Make a few special traditions. For instance, we have a lasagna dinner every Christmas Eve. We also do one of those countdown calendars with the chocolates for each day. I bought the kind that pull out like little drawers so that we can use the same one each year, I just refill the chocolates.
Get a gift for a someone less fortunate. Have your kids donate some of their old toys to make room for the new ones. Listen to a certain music while you decorate the tree. Read the Christmas story together every year. Celebrate Advent. Go to a candlelight service on Christmas Eve.
If you allow Santa at your house, make cookies and leave them- but let your kids bake the cookies and decorate them. Leave an apple for the reindeer. Leave signs all around the house that Santa has been there and watch their eyes sparkle. Eat the cookies, nibble on the apple, use skis or sticks in the snow to look like sleigh tracks. Leave a Santa hat, maybe with a little soot on it where the kids can find it. Have Santa write them a note back thanking them for the cookies.
The Santa we took the kids to see this year actually tied the Santa side of Christmas to the Gospel side. He told our kids that what he needed them to do was to love because love was the whole reason for Christmas. God loved us so much that he sent Jesus. It was awesome.
Get a child friendly nativity that your children can play with and reenact the story over and over. Put on a play of the Christmas story. Watch fun holiday movies. Put a trail of candies from your child's bed to the tree Christmas morning. Make a gingerbread house. Put a candy cane on their pillow. Use Elf on a Shelf.
If you have kids that are old enough to try to peek into their packages or shake them, etc. don't label them. Give each person their own color and label them with only the color and don't tell them the code. They won't know which ones to shake.
Make an uneventful December evening magical by putting your kids to bed then popping popcorn, making a thermos of hot chocolate, waking them and taking them to the car still in their jammies. Wrap them up in blankets, turn on some Christmas music, serve your treats and drive around looking at Christmas lights.
These are just a few ideas to get you thinking. When your child is grown and their children ask what they remember most about Christmas, make sure they have amazing memories to share because today is a moment in a future adult's childhood and it's these little moments that shape our child's view of faith, love, family and tradition.
Laugh hysterically at the little one covered in icing. Enjoy the tree that's decorated a bit lopsided. Soak in the looks of wonder, the sleepy smiles. And for goodness sakes take pictures!
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