Our big family has many Christmas traditions, both big and small, but there are too many to list completely here. That being said, I’m going to tackle at least a few of them for those of you who might be curious about what we do as a big family each Christmas.
Of course, this year is already different as we added another stocking to our already stacked stocking tradition, which seems like as good of a place as any to start.
Stockings
With six little ones, our stocking situation is quite immense. For starters, we don’t have a fireplace, so there’s no mantle around here.
Instead, several years ago, I built a small ladder frame to hang on the wall. During the year, it holds hats, random drawings, pictures, the occasional pajama top or bottom, rosaries, and just about anything else on the wall above our couch.
But at Christmas time, it loses all of that in favor of our eight stockings. It started out its life with just four hooks and has morphed into an eight-hook pseudo-mantle to hold them all. It’s getting a little tight, naturally, but it’s a beautiful place for all of them to be together, a symbol of us being together in our small house.
The stockings are also one thing at Christmas that are exclusively theirs. No one else messes with them or uses them. No sharing required, which is a rare treat when you’re one of six.
On a side note, all of our children’s stockings were picked out by their great-grandmother, my wife’s grandmother. Except for one: the baby’s. It’s a sad side note, of course, as she is no longer with us to pick out stockings. But at least most of them have a tangible memory of their great-grandmother, even if they were too young to fully remember her.
Ornaments
Another of our traditions is Christmas ornaments. Each year, my wife and I buy a special ornament for each kid for that year’s tree. This year, however, St. Nick beat us to it and left ornaments for all of the kids instead (you can read about and see them here). The kids love having their own ornaments and are very good at remembering whose is whose. It’s another little thing that is exclusively theirs. They love pulling them from the box and hanging their own ornaments on the tree.
Small, sure, but these little things turn out to be really big for them. As I sat writing this, I suddenly remembered doing the exact same thing with my own childhood ornaments. It feels like yesterday, not decades ago. Hoping these moments stick with my crew the same way.
Advent Calendar
Lots of families do Advent calendars of all sorts and sizes. Ours is composed of a blend of twenty-four different events we attend as a family or little crafts or activities we can do at home together. Ranging from last night’s activity of stringing popcorn (one of our favorites) to attending the Christmas parade in our town (last Saturday) to watching Elf or Charlie Brown or Mickey’s Christmas Carol and playing an accompanying game while we watch, each one is a special time to just be together. No matter what we’re doing from the Advent calendar, we are sure to have fun doing it and bonding over whatever it is we’re doing that day.
Additionally, the kids have a calendar full of magnetic ornaments they add to a magnetic Christmas tree, a tiny moose who hops from stocking to stocking counting down the days, or little reflections from a children’s Christmas book. They rotate days taking turns doing each one. We added puzzles to that this year, though we are behind (and I have a whole box of Lego puzzles we’re supposed to be doing that we haven’t even touched yet! Oh well. Maybe next year!).
Christmas Lights
Whether in our front yard, on our roof, or decorating the various neighborhoods of our town, one of our favorite traditions is looking at Christmas lights. One of our advent calendar activities is driving around town to see the light displays. We drive around for as long as the kids can stand each other in the car (the time varies greatly depending on snacks and naps that day) and just soak up the lights.
Just down the road from us, one of our smaller town neighbors hosts a drive-through Christmas in the park featuring hundreds of light displays to drive through and view. This has long been a tradition predating our kids as my wife and I used to attend with her mother and grandmother when we were just starting to date. So, that makes that trip to see those lights one of our oldest family traditions.
Our Elf (and His Ninja Sensei)
It would not be Christmas at our house without Buddy the Elf (I think his full name is actually Buddy Chicken Nugget the Elf, but I will have to verify that). He arrived at our house to keep an eye on all things pre-Christmas for us a few years ago. He is not nearly as naughty as some of the elves we see online, but he does still make mischief around the house on occasion (green elf milk, anyone?).
This year, he brought a new friend to the house: his ninja Sensei. Sensei brings little missions for the kids to accomplish, like telling jokes to make people happy or building a fort with your siblings and telling stories. They have welcomed Sensei wholeheartedly and are enjoying the added challenge of not only finding Buddy hiding in the house but now Sensei as well.
Early Christmas
Perhaps my favorite family Christmas tradition is our early Christmas. What that means is that, in order to have our own small family Christmas each year before the bigger celebrations with extended family, two or three days before Christmas, we gather all of our gifts and open them before having a huge lunch together at the family table.
This one has always been my favorite. It’s something we all look forward to and anticipate all year long. Not just because Christmas comes early, but because we get our own special time together without conforming to someone else’s calendar. It’s truly carefree time together to soak in the reason for the season.
As I stated earlier, this is by no means all of our traditions. This post would go on for days if I were to attempt to catalog all of them.
Rather, this is but a sampling of some of my favorites. I hope you enjoyed reading some of ours, and I hope you will tell me your favorite tradition in the comments. I read every single one and I’m always looking to steal new ideas!
Until my next Christmas post….
Bring Back Big Families 
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