We love to decorate for Christmas! I have found that what my wife loves and remembers about Christmas – what makes it special – is different than what I remember as a child. This is a great conversation to have (and continue to have), because Christmas Traditions are a memorable way to raise your kids, and being on the same page as your spouse is always important.
Whether there are specific movies that you watch together, certain stories that you read together, decorating the house together, or perhaps you cut down your own Christmas Tree together, Christmas Traditions can be, and are, important things.
Early on, my wife and I wrote down certain things we wanted to become traditions. We then, were diligent to do those things for a few years in a row, which made them naturally become ‘tradition.’ Especially, as kids are young, they do what you do… and if you do things specifically and consistently, the creation of a “tradition” is not too hard. (With young minds, if it is fun to them, it will only take one year to establish because they will correlate that activity with the decorations and the music)
Of course there will be things that come up along life’s road that will just become they way things work at Christmas time, and those can be great too, but I want to encourage you not to wait for your kids lives to pass before setting up some intentional traditions in your family.
…and if your kids are grown? It’s not too late you still can make new traditions, and remind them of the beauty of the Holiday.