My List of Christmas Traditions

Christmastime is the time of year to be around family and friends and to share your kindness and love. Every year around this time I get a warm and fuzzy feeling my soul and I practically skip around town whistling Christmas songs. Okay so maybe I don't skip but that was a pretty funny visual right?

This time of year there are a few traditions that I like to uphold and although moving away from my family has made some of these traditions a little bit of a challenge, I still try to fulfill them as best as possible!




Tradition #1 - Christmas decor goes up the day after Thanksgiving. 
This year it actually went up the day before Thanksgiving because I was bursting at the seams, but I never put it up later than the day after. One of my favorite things about Christmas time is the bright lights and festive decor, so I always do what I can to get it up early so I can enjoy it that much longer.

Tradition #2 - Try [to bake] a new Christmas cookie every year.
This year I successfully made biscotti for the first time and it is delicious! I used a recipe that a close friend of mines mom gave her that had actually been passed down for generations in their family. I felt pretty special, I'm not going to lie!

Tradition #3 - Get Christmas gifts purchased and wrapped (and nowadays, sent out), as early as possible. 
I'm one of those who loves to shop on Black Friday..not only for the deals, but because it gets my shopping out of the way so that I can enjoy the festivities of December. I would rather have all of the gifts purchased, wrapped, and sent out so that I don't have to stress the closer it gets to Christmas! I'd rather hang out and watch Christmas movies then stand in line at the Post Office!

Tradition #4 - Go "Christmas Light Looking".
About a week or so before Christmas I like to drag everyone that I can fit in my car out to go drive around and look at Christmas lights. We started doing this when I was a kid and it's something that I always knew I'd want to do with my own children. It's so much fun to grab hot chocolate, put on your PJs and just drive around, admiring the handiwork of Christmas lovers all over your town!

Tradition #5 - Open gifts with the family. 
This is so much harder to do from another state but every Christmas morning when I was growing up we would gather at our house and open gifts together in our PJs. I use to love seeing what Santa would bring and would always drive my mom crazy by waking up around 5am to do so. Now that we live in another state we all sit around Christmas morning together…via FaceTime…and carry out the tradition. It's one that I love and cherish every year not because we are receiving gifts, but because we're watching Little Misters face light up with each gift that gets unwrapped. It's priceless.

What are you Christmas traditions?