Our family has a lot of Christmas traditions. Most of those have to do with our extended family, but we are working hard to establish some of those traditions for our immediate family. I think traditions are very important. It’s those things that make families unique. I can remember some from my childhood and I want my children to always remember ours fondly.

One tradition we have is putting up our christmas tree in the evening and then watching Muppets Christmas Carol. I just love that movie and so do my kids. We also really love to go out and look at christmas lights on houses. Sometimes we just drive around our own neighborhood to look at them, but we always choose our favorite house.

We have some extended family traditions that my kids enjoy too. One is to decorate a gingerbread house with my mom every year. It’s nice to look back on the pictures of them doing this every year. The first one was done when my oldest was 18 months old, 6 years and 3 brothers ago. Another family tradition is setting up a little village around my husband’s grandparent’s train set. My husband has been doing this since he was about 7 years old. We are incredibly blessed to be able to continue to have a yearly tradition that involves my husband’s grandparents. Not many children have great grandparents, and my kids are blessed to know theirs. I always cherish seeing them spend time together.

Years from now I hope that my children can look back on their childhoods and remember those warm memories of the traditions we had together. I hope more than that though they remember the reason we celebrate christmas in the first place. I hope they remember that Christ is the point of christmas. I hope they impart that to their children. The traditions we have now could be continued for generations to come. What we do now as parents effects future generations for hundreds of years. Wow, that is heavy stuff. But it helps me to remember to keep Christ at the center of christmas. It’s my job to make sure my kids find Christ in Christmas and pass that on to their children. That is a christmas tradition to hold on to.