Include More than Just Family in Your Family Holiday Traditions

December 4th, 2010 · No Comments

To make a holiday tradition more fun and memorable, don’t forget to “Make it a Party.” No one said that you have to limit family traditions to just family. Some of our favorite Holiday traditions involve our best friends or neighbors:

Every Christmas, we have a gift exchange with some of our closest friends. It’s like Christmas Eve Lite.
We always try to invite friends to our Holiday meals who might be home alone that year.

Tower Brass Holiday Concert Fourth Presbyterian Church Chicago

We also meet our best friends every year for the Fourth Presbyterian Church Holiday Concert (http://www.fourthchurch.org/concerts.html#december)in downtown Chicago. We have gone for several years now and the kids love it. We head down to the Church for their Tower Brass concert and then walk around Michigan Ave. looking at the lights before grabbing dinner. It’s the perfect way to celebrate the season and experience the beauty of the city during the Holidays. (This year the concert is Dec. 18th at 5 p.m.)
Our neighborhood had a tradition of having a house decorating contest with a snowman theme. Each house on our block tries to decorate with as many snowmen as possible. We would all meet for a party at a neighbor’s house. During the party the whole group would put on their coats and march around the block in the dark and the cold, voting on which house had the best snowman “spirit.” Try it with your neighbors this year and let the competition and laughter begin.
Last year, one of the neighbors organized a Caroling party for some Holiday fun.
Every year two friends and I meet up for a Girls Night Out Holiday Tea at a swanky hotel downtown. While we might not pull it off every year, it does get us talking and reminiscing during December, so we don’t lose touch. I look forward to the thought of Holiday Tea just as much as actually having it.

Here are some other ideas:

Start a cookie exchange with your friends
Throw a gingerbread house decorating party with the neighbor kids
Organize a group of friends to go help pack care package for the troops, or serve a Holiday meal at a local shelter or church.
Throw a big New Years Eve party!

Do some of your favorite Holiday Traditions involve more than just family? What are those traditions?