The holiday season is filled with so much magic and wonder that it’s important to slow down and enjoy each moment. Creating Christmas traditions for you, your girlfriends, or even your family not only help you to carry traditions that you grew up cherishing, but it also gives you an opportunity to incorporate now ones that rekindle that child-like wonder. If you’ve recently felt yourself caught in the hustle and bustle of to-do lists, and shopping lists, then refreshing your holidays to make more time for intentional celebrations may be just what you need.
Each tradition in calls us back to a simpler time, like cozy evenings snowed in, scents of a simmer pot on the stove, and Christmas lights twinkling proudly in living room windows. Where it doesn’t feel like a chore that you have to do, but an exciting tradition that you get to do, sparking joy.
This post shares 25 timeless and cozy Christmas traditions to start this season to really cherish the holidays. Not to add even more things to your calendar, but to carve out time for creating memories that matter, embracing the nostalgia, and inviting more peace into this season.
Christmas Traditions To Start
1. See a Christmas Play or Ballet
Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without a Christmas play or the classic Nutcracker. Take an evening to be enraptured with the wonder and timeless essence that comes with watching this classic story unfold. There’s simply something to be said about being front and center, watching magical stories classic stories unfold.
2. Christmas Movie Marathon
Christmas movies are a must every holiday season. Every scene filled with nostalgia beckoning you to cozy up with your favorite pajamas, hot chocolate. From classic black and white pictures, to new found favorites. Each Christmas movie unlocks a coziness and sense of comfort. Whether it’s a good laugh, or a good cry your movie marathon should feel like home.
3. Knit a Christmas Stocking
4. DIY Ornament Making
A beautiful ornament can be bought, but there’s something about have a keepsake made with love and attention. Not only does it add a touch of uniqueness to your tree, but as the years go by you’ll have created the most beautiful collection of timeless and one of a kind treasures that you can pass down.
5. Holiday Bake-a-thon
6. Drive Thru Christmas Light Show
Sometimes the beauty of an extravagant Christmas display is simply being able to admire someone else’s creativity and dedication. Its inspiring, and just another moment to take it the beauty of Christmas being able to see it through someone else’s eyes.
7. Take Christmas Photos
While a phone call is great, and seeing your loved ones is even better, taking the time to take Christmas photos is another way to capture a moment forever. Whether it be a family portrait, or a solo photo, taking a Christmas photo to share with your Christmas cards is sure to put a smile on their faces.
8. Christmas Morning Love Letter
This is an intimate tradition that is just for you. Take a moment to sit and write a love letter to your future self. As you reflect, appreciate, and look to the future write from the heart. As each Christmas passes you can read the letter you wrote yourself from years pasts and continue to write more. Reading your letters each year should feel like a warm hug knowing that you are loved.
9. Put Together A Burr Basket
10. A Christmas Breakfast
Christmas mornings are for slow starts, the kind where time seems to pause and the only thing that matters is the love and joy filling your home. With no where to be, and no reason to rush, your Christmas breakfast table becomes the heart of your morning. You can switch it up year after year, or lean more towards a a Christmas menu that is a tradition in itself. Whether it’s your signature waffles or a plate of warm biscuits and gravy, it should be a reflection of all of the love that you poured into it.
11. Tree Farm Date
12. Giving Advent Calendar
In this season of giving, it’s important to remember to extend kindness to those we may never meet. One unique way to honor the spirit of Christmas is to create a Christmas advent calendar instead. Whether it be an old sweater, a toy your child has outgrown, or books that deserve a new home. Each day leading up to Christmas set aside a few items to donate. This is a great way to bless someone else, and also serves as a gentle daily reminder of the true meaning of Christmas.
13. Candlelight Dinner (In or Out)
14. Recipe Journal
From newly discovered recipes, to recipes passed down from generations this is an excellent tradition to start for yourself and even your future children. Pull out some of your favorite holiday recipes except this time take a few extra moments to handwrite each one down into a Recipe journal. Over time this not only becomes a cherished keepsake, but each recipe will be like a warm hug from you for everyone who makes it.
15. Christmas Pizza Night
Pizza night is a great way to make an experience out of the every day things. This could be a fun solo evening in or even an activity when you and your girlfriends get together. put on some of your favorite Christmas classics in the background, and pour the wine and let your creative juices fly. In the end you’ll have a deliciously cheesy Christmas tree, ornament, or maybe even a snowman.
16. Ice Skating
17. Homemade Hot Chocolate
Hot chocolate is an essential staple for the holiday season. Making hot chocolate from scratch is an easy way to take a traditional treat and turn it into a holiday ritual. The best part is that your special recipe can be one of the firsts that you etch into your holiday recipe journal.
18. DIY Christmas Earrings
When your heart is filled with so much Christmas joy, and your hands are restless, this makes a perfect craft for a snowy day in. Grab your supplies and get creative with different Christmas earring designs. The best part is when you’re all done you’ll have a uniquely stunning addition to your jewelry collection that you can show off at the next holiday party.
19. Gingerbread House Decorating
20. Christmas Ambiance
Christmas traditions aren’t always activities, but can be something as simple as a feeling or a setting. During the holidays, just making a simple switch like lighting the fireplace in the evenings, or having a Harry Potter Christmas ambiance playing constantly in the living room helps to further set the mood for a warm intentional Christmas.
21. Visit A Christmas Market
22. Start A Christmas Village
For that empty space on the mantle you can’t figure out what to do with or you’d just like to add a little character to your decor, creating small Christmas village is a perfect tradition to start. You don’t have to build it all at once, but year by year and piece by piece, you will have created something that’s warm an uniquely yours.
23. A Christmas Read-a-thon
For that list of Christmas romances that you’ve been stacking up on your TBR all year, the holiday season is a perfect time to carve out a day to just snuggle up and read. Whether you get through multiple books or just one really amazing one, you’ll have dedicated a day entirely to getting lost in an enchanting story.
24. Start a Snowglobe Collection
25. Christmas Candle Painting
The best DIYs are the ones that you get to enjoy even after making them. This is a great craft for to add a little more detail and flare to your Christmas decor. Whether you light them at your next holiday dinner party, or choose to keep them just to admire, these make for a beautiful and personal addition to your home.
Christmas traditions aren’t about doing more, but intentional doing things that are dear to your heart. Getting to experience Christmas joy whether it’s a night in with your favorite pajamas on or walking through the neighborhood admiring Christmas lights, sharing a laugh with a friend. From a slow afternoon indoors, or wanting to catch some of the winter air these traditions make for the most magical and unforgettable Christmas.
