1. The Holiday Caltrain: It is crowded, dark and cold, but I truly enjoy seeing the Caltrain lit up with Christmas lights and hearing Christmas carols.
2. Seeing the decorations at Stanford Shopping Center. It’s nice to say hi to Santa on a weekday morning when there can be little to no line. We also love seeing the huge Christmas tree. And, this year, standing in the large ornament was a fun way to kick off the holiday season.
3. The American Girl Store: Our girls enjoy checking out the American Girl Store during the holidays. From their Christmas tree to their fancy holiday dresses, there is always something new to check out
4.
Gingerbread houses: I enjoy making gingerbread houses for our kids out of graham crackers and frosting. It takes some patience to break the cracker correctly, but if you buy extra, you can make a handful without too much frustration.
5. Christmas Tree Lane: We’ve enjoyed our yearly stroll down Christmas Tree Lane with the kids. Now that they’ve seen it repeatedly, I enjoy hearing our older two talk about the different houses and their favorite decorations.
6. Decorations and a tree: I love getting out our ornament collection year after year and hanging our favorites on the tree. We keep our fragile ornaments stored away so the kids can have fun decorating our tree themselves without worrying about anything breaking.
7. Homemade gifts and cookies: Every year the kids help me make at least a handful of gifts for relatives. We also enjoy making Christmas cookies to share with family, friends and teachers.
8. Advent calendars: In the past I’ve filled an advent calendar with stickers for the kids. This year we’ve decided to try out a couple Lego and Playmobil advent calendars. It’s a fun (but sometimes long) countdown to Christmas.
9. Christmas Carols: I have a handful of favorite Christmas songs that I sing with our kids year after year. Sometimes before bed. Sometimes while we drive to school. Sometimes dancing in the living room. It’s a simple way to cheer everyone up.
10. Christmas stories: I love reading Christmas stories to our kids. I still have some books that my parents read to me as a child. I’ve also bought some for our kids. And also borrow the rest of our Christmas books from the library. It’s fun to find new favorites to read together.
What are your favorite holiday traditions?
