Holiday traditions to start with your family

The holiday season is the most magical time of the year! Whether you believe the holidays start when the clock strikes midnight on Halloween or you wait until post-Thanksgiving to get into the spirit, celebrating the holidays with your little ones is like nothing else.

One of the best parts of starting your own family is creating your own traditions. The holidays are a wonderful time for traditions, but you don’t need to only think about the actual days of the holiday. Make the most out of the season and create traditions all December long or even before that! Check out some of our favorite Thanksgiving family traditions before diving into the holiday season.

Why are traditions important?

Family traditions are fun, of course, but did you know that they are also beneficial to both the children and adults in the family? According to the American Psychological Association (APA), “family routines, rituals, and traditions are associated with marital satisfaction, adolescents' sense of personal identity, children's health, academic achievement and stronger family relationships.”

Think back to your childhood and the traditions you and your family had around the holidays and just in general. Those memories hopefully make you feel warm and fuzzy and maybe you have even incorporated some of your family traditions from growing up into your new family!

Benefits of spending time with family

Spending time together with your family is more than just fun bonding time. This family time is actually extremely important to your child’s growth and development. Research shows that there are many benefits of spending time with family. Below are just a few of the benefits.

Improved mental health and confidence. Spending time together with family face-to-face reduces instances of anxiety and depression for both children and adults. Children get the opportunity to receive important emotional support and advice during this time.
Decreased behavioral issues and stress. Children who spend time with their families regularly have less risk of behavioral problems like substance abuse and violence. Plus, positive family bonding time reduces their stress levels (and yours!).
Stronger academic performance and communication skills. Spending time with family helps children understand the value of education and get more opportunities for academic support from their parents, caregivers, and even older siblings. It also gives children an opportunity to practice communicating and expressing themselves in a low risk environment.
Increased problem solving and conflict resolution skills. Not all family time is golden. When issues arise, children who regularly spend time with their families can learn useful conflict resolution skills and practice solving problems in a healthy way.

Holiday traditions for your family

Now that you know more about the benefits of family traditions, it’s time to start the fun part: Creating your own traditions! One of the best ways to make your holiday traditions special is by saving these specific activities for the holiday season. This might seem obvious for some of the traditions, like decorating, but for others, like reading holiday books and watching holiday movies, put those away at the end of the season.

We asked members of the Sawyer team to talk about some of their favorite holiday traditions so you can get inspiration for your own family.

Decorating together

A holiday tradition that you can start at the beginning of the season is decorating your home together as a family! Pull out the holiday decorations and get your home in the spirit. If you can, include your child in as much of the decorating as possible. Ask their opinions on where each decoration should go and try as much as possible to let them help you.

Doing special holiday crafts

If you are looking for more holiday decorations, look no further than this tradition! Get together with your family every Friday or Saturday evening of the holiday season and do something special. There are so many wonderful Christmas crafts, Hanukkah crafts, and other holiday crafts that you and your family can tackle together.

Some of our favorite holiday crafts:

Fingerprint lights. Messy art is the best kind! If you want to do Christmas lights, have your child use a different color for each finger. If you want to do Hanukkah candles, then just use yellow or orange. Then, stamp down the colors and draw around the “lights” to make a beautiful, mixed media holiday card.
Snowman in a jar. By painting a mason jar white, you can create a great body for a snowman. Then, decorate with paints, felt, ribbon, buttons, and more! Your children can make it as unique as possible. Maybe they want to make a snow-dog, bunny, or family member.
Handprint wreath. Trace your child’s hand on green construction paper and then cut it out. Make a lot of these hands and then put them together in a circle so the fingers are splayed out. It’s a wreath! Then, let your child decorate with red pom poms, ribbon, leaves from outside, and whatever else they want to add.

Reading holiday books and watching holiday movies

There are so many fun books and movies that can get you and your child in the holiday spirit. We love watching and reading about the holidays that we celebrate and using this time to learn about other holidays and traditions! We’ve outlined some of our favorite holiday books as well as Christmas books and Hanukkah books that your family might enjoy.

When you get together to read these holiday books and have holiday family movie nights, make these moments extra special. Get in your matching holiday pajamas, build a blanket fort, turn on the twinkly lights, and have some delicious snacks or hot cocoa. You and your little ones will cozy up and have the best time!

Cooking and baking together

Bringing your children into the kitchen should not just be a holiday tradition. There are many benefits of cooking with kids like increased communication, stronger math skills, and better hand eye coordination. The more you can cook and bake with your child, the better.

But, the recipes and timing will help make that regular cooking and baking together into a holiday tradition. We recommend working with your child to choose what you will make and then try to include them in the process as much as possible. You can make these moments even more special by wearing matching pajamas, taking fun pictures, and sharing your creations with friends and family!

Volunteering and helping your community

The holiday season is a wonderful time to give back to your community. Instill this value in your children so that they know it is important to care for others and help those in need. During the holidays, work with your child to find items that you can donate such as canned food, toys and clothes that they no longer use (but are in good condition), and more. Establish a tradition of volunteering as a family, whether that is cleaning up a local park or beach, spending time with older people in a retirement home, walking or running for a fundraiser, or something else.

Whatever holiday traditions you choose to start or continue this year, we hope that it brings you and your family joy. Plus, if you are looking for great in-person and online activities and after school programs for children of all ages, check out what our wonderful educators are offering on Sawyer!

You’re all set!

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