are small…some take a lot of time, some take just a minute…but they’re all so special to us. These are things we do as a family that put us into the Christmas spirit, these are the things we talk about the other 11 months of the year, these are the things that I will remember when I’m old and grey.
Carriage Rides
Our carriage ride tradition began when Kensington was two and Smith was 11 months old. Our little town square offers reservations for this one hour ride that takes guests through the historic portion of our city. Now, four years later, we know all of the horses’ names and talk about them and the driver/owner Miss Shannon all year long.
Watching Christmas Movies
This tradition comes from my parents. We are Christmas movie watching fools! Usually the week before Thanksgiving we begin watching and we try to watch one every night (during the week, we usually take two nights to watch one). Now that my kids are older, they love watching them too!
You can find my post on Christmas movies here. My very favorite is The Holiday (hello, Jude Law!) but with my kids, we like to watch the classics like Rudolph, Frosty and Charlie Brown…plus, now my kids are into White Christmas (they love the singing and dancing!), Home Alone, A Christmas Story and then there are so many great ones that come on ABC Family.
We pop some popcorn, curl up with our favorite blankets and watch a movie together. Such a fun way to spend an evening!
Our Elf on the Shelf comes out for fun
Last year, I documented all of the funny things our elf did and you can see that here.
We have brought this little elf out the last three years and it’s become something my kiddos always look forward to (by day 4, I’m always tired of moving it and thinking of clever places to put it).
Sitting in Santa’s Lap
We started this tradition with 12 week old Kensington back in 2008. We have visited the same Santa at the Dallas Galleria every single year.
Hanging of the Green
Every year, we attend the Hanging of the Green ceremony at our church. It’s really just a fun service where we sing a lot of carols and look at how beautifully decorated our church is. It’s also the perfect opportunity to remember the real reason for this season…Jesus’ birth.
Jammy Cocoa Christmas
This is a Lowe tradition that has now carried into my family…we put our pajamas on, go to Starbucks and get a drink (you must be wearing your pjs when entering Starbucks…blame my dad for that idea), listen to Christmas music and drive around looking at lights. I blogged about it last year here.
This is one of those silly traditions that I hope my grandchildren are doing too. This can be my dad’s legacy right here :).
Christmas Journey
Every other year, our church offers a drive-thru nativity scene called Christmas Journey. You drive up, we tell you what station to put your car radio on or hand you a CD and then you drive through and watch the story of Christs’ birth, life, death and resurrection unfold through around 15 scenes. It takes about 20 minutes to drive through and last year, almost 50,000 people came through. We were cast members last year and it was so cold and fun! This is a great tradition for us!
Other random things we do…
1. We like to drive to neighborhoods in our area with really big homes that are all decked out for the holidays and get out and walk the streets (verses driving). We get all bundled up and take it all in. If you’re in the Dallas area, we like to walk around Highland Park. After we’re done walking several blocks, we’ll drive the rest.
2. We sleep in our Christmas flannel sheets this time of year. Whenever I put those on our beds, it makes me so happy!!
3. The town next to ours has a Christmas light display that flashes and dances to music. We always go and just walk the two little streets and listen to the music and watch the light display.
4. Whenever the Rockettes are in town with their Christmas Spectacular, we go! I’ve been once in New York City and three times in Dallas. That show never disappoints!
5. We shop for our angels off of the Angel Tree. This is a special time when we select a local family from the Angel Tree and shop for them. I love doing this with my kids. I also love doing Operation Christmas Child and filling shoe boxes with little treats and toys for kids to receive as their Christmas gifts.
6. Drive to North Park Mall (a mall in Dallas) and look at the pretty window displays and beautiful decorations. Just stroll and look (and maybe finish up a little shopping).
I think my parents taught me when I was younger that you really just have to make an effort this time of year to celebrate a little every day. Growing up, my parents would say we had to do one thing Christmasy (their word) each day. Even if that’s just listening to Christmas music (of course, the Carpenter’s album) while eating our dinner or having a candy cane for dessert…something that keeps us in the Christmas spirit.
I would love to know what some of your traditions are!! Please comment and let me know what you and your family do this time of year!
And on the foodie blog…it’s Meal Planning Monday Thanksgiving Week Edition…you know, for when you’re tired of eating turkey.
Merry Monday!
Anonymous says
I totally agree….The Holiday is such a great movie!
TorontoSAM says
My three year old actually selected White Christmas from Netflix on his own (with seriously no prompting from me) and he loved it! I'm so happy because it is my number 1 Christmas movie.
Betsy Maddox says
Awwww…those are such great traditions. We do so many of the same things! I am taking my girls to NYC in a few weeks to see the Rockefeller Tree, do some shopping, and see the Rockettes! I can't wait! 🙂
Blue-Eyed Bride says
Love them all! And love looking back at all of them over the years!
kimm atwood says
Traditions….it is what I think makes christmas so special. I am so happy to say there are things we do in my family that I haVe been doing since before I was born and 40 years later we still do them and I also love that I have started traditions with my kiddos that I hope one day they are doing with theirs. Thank you so much for this post!!! Have a great week sweet friend !!!!
Michele @ The Joyful Home says
You're creating such fun memories with your kids. We've been wanting to do the drive-thru nativity for years–maybe this will be the one! My kids also love cocoa and Christmas lights through our neighborhood and HP, and NP Mall is their favorite place for decorations and the angel tree.
Sandra Litcher says
We do a lot of the same things in our family and we love them! This is for sure just the best time of year! I am already so much in the Christmas spirit and it isn't even Thanksgiving! Is that bad?? Have a great Thanksgiving Shull Family!
tpigg2010 says
This is such a great idea! We have two boys, one is the same age as your Smith, and the other is 16 months. We've never really had any set in stone holiday traditions but I would love to add some. Thanks for the great ideas!
Erika Slaughter says
Eek!!!! Such a fun post!!! Love all these ideas!!
Sheaffer {Pinterest Told Me To} says
Kensington's 2009 picture is EPIC. Carter looked stunned a couple of years, but he was never straight up crying in hysterics. I always kind of secretly wanted a picture with full blown hysteria. 🙂
Tara G. says
We have let our kids circle gifts they want to give out of gift catalogs from Samaritan ' s Purse or Gospel for Asia or Compassion. Then they earn the $… they have done chores, sold artwork or tickets to little shows. We also do a Jesse Tree.
hubchenhappenings says
every year my kids get new, matching, Christmas pajamas to wear on Christmas Eve. I tell them it is so Santa knows they have been good. I love shopping for them! Now that they are getting older, it is harder to find cute ones for boys and girls that they will all wear!
Lizzie Simantz says
Love all of your traditions! I am going to start Operation Christmas Child this year with my son (we will just pack a box since there are no volunteer locations in my state) – we (my hubby) also chop down our Christmas tree every year the day after Thanksgiving, I get so excited for it every year!
Andrea at Opulent Cottage says
This is such a great reminder of how to really enjoy the holiday season! We live in the MStreets and NorthPark, Highland Park and the carriage rides are really close by, but we haven't done any of those things in years. Time to pick up those traditions again! Thanks, Shay 🙂 xoxoxo
Lisa says
Love all your traditions and seeing your sweet kids grow up in your traditions and look forward to sweet Ashby joining the fun….Our traditions (keep in mind that our daughters are now 25 and 22 and the traditions continue)….*since they have been old enough to barely read they sit by the tree Christmas Eve night and one reads 'twas the Night Before Christmas and the other reads the Christmas story from Luke chapter two and they alternate each year. Sometimes it has been close to midnight before we got around to it but the tradition continues, all video-taped. *our very small town has the parade, parade of homes and taste of holidays the first weekend in December and it is not to be missed! *our church ladies have a party every December with food, fellowship and white elephant gift exchange. The church also has a progressive supper that begins with appetizers at someone's house, then church program and main meal and ends with dessert at someone else's house and white elephant gift exchange. We also watch all our favorite Christmas movies some of them up to ten times!, look at Christmas lights and participate in the Angel Tree and Operation Christmas Child. My family also does the shopping for our church's tradition of buying gifts for our local nursing home residents and gifts for the widows/widowers of our congregation. It's The Most Wonderful Time of the Year! (One of my very favorite Christmas movies!)
Andrea Terrell says
My favorite is out annual trip to see Santa at Northpark. We go early and get our number. This will be our 8th year and I am still so excited. We eat at La Madeleine, visit the Disney store and hear santa's story. Also getting her the perfect Christmas dress too.
Lori says
I love all your Christmas traditions! They sound similar to ones we do. I know a lot of families do Elf on the Shelf, but we do an alternative to that called Christmas Angel that focuses on giving during the Christmas season. She comes with a book that talks about the birth of Jesus and encourages your child to give to others. Then each day you place her in a different spot of your home with a message that encourages giving. For example I might place her in our pantry with a message to take a canned food out of our pantry to give to the local food pantry. It has been a great way to encourage my child to become more giving. Here is the website
http://www.yourchristmasangel.com/home/
Allison F says
Great post! I will def be researching the carriage rides – I think that would be an awesome tradition and since we live in McKinney, it's perfect! We now have a 2 1/2 year old and a 5 month old, so this Christmas I want to REALLY amp up and start our family traditions. Two years ago I bought a Santa Clause advent calendar off PB, and this year my oldest will really be able to get into it so we are going to do that every morning. A big tradition we do (and this may sound silly) but ever since I was probably 5, we wait to open our stockings until after Christmas feast and everything has died down, like more towards the evening. I love surprises and waiting (both my kids sexes were also found out the second they were on my chest 😉 !), and it's really fun that all day you know you still have something MORE to look forward to and open after all the presents! I loved it as a kid and my husband loved it too, so we have carried it on! Yay for the MOST wonderful time of the year!!!
Sharon says
Quite a few years ago I purchased 2 different Christmas blank notebooks. In one, when I am taking down the decorations I write a few pages about the whole Christmas season, what we did, all the different activities and some Christmas thoughts.
In the other, each person in the family is asked to write ONE memory from the year. Not an entire synopsis of their year but one special memory that stands out. And you can't use the same one as someone else. So for instance if there was a big family vacation and someone has already wrote about it you have to come up with someone else.
I pack these away with the Christmas decorations and bring them out each year and set them on the coffee table. They look pretty, but most importantly they are a family journal and so fun to read through each year.
Denise Holthaus says
I'm newly married and my husband and I take his boys to the Gaylord to see the ICE exhibit! This year will be the 4th time and we love all the decorations! Always a fun time! Love your traditions!
sonicgal says
Hi! Whats the little town near you that has the lights to music?
Kristi McDaniel says
I love a Welcome Winter Party on December 21. This is the first day of winter and the shortest day of the year. So we all put on our pajamas early and have breakfast for dinner around the tree with only candlelight and Christmas lights. We finish with a Christmas movie (my 20 year old girls have our DVR filled with Hallmark Christmas movies!) We try and invite different friends/family to join us each year…and everyone, even the adults wear their pajamas!
Natalie Zambreski says
Love the carriage ride idea! One of my favorites is always looking at lights and decorating together!
Beth S says
Shay,
One of our traditions, and you may enjoy as well, is to purchase the Christopher Radko Celebrate Adoption ornament each year. Our son is now 11 years old and each year we all look forward to putting those special ornaments on the tree each year.
Liz says
We do lights and Christmas music and decorate together. All the things you mentioned.
The one thing special thing we do is random acts of kindness. Every day in December every person is to find some way to serve someone around them. Every night we talk about what we did that day and ideas for other days. My kids 10 and 13 get so excited to help others and it is such an example when they see us buy a family next to us in a restaurant a meal. We have raked neighbors yards, open doors, taped change on vending machines, left treats for the mail man, bought hot cocoa to the cross guards at school, bought meals, given out gloves and hats, really anything that is to serve some one else is acceptable. After all it is a daily reminder that this Christmas season is a celebration of one who came here to serve and we are called to be his hands and feet. It is hard to get angry when waiting in extra long lines or stressed out over a party when you are worrying about serving those around you.
Whitney Smith says
Your Dad's Cocoa Jammie tradition is epic, legacy indeed! Oh how I wish there were carriage rides in my hometown, so awesome!
Whitney
Jaren says
You bring out the kid in me Shay when you start talking Christmas traditions!!! I think we may take a carriage ride this year. Our town has one on the lake front where all the big beautiful mansions are decorated!! We even find Santa along the way!
Anonymous says
I love your Christmas traditions! I'm really especially going to try to do the dress up in your PJs and go get some hot cocoa. That is such a cute idea thanks to your dad!
What we do at our house is my husband dresses up as Santa Claus and we invite people over and have gifts for the kids to open. They can come receive a gift and get their picture taken with Santa without having to wait in line at the mall! Its always so much fun! Another thing we do so that our children can remember the true meaning of the season is we set up a wooden manger crib. We have a doll that is supposed to represent a baby Jesus but we don't put the "baby Jesus" in the crib until Christmas at midnight. All through Advent we do little acts of kindness/or things we know that would make Him happy and we offer these little "gifts"to Him in the form of pieces of straw for his crib in order to make a cozy and warm resting spot for baby Jesus on the commemoration of his birth – Christmas day! It helps to make it more "real" for them and they love this tradition!
Queen In Between says
I seriously am going to persuade my family to participate in the pj's and starbucks tradition! I just looked up the Rockettes showtimes in Houston yesterday. We saw in Dallas when Carly was 3 and I saw last year in NYC…I love this show! Hoping to talk my mom into taking my daughter and my niece for their Christmas gift this year!
Anonymous says
Ok, so I have a question for you Shay (and anyone else who wants to weigh-in on it). We have quite the age-gap between our two children, our oldest is 11 and our youngest is 18 months. With our oldest we did the whole 'Santa thing' and the whole 9 yards. However, now I'd say we are a bit more spiritual and really want to focus on the meaning behind Christmas, and I find I'm struggling with the 'Santa thing'. On the one hand it can be a fun, magical tradition to perpetuate and I don't want my children to feel left out when their friends talk about Santa if we choose to exclude Santa from our Christmas traditions. However, on the other hand I sometimes feel as if the concept of Santa makes Christmas more 'material' and detracts from the true meaning. (I have a problem with Santa taking the spotlight and Jesus being in the background) I have heard of other people who explain Santa to their children as 'a guy who dresses up for fun' and in that way still include him in their traditions while keeping the real meaning and not perpetuating the fictional character, so I've thought of that as an option. So, really this is just a question for Shay or anyone, basically:
1. Do you include Santa?
2. How do you include Santa?
3. How do you keep the real meaning of Christmas while including Santa?
Sorry, this is a long comment/question, but it's been something that I've been struggling to decide how to incorporate for the last year or two. With our age gap in kids (because the oldest obviously does not still believe in Santa) we have the opportunity to re-think and decide how we want to approach this, but I'm kind of stuck and would love some input. Technically we probably have another year to decide since our 18 month old still doesn't entirely know what is going on, but I would love to know what you all do.
Anonymous says
We enjoy the fun of Santa but really try to put the emphasis on the true meaning of Christmas which is Christ. For instance, instead of the presents coming from santa, they come from the Christ Child at our house! We also have an advent wreath at our table that has 4 candles on it. The 4 candles represent the 4,000 years that the jews waited for the Saviour. So the 1st week of advent we light only 1 candle before our meal and the little ones love blowing out the candle after dinner is over, the 2nd week we light 2 candles, the third week we light 3 candles and so forth. Reading the story of the birth of Jesus from the Bible on Christmas eve followed by dimming all lights except the Christmas tree lights and singing Christmas hymns is beautiful way to welcome sweet Jesus into our home. Lastly, I'll mention that we do not let Christmas end the day after christmas. We celebrate for AT LEAST the 12 days of Christmas until the Epiphany which only extends the fun!! Hope this helps 🙂
Vivi says
Love all of your fun ideas, and love that they are traditions!
We fill two Operation Christmas Child boxes (one for each of my kids), and choose the same age child as mine. The kids have fun picking out things for a child who probably will not receive any other gifts. We also pull out a variety of Christmas books, some secular (Snowmen at Night and One Winter's Day are my fave), and some Biblical, and leave them under the tree for the kids to pull out and read.
Eryn Morel says
I feel the same exact way as you do! I don't know if it's because I'm getting older or now that I have children, but the period of time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is too short. It's my absolute favorite time of the year and we try to soak up every second of it. We definitely love Christmas movies, looking at Christmas lights, creating a gingerbread house, that darn elf, etc. I wish the entire year could be this festive!
Kelly says
We visit dog Santa. A local doggy day care has Santa visit and take pics with the family in a sleigh. The money for the picture packages then goes to a rescue group. It's a great way to incorporate pets into Christmas! I love all your traditions and I can't wait to start the Elf on the Shelf with my two year old this year!
Suzy says
Love your sweet traditions…and your kids will have such fond memories when they are grown!! One sweet tradition we started with my kids when they were young…and now at 15 and 18 – they still love it – is: We start a puzzle every year on the first day of Christmas break…and we work on it a little each day as a family..and we have to finish it by the last day of Christmas break. Each year the puzzles have gotten a little harder…but that just makes it fun!! Its neat to see my 18 year old sitting over the dining room table trying to fit pieces. 🙂
Shelby says
We go and visit Santa at the North Pole every year! Coeur d'alene lake is about 90 minutes away and they do a "cruise to the North Pole" every year. We get on one of the resorts big boats at night and head over to an enclosed boat dock set up as the North Pole with Santa and mrs clause! We have hot cocoa on the boat, see Santa and he calls out all the kids names! So fun! We also load all the kids up one night and I have hot cocoa and popcorn waiting for them in the car and we drive around at look at lights. It's always a surprise and we wait til they're in their pjs and getting into bed then surprise them and tell them to head to the car;). They talk about these 2 things all year! On Xmas Eve my husbands gma reads the story of Jesus's birth and all the great grand kids take turns placing each figure of her nativity scene! So great!
Denise says
Hi Shay.
I loved this post, made me smile. We have some traditions too. We look at Christmas lights around the week before Christmas, we go to one of the local Christmas carol nights, usually the Salvation Army one, we watch Christmas movies most nights and especially one a night on Weekends – Friday night through Sunday night, we watch Christmas Eve carols on TV and I put on Christmas carols at the beginning of November, since I find Christmas comes and goes so quickly and it's one of my favourite times of year, so I'm Intentionally working to extend it 🙂 and we put up our tree on December 5, for st Nicholas and we have chocolate letters which I buy online for that day. We all love it. I absolutely love the movie, The Holiday, White Christmas, National Lampoons Christmas Vacation, the Hime alone movies 1&2, while you were sleeping, Christmas with a capital C, Deck The Halls, the Polar express, my 9 yr old lives this one and I like the Santa clause movies especially 1&2, I love most Christmas movies, oh and Christmas with the Kranks, we watch that one too every year.
Have a wonderful day
Denise
Australia
McFarland Family says
What church do you attend?? I would live to do a drive through nativity. We do an advent calendar with a fun activity each each year ranging from new christmas movie, breakfast for dinner to making dog treats for the shelter and angle tree shopping…just something fun everyday
The Coffer Family says
We share a lot of the same traditions, we also do an angel tree gift and the shoe boxes, we go to a Christmas program at our church, even our Christmas lights ride is similar (except we go to Chickfila and get a milkshake). We also get our tree the day after thanksgiving and read the Christmas Story from the Bible on Christmas Eve.
I love Christmas time!
Karina
Andrea Worley says
Loved reading this! I've been wanting to do a carriage ride and we just found a place to go! I've seen the Rockettes one time when we lived in Minneapolis, I'm still waiting to have them come to Phoenix!
Megan says
If your kids like White Christmas….you should introduce them to seven brides for seven brothers. My family watches it around Thanksgiving but then again we didn't have much to do in our small town!! I have a copy you can borrow!! It's cute.
Catherine Hansen Peart says
We go out together and buy one special ornament each for that year. The children choose one that represents their main interest for that year and we buy a good quality one we love. We write their name and the year on the bottom of the ornament. When they leave home they will have a whole collection of ornaments for their own tree. We also go out together to choose our tree and decorate it while Christmas songs are playing (I always play Bing Crosby). Our other main tradition is to head out to drive around and look at Christmas lights one evening before coming home to hot chocolates in front of the fire.