I couldn’t resist sharing our family’s list with you after publishing the Christmas bucket list ideas post last week. This year is a little different. While there are still a few of our tried and true traditions, we scaled back big time. Between my work and Colby’s ramping up and a family wedding where our girls are flower girls, we just don’t foresee having much time to do everything we want. So we’re being selective.
I vow that next Christmas season won’t be like this. There won’t be a wedding (fingers crossed). I’m planning on growing this site, and others, so I don’t need to spend as much time working as a ski instructor. And HOPEFULLY, Colby’s company won’t declare a price increase two weeks before Christmas next year. A time when all the salesmen would rather be winding down with their families instead of burning the midnight oil securing all their customers’ orders before the deadline.
There’s this vision I have of a relaxed, simple Christmas filled to the brim with quality time with the kids, baking cookies, and watching movies. We’re a bunch of homebodies here, but an adventure a season would also be nice. I have a plan to simplify and carve out more time, but more on those changes later. Today, let’s bucket list!
The Usual Suspects And Santa Things
Let’s start with all the things that make the season extra magical when you’re a family with small children. The Santa things and the must-do, non-negotiables.
Writing Letters To Santa
Such a fun activity that I never miss with our kids. This year, letter writing was extra fun because our youngest is now four and can articulate exactly what she wants. Our eldest writes her own, which is always fun. She even wrote a letter to Santa from our cat, June June, who she feels gets snubbed by Santa every year. The dog gets a toy, why not the cat? I tell her it’s because he’s an annoying cat, but she disagrees.
Take A Photo With Santa
We missed out on all the opportunities to take a picture of our kids with Santa Claus last year. I feel like our days of Santa are too quickly coming to a close, so it makes me sad to miss a year as we did. Come hell or high water, there will be a Santa photo this year.
Christmas Eve Boxes With A Book
One of our tried-and-true traditions on Christmas Eve, just before bed, is to gift everyone a Christmas Eve box. In it is a set of matching pajamas (Hanna Andersson always), full tops/bottoms for the girls, and usually flannel pants for Colby, and a long john top for me to help save money compared to buying a full set for each of us. Also in the box is a wrapped book. It’s not a Christmas book, just a book we think the recipient will enjoy. We stole the tradition from Iceland’s Jolabokaflod, where families gift each other a book on Christmas Eve and spend the evening cozying up and reading.
Look At The Lights On Christmas Eve While Tracking Santa
We live really close to one of those locations that goes over the top for Christmas lights. There’s a road you drive through, even taking your car through a massive, Christmas-lit tunnel of lights. The whole tour takes about 10 minutes, but it is magical. We save the trip for Christmas Eve every year. On the drive home, I usually hand my phone over to our eldest daughter, who informs us of Santa’s whereabouts on the Santa tracker app.
Read The Night Before Christmas Together
Every year, after the cookies and milk for Santa are set out, we snuggle up next to the fireplace and read The Night Before Christmas together. It’s special and magical. A true gem of a tradition that will never be cut, no matter how old our children are.
Mail Christmas Photo Cards
I love Christmas cards. I love making them (always from Minted), taking the photos for them, addressing them, writing messages on them, receiving them, all of it. So I questioned Colby about stealing my joy when he suggested printing a Christmas message and our names on the back instead of handwriting them. Such nonsense! I shall sit by the light of the Christmas tree and write Christmas notes to my heart’s content. But they may not arrive in mailboxes until mid-January.
Christmas Adventuring
While I claim to be a hardcore homebody, I do like to get out for an adventure or two at Christmas. This year, we’re skipping some of our usual favorites for a family wedding. Like the local light parade and a Christmas farm experience, but fingers crossed, we can do those next year.
Take A Ride On The Polar Express
Another sad moment last year was having to take my mandatory ski instructor training course while my mother-in-law took my place on the Polar Express with my family. Heartbreaking! But not this year. I shall sip my hot, hot, hot, hot chocolate while my ears go numb from all the jingle bells. Tickets purchased, time off secured, and at dusk, we ride!
Visit Reindeer
One of my favorite, magical Christmas locations is the LL Bean flagship store in Freeport, ME. They do Christmas right! They typically have reindeer in their Santa’s village, which my reindeer-obsessed children love to hang out with. I’m planning a day trip to make the magic happen.
Sledding, Skiing, And Skating
Ahhh…the perfect trifecta of outdoor winter activities that our family loves. We’re planning a couple of family ski days just before Christmas. We’ve already logged far too many hours sledding on our backyard hill, and the town has just flooded the local rink on the green. We are poised for optimal winter sports enjoyment.
Decorating For Christmas
Decorating for Christmas is one of my favorites, and I never seem to stop doing it, right up until Christmas day. I’m constantly adding a little ribbon there, or switching up the garlands here. It’s fun, don’t judge.
Cut Down Our Own Tree
It’s always an adventure to visit a local, family-owned tree farm to cut down our Christmas tree for the year. This year, Beatrix, who is four, was the tree chooser and selected a beautiful balsam fir. Her sister, Rowan, is not impressed with her selection and prefers a Fraser fir. Oh my. But fun was had, and our tree is wonderful! Shameless plug for how to care for a real Christmas tree.
Decorate The Tree
I used to be a person who wanted THE perfect Christmas tree, perfectly themed and color coordinated. And then I had kids. This year’s tree is almost 100% decorated by our children. Their idea of a theme is to add ALL the glass ornaments to the tree and watch the dog’s tail break them like a whip. It’s fine. None of them are precious, and I suppose two casualties in two weeks isn’t so bad.
Set Up A Christmas Record Station
About 10-ish years ago, Colby gifted me a portable Crosley record player. Top five of the gifts from Colby right there! While it usually lives in the hallway outside my craft room, at Christmastime, it comes down to the dining room, and we set up a Christmas album record station. I pull all the old Christmas records we’ve thrifted or were passed down from our families. It’s also a tradition to add one new vinyl record each season. Last season, The Grinch and this year, Michael Buble.
Advent Calendar
When Rowan, now almost nine, was a baby, I bought our wooden Advent calendar from Pottery Barn. It wasn’t cheap, but I knew it would become a family heirloom. I’m here to confirm it has. I set it up with a mix of Christmas activities, ornaments to hang on an Advent-specific tree, and sweet treats. Someday, I may fill the Advent Calendar with something different, but in this season, it’s a solid ten out of ten.
Attempt To Make An Orange Garland
I’ve always wanted to try making orange garlands to hang in the kitchen windows. It feels so rustic, farmhouse kitchen to me. Maybe this year is the year I give it a whirl.
Fill The Girls’ Bedroom With Paper Chains
This has been on our bucket list for a few years now. I have this vision of absolutely filling the girls’ bedrooms with paper chains. Paper chains everywhere! Rowan and Bea love the idea too, but every time I bring it up and try to make it a family activity, they bail on me. Maybe I should just do it.
Make Pine Garlands For The Kitchen
There was a time, back before kids, that I would make pine garlands and wreaths for our home. It’s super easy, and our meadow is filled with small pine trees for foraging. It would be fun and budget-friendly to make some since we’re feeling a little pinched lately.
Cozy Christmas Homebody
If I had to define what type of person I am, I would call myself a cozy Christmas homebody. Can that be a personality? No? But please?!?! Seriously, if I could just spend all my days sipping hot cocoa, baking cookies, snuggling kids, watching Christmas movies, and putting together puzzles, all while sporting flannel jams and fuzzy slippers, I would be the happiest!
Make Gingerbread Houses With The Kids
Making gingerbread houses is a must-do in this house. It’s such a blast! Typically, I make our own using gingerbread house cutters along with King Arthur’s construction gingerbread recipe. The girls and I go shopping for a few candies, each of us gets to choose two, and we share. Then it’s a free-for-all. I’ll help them assemble the houses, but they mainly decorate them on their own these days.
Watch Our Favorite Christmas Movies
On the list: Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman, How The Grinch Stole Christmas, The Grinch, The Christmas Toy (my favorite movie as a child), Charlie Brown Christmas, That Christmas (the girls’ current favorite Christmas movie on Netflix), Christmas Vacation, Home Alone, The Polar Express, The Holiday, and Die Hard (for Colby and I).
And Maybe One Or Two New-To-Us Movies
I might try to get the kids to watch Prancer. Do you remember that one from the late 80s or early 90s? And possibly A Christmas Story. We’ve tried before, but everyone under 10 was bored. Little Women is on my list. That can be considered a Christmas movie, right?! I’ve also been wanting to watch Bad Moms Christmas, but every time I start, little eyeballs, that are supposed to be closed and tucked in for the night, come and find me.
Hang Christmas Stockings And Add One For The Cat
I’ve been told our poor cat, June June needs his own Christmas stocking if Santa is to fill it. So when I hang our stockings, one shall be added for the annoying cat.
Read A Christmas Book By The Tree
Over the years, I’ve collected some holiday-themed paperbacks from the thrift store that I’ve been saving to read by the light of the Christmas tree. So festive! They’re all super light, heartwarming reads, which is just how I want to feel at Christmastime.
Plant Paperwhites And Amaryllis
I know you’re supposed to start these in November, but I still haven’t. At this point, I plan on planting mine and will delight in the blooms come January and February when some wintery flowers will feel just right.
Craft Ornaments With The Kids
A few years ago, we added a flocked, artificial Christmas tree to the keeping room. The plan was for it to be the craft tree. The kids and I were going to make all kinds of ornaments to hang on the tree because there’s something so special about a tree with ornaments crafted by kids. We’ve crafted once. During the girls’ school vacation, just before Christmas, I’m planning a craft day for them and a few of their friends to make ornaments.
Hallmark Christmas Movie Marathon On Christmas Day
All I ever want to do on Christmas day, after all the hustle and bustle is over, is to spend the day on the couch in my new Christmas jammies, eat cinnamon rolls, and watch Hallmark Christmas movies. I can usually get away with it, too, since the kids are all engrossed with their new toys.
For The Love Of Food
For some reason, this Christmas season, I am obsessed with baking cookies. This isn’t normally like me. Typically, I make some Christmas peppermints (a family recipe and tradition) and sugar cookies for Santa, and that’s it. But all I can think about is baking cookies. Neighbors, you’re about to get lots of cookies…and mints, marshmallows, and possibly Christmas fettuccine.
Make Christmas Mints
Christmas mints are a family tradition passed down from my mom, who learned from her mom, who learned from her mom. They’re like York Peppermint Patties but a little smaller (they’re cut with an antique doughnut hole cutter), a little thicker, and a thousand times more delicious. I get in trouble when I don’t make them, so I’d better get my confectionery on.
Bake ALL The Cookies
On the wish list: matcha Christmas trees, lemon drops, Russian tea cakes, maple brown sugar cookies, peanut butter blossoms, my own fancy decorated sugar cookies, cranberry shortbread bars, cider thumbprint cookies, almond cloud cookies, hermit bars, and date-filled molasses cookies. Will I bake them all? No. Will I bake most of them? Heck no. But will I bake some and thoroughly make a mess? It is certain.
Bake Sugar Cookies And Decorate Them For Santa
This one’s for the girls kids, who want to use ALL the cutters, ALL the sprinkles, and ALL the icing colors. Sugar cookie baking and decorating day is a wild fete of sugar and color. I’m mentally preparing for it now. Photo evidence below.
Make Peppermint Marshmallows
Nothing tastes more like the Christmas season to me than plopping big, fat, fluffy peppermint marshmallows into my steaming cup of hot cocoa and slowly sipping it as the marshmallow turns gooey.
Cook Christmas Fettuccine
Have you seen the movie, The Holiday? You know the part where Kate Winslet’s character makes Jack Black’s character fresh, homemade fettuccine alfredo? So I may have, perhaps, stolen the idea from the movie, and now every Christmas, I make Christmas fettuccine from scratch, fresh pasta and all. It’s the only time of year I make it, so it’s extra special.
Try A New Soup Recipe
I love soup. In the winter, all I want to cook and eat for dinner is soup. Unfortunately, my family does not share the same sentiment and wants other foods like tacos. The fools. While I have my tried and true favorites, I’m always looking for a few new ones to try.
Kindness And Weirdness
Help Support Families In Need In Our Community
Our community has several options for supporting families in need. I prefer to volunteer and donate to these organizations rather than larger or national ones because I would rather help our neighbors. From donating items to a holiday store where kids can “shop” for free for their family, to donating winter gear, volunteering with programs at our school, and more. I’ve gotten the kids involved this year, and it’s heartwarming to watch them help.
Tip Generously
We rarely go out to eat these days, but for our monthly date night this holiday season, I plan to tip generously. The same goes for our local coffee shop, which I frequent much more often. Big tips are always appreciated and a fun surprise.
Deliver Treats To Neighbors
From the elderly neighbor who lives alone, to the recent empty nester, to the ones who lost both parents this year, the girls and I are hitting the neighborhood delivering some cheer. We’re not quite sure what we’re doing, but we plan to do something extra special for our neighbors. And by neighbors, since it’s rural Vermont, I mean the ones who live within a few miles of us.
Learn The Lyrics To Christmas Wrapping By The Waitresses
And finally…the weirdest item on my list. Every Christmas, I say I’m going to learn the lyrics to this song, and every year I try but don’t get very far. Maybe about 2% progress each year. But wouldn’t it be a hit at karaoke?! Maybe this is my year.
Pssst…So tell me, what’s on your bucket list? Any old standbys you can’t live without? Or something new you want to try? Do tell!
