Christmas Traditions: Decorating the Tree

The magic of Christmas is upon us.  And, what better way to experience the holiday season than through Christmas Traditions? Here are some of our family’s cherished Christmas tree decorating traditions, and how to create your own!

This post was sponsored by At Home.  All thoughts and opinions are my own.  Please see my full disclosure policy for more details.

Hello, sweet friends!

Yes, I know, I’m writing ANOTHER Christmas post.  I did give you fair warning 😉

I am thrilled to be sharing all about Christmas traditions today with a few blogger friends.  

It’s no secret at this point that I’m borderline obsessed with Christmas.  Aside from the excuse to decorate with an obscene amount of glitter,  what I most look forward to every December are the traditions.

And isn’t that what makes this time of year so special?  Yeah, you may have to go to Great Aunt So and So’s house on Christmas Eve and it may smell like cats and you may have to eat some traditional cuisine from the “good ole’ days”.  But, won’t you remember that one year when  _______ or that one time when _______?

I feel like traditions are almost synonymous with memories.  Those traditions you may balk at every year may leave you with the sweetest memories of Christmases past.

That is especially true for me now.  Raising our little brood of humans has given me all the more reason to make ALL of the traditions for us.

Being a relatively new family (though we have been married 5 years HOW?!?), it’s been so exciting to keep old traditions with our respective families, merge our own traditions together, and creating brand new traditions for just our little family.

So, when At Home wanted to talk about traditions for their #MyReason campaign, while adding some decor for Christmas, I jumped at the opportunity!

My absolute favorite Christmas tradition is decorating the tree!  As a child, my parents would always host a trim-the-tree party where the whole family would come over to decorate the tree.  I LOVED doing it.

Then, I became a teenager and hated everyone.  Then, I went to college and was too “old” to do it.

And THEN, I had my own tree, my own house, and my own family.  Before kids, my husband and I would crank up some Mariah Carey Christmas, pop a couple beers open, and decorate the tree.

Our Family’s Christmas Tree Decorating Traditions

Decorating the Christmas Tree with Our Sweet Boys

Then, we had our sweet little boys.  Now, we still put on Mariah Carey Christmas (maybe not quite as loud) and decorate the tree with the boys.  There’s nothing sweeter than watching them “help”.

When Liam was 2, he first helped us decorate the tree.  He put on about 6 bulbs or so ALL on the same branch.  I wish I had a picture of it to share.  We kept all 6 bulbs on that one branch, and even though it sagged to literally touch the floor, it’s something I’ll never forget.  I still laugh/cry about it today!

Now decorating the tree is (I’m sure) a tradition for many families.  But, each family’s tree would look different.

We have a hodge podge of ornaments.  Some glittery, some sentimental.  But, most have a story, and I love thinking about the story each ornament tells of our lives and our family.

We started a tradition with our kids to have them each pick an ornament every year.  Then, when they’re older, all those ornaments will be theirs to take to their own home, to their own tree.  How funny it will be to look at what they picked each year!

Read More: 20+ DIY Farmhouse Christmas Ornaments

Liam picked an Angry Birds ornament (last year it was Lightning McQueen) and Charlie picked Skye (from Paw Patrol).  I’m sure he will love to show that to his future wife 😉

The Christmas Tree Theme: Red, White and Black Ornaments

This year, I decided to go for a themed tree.  With the help of At Home, I designed a red, white and natural wood tree.  Look how pretty these ornaments are!  We still added all of our sentimental ornaments, too!

Read More: 6th Day of Craftmas: DIY Farmhouse Style Ornaments

Charlie put ornaments on the tree.  Literally.  He placed them on the branches.  Then ran away laughing.  We had to help him quite a bit to get one ornament correctly placed 🙂

Liam was SO into decorating this year.  Which is so fun.  I love seeing each of them grow and change each year.  I mean look at this concentrating face.

And the sass face.

Something I have to remind myself of when it comes to these traditions is, it can’t always go 100% as planned.  But, that’s all part of the memories we are forming.  When I want to pull my hair out, I remember I’ll probably be laughing about it next year.  Like Charlie trying to eat Christmas lights.

Read More: 60+ DIY Christmas Countdowns To Add Joy To Your Holidays

Or Charlie “sweeping” while we’re decorating.

But, all in all, the tradition of decorating the tree is one of my favorites.  There are plenty of laughs, plenty of snuggles, and that family time I swear we never get enough of.

Watching Our Favorite Christmas Movie

Another tradition my husband and I have is to watch Christmas Vacation every Christmas Eve.  It’s probably my favorite movie ever.  Even if I can recite the entire script from start to finish, I’m always laughing to the point of tears every year.  This may look different each year.  Before kids, we would be having a couple of drinks.  Now, I’ve either been pregnant or nursing every Christmas for 4 years.  So, we collapse into bed far too late and grumble about getting up in the morning.  But we still watch the movie and I enjoy that “us” time before the craziness of Christmas morning.

A New Christmas Tradition: Hot Chocolate Breaks!

We took a break halfway through for some hot chocolate!!  This is a new tree-trimming tradition we decided to start this year.  Because hot chocolate is awesome and the kids need a break to keep their attention.

Charlie literally chugged his hot chocolate (we put tons of milk in to make sure it was cool enough).  He didn’t come up for air until it was done.

Admiring Our Decorated Christmas Tree

I think the tree came out really well!

Read More: How to Make a Modern Christmas DIY Stocking Holder

I love the pairing of red with wood.

More importantly, I loved spending the time as a family.  Between both of us working and other obligations, it’s hard to spend quality time together.  I hope to one day not have to work so we don’t have to cram all the things into the weekends/evenings I’m off.  It’s hard to understand, and I’m certainly thankful of what we have, but I crave more time together, just the 4 (soon to be 5) of us.

My husband is mildly obsessed with Legos.  He has a whole Lego train set (and every other Lego set ever made).  This year, he brought it out and I can’t even explain how excited Liam was.  Seeing all my boys down on the floor playing with this train is such a sweet memory.

Don’t worry, we put the train up during the day so it doesn’t get broken (again).

After the kids are asleep, we sit in the glow of the Christmas lights.  There is just something so magical about this time of year, isn’t there?

How about you?  What is your favorite Christmas tradition?  I would love to hear in the comments.  Do you decorate the tree?  Do you have some crazy cool traditions?

After we finished, we moved all the ornaments off the last 2 feet or so of the tree.  Because, kids.  It looks rather bare, but, it’s either that or cleaning up broken ornaments every day.

Read More: We Cut Down our own Christmas Tree at Grupps Tree Farm

Read More: 10 DIY Stocking Initial Tags You Can Make

More Christmas Traditions from Other Bloggers!

Alright, friends!  Time to check out some other Christmas Traditions.  These ladies are so creative and I can’t wait to see what their favorite traditions are!

At Home with Zan	Sunshine and Munchkins
My Life from Home	An Alli Event
Restyle it Wright	Craftivity Designs
Blue i Style	Loveland Lodge

Wishing you a joyful day!