When I was younger there aren’t many Holiday traditions that I remember our family partaking in. The only one that truly sticks out is that we would go and pick out a real tree at a tree farm, cut it down and bring it home. Holiday traditions are some of the most important memories for a child and their family. Some children will even carry those traditions over into their own families (when it’s that time). I was inspired by Patience Brewster to write about our holiday traditions. Patience Brewster is a small one artist company that creates unique handmade ornaments and holiday gifts.

When my husband and I moved in together our traditions started as our own. He did carry some over from his family. The biggest one being on the day after Thanksgiving, all the decorations go up! The tree gets trimmed and the garland gets hung. We’ve had this tradition now for the last four years of our holidays together and we love it and now sharing it with our children. Every year we add a little more decoration and a little more tradition.

With the birth of our first daughter came the first “Baby’s 1st Christmas” ornament. From there we built a tradition to add a “family” ornament each year. The hope is that one day we will look at our decorated tree covered in ornaments celebrating our family and all its growth. Last year we got an ornament that had four stockings personalized with each one of our names on it. This year we will pick a new ornament for our family to add to our tree.

Another tradition in our house through the holiday season is having a fire in the fireplace. We love that we have a wood fireplace and the warmth that it provides. The sounds of the snap and crackles as the fire burns is almost mesmerizing for our kids. Also since moving to our new town we take our annual trip to Bass Pro Shops Santa's Wonderland and have our picture taken.  Since moving here I have one of just Hannah, then Hannah and Savannah and finally (seen above) we have the finished family portrait with the big guy himself!

Finally, the biggest tradition in our house, maybe the biggest one for me is the one I carried away from my Christmas’s with my dad. On Christmas Eve we watch “White Christmas” with Bing Crosby and on Christmas Day we watch “A Christmas Story”. Recently, when I was shopping at Target I saw “A Christmas Story” on sale for $5 and scooped it up! I personally love “White Christmas”, there’s something so perfect about that movie for me and I love singing the songs to a snuggled little baby cuddled in my arms.

What traditions do you have to share with your children? Have you created your own or did you carry some over from your childhood?