Five Simple Christmas traditions

 In an effort to keep the holidays stress free as possible, my family and I have chosen a handful of traditions that we do every year to bring holiday spirit and celebrate our faith and family.

We started celebrating with the Jesse Tree a couple years ago and my kids enjoy putting an ornament on our small tabletop tree every day in December and saying a prayer each night as we get closer to Jesus' birthday.

A couple weeks before Christmas we make two types of Christmas cookies and deliver some to our neighbors and friends. We usually always make sugar cookies decorated and then another. This year we made sugar cookie cut out cookies and decorated them as well as million dollar cookies which are a lot of work but are delicious and freeze and thaw out well.

Another tradition we have continued to enjoy each year is driving around and looking at Christmas lights. We have stopped and gotten ice cream some years or cookies to enjoy while driving around our local area.

Decorating gingerbread houses is another fun activity I am looking forward to enjoying this year as the kids are older and may be a bit more independent in their decorating capabilities. Its a simple fun craft activity that gives them something to work on and enjoy!

Watching our favorite Christmas movies is another wonderful tradition that we start December 1. As the kids have gotten older, we have been able to introduce them to our favorite Christmas movies as a kid like Home Alone, The Santa Claus and Elf. I have a couple of my favorites that I enjoy by myself or with my husband such as The Family Stone, Love Actually, The Holiday, Just Friends, and Four Christmases.

Although these five Christmas traditions may not be a big spectacular event, they are something we can do no matter what is going on in the world and where we live and that is something that I think helps my kids and myself as a military family who moves around and sometimes is away from our families at the holidays. It gives us something to look forward to and some stability during this bustling season.

**When my son was born in 2016 we started the tradition of doing a festive event as a family whether it be seeing Santa, Polar Express train ride,  watching the Nutcracker ballet or a movie in the theatre. We enjoyed surprising the kids with these events as a part of their Christmas gift. Unfortunately we aren't able to do this this year, but hopefully in the future we can again because as a minimalist I value experiences over things, when possible. 

I'd love to hear what are some of your family's holiday traditions?