Creating Holiday Traditions

How to Make Cherished Holiday Traditions Your Own

Holidays are for so much more than gift-giving. It’s often the memories you create that make this time of year so special. As newlyweds, we’re carrying on some of our favorite family traditions and creating some of our very own.

Take time to figure out what makes the holidays so memorable to you – maybe it’s decorating the tree together right after Thanksgiving, watching “A Christmas Carol” as a family, or having an Advent calendar. Next, think about your favorite things to do during the holidays – whether it’s you, you and your significant other, or you and your friends. Keep your list relatively small so you don’t get overwhelmed. It’s already a busy time of year, but it’s never too early to make memories with your friends, family, and loved ones. Here are a few ideas:

Collecting Holiday China

Why let your Christmas tree have all the fun? There is so much fun china, porcelain, and glassware this time of year. It’s easy to add holiday cheer to your next gathering. Check out my recent post on my holiday hosting wishlist here for some of my favorites.

Adding to our Travel Tree

We absolutely love to travel. One of our favorite souvenirs to pick up on our trips are ornaments. Our furthest ornament is probably our star from the Vatican and our closest is most likely the china plate above from Mt. Vernon. We often try to get them in set colors, like the gold filigree ones, and try to stick to that palette. You have to sprinkle in a few fun ones though to keep things interesting. After all, no one likes a stale tree.

Since we’ve worked, lived, and played in our nation’s capital for a few years now, we have amassed a pretty big collection of U.S. Capitol and White House ornaments. They’re some of my favorites! You can find U.S. Capitol ornaments here and White House ornaments here. They make terrific gifts, stocking stuffers, and host/hostess gifts and normally come out around Thanksgiving if not a little before. You can also buy past years’ ornaments on both sites.

Visiting Holiday Sites

The National Christmas Tree and U.S. Capitol Christmas Tree are always stops we make during the holidays in Washington, D.C.

Seeing “The Nutcracker” was one of our earlier dates and we’ve kept that tradition going nearly every Christmas. So many cities have different productions of this classic Christmas story. It’s always a great one to see to really feel the warmth and fun of the holidays. If you’re in the DC/MD/VA area, I’ve also heard fabulous things about historic Ford’s Theatre’s production of “A Christmas Carol.”

We try to catch Christmas lights when we can and often go when visiting family. I’m excited to be adding The National Zoo’s Zoo Lights to this year’s plans!

Christmas Villages and Nativity Scenes

My mother started Christmas village and nativity collections when we were younger. Adding to the collections each year was such a fun tradition growing up, and now I’m even more thankful to have them to continue building. I have the Department 56 Dickens Christmas Village. They have several different “villages” with different styles and you can mix and match a few of them. They’re great quality and so sweet.

Our nativity is hand-painted Fontanini (5 inch scale). They’re family-owned and they’ve been making these figurines for more than 100 years. Each one is so beautifully-done.