Christmas Traditions To Start This Year

Christmas is a time for traditions and we all have at least one that we look forward to every year. I love holiday traditions and my family has practiced a couple traditions for as long as I can remember. One being that my grandma Linda's birthday is Christmas day, we would always have a birthday cake for her and everybody would gather on Christmas day to eat and drink and merry from all the left overs of the night before. On Christmas eves we would go to church and attend service. By the time we go back home after mass, we would then celebrate 'noche buena' where families traditionally gather around the dining table to feast on food that is specially prepared by our moms, grandmas and everybody in the family. Christmas songs would play in the background and everybody would be singing and happy and merry. After dinner, we would then begin the gift giving and opening of presents. By the Christmas tree, we would each gather our gifts one by one and hand them to everybody while singing "i love my manito yes I do!" I'm sure Filipinos will relate to this!

The tree is trimmed, the gifts are wrapped and the cookies are baked- we are all eagerly awaiting for Christmas to arrive. This year I'd like to start my own family Christmas eve tradition. I know we don't have kids yet but I would like us to do this and carry on until even after we have kids of our own.

I think that traditions are important for family unity and bonding and it will also give us opportunity for plenty of good memories to look back on.

Visiting Santa for a family picture

So this year was the first time for me and my husband to have both our photos taken with the jolly man himself. I would like to continue this tradition especially when we start to have kids.

Christmas Movie Marathons

I love watching the Hallmark Movies! There's nothing that brings the Christmas spirit than a feel-good Hallmark movie. Christmas time gives us all a break from all the daily grind that life unfortunately has to offer and watching Hallmark movies or any Christmas movie for that matter just gives me a relaxing and light feeling. Here are some of my favorite Hallmark movies that I have watched so far.

T'was the night before Christmas

So I know that these are traditions that I want to start and carry on until we have kids but this one I want to especially observe as I know that when we start having kids, the day after Christmas will be about them. So I'd like to make this tradition the night before for just the two of us. Christmas eve before going to bed is when I give my gift to my husband and spend the night with him just talking about the day and the plans for the next day. I want to make sure I have personal time with my husband and we both get to enjoy this time for just the two of us.

Stocking Stuffers

I am excited with Christmas stocking stuffers! My husband likes to do this for both of us and he always comes up with the sweetest and cutest stuffers and fillers for our stockings. Since we don't have kids yet, we have stockings for our dog Jazz and we make sure to fill it with goodies and treats for her.

Hot Cocoa Drinks

I always love a hot drink. There is just something about hot chocolate drinks topped with marshmallows that make me feel the spirit of Christmas. Shallow, yes it might be but there is just a feel of nostalgia of having a hot cup of chocolate on a cold Christmas night spent together with family members.

Putting up a Christmas tree

This year's theme for our tree is Gold with rustic gift wrapped presents under it. Have I mention that I love gold? Hahaha! I think I did. So this is my theme of choice for putting up our tree this year. I have another post about how I put up our gold-themed Christmas tree.

That's all for now. I'm still open and hoping for more holiday traditions to start with my family.

XOXO,

Karen