What are your favorite Christmas traditions?

I know this is a ways off, but what are your must have Christmas decorations and favorite little Christmas traditions? Money is super tight for us but I am trying to budget to make this the most festive Christmas for my little family. My kids will be 11.5 months and 2.5 years come Christmas and I know they are little and won’t remember, but this is the first Christmas since my mom has passed and it was her favorite holiday. We already have the cute stockings, and we’ll have a Christmas tree but what are some ongoing memorable things/decorations that we can use/do year after year?

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Cookie decorating, matching PJs or socks, watch a Christmas movie or cartoon Christmas Eve. Driving around and looking at lights, Christmas Eve Church service, milk and cookies for Santa.

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We don’t do “sugar cereal”. But Santa brings a box every Christmas. When they kids were little I’d buy them the little tiny boxes. Now that they are teenagers, they get their own box.

New pjs a movie and hot coco box on Xmas eve

My exs family does pj’s Xmas eve so they can wear them for presents… My son is 3 so my current biggest tradition is I get us a custom ornament every year… I’m sure it will evolve as he gets older and gets into he holiday but for now that our little thing.

The tree goes up on 12/12 - that was my late dad’s birthday, the whole family comes round and we have a drink.

Boxing Day is cold meat with pickled onions and mashed potatoes and is the only day I put ketchup on mash!!

every year i used to take my boys to pick a decoration and we would have real fruit icecreams in town (xmas is summer time in nz) I put their name and year on each decoration and when they left home i gave them their collection of decorations. They loved going through and remembering when they got each decoration

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Google homemade dough ornaments. You can make dough out of flour, salt and water (super cheap and easy). You can use cookie cutters to make different shapes or you can make round ones and put their hand prints on them each year. It’s cool to see their handprint size grow, over the years. You can paint them to look more festive too.
No matter the shape, write their names and the year on the backs so you have keepsakes.

One thing I did as a single mom…my kids are grown and gone…Oriental Trading Company had Christmas Ornaments you could buy, I believe they came in a box of 12, and they held pictures, specifically school pictures in my case. I would cut my children’s pictures to fit the frames and give those as gifts. My family absolutely loved them and they were quite affordable. Just an idea. I know they still have them because I am considering doing the same things with photos of my grandkids❤️

Bake cookies for Santa (if your household does Santa) a special new Christmas pj, a special book, elf on the shelf, arts and crafts

Let them put some of the decorations in the tree , get the Christmas calendar board , cooking and gingerbread decorations,pictures with Santa , go to see the lights.

My daughter and I wear matching pjs , on Christmas Eve and always watch 1-2 Christmas movies.