If you want to have an Old Fashioned Christmas, consider doing some of these things with the kids and making them a family tradition! Keeping it simple is often the best way to do holidays, so just choose the easiest items from the list for your circumstances. In other words, do not feel like you have to do them all!
How To Have Yourself an Old Fashioned Christmas
- Get a real tree. There is nothing like picking out your own, unique Christmas tree with all of its imperfections to bring the warm feelings of times gone by to your Christmas celebrations. If you can hike out on your own land and cut it down to drag home, even better!
- Homemade Decorations. Pop some popcorn to string with a needle & thread, along with cranberries. Make some colorful paper chains. Cut out your own homemade star tree-topper. Make some ornaments.
- Christmas Candy. You can buy the little round containers of old-fashioned hard candies, or make your own! There are a variety of recipes to choose from, just search for a recipe you like on Pinterest.
- Candlelight. Spend Christmas Eve using only candlelight or lanterns. The warmness & coziness will make it easy to imagine you are transported back to a simpler time. Be sure to choose 100% natural candles like these bee’s wax kind.
- Board/Dice Games. Turn off the T.V. and put away the devices. Pull out an old board game and enjoy some real family time around the kitchen table in the soft glow of candlelight! The Farming Game and Yahtzee were always family favorites when I was growing up!
- Christmas Carols. Music is beautiful and adds so much to a celebration. Having some music softly playing in the background can help set a joyful mood. Old Fashioned Christmas Carols are a great way to keep everyone focused on the true reason for the Christmas Celebration, which is to remember the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Instrumental guitar or piano music is also relaxing!
- Bake/Cook. The memory of my mom working in the kitchen to bake dinner rolls, pies, cookies, and the Christmas dinner will always be an important part of my childhood Christmas. The delicious scents and the warmth of the kitchen in use can be stimulated by something as simple as heating the ham or baking canned crescent rolls … but if you can swing it, there is nothing more “old-fashioned” than preparing the entire meal from scratch!
- Classic Food. Speaking of baking and cooking, choosing the classics like spiced cookies or bread, homemade bread or dinner rolls, etc. will fill your home with the scents of the season! And don’t forget the hot chocolate, cranberry wassail, and/or hot apple cider. 😉
- Read the Bible. The book of Luke is the perfect place to read the true story of Christ’s birth. Whether you start on Dec. 1st and read one of the 24 chapters per day till Christmas Day (an idea I recently heard about) or read the specific account of Christ’s birth on Christmas from chapter two, you will be blessed and your children will hear the Truth. (grab A Simple Advent Journey (back) to Jesus guide for Advent HERE)
Candle by the Hour 80-Hour Vertical Candle, Eco-friendly Natural Beeswax with Cotton WickThe Farming Game
Instrumental Christmas Music – Relaxing Christmas Music
Great ideas! We actually do most of them. Turn our phones off for the day (Christmas Eve is when we do our gift opening etc.)too.. And make gingerbread houses is another thing we have done!
Sara
Great post!
This would be a blessing to our family.
Awesome ideas! We do most of these, though this year we didn't make any homemade decorations really. ( Liberty made a few on her own) We do board games and puzzles 🙂 Right now there is a puzzle being made on our dining table 🙂 And of course ALWAYS beautiful Christmas music going! I also burn candles if I have them and this year we put Christmas lights up on our piano and around our Kitchen window and that makes it feel so cozy! I love baking Christmas goodies too!
Fun ideas! We do some of these, but should do more of them!
We begin our Christmas season the day after Thanksgiving. Electronics away, candles lit, Christmas music on and its time to decorate the house!! It’s a family tradition we all cherish and sets the season up for great memory making.
Wonderful ideas! Thank you.
Winning this $500 would be such a huge blessing to our family. I just recently had an accident where I hit a deer with our family car. Thankfully, I was alone and wasn’t injured. But the car does need some repairs to the front end. This $500 would really take some of the financial burden off of my husband who works tirelessly to provide for us while I am Homeschooling our youngest 2 boys. Thank you for this opportunity.
Wow, this is so generous! So amazing. Thank you to all!
Love your ideas! We will start reading Luke on Dec. 1.
These are amazing ideas, I hope we’ll be able to do these things one year and make them our own family traditions, my 4 daughters absolutely love decorating for Christmas.
Thank you for these fun ideas! I’m definitely going to order that neat hour candle.
Winning would bless our family so we could give more to our extended family as well as provide for our own needs.
Thank you for the opportunity!
These are great ideas. Thanks!
I am going to incorporate many of these ideas as part of our Christmas season this year.
I am going to incorporate many of the suggestions you provided. Thank you for the ideas.
Love all the ideas for an old fashioned Christmas! May you have a blessed Thanksgiving and a very Merry Christmas!!!
One of my favorite Christmas memories growing up was making candy. My mom, grandma, sister and aunt would all spend the day making chocolates, it was so fun!
Thank you for the opportunity to enter your $500 giveaway that would be a real blessing for our family this year! Christmas is a very special time for our family we have seven children 1 daughter in law one son-in-law one grandchild and another on the way !!!
we are so blessed!!!! but especially love celebrating the birth of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ!!!! We can’t wait!! Love and prayers Christina Miller
What fun ideas! I can’t wait to incorporate some into my family!
Old fashioned is best and easiest when it comes to a memorable Christmas.
Thank you for this giveaway!
Thank you for the great ideas for Christmas esp for those of us that have a difficult time celebrating them
We always get a real tree and decorate it in part with paper ornaments I cut out of magazines or hand-folded as a child.
I agree 100% and we already do most of these ideas. Thank you for reminding everyone there is more to christmas than just gifts.
This would help with bills and buying Christmas presents.
Great ideas thank you!
What great ideas! I get all the feels just reading!
Great ideas! A real tree is out for us due to allergies, but we do try to have lots of music and yummy homemade treats. And while we don’t make new homemade ornaments every year, I do try to make one new ornament for each of my kids every year.
How winning the giveaway would bless my family: we’ve been working towards becoming debt free, but had some setbacks this year with a new baby and some unforeseen bills. So this would go a long way towards paying those bills off. Thank you for the opportunity!
Love these! Makes me so excited about Christmas. I would love to try the popcorn on string this year! Also the candles on Christmas Eve excites me. Makes me think of candlelight service and singing silent night!
Great ideas
I love your blog for the many creative ideas you come up with. But most importantly, the support you give to women. Thanks a bunch!
We love to make all kinds of cookies at Christmas and take them to the fire station down the road, leave them for the mailman and delivery guys.
Aweesome ideas,thanks for sharing them.
Winning the $500 prize would be a huge blessing! I just found out this morning that I owe $265 to our previous car insurance company. Not the time of year for us to have added expenses like that! Thank you to all the bloggers who are making a difference in someone’s life!
We actually do a few of these such as baking and board games but I am excited to add a few more! Thank you for the great ideas!.
These are great ideas! I love baking, making ornaments, and singing Christmas carols with my family during the advent season!
Winning would bless our family by helping us to pay for our adoption!
I love these ideas! I always thought it’d be fun to read some Victorian Christmas stories for the holidays too. I’m thinking about incorporating Some of these ideas into our Christmas festivities this year. Just reading this got me excited for the holiday season!
I love the idea of using candle light inn Christmas Eve.
Homemade decorations are a great idea!
Winning would be a huge blessing to our family. I am a stay at home mom to 4 kids, and my husband works 2 jobs in order for me to be able to stay home. Money doesn’t go as far as we would like sometimes.
thank you for the opportunity. $ greatly needed
These look so fun!
I love your ideas! I’m always looking for more traditions to do with our family. We do some of the ones you mentioned but not all. definitely need to add them in.
So fun! We ought to try just the candles this year for Christmas Eve.
Some great ideas. Thank you
Winning this would help our family a lot because we just started our debt free journey and are saving up for a new more comfortable home. While the $500 would most likely go towards gifts it would be a tremendous help to our budget.
Great ideas! Thank you for sharing!
What a huge blessing! Love the simple ideas!!!
We’d be able to bless all of our grandkids extra specially.
Very fun ideas!
Great ideas!
These are some great ideas. With 8 kids I love the idea of some handmade decorations and gifts.
Homemade bread is delicious. I need to find some gluten/dairy free recipes. Pinterest here I come!
Thank you so much for compiling everything all together. You ideas are great!
I look forward to having old fashioned traditions for Christmas each year. We’ve done most of these ideas and they are FANTASTIC! Looking forward to doing a bunch of these again this year!
My husband has been working under 40 hours a week and we can barely survive when he works 40 hours a week. We’ve been so busy with our school work and extracurriculars that I haven’t had time to work as I normally do this time of the year. We never lavish our girls with tons and tons of gifts for Christmas because we have always wanted them to understand who we are celebrating at Christmas, but I would really love to be able to get them some things and have a nice Christmas dinner. Winning would bless us beyond what words can say.
Baking Christmas cookies and decorating them with with all of the cousins is one of my favorite traditions. We also decorate Gingerbread houses. My girls look forward to it every year!
These are so fun! We always open pajamas on Christmas Eve and make gingerbread houses.
This would definitely be a blessing because my son is organizing a toy and winter clothing drive through his anti-bullying initiative and it would go a long way towards helping with that!
This would bless my family greatly this year. We have gone through trials and tribulations before, but this year has been something extra. We would be filling our freezer and pantry, and thanking God for grace and the blessings in our life. Thank you for the opportunity.
I love the idea of homemade decor for the holidays
I have a very limited imcome and this would come in handy both for the holidays and buying groceries.
Thank you for the chance to win.
Love your blog! Thanks for sharing and helping us all so much!
May your dental appointment go well today. Take care. Blessings!
Thanks for offering such a wonderful opportunity to earn some much needed funds to help our homeschool and our family in general. It would be a blessing to win. Thank you for all you do for us all! Blessings!
These are such wonderful ideas! Thank you so much for sharing this, I am definitely excited to try some and see what we can make a new tradition in our household.
We also look forward to an old fashioned Christmas this year! Thanks for sharing some wonderful ideas that we look forward to adding to our traditions. Handmade gifts and decorations are the best! 🙂
Great ideas! I think we will try Christmas Eve by candlelight. Thanks so much. God bless!
If I won, I would be able to use the money to catch up on a bill or two and maybe get a few presents.
i would put my winnings towards a new laptop
with me getting some time to myself with my laptop, it seems i am yelling less, making the home more peaceful.
This year has been full of financial obstacles for us. If we were able to win this giveaway it would be a huge help to get us thru the end of the year. It would honestly help us to cover some bills and the extra grocery expense the holidays bring.
Thank you for doing this! I enjoy reading your blog.
Winning would certainly provide an extra boost for my family’s Christmas, as I would not have to use money from our savings to purchase gifts.
I just love an old fashioned Christmas!! Thank you for doing this giveaway I know it’d make the world of difference to me and my family; and I’m sure its the same for so many others.
Wonderful ideas! Candles always set the Christmas mood!
Winning would mean the world to us. Like so many others we are very tight financially and this would give us just the break we needed right in time for the holidays. We love doing holiday experiences and this type of break would let us do that this year.
This would be so wonderful for my family, it for for sure be a blessing.
Oh, this sounds like fun!
Great ideas and suggestions! We have been doing some of these things for quite a while with my extended family! It is nice to know others have some if the same traditions! Thank you for this wonderful opportunity!
I LOVE your idea under ‘Read the Bible’. I think we will read the 24 chapters of Luke, one per day, starting on December 1st. Thank you!
Thanks for the great tips! I LOVE old fashioned Christmas ideas!
Since December includes both my husband’s, my son’s AND Jesus’s birthday – things can get a little tight for us. I’m also a stay at home Mom because hubby has always felt safer with it this way. And, although I do miss working, I guess I truly do enjoy being there for him every day too. He goes to preschool 3 hours a day now which gives me a little time to myself for a change, but I usually spend the time missing him. Thank you for the great opportunity! It’s so generous and so appreciated! Merry Christmas everyone!
Thanks so much for everyone’s generosity that has helped with this give away. This will definitely be a blessing to two sweet families.
We definitely do some of these things. We play lots of games at Christmas, bake lots of (heathy) goodies, always have the old fashioned Christmas music playing, and read both Luke and Matthew’s accounts of Jesus’ birth each year.
Winning this giveaway would bless my family by helping pay some medical bills from the recent unexpected loss of our baby at 19 weeks of pregnancy.
My heart and prayers are with you.
If our family was chosen to receive one of the generous cash gifts, I would spend it on Christmas for our five children and Christmas dinner. This year has been undecscribable as far as our finances and seems like this season of life will never fade to a new season and I have been beyond depressed as the holidays approach. My children are aged 11, 10, 8, and twins that are 6. The older three understand and have already been told Christmas may be spent with only each other but our twins do not completely understand that Santa may not come. Either way I wish everyone the best of luck and the happiest holidays! Above all, Christmas is about spending time with our friends and family and focusing on the most precious gift of all, Jesus Christ our Lord and Savior! I thank all who are involved with this giveaway for such a kind and generous gift!
Thanks for the ideas and giveaway
This giveaway wouldbless us very much, thanks for the chance to win. Blessings
Thank you for sharing these wonderful ideas! We also share some of the same traditions. Our kids love crafts. We’ve made Perler Bead ornaments for our Jesse Tree Christmas Bible study. Looking forward to trying some new traditions this year!
What a blessing this would be Thank you. We do incorporate some of these traditions within our family. Thank you for sharing.
We are so excited to try some of these ideas this year. Thank you for a great post.
Love this blog and all of the fantastic giveaways and ideas!
If we won, it would go to doing something good. Always trying to teach our kiddos to give back. We crochet hats and blankets for homeless and send to our troops and Operation Christmas Child.
I want an old fashioned Christmas so bad! My first Grandchild is here and she will love it! Thank you for the chance to win this awesome giveaway.
This giveaway would bless my family by helping us to travel to family for Christmas Day.
Love old movies!
Love these ideas! Memories the family will cherish for years to come.
How Would Winning Bless My Family?
This is surprisingly a hard question. We’ve always kind of struggled, but have always been taken care of and blessed. The dichotomy blows my mind. This year we have moved to a new state and surviving has been an effort – I tried to go back into teaching only to find that we were losing money because of child care (I had to resign). Health issues with kids – cars breaking down – so many things. We’re hoping to refinance in December. With everything going on – we let family know we would not be able to drive back and visit for any of the holiday celebrations. I’d say if we had the extra cash to go shopping for family presents and to go visit them that would be amazing.
This is so me! I love antiques and anything old fashioned
so many great ideas, this prize would be a blessing to win
In addition to your Christmas Carols idea…we like to sing Christmas Carols while we are driving around looking at Christmas lights. 🙂
winning this would be a blessing to my family as I am on disability and money is always tight and this would make a wonderful christmas for us
Winning $500 would be such a blessing to our family! It would help so much with providing our daughter with Christmas gifts. It would also allow us to donate to a family in need this Christmas.
nothing best than an old fashionned christmas <3
Wonderful Ideas…we use some but not all! Thank you!
How would this bless my family-
I went through a tough divorce in August, and my finances have been a wreck ever since… I have 4 kiddos that range from 13 to 6 and Christmas is right around the corner… This would bless my family tremendously as my children would be able to have a good Christmas! Thank you!
I love these ideas! Thanks for sharing!
Winning would bless our family in many ways. We are looking at college for our oldest so every little bit is helping at this point! Thank you for your generosity!
We always have an old-fashioned Christmas. It was like that growing up (my mom making ornaments and baking cookies). So I’ve carried on the tradition (Swiss) and will teach my granddaughter, too.
I love these traditions. I am all about an old fashioned Christmas which includes the smell of cinnamon and fresh cut trees!!!
Wonderful ideas! Thank you for sharing.
Such wonderful ideas. My kids love making paper garlands for the tree!
It would be such a blessing to win. I would put this towards my son’s college debt. Thank you!
The old fashioned Christmas seems like a good idea – minus the real tree 🙂 with four indoor-outdoor great pyredanes plus two toddler boys who like to roughhouse with each other (and the dogs) a real tree is a recipe for disaster. I’m actually going to be getting a felt one for the wall that they can redecorate at will. I love the candlelight idea though and we are going to do an advent bible study for homeschool this season.
We have been having a rough few years. God is blessing us with only as much as we need which is far less than we thought in the past and doesn’t leave enough extra to even get my vehicle fixed (been without since May) and get down to South Texas for my family to meet my most recent baby. Christmas is going to be small, if we can do much of anything at all, and I truly hoped to be able to give back to our church this year because the youth group gave the kids Christmas last year. As it is i haven’t been able to get to church in several months now. I truly think that I would get the kids a small gift each and then let them pick out some stuff to give to their Sunday school teachers who have blessed them so much.
I havent decorated at home yet, but both of the places I work are decorated now so I guess it’s my turn to do my own home!
Great list for an old fashioned Christmas. Thank you for this awesome giveaway
This would definitely help out my family and bless us with being able to buy my family some Christmas gifts and we just found out we’re pregnant with our 3rd child, so this would help us out with storing up some baby items as well
Thank you for sharing these tips.
Hope you and your family are doing good today.
Thoughts and Prayers,
Carrie
NABILA
Great ideas here, I love memories of my family old fashioned Christmas.
Winning this would be a great blessing as we would be able to pay bills and not be stressed during the holidays.