Looking to start some traditions for your
family during the Christmas season? I have
always “tried” to adopt a tradition that we call the “12 days of Christmas” in
our house. It started as a fun little
process where we would pick 12 Christmas activities and scatter them throughout
the month of December. I tried to make
the activities not based around presents.
After numerous years of doing this, we’ve grown a little bored (and I’ve
grown a little lazy, to be honest).
Also, now that the kids are slightly older, it’s hard to find 12 nights
that are open in December. The last couple
years started to feel like “work” when trying to fit things in and I’m sure at
the end of it all, we ended up having 8 or 9 days of Christmas with an event or
two consisting of me throwing a spoon in their hand and saying: “Here!
Slap some of this cookie dough on a cookie sheet and let’s consider this
our baking night.” In our prime, the
usual list included: Baking, random act of kindness, picking out new ornaments,
car rides to see Christmas lights (one year it included tons of vomit as the
flu hit Faith in the middle of the trip), movie nights, Polar Express hot
chocolate nights, an evening at Crossroads Village, surprise breakfasts with
pancakes shaped like snowmen, etc...
This
year, I’ve brainstormed ways to still keep this tradition alive, yet simplify the
whole process, in attempt to bring the fun and joy back to the whole tradition. We’ve never done a 12 Days of Christmas based
on the actual song, so we’re going to go along with that idea. Here’s a list of ideas that we’ve come up
with and feel free to do them all or adopt a few that fit best with your
clan!
1st Day (Partridge in pear tree): As a family, go and pick out
your tree (or get it out of storage, and set it up) decide together what “look”
or “theme” you want this year and make it happen!
2nd Day (Two
turtle doves): Exchange a “pair” of something (socks, gloves, earrings, whatever!).
3rd Day (Three
French hens): Make it a three movie weekend—discuss and reach a consensus on
your family’s three favorite holiday movies and go and rent them on a Friday night
and watch them throughout the weekend together.
4th Day (Four calling birds): Use your phone to place a call or a
text to four people that you miss and tell them so. Tell them what you appreciate about them. Everyone
who has a phone has to pick four people, so everyone can participate.
5th Day (Five golden rings): In honor of circles and rings: Donuts for breakfast (or dinner!)!!!!!
6th Day (Six
laying geese): Game night! Pull out your favorite board games (no electronics)
and play for prizes of holiday cookies or candy! If you have to do this after Christmas and
during Christmas break, that’s ok too! Remember—you can make up your own rules.
7th Day (Seven
swimming swans): Everyone writes a list of their seven favorite memories in
2016, with details.
8th Day (Eight
milking maids): In honor of MILK and dairy farmers across America- take a road
trip for MILKSHAKES (in our case that would be about a mile, preferably when no
one feels a flu-bug coming on).
9th Day (Nine dancing ladies): Two words: dance party! For extra
fun, film it so you can watch it next year!
10th Day (Ten
leaping lords): Get off your duff and leap outside and take a family walk
together on the trails. Hopefully you can
time it when the snow starts to fall. Heck, if you don’t have time to drive to a trail,
walking around the block will do just fine, especially when it’s snowing!
11th Day (Eleven piping pipers): Take a poll on everyone’s
favorite hot chocolate toppings (be creative) and have a hot chocolate buffet,
complete with piping hot homemade
hot chocolate!
12th Day (Twelve drumming drummers): Drum up 12 new goals for 2017
and share them with your family! Commit
to helping each other stick to them.
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