Disclaimer: This post is sponsored by Walmart. Thanks for supporting the brands that support my blog.

As you may know by now, traditions are a big part of my family history. In fact, my mom wrote an entire blog post all about creating family traditions and the ones that we’ve been following for decades. It’s such a good read with lots of amazing ideas.

Now that I have my own little family, Finn and I are trying to be more intentional about creating holiday traditions for the four of us to enjoy. The Christmas season can pass by so quickly and when you’ve got little ones, the days blur together. It’s easy for an entire weekend to go by and we look at each other and think, “What did we even do this weekend?!” I don’t want that to happen during these precious holiday weeks.

Rory is understanding Christmas a bit better, so we sat down and created a list of the things we wanted to make a part of our family for the long haul.

Tips to Create Holiday Traditions

Obviously, we’re new to this. But here are some tips that we found helpful…

• Sit down and talk through some ideas with your partner. We had a cocktail, put on a fun Christmas movie in the background, and sat down to talk about how we wanted to spend our holiday season as a family. It was fun and productive.
• Reminisce about some of your own favorite childhood traditions and try to incorporate them into your current life.
• Ditch anything that doesn’t feel good. Just because you’ve been doing something forever, doesn’t mean it should continue year after year.
• Get your family excited too! Rory is two and we’re all about “prep” with her, which basically means we talk about things A LOT before they happen. We try to prepare her for anything new and out of her regular routine. Who will be there? What will we do? Why are we excited about it? We do this in the days leading up to something fun and it just gets her more eager for it to happen.
• Get it on the calendar. There are only four holiday weekends between Thanksgiving and Christmas, so we reserve dates early, with activities we actually want to do!

Family Pajamas

One of our annual holiday traditions is wearing matching Christmas pajamas. My children are one and two and I’m not sure how many years I have left until they don’t want to match us anymore. Parents with older kids, do yours still partake in this holiday tradition?! Please tell me we still have lots of years left…

Side note: Anyone else notice the chocolate bar in Rory’s hands? That might have been her reward for agreeing to sit next to her brother for a few pictures. Ha!

This year, I scooped up some cute holiday pajamas from Walmart. They had so many to choose from and they arrived in only two days!

These are the exact ones we got (L for Finn, M for me, and 3T for both kids) and they’re super cute and cozy. Here are some other family jammies that caught my eye.

Red Plaid (similar) // Black & White Buffalo Check // Vintage Car Print (similar) // Polar Bears // Fuzzy Socks // Our Christmas Jammies // Holiday Slippers // Reinder Slippers

We will wear these on Christmas Eve, so we can then wear them on Christmas morning when we open presents and have a nice leisurely day together.

Girls’ Tea Party Outing

I’m trying out a new tradition this year with a girls’ tea party at the Drake, here in Chicago. Rory loves playing pretend tea parties at home with her stuffed animals and I was eager for her to experience the “real thing.” We actually had our tea party yesterday and it was fantastic! All of the women in my family participated, including Rory and my niece. We all got dressed up, admired the gorgeous holiday decorations, and had a fun ladies’ outing.

Here are a few Walmart Fashion ideas for your own girls’ day out!

Glitter Shoes // Navy Sequins // Red Tutu Dress (similar) // Red Plaid Dress (similar) // Minnie Purse // Toddler Tights

St. Nick’s Day

Growing up, I absolutely loved Saint Nick’s Day. We would all put our shoes out at night and in the morning we would rush down the stairs to see them filled up with little treats and small gifts. I remember picking out the biggest shoe I could find, thinking that I would get way more gifts if my shoe was larger. Ha!

This year, we decided to do it for our own kids and we put their shoes out last week. In it, they each got a little chocolate, some socks, and an ornament for the tree. We decided that every year we will give them a new personalized ornament for the tree that embodies what they’re into that year. For Ellis, we found a construction ornament and for Rory, we found an ornament with her favorite character, Minnie Mouse! They loved them and were so excited to put them on the Christmas tree. We plan to continue with this new tradition again next year.

Minnie Mouse Ornament // Excavator Ornament // Candy Cane M&Ms // Frozen Toothbrush // Small Books // Socks Set

Other Holiday Traditions On Our Bucket List

Here are some other items that made our list this year.

• Attend the Brookfield zoo lights
• Sleepover by the Christmas tree
• Decorate a gingerbread house
• Host a cookie-baking day!
• Put up Christmas decorations on Black Friday together
• Enjoy a family movie night watching a Christmas movie
• Stay up a little late to drive around our neighborhood and see holiday lights

What Are Your Holiday Traditions?

I would love to learn more about your holiday traditions. Let me know what you do every year in the comments below. We’re just starting out with our kids and would love some new ideas to try out next year…