Family Traditions

One of my favorite family traditions is doing the 12 days of Christmas with my family! I blogged about this last year, but I thought I would share again!

You can do it different ways, but this is how we do it now! We have three little trees set up in our family room. Hanging on the tree's are 12 tags. One for each of the 12 days of Christmas. My kids really look forward to seeing the tags get put on the trees! On December 13th we start the 12 days of Christmas as a family. The idea is to spend time as a family enjoying the Christmas season as a family! It's so easy to be stressed and busy and not take the time to relax and enjoy each other. I used to buy games, puzzles and movies as gifts for Christmas that we never played or had time to do together! Our 12 days of Christmas tradition stretches the fun and anticipation throughout the month! We have learned to adapt the 12 days to activities that we have like Ward parties, concerts and family parties, but we still take the time to do things with just our family!

This year we are spending our 12 days of Christmas like this:

1. Go look at Christmas lights. (It wouldn't be Christmas without a drive to see the temple lights and then a drive around town to see light displays in various neighborhoods! We like to sing Christmas songs and end up at home for hot chocolate and donuts!)
2. *New this year!* Share a favorite Christmas Memory. I thought this would be fun for FHE. We'll probably end with the Christmas Story from Luke.
3. Sing some Christmas songs around the piano!
4. Holli's Choir Concert
5. Story Night (I like to buy a new Christmas book every year. We have a very neat collection of Christmas stories. Some short, some for children, some longer! I put them out each year and we re-read them through the month.)
6. Game Night (I bought a new game...It is wrapped under the tree and ready to be played! We will spend the evening enjoying our new game together!)
7. Baking day.
8. Movie Night. (We love Christmas movies at our house! I try to buy a new one each year.)
9. Durfee Family Christmas Party.
10. Puzzle Night (Vaughan & I choose a new puzzle, I wrapped it and we opened and started putting it together yesterday! They are working on it as I type! This is fun because they will spend the rest of the month putting it together! The kids LOVE this one!)
11. Deliver Goodies. (We like to make treats for our neighbors!)
12. Moore Christmas Eve. (We will have our traditional FIESTA Dinner and gift exchange. We have a family talent show after dinner and then the cousins exchange their gifts! Our talent show is pretty low key - basically you perform if you want to and it's one per family! We have music, a story and singing! Sometimes it is pretty hilarious!

I found some other ideas on a blog I like to visit. I think I will try some of them next year! They looked like fun. Whatever traditions you have as a family I hope you are enjoying the holiday season! I know I am!