5 Simple Homemade Holiday Traditions to Share with Family

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Get ready to be inspired by these 5 homemade holiday traditions! We are sharing simple desserts, homemade wreaths and much more.

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Homemade Holiday Traditions

There is so much hustle and bustle during the holiday season, but it’s important to take the time to carry out holiday traditions. It’s the traditions that we all share that bring our families together year after year. So today I am excited to share 5 simple, homemade holiday traditions that I hope will inspire you to start some new traditions with your family too.

Having fun traditions doesn’t have to be expensive, nor does it have to be a big ordeal. While we all love a good ugly sweater party, a simple Elf on the Shelf or baking cookies with the family is fun too.

It’s a Christmas Tradition Collaboration!

Today’s post is written in collaboration with a few incredible blogging friends. Together we are sharing our family traditions with all of you! Be sure to read to the end of this post to see their traditions and holiday ideas.

Homemade Holiday Baking Traditions

First stop on our holiday tradition list is the kitchen! When someone mentions the word “Christmas” to me, the first picture in my mind is a big plate of cookies. Perhaps I should first be imagining a tree, but no – cookies it is!

My Nana would always make these gooey, delicious Magic Bars around Christmas time. As a young girl, I would sit on the counter top and help her bake these. Just seeing them brings me right back to that memory.

Magic Bars are very simple to make, with only a handful of ingredients. One of my favorite things about this recipe (besides the gooey chocolate) is that many different ingredients can be added depending on what you have in the pantry.

Another traditional family recipe is my Grandmother’s Peanut Butter Blossoms. My Grandmother bakes numerous different types of delicious cookies for Christmas, but this is the family favorite.

Baking begins shortly after Thanksgiving, and it’s quite the production. My Grandmother gets started on the peanut butter blossom batter, while my Grandfather unwraps each Hershey’s Kiss and sets them out. He has been known to eat any Kiss that isn’t up to his standards.

Each batch makes about 7 dozen cookies, so you can imagine what that assembly line would look like!

Peanut butter blossoms are my favorite recipe to make with my boys. Everyone has a job, and my oldest places the Hershey’s kiss on top of each cookie with the utmost care.

Building memories with my boys through making family recipes is so heartwarming. My oldest asks me nearly every day if we can cook something together!

Homemade Wreaths

A few years ago, my husband sent me to a wreath making class for my birthday (which is also in December). The class was inside a greenhouse, complete with beautiful bistro lights, a massive amount of fresh greens, and of course a little wine.

Wreath making was such a joy to learn how to do, that I ended up taking a class and making Christmas wreaths for several years in a row.

While there may not be any in-person wreath making classes this winter, I thought there is no reason why I can’t do this on my own! We have a three season room and in the winter we take the screens out and have thick greenhouse plastic that covers the windows. This makes our three season room rather cozy and keeps the wind out. Over the summer, I had hung bistro lights from the ceiling and it makes for quite a beautiful little spot.

The kids and I spent an afternoon harvesting greens from the yard, and family donated some stunning greens and holly to us as well. We sorted through all the greenery and I got to wreath making.

Making wreaths at home and harvesting greenery with the kids was even better than in year’s past. The kids were so proud carrying the bundle of greens around the yard, and helping choose what types of greens we would use for the projects.

So far, I have made two wreaths this season and aside from wire I haven’t purchased any materials! A frugal, DIY that will last all season long. When the kids get a little older, I’ll be teaching them how to make wreaths right alongside me.

Decking the Halls

Annual Christmas decorating day at Simply Rooted Farmhouse is the day after Thanksgiving! A tradition that my husband and I have had since before we were married and we love that we continue this tradition with our kiddos.

We love using the same decorations year after year, so we purchase only specific decor items mindfully. We like to keep our decor relatively frugal and as eco-friendly as possible. Single use decor items don’t enter our home if we can help it.

Up goes the tree, and the lights, and the ornaments. All with Michael Buble singing in the background. Yes, every year. Every. Single. Year. I don’t think I can decorate the tree without listening to him!

We hang our stockings and set out the rest of our decorations. Our little star always tries to fall off the top of the tree (seriously, every year). But that’s our little star, and that’s her tradition!

Elf Tradition

Last Christmas, we were gifted a Scout Elf. For those of you who aren’t familiar, a Scout Elf works for Santa. The elf appears in your home sometime just after Thanksgiving, and reports back to Santa every night until Christmas.

Our elf has been lovingly named “Buddy” and our children can often be found telling Buddy messages to relay to Santa. What they want for Christmas, telling Santa they say “Hi” and who knows what else!

I have a feeling Buddy has started talking back, because my oldest informed me that Santa would like homemade donuts left out for him on Christmas eve this year.

Needless to say, our kids love Buddy. I suspect Buddy will be a holiday tradition for many years to come.

Homemade Gifts

Last but not least, my favorite tradition of exchanging gifts.

A simple way to show someone how much you care is through a homemade gift. This year, we are sharing homemade skincare gifts to family and friends.

Homemade gifts are typically less expensive than purchasing gifts at the store, and giving the gift of DIY skincare is no exception. How much is that bottle of lotion at the store that you contemplated grabbing for your co-worker? A DIY version would cost much less than that.

Making all natural skincare recipes is a family fun activity. We aren’t using any chemicals in the ingredients, so it’s safe for kids to help mix the sugar and coconut oil, measure and so much more.

If you’re interested in learning more about making skincare gifts this year, check out our free ebook called Simply Homemade Holiday. This book is a curation of Simply Rooted Farmhouse’s best skincare recipes with a holiday twist.

Other Holiday Traditions to Inspire you this Season from these incredible bloggers

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Lindsay at Little Acre Farm: “A Few Of Our Family’s Favourite Traditions“

Tani at Unraveled Motherhood: “Christmas Traditions with Big and Little Children“

Cheyenne at Living Like We’re Country: “Our Christmas Traditions“

Miriam at The Tailored Nest: “Unique Christmas Traditions“

Alexa at Church Street Homestead: “2020 Christmas Traditions“

Rainie herself from RainieRobinson.com: “The Best Sourdough Cinnamon Rolls with Buttercream Icing”

Pin it for Later

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Thank you for visiting today, I hope you enjoyed this post and had fun browsing the traditions of my blogging friends as well!

In the comments below, I would love to hear what your favorite holiday tradition is.