You know that moment when you finally feel like “It’s here; the holidays are finally here!” That’s how I feel now that November has hit! Even though this season can seem busy, it’s still just as magical each year. Since this is Grace’s third Christmas, we’ve already started forming traditions as a family. This time of year truly is the best time of year to be a kid, don’t you think? Keep reading to see some  of our favorite family holiday traditions!

OUR FAVORITE FAMILY HOLIDAY TRADITIONS

Watching holiday movies together every Friday. Fridays are our movie nights all year, but during the holidays, we watch Christmas movies and snuggle up with some popcorn, pizza, or non-dairy hot cocoa! It’s always a treat to show our little one movies that we watched as kids. My husband’s personal favorite is Christmas Vacation and I grew up watching The Santa Clause. But last year, Grace was super into Charlie Brown’s Christmas Special!

Baking and decorating sugar cookies together. Baking holiday cookies is something we’ve done every year with Grace so far. I love showing her how fun it is to bake the cookies – and whip the frosting. Plus, they always taste better homemade! We do this on the morning of Christmas Eve and then the night before we spend time decorating the cookies and cutting up carrots (for the reindeer). 🙂

Vince Guaraldi Trio on repeat. No holiday is complete without this soundtrack playing in the background, am I right?

Looking at Christmas lights on the water. Most years, during the holiday season, we get to go to Balboa Island to see the Christmas light contest. The owners of the homes in the harbor always decorate their homes so elegantly! Grace’s outfit in these photos is from Gymboree. I love the cozy sweatshirt, and warm boots and beanie for bundling up to look at the lights.

Picking out our real Christmas tree. We love going to the tree farm to pick out our real tree each year. Something about the smell of pine is so comforting. It makes us feel like we’re in the middle of the forest, right in our living room. It’s usually super chilly though, so I be sure to have Grace wear lots of layers!

Holiday-flavored lattes. Grace is a coffee aficionado… even though she’s never had any. For us, cold weather means hot coffee! We are big coffee drinkers in our house; so every year we stock up on our favorite holiday syrups and spices for coffee! I’m a huge (non-dairy) eggnog latte person, myself, and my husband loves a good peppermint mocha. We make Grace her own peppermint (frothed) almond milk!

THE PERFECT OUTFITS FOR YOUR KIDS FOR THE HOLIDAYS

Like I mentioned above, Gymboree has an adorable kid’s line for winter, and it is super great quality. I love the classic, whimsical prints, and how everything coordinates so well. (So does Grace; she’s in love with her bunny sweatshirt.) The knit skirt would be so cute for Christmas dinner. It also looks adorable with this casual look from one of our brisk, evening walks (with coffee and warm almond milk in hand).

If you need outfits for siblings for family photos, or want to find outfits for your family traditions this holiday season, check out Gymboree.com for more looks!

Thank you so much for reading!

What’s your favorite family holiday tradition?