A New Christmas Tradition

Most of us grow up with Holiday traditions and then once getting married decide which traditions to continue, combine or new traditions to start. In my family, my favourite Christmas eve traditions have been reading the Nativity account from the bible and opening up one gift on Christmas eve. My mom grew up in Scotland but her mom grew up in Germany where they opened all of their gifts on Christmas eve while my Dads (who grew up here in Canada) family opened up all of their gifts Christmas morning. Our family modified both traditions to open one gift on Christmas eve and the rest on Christmas day.

My favourite Christmas eve tradition from Kyle's family is that they make a bunch of different pasta dishes and have a big Italian feast.

During the summer, I was thinking about a new Christmas tradition we could start for our family. I had always thought that the Christmas pajama tradition was neat but I didn't want to do it on Christmas eve,  I wanted to be able to enjoy our Christmas pajamas all season long. 

I then came up with this idea of starting the Christmas season off with a family Christmas box. In this box will be a family activity and Christmas pajamas, something to help us get into the Christmas spirit.

 I was really excited about this idea that I started planning in the summer what we could have in our box. I am sure when I first told Kyle about this idea, he was probably wondering why I was talking about Christmas in the middle of Summer. Although, now I am already thinking about what we can do next year. Haha. 

Friday night we decorated our Christmas tree while listening to Christmas music and then opened up our first 'Family Christmas Box'. I found this cute box from Michaels that looks kind of like a treasure chest style box.

The activity for our first year is a Fisher Price Little People Nativity set. I thought it would be fun to have a "Christmas decoration" that Dominic could play with, although it hasn't really distracted him from the rest of the Christmas decor. I also wanted something to help teach him about the true meaning of Christmas.



I also had fun picking out Christmas pjs for all of us. They aren't matching family pajamas but they do coordinate. Mine and Kyle's pj bottoms are from The Gap and I got a sleep top from Thyme Maternity, Dominic's are Petit Lem from the Hudson's Bay Company. We really should get a family photo of all of us wearing our pjs!

I am excited to continue thinking of ideas for future years: family movie night, hot chocolate bar, game or puzzle (when the kids are older). Also, maybe instead of Christmas pjs one year, we could do Christmas socks or blankets or something else.

Next Christmas we will have a 9 month old and  a 2 year old. Double the fun! What ideas of family activities do you have to include children of that age?

Also, what would you put in your Christmas box?