Our Non Traditional Holiday Tradition – Making Memories as a Family

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Our Non Traditional Holiday Tradition - Making Memories as a Family

Our nontraditional tradition for the holidays is choosing a theme every year – sounds confusing right?! I am a very hands on visual person and so when the holidays come I’m one of those people that like to plaster decor everywhere in my home. But not just holiday decor – it’s more of a themed decor. Unfortunately with my husband’s schedule running our school and holidays being very busy for me blogging we don’t have a lot of time to sit around and bake cookies like my hubby did growing up. For me, we did nothing for the holidays growing up and never had any traditions – so I wanted something really memorable for my kids during the holiday. I’m not a big on doing the same exact tradition year after year either. There’s nothing wrong with it – I just like plenty of change.

Anyone that knows me knows I’m extremely hands on with the kids and we’re up for a good adventure and creative fun. So many times people have told me that I should share what we do for the holidays so here I am sharing my family’s nontraditional tradition with you!

Every year we choose a theme (mostly led by the kids but agreed on as a family) and EVERYTHING revolves around the theme. Gifts, home decor, crafts and activities, etc. It ensures that we can spend several months doing fun things together as a family as we have time and the kids have a big hand in helping to design and decorate the house just as much as we do. The first year we started doing this our theme was LEGOs since the kids were younger. It seems every year is getting bigger and better and as the kids are getting older they get even more excited!

Minecraft Christmas Tree Holiday Idea

Last year our holiday theme was Minecraft. Our house looked like it exploded into pixels. The kids saved boxes for MONTHS and decorated them to turn into a giant 3D cubed Christmas tree that we hid presents inside of. They did the ENTIRE thing themselves (can you tell?!)! The kids spent several nights cutting felt and designing cubed ornaments of their favorite Minecraft characters. We made square shaped cookies and decorated them to match favorite Minecraft characters. They had a blast! Everything we did was in blocks. You can scroll through all of our No Sew Minecraft pillows and toys that we made last year there.

Harry Potter Chocolate Frog Mold

This year our holiday theme is Harry Potter. We are working on a Marauder’s Map Christmas tree skirt, floating candles down our hallway, a Platform 9 3/4 area, floating letters, chocolate frogs (we are using this frog mold), a Monster Book and other fun aspects to our holidays! Even Harry Potter mugs that I made – you can see the tutorial here. You can scroll through my DIY Harry Potter Pinterest board for some of the ideas and printable links we are using. We are also hosting a Hogwarts Holiday Banquet and inviting a family that needs a nice holiday meal. I have already ordered these Harry Potter pillowcases (Platform 9 3/4, Harry Potter head, Marauders Map) for a couple bucks each along with their wands and a few other small Potter gifts. We essentially start as we have time once we decide on our theme (usually by September-ish) and then if we have a free afternoon here or there we all contribute to designing things for our holiday decor. At the end of the season we pack away anything we want to save and trash the rest we made out of recycled items.

The awesome thing is that Pinterest has A ZILLION ideas! Just a TON! But don’t limit your kids to just Pinterest. My kids have come up with some crazy creative things on their own without any prompting. Let them do their thing and you might be happily surprised with what they will come up with…..and sometimes you just have to smile and remind yourself that next year will be a different theme.

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