Ever since I was a child holiday traditions have been something important to me. I loved sharing them with my family when I was young and starting new traditions when I got married. Yet as much as I’ve loved these “traditions” I never sat around and thought about what specific thing, event or practice signaled a holiday tradition to me and my family. So I thought it would be fun to create a post, a holiday check list if you will, listing the special things I like to do with family and friends over the holiday that make this time of year special to me.
1. Visit a Christmas tree farm. Real or fake? I go real every time, baby:) Something about the smell of pine and even the needles all over my floor just signals the holidays to me.
2. Trim the tree together. This might be my favorite tradition. There is nothing I love more than cranking up the Christmas music, breaking out the ornaments and all the memories that come with them, and decorating the tree. I’ve done this with both family and friends through the years and it’s always been an event that captured the holiday spirit more than even the day itself.
3. Bake cookies or decorate a gingerbread house. This is another favorite of mine and such a fun activity to do with children. I love to make batches for neighbors and friends instead of gifts.
4. Personalize our gifts. Instead of plain jane wrapping paper sold in rolls by the dozen at Costco, I love to get a large ream of white or brown plain paper to wrap my gifts and then personalize them with ornaments, ribbons or messages written in gold or silver across the paper. It makes the gifts so much more personal and actually saves a bit of coin as well.
5. Christmas Cards. This is a new tradition for me and one that I am super excited about. Its really something that I’ve meant to do each and every year, but have ended up being pretty sporadic about sending out holiday cards. It was never something that I particularly looked forward to. Then I discovered Minted and was suddenly super excited to send out holiday cards. Their selection of cards is so unique and special that there really is something for everyone. And beyond cards, Minted is a destination for unique and beautiful gift, art and home decor created by small, award-winning designers. I picked up this style (also love this and this), but there are so many to choose from and they even offer free recipient address printing. Yep, free. You can also customize color and paper type. Suddenly I’m not dreading this whole holiday card business!
Thanks for reading, I’d love to hear your favorite holiday traditions!
Xo,
Heidi
This post was sponsored by Minted but all opinions are 100% my own.
