Did your family have Christmas traditions growing up? In my family, we always made a birthday cake for Jesus that we ate for breakfast on Christmas morning, and we always went to the Christmas Eve service at our church. Now that I have my own family, we have tried to come up with our own family Christmas traditions that our kids can look back on fondly.

There are so many ways to make the holidays special that are simple and inexpensive, and I’ve put together 24 of my favorite simple family Christmas traditions to give you some inspiration.

24 Simple Family Christmas Traditions

Use a Jesse Tree
We decorated a Jesse Tree for many years growing up, and recently we’ve started doing it in our own family. If you’re not familiar with this idea, you can either make or use pre-made ornaments that go along with a different Scripture reading for each day of Advent leading up to Christmas. The one we have used for several years is the Jesse Tree Toolkit. There is the option to make your own ornaments, print the ones provided and color them in yourself, or print them already colored. I did the last option and laminated them so we can use them for a long time to come! There are also devotionals for families and for individuals. 

Decorate Christmas cookies with friends
Part of the Christmas fun for me is baking cookies on my own while listening to Christmas music, but it’s also fun to get together with friends and decorate Christmas sugar cookies. My favorite recipes are Rolled Sugar Cookies and Sugar Cookie Icing.

Go Christmas caroling in your neighborhood
If you have slightly older children, it would be fun to walk around your neighborhood and sing Christmas carols to your neighbors. Especially if you have older neighbors who may not get in and out of their house very much, this could be a huge source of blessing to them.

Place Wreaths with Wreaths Across America
This has become a tradition for us over the last 6 years.  Every December on one day, Wreaths Across America coordinates putting a wreath on veterans graves at over 1,600 locations across the US and overseas.  They need volunteers to help lay wreaths out with some cemeteries having thousands of graves.  We volunteer at a cemetery in town that has over 4,000 graves and gets about 500 volunteers each year. This is a free way that you can teach your children to remember and honor those that served to protect them.  Find details about this years Wreath Laying Day and find a location near you.

Use an Advent calendar
Advent calendars are fun ways to countdown to Christmas. You can make a paper chain, buy one with candy or toys from the store, or make your own, such as this DIY Lego Advent Calendar. I got a little house with 25 doors on clearance at Target many years ago, and my kids love filling it with candy each year on November 30. You can also see some other DIY Advent calendar ideas.

Let everyone pick out an ornament
My husband inherited almost an entire tree of ornaments that he had been given as a child. As we decorate the tree each year, it’s fun for our kids to see his childhood ornaments. As a result, one fun tradition is to give each child an ornament or let them pick one out. I like to pick them out on my own and put them in their stockings. They don’t normally make it on the tree that year, but the next year it’s fun for each child to put their own ornaments on the tree.

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