Countdown to Christmas: Fun Family Traditions

Want a fun way to countdown to Christmas and start some new fun family traditions? I’ve got a three-for-one. How to do both PLUS some cute Christmas printable tags to blend them together seamlessly.

At the beginning of the year, I set a goal to establish solid family traditions. Growing up we certainly had a few things we always looked forward at Christmas time, but there wasn’t a thing I could point back to and say ‘this was our family tradition.’

Now that I have my own household, it’s kinda the same thing. But in my desire to be more intentional, I wanted to make sure we all could point back to SOMETHING that said this was a Harris Family tradition.

I started by asking a bunch of blogging buddies some of their traditions and I absolutely love their ideas. I’ll share a few and tell you how I’ll be incorporating them and then give you a list of sites to go check out.

In comes these adorable Christmas printable tags! They double as a Christmas Countdown OR for the 12 Days of Christmas gifts.

Download them now in my Free Decorating Tools Library. There are three pages numbered 1-25 so you can use them however you wish. Plus I left several of them blank and you can use as general gift tags.

I plan to use them as a little of both to establish a family 12 Days of Christmas gifts and Christmas Countdown with a start date of on Dec. 12 and end on Dec. 24. I did this two years in a row for my husband and he loved it. I laughed like a schoolgirl watching him get excited about the gift for the day. I bought small gifts; wrote cheesy sayings on them, planted them around the house and let him find them each day.

The items were pretty basic and didn’t cost a ton.

Here are 12 days of Christmas Ideas for your husband

1. Mentos | Because we were meant to be
2. Wild Cherry Pepsi | Because I’m wild about you
3. Nuts| Because I’m nuts about your
4. Apples (or apple-flavored candy) | Because He’s the apple of my eye
5. Starbucks Drink or Gift Card | Because he’s the star of my life
6. Mounds and Almond Joy candy |Because he brings me “Mounds of joy”
7. Hershey’s Giant Chocolate Kiss | Because he’s my chocolate kiss
8. Shoe Shine Polish-Because he makes everything in my life shine brighter
9. Dress or Gym Socks | Because he knocks my socks off
10. Tea | Because he fits me to a T
11. Shoe Laces| Because love keeps me tied to him
12. I just try to end with something he really wants!

That was 2015 btw and he STILL has that giant kiss.

Yeah. I know. But it shows you just how much he enjoyed it. It’s not about the item, it’s the thought behind the gift.

Incorporating Kiddos in the Christmas Countdown…

My son felt a little left out, so this year I plan to give both of them 12 gifts as a new family tradition. I’ll hide them around the house and give them at different times to keep up the excitement. But this time, it’ll be a little extra special because I have these amazing labels made yours truly.

Oh and if you’re wondering when the  12 Days of Christmas actually starts–it’s on Dec 25. It began as a celebration of the birth of Jesus and anticipates the coming of the Three wise men, ending on Jan 6.

Incorporating family traditions doesn’t have to be big over the top adventures or super-in-depth endeavors. Simple is good and memorable is really what’s most important.

So what are some fun ways to add new traditions?

Easy. Start by adding a little more fun into our current family traditions

I always buy my son Christmas PJs he opens on Christmas Eve. Now just keeping it real, I mostly started this because I didn’t want our Christmas morning photos to be jacked up by too-short pants and Winnie the Pooh length t-shirts. I could call this a tradition, but my son is never excited about opening pajamas.

This year I’m going to snag the idea from The Best Ideas for Kids.com to give him a Christmas box.  I’m pretty sure he’d be more excited about opening this treasure chest of small goodies rather than just the dreaded clothing box. And when I say small, I do mean small–we are doing the 12 days of Chrismas so I won’t get carried away to make sure I don’t destroy my budget.

RELATED: 4 Easy Ways to Earn Extra Christmas Cash

How cute is that right?

How do you build family tradition?

I think the best way to start building family traditions is to focus on things you already love.

For his Countdown to Christmas gifts, I plan to give him as many books as possible. He LOVES to read. I’ll include a few of his favorite authors, a few surprises and a few Christ-centered gems. Kristen at Joyfully Thriving.com has a list of 25 Christ-Centered Christmas books for Children I’ll use as a guide.

We always go look at Christmas lights but this year we’re going to use a Christmas Light scavenger hunt printable provided by Brea at Brepea.com

My son and I LOVE listening to podcasts and ebooks. When we find a show we get into sometimes it’s hard to get us out of the car. So this year I’ll be introducing Cinnamon Bear to my kiddo.  It’s an old radio recording of the adventures of Brother and Sister Jimmy and Judy on an adventure to find their Christmas Star.  I’m so grateful for Sara at the Holy Mess for introducing me to the Cinnamon-Bear Christmas tradition. My son is 9 so I don’t have too much longer to enjoy this one with him, but I’ll take what I can get.

I would also love to incorporate getting my son involved in woodworking. Allen over at Saw Hubs has an awesome list of easy kids woodworking projects. They’re not necessarily Christmas oriented, but there’s no reason some of them can’t be turned in to great holiday DIYs.

Other Fun Family Christmas Traditions

Here are a few ways to bring the joy of tradition to young children and families I saw around the blogosphere you may enjoy:

1. Starting a Holiday Ornament Tradition
2. The Easiest Gingerbread House Ever
3. DIY Handprint Craft
4. Elfing Your Neighbor
5. The 3 Gift Rule

I’m not sure what else I’ll incorporate, but I do promise not to make it too complicated, make it meaningful and make sure it always includes Christ. Need more help learning how to incorporate traditions into your holidays? My Sweet Home Life has a great article on how to create traditions.

Oh and don’t forget to download your Free Countdown to Christmas tags to get you started with forming your new traditions.