My husband and I both grew up in secular households that didn't really celebrate the holidays. My family did gift giving for New Year's, as was tradition in Russia where I grew up, husband's family doesn't do gifts at all. Now that kiddo is old enough to comprehend holidays, I want to create some traditions for her to have but I'm not terribly creative in this realm and have very few reference points, so I'd love for folks to share their favorite ones (either made up or inherited) so I can get some inspiration. Thanks!
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For New Years day we decorate our Chirstmas tree in colorful streamers and put balloons all over it - you could just decorate your house! Then at 12pm (kids are too young to be awake at midnight) we drop balloons from the ceiling, blow party horns, throw confetti, and eat a yummy lunch - kids love it!!!
other things to do - bake cookies, decorate gingerbread houses,
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Some things we do is bake cookies, watch holiday specials like Charlie Brown and take a ride to see all the lights around town.
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Do you celebrate Christmas? There are a lot of secular Christmas tradition options. Decorate the tree together while listening to Christmas music, bake cookies, drive or walk around and look at lights, watch a movie and drink hot cocoa. We also let our LO choose an ornament for the tree each year...this year she chose Olaf.
This year we also "adopted" an underprivileged child for Christmas through a local children's center. LO was actually really into picking out a toy and some clothes for the baby. We plan to make that an annual tradition as well.
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We're not religious, but celebrate Christmas - do you do that? After Thanksgiving, we go get a real tree, then decorate it, have lights around the house, watch Christmas movies, bake cookies, and this year we're doing a Christmas Eve Box and we'll do Santa.
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We also celebrate New year's (DH is russian). So we get a new year's tree every year, and we decorate it. Another tradition is making and decorating holiday sugar cookies. We've done a holiday craft with friends the last two years (decorating gingerbread cookies, and doing an arts and crafts project with paper and glitter on snowmen and cut out trees). DH and I also name our top 5 moments of the year, and hopefully we can get LOs involved in this as they get older.
ETA that we are non religious so we really have no religious traditions at all.
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there is a fantastic miniature train display at our local mall each holiday season. tickets are relatively inexpensive but benefit a local charity. It is a fun winter activity if your little ones are old enough.
there are also parts of town with great holiday light displays you can drive or walk through.
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We are not religious but do celebrate Christmas as well.
We decorate the tree as a family with holiday music. Every year we get a new special ornament for the tree.
We make gingerbread houses
We are on our third year of sponsoring a local family in lieu of buying adult gifts.
This year we started packing a shoebox for Operation Christmas Child. DD was very into picking items for a little girl somewhere. It is a Christian organization but that doesn't matter to us. We will continue that yearly.
As the kids get older we plan to volunteer more as well around the holidays (and thru the year!)
On Christmas Eve we read Twas the night before Christmas
We always make a big Christmas morning brunch
The girls get to open one gift on Xmas eve.When the girls are older we want to take them to our towns tree lighting ceremony.
NY Eve parties when they get older! -
Out household is a mishmash of non-religious holiday traditions. DH is (non practicing) Catholic so we celebrate christmas. I'm a Russian (non practicing) Jew so we also celebrate Hanukkah and New Years.
We put up a Christmas/New Years tree and decorate the whole house in a "winter theme." It's not Christmasy but it makes the house feel cozy for the winter. Every year we pick out a new tree ornament that represents something big from the previous year.
We go see big holiday light displays in our neighborhood.
Every year we also get new "cuddle clothes" which are pjs and slipper so we can cuddle up.
As DD gets older I'm hoping to start a countdown calendar. Basically like an advent calendar but it's a count down to the new year. Every day will be a small gift, book, activity, etc.
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We are doing either sledding on Christmas or a hike out to a campfire at the lake. We'll bring hot chocolate and snacks! I like getting active together and creating little memorable adventures.
We also visit botanical gardens that have a holiday train, drive through the light display at a local park, make fudge, possibly cookies, visit a huge local city tree that has carolers, and in the future will go to the Nutcracker Ballet. We go to the local tree farm. In the future I'd like to volunteer at a kitchen, but for giving for now we make lots of boxes of secret recipe family fudge for LO to hand out.
We are Christian. I know some people who celebrate New Years instead, with a NY's tree and NY's presents.
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Except for going to Christmas Eve mass, the entire Christmas celebration is secular.
Cookie decorating
Santa Claus
Tree/ ornaments
Stockings
Carolling non-religious hymns aka Mariah Carey's "All I Want for Christmas Is You"
Winter PJs -
We're not religious but do celebrate Christmas.
We get a tree every year, each get a new ornament, and decorate our tree together. We make paper snowflakes and put them up in the windows. We put Christmas lights on our house, and go for a lot of evening walks to see other people's Christmas lights. Hot cocoa in a thermos is a must.
My parents and brothers and I developed a tradition when we were growing up that doesn't always happen anymore. We had cheese fondue and other yummy stuff for Christmas Eve dinner, just the 5 of us.
For New Years, my family writes a surprising things of the year list. We talk about, and write down, what we did that year, big things that happened, trips we took, where we were at. It's neat to do, and wonderful to look back at previous years. Sometimes we also write a list of things we want to do in the coming year.
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I get that many Christmas traditions are secular, but I don't think I would purposely build family traditions around a holiday I'd never celebrated. I think instead I would make a celebration of the winter solstice. Since it's the longest night of the year, I think I might get everyone new pajamas, and have a pajama party celebration with a special meal and a fire and s'mores. Maybe light luminarias along my driveway and take a walk with hot chocolate to see other people's lights? I also love the idea of a New Year's countdown calendar, especially since you already celebrate that in a big way.
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One of my favorite secular traditions growing up was that my mom and I would go to afternoon tea at a fancy hotel at least once during the winter months.
I also enjoyed making and decorating cookies with her (we did it on Christmas Eve, but you could do it whenever).
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