I joined our local MOPS group, and one of the recent speakers talked about budgeting and financial issues, particularly as they apply to the holidays. One thing that he said really resonated with me: spend more of your money on holiday traditions than presents. He asked how many presents we specifically remember from our childhoods. Of course, most people only really remembered a few specific “big” presents. For instance, I remember getting a Barbie house and a locket my parents gave me in high school. There are a few other things I can recall, but as the speaker pointed out, generally our memories of holidays center around our family traditions. His point was to make sure you put a good part of your holiday budget to making sure that you are building the traditions that you want your kids to remember, that you want them to pass on to their kids, etc.
Mr. Blue and I certainly didn’t have neglected childhoods, but our parents also didn’t spend an outrageous amount on presents for the holidays. Not making the holidays all about the presents and spending way more money than was wise has always been important to us, but at the same time, it’s important to me that our kids have great, lifelong memories of the holidays. I think that’s what made his point resonate with me so much. It’s really easy, especially in our culture to get caught up in the idea that we all need to spend tons of money on presents for our kids if we love them, that they need to have just as much as their friends, as much as we see on blogs, Pinterest, etc. That’s not where our values lie, however, and it’s not what we want to teach our kids. Pulling off traditions, however big or small, costs some amount of money, and we need to plan accordingly.
With that in mind, we’ve been thinking about what traditions we want to prioritize. This is a bit of a moving target because some things will change or be added or subtracted as our kids grow. Here’s a collection of some of our favorite ideas that we are considering incorporating into our family holiday traditions.
1. Christmas Pajamas – It’s a little thing, but I love how much Mr. Blue and his sisters still like getting their Christmas pajamas and wearing them all day for a movie day during our holiday vacation. Cost: pajamas & some holiday movies.
2. Baking treats for the neighbors – The boys love “helping” me in the kitchen, i.e. making a way bigger mess and taking a lot longer than any self respecting baking task should take. I definitely want them to learn to be kind to our neighbors, and baking treats is a fun way to get to do something nice for the people around us. This year, I went to my parents’ house and my mom and I did our Christmas baking together. The boys loved helping decorate cookies and ate more than their fair share of Christmas goodies. We took the boys to each of our neighbors’ houses and the boys would hand them a box of treats. Poor lil’ El would always hand his box without prompting, but then would immediately start sobbing. Hopefully, next year, he’ll be a little more into the giving spirit!
3. Act out the Christmas Story – When my nieces were little, my mom bought a kid-friendly nativity set. Every Christmas, all the family in attendance draws for who their character will be. Then, my dad reads the story of Jesus’ birth, and every one takes their character and places it in the nativity scene as the story references it. Cost: a kid-friendly nativity set.
4. Decorating for Christmas – Growing up, we always pulled all the Christmas stuff out the weekend after Thanksgiving, or as soon as we could convince my dad that it really was Christmas. My mom gave us a lot of free rein to help decorate as we saw fit, and even though I’m sure she sometimes would have made different choices, I love all my memories of those “decorating for Christmas” days, and I hope the boys will like helping me, at least until they decide they’re too cool for decorating with mom. Cost: Nothing, other than adding to your decor as your budget and desires allow & the cost of a tree if you choose to use a live one.
5. Christmas Book Advent – A couple years ago, Mrs. Paintbrush wrote about their version of the Advent calendar, which involved opening one Christmas book each night as you countdown to Christmas. I love, love, love this idea and have been dying to incorporate this as soon as the boys were old enough. he last two years, I have looked after Christmas to try to find a few Christmas books on sale, but I’ve only found a few. We have probably 8 or so books, and I plan to buy another two or three before Christmas this year. We’ll just spread out however many books we end up with this year over the 25 days and keep adding to our collection by looking for sales and utilizing places like Half-Price Books. Cost: 25 holiday books
6. Christmas Around the World – When I was teaching, my team teachers and I always did a Christmas Around the World day. We each chose a country and taught our classes about how that country celebrates the holidays and had them do a craft and make a food to represent that country’s traditions. The boys are a little young right now, but as they get older, I’d like to choose one country a year and learn about it as a family. Cost: groceries and any craft supplies
7. Giving to Others – There are a million good ideas on how to incorporate charitable acts into your family’s Christmas traditions, from volunteering at a local shelter to picking a child from the Angel Tree and letting your kids help buy the items. This year we picked three children from a project our church does and took the boys to help us shop for them. Even though our boys don’t get that at all right now, helping people in need is something I want our boys to grow up thinking is part of every holiday, as well as everyday life. Cost: depends on the project–anything from cost of toys, clothes, etc. to just time if you volunteer somewhere.
8. Christmas lights – Our boys weren’t quite ready this year, but we love the idea of putting the kids in their pajamas, going to get some hot chocolate, and driving around to look at Christmas lights. It’s not a huge thing, but it’s still a nice time together and a treat for our little people to get to stay up later and do something fun. Cost: hot drinks and gasoline.
There are tons of great ideas for traditions to incorporate into your family’s holiday traditions. I’m sure our traditions will grow and change over the years, but I definitely want to keep the focus on traditions more than presents.
Merry Christmas from the Blues to you!
What traditions do you/would you like to incorporate for your family?
coconut / 8279 posts
love this!
Christmas for us, started as Thanksgiving dinner was over. My great-aunt, an art teacher, would bring a craft for all of us to make. They were usually Christmas ornaments and when the dishes were done we’d sit around the huge table at my grandparents’ house and make ornaments all together. I loved it! And I want to do things like this for J.
admin / wonderful grape / 20724 posts
Love this post! Truly a great point… will definitely keep it in mind!!
honeydew / 7622 posts
What a perfect post. I just was saying that I want my child to have a world rich in experiences, not physical possessions. I think these ideas can certainly be applied at Christmas Time, but the spirt of the concept can be used year round.
pear / 1622 posts
Your boys are precious – look how much they are enjoying those cookies!
My LO is only a few months old but I am looking to starting traditions like the ones you mention above and also leaving a present for baby Jesus. It may be a donation to charity or a promise of how we are going to be better this next year.
coconut / 8079 posts
I love this post! We are hoping to incorporate many of these ideas to our holiday traditions. I love the idea of acting out the Christmas story. And we already have a nativity. Thank you for a great reminder to focus on making memories.
blogger / pear / 1964 posts
We’re working hard on this, too! We have a thing called “Lights on the Lake” where there are miles of lighted Christmas displays that wind through a local park and people drive through the displays. We weren’t sure how the two year old would do, but we packed lots of snacks, went early, and finally turned his car seat to forward facing to celebrate his recent birthday. He loved it!! We actually went the day before Thanksgiving so we could avoid the crowds (and get discounted admission :)).
blogger / apricot / 378 posts
I love this post and it’s such an awesome thing to keep in mind – we have SO many Christmas traditions that are important to us, and I hope we just continue to grow them as Jackson gets older!
pomegranate / 3580 posts
Such great ideas! Looking back on my childhood I cherish the memories and experiences from this time of year way more than any presents I received.
Also, your boys are so cute!! And when did they get so big?!
papaya / 10560 posts
Echoing pp…LOVE. I feel like this is so true…it seems like Christmas has come down to so much of “keeping up with the Joneses.”
pomelo / 5621 posts
Love this.
Christmas eve pj’s are still one of my favourite things.
pineapple / 12053 posts
love love love this. i love traditions and hope to be as awesome at is as my mom was/is!
GOLD / wonderful apricot / 22646 posts
LOVE LOVE LOVE this.
admin / watermelon / 14210 posts
love this post! we didn’t really celebrate christmas growing up so all the traditions we’ve been adding are new. i really want to do the book advent… hopefully i can find some after christmas this year!
blogger / persimmon / 1398 posts
Such a great post! I hope to incorporate some of these ideas next year!