Christmas Bucket List
Ever since I can remember, Christmas has been my absolute favorite holiday. Now that I am an adult with children of my own I have gained a whole new appreciation for the holiday season. Since becoming a mother I have started several holiday traditions with my little family that I love doing year after year.
The first thing our family does every year is put up our tree. We always do this on the Sunday immediately following Thanksgiving. I love to play holiday music while we all trim the tree. We drink hot cocoa together, laugh and dance. It really helps to set the tone for the holidays. It is something I look forward to every year.
Baking and decorating sugar cookies is another must do for the Whitaker clan. My middle boy, William, loves to help out in the kitchen. He really enjoys picking which shapes we will cut our cookies into and deciding how he wants them to be decorated. He also thinks it’s great fun to help himself to plenty of cookies and milk and toppings while he’s working. Decorating all of those delicious cookies helps him to work up his appetite.
Our local area has several fantastic light displays. The one that is at the top of my list is Bronson Park’s Candy Cane Lane. The whole park is lit up with thousands of sparkling lights. There is a beautiful life sized manger scene. A huge Santa with his sleigh and reindeer are suspended above the park, as if they are actually in flight. When it’s snowing, the scene is truly magical. I truly love walking through the cheerfully lit park with my kids at least once a year. Their sense of awe and wonder warms my heart. While there, we always stop for an obligatory selfie under the giant candy canes. It’s a fun local custom that really makes it feel like Christmas.
For us, the holidays are a special time to reconnect as a family. The kids all love watching the old classic Christmas specials on TV. We make sure to watch The Grinch, Rudolph, and Frosty the Snowman. This year, I am going to introduce Elf in the mix. I have a sneaking suspicion that my boys will enjoy it as much, if not
Something very special that we always do is donate to the Salvation Army Angel Tree. We like to pick kids that are similarly aged to our children and have the kids help pick them out a special gift or two. We are trying really hard to stress the importance of giving during the holidays and always. This year I’ve been really trying to explain to my two boys, aged 2 and 4, that not all children have as much as they do. So when we are able to do so, it’s really nice to pay our good fortune forward.
We also go through all of our toys at the house and bag up everything they don’t play with anymore. We have a strict policy that you have to give if you want to receive. It’s sweet hearing them talk about how much fun the new kids will have with their toys. Not only is it nice to be able to pay those toys forward, but it makes for a much less cluttered house once the kids get their gifts from everyone.
Our biggest tradition is matching holiday pajamas. It is one of the few holiday traditions that I remember from my own childhood. Every Christmas Eve I let the kids unwrap their matching pajamas. This year I plan to include some sort of holiday movie, cocoa packets, popcorn and treats. We will then all put on our cozy jammies and snuggle up to watch our movie and have snacks. I also will attempt to get a pic with all three kids in their PJ’s that is decent. Most of the time at least one of the kids is making a goofy face or being silly. Those are the ones that will be the best to look back on when the kids are all grown.
What are some of your favorite holiday traditions?
