20 Family Christmas Tradition Ideas To Start With Your Family

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Most of our family Christmas traditions come from somewhere else, handed down through family, culture or religion, and some are so much a part of Christmas that we couldn’t imagine December without them.

Once kids arrive, though, it’s a good time to start a few traditions of your own. Here are 20 ideas, including the ones we do in our house.

Our Family Christmas Traditions

Our most prominent traditions were mostly around the big family get-together on Christmas day, with a huge spread of cold meats, salads and desserts after opening our gifts together.

Over time things have changed to accommodate the family changing. My siblings have their own families now, just as I do, so we aren’t all together first thing Christmas morning. But we still do the big Christmas lunch together most years.

Now I also have my husband’s family traditions, a traditional Polish Christmas Eve feast called Wigilia, spent with his family.

We’ve also picked up a hot glazed ham instead of our usual cold one, from my husband’s family. It works perfectly with our must-have, mum’s coleslaw, and the Polish salad my husband couldn’t survive Christmas without.

Christmas Traditions To Start With Your Family

1. A Christmas Eve Gift

In some cultures opening gifts on Christmas Eve is already the tradition, and my husband’s whole family do this as part of their Polish traditions. For many others it’s reserved for Christmas morning.

Opening a single gift the night before is a lovely build-up to the big day, but my favourite is a Christmas Eve box for the kids. Inside is a new pair of pyjamas, which conveniently means everyone looks decent in the Christmas morning photos, a book to read together, or a movie to watch that night.

Some families do a 1st of December box instead. Very similar, just at the start of the month. That’s more our approach, since our Christmas Eve already has gifts in it.

2. Advent Books

If you have a child who loves to read, or you want to encourage one who doesn’t yet, advent books are a good one.

Wrap 24 books individually and let your child unwrap a new one each night to read together.

To keep the cost down, mix new books with ones they already own and haven’t picked up in a while. Watch for cheap books through the year and put them aside.

It’s also a good option if you’d rather not hand out chocolate every day like a typical advent calendar.

3. Donate To A Toy Drive

Christmas brings new toys that need a home, and if your kids already have a lot, that gets stressful fast.

Have each child choose a few toys they no longer play with for Santa to take back with him, in exchange for something new.

There are toy drives running everywhere in December, so there’ll be one near you taking new or gently used toys.

It teaches them something worth learning, and it’s a good excuse to declutter the toys before the new ones arrive. Worth pairing with a more minimalist approach to toys and more non-toy gifts as they get older.

5. A Christmas Lights Drive

Kids are delighted by Christmas lights, and so are most adults. Most areas publish a list of the houses going all out, so you can plan a route.

Make it a game with my free printable Christmas lights scavenger hunt. This is easily one of our kids’ favourite nights in December.

6. Make A Gingerbread House

One of the most classic Christmas traditions, and a good activity for a hot afternoon indoors.

Make the gingerbread from scratch if you’re ambitious, or use a gingerbread house kit if you’d rather skip straight to the decorating, which is the bit the kids care about anyway.

Fair warning: the walls will collapse at least once and someone will cry. It’s part of the tradition now.

7. Shopping Centre Christmas Displays

Here in Australia the Myer Christmas windows are a big deal, with a launch event each year and a carefully planned Christmas story. We visited the Brisbane windows a few years back and are well overdue for another.

Most shopping centres have their own displays or events through December, so there’s usually something local worth a look.

8. Family Secret Santa

Christmas is expensive, so we’ve kept the costs down for several years now with a family Secret Santa between the adults.

Fewer gifts to buy, and the added fun of guessing who your Secret Santa was on the day. I have a free printable Secret Santa questionnaire to hand out to your particpants to help choose a gift.

There are 30 more gift exchange games if a straight draw sounds too simple.

9. An Annual Christmas Photo

Memory keeping matters to me, and while you don’t look back at photos often, the occasional trip through them makes it worth doing.

It might be a group photo at home, a themed shoot, or the Santa photo with the kids. We don’t send ours out as cards, but plenty of families do.

The version I’d recommend: take it in the same spot every year. The comparison over ten years is worth far more than a nicer photo in a different place each time.

10. Put The Tree Up On 1st December

We do this and I’ll defend it, because putting a tree up takes ages and you want more than three weeks of it.

Ours goes up on the 1st of December and comes down on the 1st of January, or somewhere in the week that follows once we find the motivation.

11. A Christmas Cricket Match

Growing up in Victoria it wasn’t always hot on Christmas day, and a family cricket match was a tradition.

Moving to Queensland, we ended up in the pool most afternoons instead. But a backyard game is a good way to work off some of the feast before dessert.

Not a cricket family? These Christmas party games work indoors, and my printable Christmas Party Game Bundle has charades, bingo and the left right game ready to go.

14. An Advent Calendar

The classic countdown. There’s everything from chocolate ones to small toys to beauty products these days.

You can make your own advent calendar and fill it with advent calendar fillers for the whole family, or skip the stuff entirely and do an advent activity calendar instead, with one thing to do each day rather than one thing to get.

15. Make And Send Christmas Cards

Sending cards is a nice way to stay in touch with people you don’t see much, and it’s one of the few pieces of actual mail anyone gets.

Shop-bought cards add up fast, so get the kids to make them instead. One year we made candy cane photo cards for my daughter’s whole class, where the candy cane slots through a photo of her so it looks like she’s holding it. They cost almost nothing and every kid in the class had to look twice.

Add a family photo if you’re sending to relatives, and get them in the post by the first week of December.

16. Go To A Carols Night Or Christmas Event

Nearly every community runs something in December: a carols night in the park, a Christmas market, a local parade or a school concert.

Carols by Candlelight is the big one here, and even the smaller local versions do the job. Take a picnic rug, get there early, and let the kids run around until it starts.

Christmas markets are worth a look too, both for handmade gifts and for getting into it without buying anything at all.

17. Decorate Christmas Cookies

A good one for the kids, and it gets them involved in the baking without needing them to be much help.

Get festive cookie cutters, a few icing colours and more sprinkles than you think you need. The decorating matters more than the biscuit, so don’t overthink the recipe.

If baking isn’t your thing, there are plenty of no-bake Christmas treats that kids can decorate just as happily.

18. Watch Christmas Movies

One of the better things about December is a blanket, popcorn and a Christmas movie.

Ours in high rotation are Elf, Home Alone, The Grinch, The Christmas Chronicles and The Polar Express. My husband would watch Home Alone on repeat from the 1st of December if we let him.

Make a list at the start of the month and work through it, or let each person pick one night. For mum and dad, there’s usually something with a bit of romance in it once the kids are in bed, which pairs well with a date night at home.

Pair it with a Grinch treat or two and it becomes an event rather than just a movie.

19. Add A New Ornament Every Year

Adding one ornament a year is a nice way to mark the year, and by the time the kids leave home they’ve got a set of their own to take with them.

Write the year on the back in permanent marker. Ours would be far more useful now if I’d started doing that from the beginning.

20. Do A Random Act Of Kindness

A good one to finish on, and the tradition most likely to stick with them.

The one we like best: drop a box of Christmas treats into the local police station, ambulance depot or fire station on Christmas Eve. Those people are working while everyone else is at home, and almost nobody thinks to thank them.

Other options are paying for the coffee behind you, mowing an elderly neighbour’s lawn, or making up a plate of Christmas baking for someone having a hard year.

Whatever you pick, involve the kids in choosing it. That’s the part that turns it into a tradition rather than an errand.

Which One Should You Start With?

Twenty is a lot, and nobody does all of them.

• If you’ve got little kids: the Christmas Eve box, the lights drive and the snack for Santa. All three are easy and all three are the ones they’ll remember.
• If your kids are older: the annual ornament, the random act of kindness and the movie list. Traditions that involve them making a decision hold up better as they get older.
• If money’s tight this year: the family Secret Santa, the toy drive donation and the lights drive. None of them cost much and the first one will save you a few hundred dollars.
• If you want one that lasts: the annual photo in the same spot, with the date written on the back.

Traditions help connect a family and give everyone something to look forward to. They also give you plenty to do on Christmas day together.

Planning the whole of December? My Get Ready For Christmas Planner covers the menu, the budget and the schedule so the traditions actually happen instead of getting lost in the rush.

What are your favourite family Christmas traditions? Tell me in the comments.