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!
Grab the FREE Christmas Around The World Word Search PDF printable at the end of this article!
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 land and cut it down to drag home, even better! If you can not bring a tree into your home, consider wrapping lights around a real (planted) evergreen outside. Candles on the tree (fake, to be safe) are an old-fashioned way to decorate the evergreen tree!
- Homemade Decorations. Pop some popcorn to string with a needle & thread, along with cranberries. Dry orange slices and string them or hang them from the tree. Make some colorful paper chains. Cut out your own homemade star tree topper. Make some ornaments.
- 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 kinds.
- Set the table. Whether paper plates or real, make the day special by setting the table.
- 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. We have, and love, a Charley Pride vinyl that I recommend. Instrumental guitar or piano music is also relaxing!
- 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)
Christmas Foods!
- Bake/Cook. The memory of my mom working in the kitchen baking and cooking for 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. 😉 Cookies and ice cream are our Christmas desserts of choice. Trim Healthy Mama Protein Pleasure Cookies are some of our favorites, especially for Christmas.
- 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. Homemade THM marshmallows are a great (healthy) candy treat that we love!
FREE Christmas Around The World Word Search PDF Printable
Old Fashioned Christmas Resources
Natural Beeswax Taper Candles, DEYBBY Smokeless and Dripless Beeswax Candles 6 Pack, Long Lasting Burning Non Toxic, 10 inch
The Farming Game (Premium Farming Game)Christmas in My Home TownKJV Holy Bible, Large Print Compact, Saddle Tan Faux Leather w/Ribbon Marker, Red Letter, King James VersionChristmas Cookie Cutter Set – 5 Piece Holiday Cookies Molds – Snowman, Christmas Tree, Gingerbread Man, Candy Cane, SnowflakeCabilock 2PCS Christmas Serving Plates Vintage Tinplate Boat Platter Cookie Tray Fruit Holder Dish for Dessert Breakfast Dinner Buffet Sandwich Pastry Cake
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!
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.
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.
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!
Old fashioned is best and easiest when it comes to a memorable Christmas.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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
Great ideas! Thank you for sharing!
What a huge blessing! Love the simple ideas!!!
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!
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.
I love the idea of homemade decor for the holidays
Love your blog! Thanks for sharing and helping us all so much!
May your dental appointment go well today. Take care. 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!
Wonderful ideas! Candles always set the Christmas mood!
Oh, this sounds like fun!
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!
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.
What fun ideas! I can’t wait to incorporate some into my family!
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!
We are so excited to try some of these ideas this year. Thank you for a great post.
I want an old fashioned Christmas so bad! My first Grandchild is here and she will love it!
Love old movies!
Love these ideas! Memories the family will cherish for years to come.
This is so me! I love antiques and anything old fashioned
In addition to your Christmas Carols idea…we like to sing Christmas Carols while we are driving around looking at Christmas lights. 🙂
nothing best than an old fashionned christmas <3
Wonderful Ideas…we use some but not all! Thank you!
I love these ideas! Thanks for sharing!
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!
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.
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!
Thank you for sharing these tips.
Hope you and your family are doing good today.
Thoughts and Prayers,
Carrie
Great ideas here, I love memories of my family old fashioned Christmas.