8 Christmas traditions to start this year

CHRISTMAS is a time for family, friends and memories, and traditions are one of the best ways to create and share magical memories with the special people in our lives.

Traditions might seem tedious and old fashioned, but they actually enhance the whole experience of the festive season. They bring families closer together and help pass family values.

Here is a list of ten traditions to inspire your festive season. Don’t forget to include the family scrooge.

Have a baking day. Spend a whole day baking various delicious Christmas themed treats, such as ginger cookies, fruitcake and snowman shapes cookies. Encourage the kids to help. They can decorate the cookies and even help add the eggs. If you are not scared to get your kitchen messy it is sure to be an experience, especially if a flour-fight breaks out.

Search for Christmas lights. One of my fondest memories of the festive season was our annual Christmas light drive. My parents would rally me and my siblings into the car, wrap us in a warm snugly blanket and we would drive through the neighbourhood and visit all the houses with beautiful Christmas lights and decorations.

Make your own Christmas tree decorations. Sentimental decorations are so much more rewarding. Not only are they fun to make (and the perfect activity to keep the kids occupied), but they are guaranteed to put a smile on your face every time you unpack or absentmindedly pass them throughout the day.

Decorate the tree as a family. The annual tree decoration should not be left as an obligation for Mom. Rather make it a fun family group activity where everyone gets to have an input.

Write a family newsletter. Think how much fun it would be to create a family newsletter each year, listing the family’s top achievements and events. It could include the family pets. The fun would continue once you start looking through the newsletters, and reminiscing.

Volunteer your time to help others. Christmas is a time for giving, thus it is the prefect time to encourage the family members to pick a cause and to volunteer their time in aid or their chosen cause. Family members can also clean out their closets and rooms and donate any items that they no longer use.

Take an annual Christmas photo. It is the time of the year when the whole family is present. It is therefore perfect to take a fun themed family photo. In five years you will be able to look back and reminisce about how much everyone has changed.