Christmas Traditions

.Christmas Traditions.

I have been wanting to start this traditions post for a few weeks. I had not started it as I kept seeing all of these gorgeous posts from other bloggers about their decorations and traditions that seemed WAYYY better than mine. So I kept procrastinating...thinking sooner or later I would come up with some AMAZING way to show how our traditions were just as COOL as theirs. The last few days, I started thinking about it a little bit more.... I listened to a webinar with  Emily Ley & Lara Casey  about having a Joyful 2016. They spoke again about how "Comparison is the Thief of Joy". This really resonated with me this week. I need to remind myself to stop waiting to create a new post until it is perfect or meets the expectations in my head of what a beautiful post should look like. I really hope to meet these two incredible women at a Make Things Happen conference someday, but for now I will be reminded by their powerful words of "letting go of perfection". 

On to our Christmas Traditions!  People always ask what our Christmas traditions are and I think to myself, "What traditions do we have?" But when I put pencil to paper, I realize that we have a lot of traditions that we do every single year.  Today, I am sharing some of our highlights that have happened so far this December! I love the Christmas season & I hope you enjoy creating Christmas traditions with your family.

Cutting down our Christmas Tree as a family - Every year we go to Pleasant Valley Tree farm to cut down our tree as a family! {More photos}

Decorating the Tree - Our kids love hanging ornaments on the tree! I usually hang all of the fragile ornaments on the top of the tree and let them decorate the bottom as they see fit! Seeing their faces light up as we open up boxes of special ornaments is priceless. 

Visiting Santa Claus - This year we visited Santa Claus at my husband's work. They have a Children's Christmas party every year with a pizza party, kids activities and treats! They enjoyed writing letters to Santa & visiting with him. 

Family Day at the local Winery - Every year we head to our local winery for a visit with visit Santa, sleigh rides, decorating cookies and mom's favorite nachos!  Santa had not arrived yet when we stopped at the winery, but we still enjoyed our favorite nachos & cookie decorating. We were not able to ride the sleigh this year, as the ground was a muddy mess. We are ready for snow!

Christmas Crafting - My kids LOVE to craft! It must be a family trait! ha  This was just one of the crafts that they made. We used old toilet paper rolls dipped in red & green paint! 

Mailing Christmas Cards - I love mailing & receiving Christmas cards from our friends and family. I love seeing how they have changed over the past year, especially for the people we do not see very often! 

Making Homemade Gifts for friends & family - For the last few years, I have been making homemade gifts for my friends and family. I love creating something new with my hands. I also love the look on their face when they realize I made it myself! This year's craft was ornaments made out of a birch tree & a little paint! I love how they turned out!

Decorating outside of our home -  The outside of our home gets a little dressy too for the holidays. I used the remnants from our Christmas Tree to decorate this old hanging basket from this past summer. I save the decorations each year for my wreaths & baskets to create something new for the next year. 

Baking & Decorating Cookies - My kids had a blast making & decorating cookies this year.  We made Poppyseed Twinks (my husbands favorite), pretzels with kisses and M&M's, shortbread cookies dipped in chocolate and also gingerbread men dipped in chocolate. The kids were eating them faster than I could put them in the container! I had to hide them in the freezer to save them for the holidays!!

...and last but not least, watching our FAVORITE Christmas movies!

National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, Elf, Rudloph and Frosty the Snowman are just a few of our favorites! 

What are your favorite Christmas Traditions in your home? 

Remember that Comparison is the Thief of Joy...your traditions are just as wonderful as those you see on social media!