My Favorite Holiday Traditions

I don't know about you, but I am so excited to decorate my apartment and get the tree up so we can enjoy it! Nothing is better than making your home feel so cozy and warm for the holiday season. I just love coming home to the most inviting apartment and relaxing with a cup of hot cocoa and watching a Christmas movie, and *spoiler alert* that is most likely where you'll find me for the next month. I really have no shame.

That being said I wanted to kick off the holiday posts with a couple of our favorite holiday traditions, I love the fun little things we do every year and it's always one of my favorite parts of the holiday season. Traditions mean a lot to me, my family had them when I was younger and I loved starting my own once I moved away from home. Chris has always been a saint putting up with some of my crazy or random ideas but a couple of them stuck and now we look forward to them each and every year. I'd love to hear what traditions you all have, feel free to leave them in the comments below!

#1 Pajama Picking

This first tradition was actually something really random and spontaneous that happened while we were out doing our Christmas shopping one year. We were in Old Navy and we came across some adorable pajamas, anyone who knows me knows that I am a sucker for a good pair of pajamas all year round but winter pj's are my favorite. We actually both had the same idea at the same time, we decided that we wanted to pick out a pair of pajamas for each other and save them for Christmas Eve.

#2 Cocoa, Cookies, and Christmas Eve

So like I mentioned above we picked out pajamas for each other but we didn't let the other person see them until Christmas Eve. So we like to spend Christmas Eve relaxing at home in our pajamas watching ELF and eating cookies we make together that day and drinking hot cocoa. It's a nice way to just spend some time together before the chaos of all our family Christmas parties.

#3 Christmas Movie Marathon

Chris and I both work Monday - Friday so we try to find as much quality time together as possible at night and on the weekends. For the whole month of December we try to watch a Christmas themed movie at least a couple times a week and one on weekends. It's just a good way for us to come home and relax either after work or after a really long week and it always gives us something small to look forward to. I'm actually considering writing a separate post with our favorite Christmas movies so be on the lookout!

#4 Ornament Swap

This one is absolutely my favorite tradition, so I saved the best for last! I'm honestly not even sure I remember how this one came about but it is so much fun and I think it really takes a lot of thought from the other half, it's always such a sweet thing and it doesn't have to cost much. So every year before Christmas we exchange Christmas ornaments. We each pick out an ornament that signifies something we did that year, somewhere we went, or something that happened that we want to remember. For example, this year I got him a Christmas ornament of the scales of justice because this year he graduated and got his first job in the legal department of a large publishing company and I'm so proud of him! This year he got me a beautiful ornament from DisneyWorld since back in February we went for my birthday and it was the first time I had ever been! It was so much fun.

So that sums up all of my Christmas traditions! I think every couple should do an ornament swap because I think it is so much fun and so special to see what the other person thinks was an important event or trip, or even just something that means a lot to you or something that reminds them of you! I'd love to know if you steal any of these for yourself, they're so much fun and so special that I felt like I needed to share! Again, I'd love to know about your favorite traditions in the comments!

I'll see you back here soon for more holiday posts!

No comments