Our Holiday Traditions

Now that I’m a mom I take advantage of every family-orientated event I can. The holidays are my favorite, hands down. I love taking out the winter candles, filling our house with the smell of gingerbread, and turning up the Christmas Carols while we decorate the tree. My husband is tasked with carrying up the heavy boxes from the basement, and this year I told Leo were to put things and he happily went.

And yes, at least one of us wears a Santa hat. And yes, there is also clusters of ornaments at about 3 feet up, but that just gives the tree character!

I love everything about the holidays, and when I had Leo I made it my mission to make the holidays amazing. We didn’t have much money and there’s always something crazy going on in our lives, but no matter what the holidays are our time to be together as a family.

Ornaments: Since the Beginning.

Over the years this is the one tradition we’ve been doing since the beginning. It started because I wanted Leo to have his first ornament, which is a fairly common tradition. When we were looking at ornaments we found a whole new holiday world we didn’t know existed (I promise I’m not exaggerating!)

There are stores in the mall that are exclusively for Christmas, and have rows upon rows of ornaments you can personalize. We ended up getting two ornaments, one for Leo and one for our family. The goal is to get one for Leo and then one or two more that represents something special that happened that year.

This year we got Sully, so we got a special one for Sully. Leo got a train, since that’s what he’s obsessed with, and then we got one that has 3 penguins on it for our family. Out of all our traditions, I think this one is my favorite. It’s also something that as Leo gets older, he will still be able to appreciate (as much as he loves Santa now, he probably won’t always be able to sit on his lap).

Christmas Lights

If you don’t go see Christmas Lights, you’re really missing out. This year Leo’s really starting to point out every time he sees Christmas lights. It’s such a simple holiday tradition to have, and there are some really great free displays. If you don’t do this, you’re really missing out.

A few years ago we started going to Yogi Bear in Caledonia, WI. They decorate their campground with 1 million+ Christmas lights. You drive through while their radio station synchronizes to the lights. It’s $20 for a car full. They have Santa there on the weekends, and if the weather’s nice you can do a sleigh ride.

The other one we go to is Candy Cane Lane. A neighborhood in West Allis decorates their houses every year, and it’s free to drive (or walk) through.

Cookies

I started baking cookies last year, and to be honest, I fail miserably at baking. I’m really trying to ham it up during the holidays and I’m determined to make some tasty cookies this year.

I may or may not fail, but that is yet to be determined.

25 Days of Christmas

This is our newest tradition. Leo absolutely LOVES it, but it’s something that as he gets older, he may grow out of. That sounds sad, and it is, but I’m really going to enjoy it while I can. This year Leo has his very own Christmas tree in his room, which he is in love with. Under his tree are 25 wrapped books. Every night before bed, we snuggle up and open a book together.

He loves it, I love it, and I hope to continue it next year.

Yes, I wear my favorite Christmas sweaters and listen to Christmas music in the car. This is my absolute favorite time of year, and I’m so happy I have my family to enjoy it with. We have so many other things we do during December, these are just some of my favorite.

Keep an eye on my Instagram to see us finish our traditions!