1.) Driving By To Look At Christmas Lights

Families each year go out on a late night to look at all the Christmas decorations everyone has set up. Some just drive around their town, some go out to the Great Plains Mall and pay $5 to see all the decorations in the parking lot, and some even go up to the Plaza to see all the lights there.

2.) Sledding/Snowman Building/Snowball Fights 

Children look forward to this each winter. They cannot wait until it snows enough to have a snowball fight, build a snowman, or go sledding.

3.) Christmas Movie Night

Some families watch Christmas movies all day on Christmas Eve while others start watching one each night of December until Christmas. Channels like ABC Family have a special Christmas event that they do each year. On the first night of December they start playing Christmas movies and continue to play a different one each night until Christmas. You may know this as the ABC Family’s Christmas event, 25 Days of Christmas.

4.) Church Christmas Programs

Different churches out in different programs for Christmas. The First United Methodist Church in Baldwin City does a candle light service while other churches may do a Christmas pageant.

5.) Setting Up/Decorating The Christmas Tree

Whether it’s a real tree or a fake tree, setting up the Christmas tree is one of the most famous traditions. Usually the parents are stuck with setting up the tree, but once they do that, the kids get to decorate the tree with the store bought and homemade ornaments. Some people even put candy canes, tinsel and stringed popcorn on their tree.

6.) Caroling

Whether you go with just your family, your friends, your church, your choir, or some other organization, caroling is a tradition that has been around for years. Caroling is when you go around your neighborhood or town and sing songs to everyone at their house. Songs like Silent Night, Oh Come All Ye Faithful, Jingle Bells, We Wish You a Merry Christmas, and many more while caroling.

7.) Eggnog/Candy Canes

One of the most traditional drinks and candies to have during the holiday is eggnog and candy canes. Some families hang up candy canes on the tree and then eat them throughout the month of December while others just eat them whenever they want to! Eggnog is usually drank throughout the whole month of December, but some families might save it just for Christmas dinner.

8.) White Elephant Gift Exchange

Many games are played during the Christmas season. One of them is a game call White Elephant Gift Exchange. There are many variations of this game, but the one most people are familiar with is when everyone brings a gift and you all sit in a circle. Someone in the middle reads The Night Before Christmas and every time the word “the” is read, you pass the present to the left and every time the word “and” is read, you pass the present to the right. Once the book is finished, everyone opens up their presents and see what they got. Usually the gifts are just stuff that were lying around your house that you did not have a need for anymore.

9.) Opening Up a Present on Christmas Eve

Not all families, but many families open up one present on Christmas Eve. Some families get to choose what present they want to open while others get their present chosen for them. Some families even give Hallmark ornaments to each other on Christmas Eve so that they can hang them up on the tree that night.

10.) Hanging the Christmas lights

One of the oldest traditions that families do is hanging up Christmas lights on the house and decorating the yard. Some families, just hang out a stream of lights on their roof, while others go all out putting blow up snowmen all over their yard and fake reindeer of the roof.