Family Christmas traditions.
Small rituals your children will remember.
New pyjamas on Christmas Eve, the same photo in front of the tree, hot chocolate after a winter walk. It doesn't take much: a tradition begins when a gesture is repeated. And one day someone will say “we've always done it this way”.
A family Christmas tradition is a simple gesture you repeat every year, at the same moment and together. A study published in the Journal of the Association for Consumer Research found that people who spend the holidays with family and share a ritual enjoy them more and feel closer to their loved ones. Here are ten ideas to start with.
Family rituals make Christmas better
Ovul Sezer and Michael Norton of Harvard Business School, together with Francesca Gino and Kathleen Vohs, asked 140 people the day after Christmas how they had spent the holiday and whether their family had a ritual. Six in ten said yes.
of the people surveyed (60.7%, to be precise) had a family ritual for Christmas. Those who had one and spent the day with family enjoyed it more and felt closer to their loved ones.
The researchers repeated the study on New Year's Eve and at Easter, with the same result. Two details stand out. The type of ritual made no difference: what mattered was having one. And rituals done alone didn't have the same effect. What makes a tradition special is doing it together.
It's not about how big the gesture is. It's about everyone looking forward to it.
10 Christmas traditions to start this year
- The photo in front of the tree. Same spot, same pose, every year. Lined up together, they show how you've all grown.
- The ornament of the year. Everyone chooses or makes a decoration and writes the year on the back. The tree becomes a small family archive.
- A letter under the tree. A handwritten letter for each child, to open on Christmas morning.
- The family recipe. Grandma's Christmas bake, made together on the same December day every year.
- The Christmas Eve walk. Before dinner, everyone heads out to see the lights in the neighbourhood, snow or no snow.
- The Christmas book. A story read aloud on Christmas Eve. Always the same one, or a new one each year.
- The question at the table. “What was the best moment of your year?” Everyone answers, even the little ones.
- Christmas Eve pyjamas. Opened on the evening of the 24th and worn straight away, ready for Christmas breakfast.
- Something for someone else. Biscuits for the neighbours, a card for someone in your building who lives alone.
- The Christmas journal. A notebook that only comes out in December: one page a year about how you spent the holidays.
If you like the idea of the letter, here's how to write a Christmas letter to your children.
How to start a tradition that lasts
- Pick just one. A small gesture you really do every year is better than ten ideas left half-done.
- Give it a set moment. Christmas Eve, the first Sunday of December, Christmas morning. The fixed day is what turns it into a tradition.
- Include everyone. Let the children choose or suggest something: a tradition that feels like theirs is one they'll carry on.
- Give it a name. “The tree photo”, “the question dinner”. A name makes it something to remember and look forward to.
- Let it change. Children grow up, families grow bigger. A tradition can adapt and still be yours.
Ideas for every kind of family
With little ones
Simple, repeated gestures: switching on the tree lights together, the Christmas Eve book, a handprint on a card with the year.
With older children
Hand them part of the celebration: choosing the music, cooking a dish, asking the question at the table. They'll feel part of the tradition, not just guests.
Your first Christmas as a couple
The perfect time to invent your own: an ornament chosen together, a dinner just for the two of you before the family gatherings.
With grandparents
Ask them how Christmas was celebrated when they were small. A tradition from back then can come alive again this year.
What to write down every year
A few lines on Christmas evening are enough. In ten years' time they'll be the best pages to read again.
Add a photo, a card you received, the handwritten menu. Year after year, the journal becomes the story of your Christmases.
A tradition to open again many years from now
Every Christmas leaves photos, voices and laughter behind. With an Erabox Journals capsule you can gather them year after year and have them arrive for the people you love on the day you choose.
Gather
The photo in front of the tree, a recording of the question at the table, the page from your Christmas journal. A new page every year.
Choose who will receive it
Yourself, your partner, or your children once they're grown up. Nobody needs to download anything: they get a personal, secure link.
Choose the day
Your son's Christmas at 18, Christmas Eve ten years from now, the first Christmas in her own home.
Erabox keeps your memories on servers in Switzerland and delivers them on the day you chose, even many years from now.
Family Christmas traditions: common questions
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Guides to go further
Traditions are passed from hand to hand.
Memories can arrive at just the right moment.
Gather your family's Christmases and choose when they arrive.