The holiday season is a time to embrace tradition and make memories as a family. But as important as it is to keep old traditions going strong, it is equally important to bring establish new traditions and strengthen your family bond.
Here are a few new traditions to consider starting with your family this holiday season:
Keep It Real in Your Holiday Card
Instead of the standard professionally shot family portrait where everyone has their happy faces on, while wearing those perfectly color-coordinated outfits that took hours of scouring Pinterest to plan, consider taking a different approach. Instead, use a photo that truly illustrates this moment in time for your family. This may mean an airport shot of you all geared up ready to take off for another adventure. Or maybe at the baseball field on the bleachers, where you spend every weekend cheering on your little star pitcher. Or maybe in your backyard, with a glass of wine in hand, while the kids run amok on the swing set. It doesn't matter where you choose, as long as the location is true to your family's reality.
Instead of focusing on coordinating everyone's outfits, let each family member wear what they want. Something that they are truly comfortable in so that their true spirit can be easily captured in the photo. This may mean that your toddler will be wearing her favorite Rapunzel costume, but that's fine. Embrace each family member's sartorial choices. In 10 or 20 years when you look back at that photo, you get an instant rush of the sweetness from that moment in time, no matter how challenging this season of life may seem now.
Decorate an Upside-Down Christmas Tree
Upside-down Christmas trees are an unusual trend in the artificial Christmas tree market, but they are nonetheless gaining traction and attracting attention thanks to their small footprint, which can fit into the smallest spaces. Whether hung from the ceiling or perched on a stand, upside-down Christmas trees are a fun new tradition to adopt in your family, especially if you need an extra dose of festive whimsy.
Make this tradition fun for your family by making it a surprise and setting up the tree at night while your family is asleep. Then in the morning, have the kids help you decorate the tree or even make some decorations for it. This new tradition can bring back a bit of the magic of holidays past by adding a splash of the unexpected.
Adopt a Family
As a member of a fortunate family who always has food on the table, clean clothes in the closet and a room overhead, it's easy for your children to forget that everyone does not have it as easy as they do. Help your entire family have an attitude of gratitude this holiday season by adopting a family in need. Many local organizations have programs that can match you with a struggling family who you can provide a holiday meal and gifts for. Your children will love shopping for the kids and you cannot put a price on the value of seeing the needy family's faces light up when you arrive with a load of holiday treats.
Get Matching Pajamas for Christmas Morning
It may seem cheesy, but there is something so delightful about not taking yourselves so seriously for a day and wearing matching family pajamas on Christmas morning. Gift your family with a set of new pajamas to be opened before bed on Christmas eve and then wake up and open the rest of your gifts together on Christmas morning in your festive finery. Many retailers offer family pajamas, with some even offering outfits for dogs so that Fido can get in on the fun too.
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