Heartwarming Family Traditions For Christmas: Gifts, Decorations, & MORE

How many ornaments do you have on your tree? Can you tell me where each one was bought or why they were bought? Family traditions for Christmas may make you feel like every Christmas is the same as the year before. But isn’t there beauty in this iteration and comfort in knowing that whatever happens in this crazy world, your family will be into something unchangeable, solid, and uniting?

You decide who’s home you are going to be at, what the traditional Christmas dinner meal will be and you start making a Christmas gift wish list. It can be such a frenzy trying to find gifts for each adult in our family, all the nieces and nephews… And don’t forget the grandkids. In this post, I will share our family traditions for Christmas gifts, decorations, and many other festive things. 

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Family traditions for Christmas gifts

When my children were younger and we went to my mother-in-law‘s home, we had great family Christmas traditions for gifts to be passed out and opened. 

1. Having kids run the show

My mother-in-law would hide certain ornaments all over the tree. She would then have each grandchild find an ornament that she hid; one grandchild at a time.

When the ornament was found, a gift was randomly picked up. The name written on the gift was then given to the person. We all sat around watching the person open it.

Sometimes we had to help the children find the ornament, as the adults were so impatient to get to open their gifts from each other. Of course, we would have to stop every once in a while and let one of the kids open up one of their own gifts. 

2. The Secret Santa tradition for Christmas gifts

One of the ways we enjoyed buying gifts was when my mother-in-law would write every adult’s name on a small piece of paper and put it in a hat at Thanksgiving. Each adult would draw a piece of paper out. Whoseever name was written on it, that’s who you would be buying that year’s Christmas gift for. We would set a price limit and then off to the stores we went.

My children, who are now adults, love this family Christmas tradition. They have been picking names out of a hat at Thanksgiving for the last few years. 

3. Opening Christmas gifts via video call

And even though there are times when we are not all together on Christmas Day, we still have a way to enjoy each other opening our gifts. My daughters made sure you could not open your gift (that was sent to you) until everybody was on a video chat together. They altered the family Christmas tradition my husband and I had with his family by keeping it a secret who they had. What joy! What laughter it was when a person opened up their gift and then it was revealed who bought it for them!

Guess what… This year with my adult children, my husband and I have been put into the tradition. It would normally be just my kids doing it. And then one day, my youngest found out that my mother and father-in-law were also in on the gift-giving when they started the tradition. She thought, along with my other daughters, that it was just the brother and sister-in-law‘s getting gifts for each other.

4. Going technical for Christmas gift-giving

Of course, now it’s become very technical as you have Drawnames.com that tells you who your person is going to be along with using Amazon for making your Christmas list and buying presents online. Even though this tradition has been altered and brought into this generation’s way of doing it, it is still credible fun and excitement to figure out who has you and to see what was bought.

Family traditions for Christmas decorations

I appreciate when my kids start their own family traditions for Christmas. We moved a lot and so often we were not with family as my kids got older. I wanted to keep traditions going in my family and create a joyful memory for my own children. Hopefully, it would spark an idea in their minds as they grew up, got married, and started having children of their own.

5. “Tell me the story!” 

Because we moved around a lot, some of the ornaments we had had great significance to us. Putting up the tree became a joyous occasion in our family. As each ornament was picked up and put on the tree, our daughters would ask, “Tell me the story of this ornament.” Sometimes it was a simple “We went on vacation and we wanted to remember where we were” to “This is the day we remember when you were born”. It was wonderful to remember the years gone by. 

We have special ornaments to remember Grandpa, as well as my brother-in-law who had passed away. Though we have some people who are no longer with us we can remember joyful occasions through the ornaments that sit on the tree.

6. Ornaments to celebrate each other

Another great family tradition for Christmas is when you’re starting your own family, you could put your names in a hat (parents and kids), pick a name and that’s who you get a new ornament for that year. It can be something that reminds you of the person, something significant happened that year.

7. Ornaments to remember childhood 

Childhood memories about Christmas are the sweetest! Parents who have adult children can revive those memories by letting their children pick an ornament off of their childhood tree. Give those ornaments to them so they can remember Christmas when they were young.

8. Down the family memory lane

When all the kids would go to bed, I would sit in front of the tree looking at the beauty of all the memories that had occurred through the years. It is at that time I would remember my mom sitting in front of the tree on Christmas Eve when I was little. She’d always have a cup of tea, all the lights would be off and she would have her favorite Christmas music playing.

As I sit this year, looking at the tree, I will remember my mother, who is no longer here. I am certain I am doing exactly what she did back then: looking at the Christmas tree and remembering all the wonderful memories that the year has brought.

Family tradition for Christmas fun

9. Family pajamas party

Another family tradition is each family dresses up in their own Christmas-themed pajamas. One year I accidentally bought my husband women’s Santa Claus pajamas. He was such a great sport about it because I have three daughters and each has their own family. My youngest wasn’t married yet so she and grandma had their own pajamas set. Down comes my husband, their father and the grandpa, in women’s pajamas that’s supposed to look like Santa Claus. Now that’s a memory my children and grandchildren will always remember.

Family tradition for Christmas treats

10. Birthday cake for Jesus

But really, what is the reason for the celebration? A wonderful way to celebrate Christmas as a family is by having a birthday cake for Jesus. If you have young kids, you know how much they love birthdays! So be sure this will be one of their favorite family traditions for Christmas!

It is the life of Jesus Christ that we celebrate on Christmas Day. Baking a birthday cake, blowing the candles all together, and then providing gifts from the heart to proclaim the life of Jesus make wonderful family traditions for Christmas.

No matter where you’ll be, who you’ll be with, or even if you’ll be having Christmas on December 25th. It is not the date that matters. It is the intention of why we gather together for Christmas. We celebrate life. God came into the world in the most humble way and became a man to lead the way to eternal life. 

If you loved this post about family traditions for Christmas, grab more holiday inspiration:

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• Christian Christmas Books for Kids Centering Little Hearts on Jesus