As I’ve gotten older and especially now that we have a little one, I realize how important and special our family traditions are! With it being Christmas Eve, I wanted to share some of our Family Christmas Traditions with you all in case you were looking for a new one to start with your sweet family!! Here are a few of our big ones:

My husband and I have gotten personalized ornaments every year since our first Christmas! It’s so fun to go pick out a new ornament that has to do with something big that has happened to us that year! I shared all of these ornaments and Penelope’s Santa Photos HERE from this year!!! This is our 2018 Ornament!!

My grandmother has multiple nativity sets around her house and each person has to draw a name from a basket from the Christmas Story, i.e. Baby Jesus, Mary, Joseph, Wise Men, etc,. Whoever you draw you have to go find that character and bring it back to the dinner table before we eat. It’s actually really cool seeing all of the different sets making one full set. We then go around the table and tell what our person did in the story of the Birth of Christ! It’s amazing hearing everyone’s version of their part! Here is baby Penelope from last year playing with the nativity set my grandmother got her!! My goodness I miss her being this little!!!

Every year my husband’s family gets together a few nights before Christmas and we all make homemade tamales!! (I made a post about this last year!) It’s so fun sitting around reminiscing on life and listening to Christmas music. We then eat some and take the rest to other family members!! When tamales start coming out in stores, I know it’s officially the holiday season! This year my SIL came up with a bunch of games for us to play throughout the night!! I shared Pinterest versions of the games we played!! It made the night FULL of laughter and fun!!!

Check out my Pinterest Page for the links!! Here are the games:

We love to do the typical things also every year; like getting a Peppermint Hot Cocoa from Starbucks and going on a drive through Candy Cane Lane (a neighborhood in our town that all the houses decorate and put on big celebrations) and look at the Christmas lights!

With Penelope we give her a Christmas book (or movie when she gets older) & Pjs to open on Christmas eve! She will wear her new pjs and we will watch Christmas Movies and read Christmas Books and bake Santa his cookies! We will even leave some trail mix out on the lawn for the reindeer to snack on! Here is a fun recipe I found on Pinterest!!

I know it looks cheesy and what not, but she won’t be able to tell when younger! I’m “catching” Santa putting presents under the tree! I used the app Catch Santa! (I get nothing for this!! I just thought it was too fun to share!!) I’ll show her Christmas morning!! I have one saved from each year so far!!

This is the app!

Growing up my grandmother had all of the grandkids help bake a birthday cake on Christmas Eve and we would sit at the kids table and decorate it ourselves with all the icing and sprinkles our hearts could desire and then we sang Happy Birthday Jesus! I would absolutely love to start this with Penelope when she gets older! Keep the meaning of Christmas in her mind! 🎂 (Found this one on Pinterest!!)

We hadn’t been in years, but last year we finally found a church that we call home! Growing up, I remember how beautiful the candle light services were! Below is a photo from last year! I absolutely loved our candlelight service and cannot wait for tonight’s and to watch Penelope grow and experience different parts of the Christmas Season! From all of the commercialized parts to the true meaning of Christmas! This is just the beginning and I know it’s going to be a whirlwind of fun!!!

What are some of your family traditions? We’d love to hear && maybe we can start it too!!