Home-spun Christmas Traditions

I was really inspired this week by Deb’s post on Rethinking Christmas: Traditions at Home. I’d like to share some of our home-spun Christmas traditions. I delight in making the Christmas season a time of beauty, joy and warm memories for our children.

Having a fresh wreath on the front door is becoming a new tradition for me. This beautiful fresh evergreen wreath on my front door was a gift from my friend Stacey at Friends Hill Greenhouse in West Virginia. She sent me one last year, too, when we were matched up in a Secret Sister program through our homeschool curriculum. It lasted well beyond the Christmas season and into January.

I knew I had to have one again this year, but when I tried to order one from her greenhouse she insisted on gifting me again! What an amazing, generous secret sister! The wreath smells so amazing and I feel so festive with real greenery out.

Friends Hill Greenhouse does an incredible job with their wreaths. You can contact them by phone at (304) 358-2715 or via email at friendshill@verizon.net if you’d like to order one for yourself! If you have a favorite wreath, please post a picture on your blog and link it to the Mentoring Moment’s Christmas wreath blog carnival!


Our children love playing with nativity sets. We have four sets and two little stables for lots of mix-and-match fun. The little boys never seem to tire of setting up these little scenes while we do our read-alouds for school and during family devotions.

We enjoy visiting local live Nativity scenes and Christmas story re-enactments.

Our nightly Advent season devotions are the highlight of the season.

Making–and eating–Gingerbread houses is another favorite December activity. We use graham crackers and frosting for the houses, which is much cheaper than purchasing the kits.

We also bake cut-out sugar cookies every year. Selecting favorite cookie cutters and choosing from an array of colored frostings, sugar sprinkles and chocolate chips is such fun for the kids. I always did this with my family growing up, so continuing this tradition holds a special place in my heart.

Taking Christmas photos is another tradition. I like to try and get good photos of the kids near the tree a few days before Christmas. These pictures capture the season’s memories for me more than the photos of unwrapping gifts on Christmas morning. This photo was taken 5 years ago, and it is one of my favorites.

Hot chocolate and toast nights are another December tradition we love. I make a batch of rich, yummy homemade hot chocolate and a giant plate of white toast with butter (we’re going for the yum factor here, not for health!) We all dip the buttered toast into the hot chocolate. It is one of our favorite tastes of the season!

How do you create opportunities for family fellowship and warm memories during the Christmas season? If you blog about it, leave me a comment with your URL address!