15 Christian Christmas Traditions for Families
Looking for ways to help your family celebrate the true meaning of Christmas? In search of fun ideas to incorporate Jesus Christ into all the festivities?
The commercialization of Christmas can make it seem impossible to celebrate the true meaning of the season. As a parent, it’s easy to worry if your kids will look back on Christmas as Jesus’ birth or just the day they got presents. Having Christian traditions as a family can help them associate Christmas with good quality time learning about the real meaning of Christmas, the birth of Christ.
In this post, I’m sharing 15 Christian Christmas traditions to help you and your family celebrate the true meaning of the holiday.
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15 Christian Christmas Traditions
1. Read the Book of Luke
The gospel of Luke tells the story of Jesus coming to earth as a baby, so he could live a perfect life and die for the sins of the world. Read a chapter a day as a family to get the full story of Jesus Christ. It’s a great addition to a morning time basket or to read aloud as a family before bed.
A fun alternative to Elf on the Shelf.
Get the plush Little Lamb from Bethlehem and the accompanying book to tell the story of Jesus’ birth in your home for the month leading up to Christmas.
You can make it a big deal when the little lamb comes each year. Maybe he brings Christmas pajamas or Christmas books to read. Make a letter from the little lamb to your family that you read every first of December so that you enter the season with your heart in the right place. You could read the Christmas story or the passage on the good Samaritan.
Every night you can hide the little lamb somewhere with an encouraging note for your kids to find the next day. Throughout the month, use the little lamb to spark random acts of kindness, not only from your kids, but also from you. It’s a great way to keep bringing your family back to a giving mindset and reminding them what Jesus did for us.
There are plenty of Christmas movies about Santa Claus, but not very many about the true meaning of Christmas. Make it a fun family event with snacks, Christmas pajamas, and cozy blankets.
The Star is such a hit; the whole family will be laughing.
4. Church Christmas Program/Play
This is a great Christmas tradition to get you and your kids involved. Ask someone in your local church if they have a Christmas program of any kind you and your kids can participate in or even just come to watch.
Some churches act out the Nativity, while others have programs where they sing carols and have scripture readings. Your kids learn more about Christ’s birth, and they might even have the opportunity to tell others who might not know about the real reason for the season.
The Giving Manger is a tradition all about nurturing a giving spirit in you and your kids. For every act of kindness that you do as a family, you place a piece of straw in the manger so that when Christmas morning comes, you can lay the baby Jesus in a manger full of straw to keep him warm.
They even have convenient sets you can purchase now that come with everything you need to start the tradition with your family.
6. Ring Bells for Salvation Army
A couple of hours out in the cold as a family is well worth it to gather donations for those in need this Christmas season. It’s easy to sign up, and volunteering is a perfect segue into teaching your kids about what Jesus did for us.
7. Adopt a Family/Child
Giving to those in need is a great way to teach your kids the importance of giving over receiving in a holiday season that is so overly commercialized.
There are multiple ways to do this. The Salvation Army has a program called Angel Tree that allows you to enter your zip code and see what needs there are in your community. Operation Christmas Child with Samaritans Purse allows you to fill a shoebox with essentials and sends them all around the world to those who need them.
8. Have a Birthday Party for Jesus
A birthday party for Jesus is a great way to help kids understand exactly why we celebrate Christmas! You can hang decorations, bake a cake, and even sing happy birthday to Jesus.
A Jesse Tree is an advent to prepare our hearts for Christmas by reading through the genealogy of Jesus in the Bible.
You can buy a physical tree with ornaments to read each day or just read through the passages in the Bible as a family.
10. Caroling
Christmas Caroling is a fun way to create Christmas memories as a family. A lot of churches have this as an activity together, but if your church doesn’t, you could go caroling at your local nursing home, to friends and family, or even your neighbors.
Some great Christmas hymns to sing are:
- Away In A Manger
- Angels We Have Heard On High
- The First Noel
- Hark The Herald Angels Sing
- Joy To The World
- Oh Come All Ye Faithful
- O Little Town Of Bethlehem
- We Three Kings
…and many more.
You could even read some of the stories behind the songs to your kids so they appreciate them even more.
11. 25 Days of Christian Christmas Books
There are so many good children’s books out there to help teach your kids about the birth of Jesus Christ:
- Stories Behind The Great Traditions Of Christmas is not a picture book, but would be a good read-aloud to teach your kids about the origins of different Christmas traditions.
- The Beginners Bible and The Jesus Storybook Bible are kids’ Bibles that can be used to read just the story of Jesus’ birth or used the whole month of December as an advent.
- The Gospel is a book in the “Big Theology For Little Hearts” series. It is a great book to read to explain not only Jesus’ birth but also why he had to come to die for us.
- God Gave Us Christmas is a book in the “God Gave Us” series. It is the story of a mama bear telling her cub about the true meaning of Christmas.
- The Christmas Story is a Golden Book Classic with beautiful illustrations by Eloise Wilkin that tells the Nativity story.
- Christmas Is Coming is a book that teaches you and your kids to celebrate the greatest gift of the season, Jesus.
- A Very Noisy Christmas is a part of the “Very Best Bible Stories” series and tells the Nativity story in a way that will make it come alive for your little ones.
- The Christmas Promise Storybook is a book in the “Tales That Tell The Truth” series. It has bright and fun illustrations and will teach you and your kids about how Jesus came to be born a king.
- Jesus Came For Me is a board book that tells kids about why we celebrate Christmas and what Jesus did for us.
Wrap up all the books, and let your children open one each day as a countdown to Christmas.
The Donkey in the Living Room is a fun 9-day countdown to Christmas for kids. All while celebrating the true meaning of Christmas: the birth of Jesus Christ.
Wrap up or hide your Nativity characters (we use our Safari Ltd. Nativity Figurines). Each day your children will be introduced to a new character and will hear their individual stories about Jesus’ birth.
My kids get SO excited to see which nativity character they’ve opened each day!
13. Candlelight Christmas Eve Service
A lot of Churches do a Christmas Eve Service every year that is often by Candlelight. They sing songs and read scripture about Jesus’ Nativity. If your church doesn’t do this, it could easily be done as a family, and it is a great tradition to always remember Christmas by. You could even roll your own beeswax candles for the event.
14. Live Nativity
A live Nativity is a special production where actors act out the Nativity. It truly brings to life the Christmas story. Some of them are even held outdoors with real live animals. It’s worth looking up if your community has one. It is a tradition you and your kids will never forget.
15. My Christmas Gift To Jesus
This tradition is inspired by a poem called “In the Bleak Midwinter” by Christina Rossetti (commonly performed as a Christmas carol). The premise of the tradition is sort of like a show and tell. Each participant prepares music, a poem, or some other form of art to show as their Christmas gift to Jesus.
Even though we know the best gift to give him is our heart, it is a beautiful way to showcase our love for Christ and what he did for us. It could be done as a church, homeschool co-op, or just as a family.
Traditions for a Christ-Centered Christmas
I hope this list of Christian traditions gives you more exciting ways to experience the true meaning of Christmas this year. Christmas is so much more than a commercialized holiday. Use these traditions to spend time together as a family and celebrate Jesus’ birth.
What About You?
Does your family have any Christian Christmas traditions that you do every year? Comment below with your favorite way to incorporate Christ into the holidays, and be sure to share this post with other Christian families.