As every holiday rolls around, families repeat and make new traditions. These evoke memories of years past and celebrate the years to come. The Christmas holidays are a wonderful time to make memories together, decorating the house, baking delicious cookies and seeing family and friends. If you are looking for ideas of how to make your holiday this year special and new - or to come up with some wonderful new holiday traditions, we have a couple of ideas for you to use this year!
Start a Collection, and Share It!
Decorating the Christmas tree is fun every year and as your holiday ornament collection grows, so do your memories of Christmas past. The best thing about many ornament collections is the variety of styles especially as preschoolers and young children bring home their own homemade creations to grace the tree. What really sets a Christmas tree apart isn't its “style” or theme consistency; it is the memories and the personal touch of every family that goes into this holiday symbol.
The holidays can bring a family together, no matter how far apart you may be living or celebrating. One of the best ways to do this is through small keepsakes that mark this Christmas within your family history. There is almost no better way to mark Christmas with all the branches of your family than to give each a thematic personalized Christmas ornament.
You can choose a theme for the year - it could be “Home for the Holidays” or even simply the look of the ornament with snowmen or teddy bears. Perhaps you all met up on one place during the year and you want to send out San Francisco holiday ornaments or New Orleans holiday ornaments to commemorate the trip. Personalize each ornament with the family names and the year. You and your brothers, sisters, mothers, fathers and cousins can all cherish a similar keepsake that sets this year apart from any other.
Start a Holiday Outing Tradition!
One thing we have learned through the years is how many families have a wonderful time heading out to do some Christmas shopping during the holidays. This could be the trip to get your Christmas tree, enjoying mulled cider as you tag and cut your tree, or enjoying the chill of the air and the scent of pine as you sift through options on your local Christmas tree lot.
It could also be the trip to your swanky local department store to see the Christmas decorations and to buy your special keepsake for the year. Gumps in San Francisco and Fortunoff in New York are two such smaller department stores that go all out for the holidays and many local families make a Christmas pilgrimage out to find their special personalized holiday ornament or centerpiece. Through childhood milestones, graduations, engagements, weddings and the birth of new generations, these traditions mean the world to everyone and so do the keepsakes that come home marking the memory.
Mark Special Events!
If you love the idea of personalized holiday ornaments, you can also take you choice to an even more personal level, and mark any special events happening in the life of your friend, neighbor or loved one. Find just the right ornament for the newly engaged couple, the first Christmas of a new family or even welcome a new pet into their lives with an ornament that speaks to that theme.
There is no shortage of personalized ornament options out there and they really show that you care and that you are paying attention to the important events in the lives of your friends. Help them remember the year a new and important event happened in their lives through their Christmas tree. Or just choose a personalized ornament you know they'll love.
Make Your Own Holiday Ornaments!
Engage all the members of your family in some crafty fun by having them create their own holiday ornaments. You can do this with everything from candy canes, to Femo, to construction paper, glitter and clothespins - it just depends on how involved you want to get! Order prints from your favorite photo service and incorporate those into your holiday ornament evening.
Activities like this can also be a great opportunity for you to help your kids create gifts for family and friends that are heavy on the sentiment and light on the wallet. Remember, these don't have to be fancy or perfect they should just be from the heart.
For some great ideas on creating your own homemade ornaments:
http://familycrafts.about.com/od/treeornaments/
http://www.allfreecrafts.com/christmas/index.shtml
http://www.calliopedesigns.com/dough_ornaments.aspx
No matter what activities or traditions you create with your family, mark them down in some way to pass onto the next generation. Take photos, write in a journal or make a special Christmas book with your kids. These memories can never be replaced and when your grandchildren or great grandchildren discover family history like this, it can live on for generations to come!
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