Our favorite Christmas Traditions & Recipes

Can you believe that Christmas is in less than 5 days?!?!

We are still in school until Thursday!!!!

Since it's Christmas week, I wanted to share some of our favorite Christmas traditions & recipes!

Here we go.....

TRADITIONS:

Growing up, one of my favorite traditions was going to the Santa Cruz mountains to cut down our Christmas tree. We have only done that a couple of times since we have had our own kids (mainly because of the California drought causing dry Christmas trees) this is a tradition I hope to start back up...maybe next year :)

Another tradition I had as a kid & that we also do with our kids is to go to San Francisco during December. My sister has a work Christmas party for families & they rent out the Embarcadero Ice Skating rink. It's so fun....I love SF during Christmas.

 

Another tradition that we started doing about 6-7 years ago is when we head to San Francisco during the holidays we bring our blessing bags to hand out to the homeless. This is one of my girls favorite things to do. I am so proud of them & how brave they are when giving the blessing bags to the homeless.

I highly encourage you to make these bags....they truly bless people!

Here is what I put in each one:

You can read the full post about them {HERE}

This is one of my very favorite Christmas traditions.

Another one I started doing last year is taping this note to my front door along with Starbucks Gift Cards.

I don't know about you, but I do 99% of my Christmas shopping online. This is what I have taped on our front door as a way to say thank you to our fed ex, ups & usps workers who are working so hard this time of year:

I posted that photo on Instagram & one of my friends texted me asking if I could email her the graphic that I made, so I decided to just make it a printable for all of you as well! 

 You can sign or write in your own last name :)

{To download, Click so the image pops up in a new window, Right Click, Then Save & Print!}

Christmas Eve Eve is another tradition we started once we had kids.

On Christmas Eve Eve (the 23rd) we go to dinner at one of our favorite local restaurants and then drive around and look at Christmas lights in our town.

We have a Griswold house in our town.

 Every year it gets better and better..I can't wait to see it this year!

Christmas Eve is another fun tradition we have in our family. This is the same tradition we had when I was growing up. We go to church on Christmas Eve and then back to my parents for a Homemade Lasanga Dinner. After dinner we open up ALL our presents. Yes, I grew up opening all my presents on Christmas Eve. So, we do this with my parents now that we have kids.

Growing up, Santa did come on Christmas morning and he brought one "bigger" gift and stocking stuffers.

Of course watching Christmas movies is also a favorite tradition! Once the day after Thanksgiving hits, it is Christmas movie central. I watch TONS of Hallmark Christmas movies & you can see my Top 10 Christmas movies list HERE.

RECIPES:

Every December my kids and I do a TON of baking. 

We bake cookies for friends, neighbors & teachers.

Here is a round up of some of my FAVORITE Christmas Cookie Recipes!

Warning......there are a ton that I am posting :)

Candy Cane Kisses {Recipe HERE}

Fudge {Recipe HERE} 

Ultimate Ginger Cookie {Recipe HERE} 

Christmas Monster Cookies {Recipe HERE}

 Christmas Sprinkle Sugar Cookies {HERE}

 

Snickerdoodles {Recipe HERE}

Peanut Butter Blossoms {Recipe HERE}

 

 

Here are some other fun Christmas treats we make (that aren't cookies!)

Donut Snowmen {Recipe HERE}

 

Donut Reindeer {Recipe HERE}

 Peppermint Ice Cream Cake {Recipe HERE}

Preztel Hugs {Recipe HERE}

 Ritzies {Recipe HERE} 

Christmas Tree Brownies {Recipe HERE} 

Cranberry Cookie Bars {Recipe HERE} 

Salted Caramel Brownies {HERE}

Yesterday, I posted our Reindeer Food recipe & free printable...making that will surely be a yearly tradition now!

You can see the recipe HERE 

 

The free printable is also on the same post!

I also like making green Christmas tree pancakes:

I just add some green food coloring in my pancake batter & make different size pancakes, then stack them like a tree. I dust powered sugar on top for "snow" and some whippped cream as the star and sprinkles as ornaments.
My kids love these!

Christmas Crafting is also one of our favorite traditions.

Here are some Christmas craft ideas:

Homemade Snow Globe Gift Card Holder
Instructions {HERE}
Christmas Cookies in a Jar (and free printable) 

Get the instructions & printable {HERE}

Holiday Peeps Smores & free printable {HERE}

We love passing out goodies & gifts to our friends during December :)

 

Phew!

I am sure I have left off some of our Christmas traditions, but those are all some of my favorites!

Thanks Andrea for a fun link up!

 

What are your favorite family traditions or recipes? I can't wait to hear!

Also wanted to let you know that What's Up Wednesday is TOMORROW!!


I know we normally do it the last Wednesday of the month, but because of the holidays, we are doing it a week early this month.
As a reminder, here are the questions...feel free to answer all or some :)


Our bonus question for this month is:
What is your favorite memory from 2016?