2020 has been a tough year. And many of the normal family holiday activities and festivities have been cancelled. So, I put together a list of Family Holiday Activities and Traditions that are fun and safe for 2020!
Many of these activities my family has done throughout the years – sometimes every year! And even my BIG boys still enjoy them.
I hope they spark ideas for you!
Sewell Family Activities & Traditions
- Watching ELF – yes, that’s our all time favorite holiday movie! We watch it every single year – but you don’t have to limit yourself to ELF. There are so many wonderful holiday movies out there! Maybe choose a different one to watch each week during the month of December!
- Decorating gingerbread houses. Years ago, I made a gingerbread train from scratch to decorate – a lot of work! Since then, we’ve bought gingerbread kits and extra candy and items (like frosted mini wheat cereal for roof shingles) and decorated those! We’ve all decorated one house and sometimes we have a little competition and everyone decorates their own.
- Making cookies. Who doesn’t love a cookie? We have some favorite recipes and we always make sugar cookies and decorate them!
- Pjs, hot cocoa & Christmas lights. One random night when the kids are already in their pjs, we make hot cocoa, get in the car and drive around looking at Christmas lights! It’s always fun! If you really want to make some special hot chocolate – try one of Form V Chocolates hot chocolate bombs!
- Reading The Night Before Christmas. We do this every Christmas Eve – in fact, we STILL do it and our boys are 18, 19 &22! When they were little we used to read a different holiday book every night. One of our favorites is Mr. Willowby’s Christmas Tree.
- The pickle ornament. This started when we lived in Germany. On Christmas Eve we hide a pickle ornament on our tree. The child that finds it gets a bonus gift! The gifts have ranged from candy to iTunes gift cards to mini speakers.
- Matching Christmas jammies. Yes, we are that family! Now Mark and I don’t always match the kids- but the boys ALWAYS get matching Christmas jammies on Christmas Eve. Belli Bambini has some super cute kid pjs!
Those are the things we like to do every year! There are a few other traditions we have, but we won’t be able to do those in 2020. So, we will make the MOST of the activities that we can do!
Do you have any holiday traditions with your family? Share them in the comments! I’d love to compile a bigger list!
Wishing you and yours a happy, healthy holiday season!
Natasha Sewell is a family and newborn photographer plus a photographer educator and mentor. She captures family’s joyful chaos in the place they are most comfortable – home. Natasha serves Washington, DC and surrounding areas and specializes in maternity, baby, and family photography.
