Our Family’s Perfect Christmas Morning Traditions
When Brooke was little, I couldn’t wait for her to be old enough to come knocking at our door on Christmas morning, excited to open gifts and see if Santa had eaten the cookies and taken the reindeer food she left. But, you’ll never guess what—she always had to be woken up! While she loves the holiday season, she’s never been one to rise early, even for the excitement of Christmas Day. So we never got that knock on our bedroom door. Instead, she’d grumble as we woke her up, belatedly realizing it was Christmas morning as she heard the telltale Christmas music wafting from the family room and could smell the breakfast casserole warming in the oven.
With all the hubbub around the Christmas season, Christmas morning became our special family time. We’d open gifts, enjoy a cozy Christmas breakfast, and relax before the hustle and bustle of extended family gatherings. My in-laws joined us for our quiet Christmas brunch, turning it into a cherished tradition for the five of us. We’d enjoy a beautiful meal, open gifts, and then gear up for the big family gathering and often multiple stops along the way.
During the Christmas season, my to-do list was always packed as I was responsible for everything from wrapping paper to gifts for the entire family. There were always the last minute gifts and gatherings that kept the whole family on their toes. Because of this Christmas Morning Breakfast became a fun way to decompress, enjoy our Christmas decorations, take a breath and and focus on a special gift exchange we knew setting Christmas morning aside was a great way for our little family to enjoy the holiday spirit.
Making Holiday Traditions
Ever since Brooke was born, documenting our holiday season was a big part of our Christmas morning. My former husband handled the video camera, while my father-in-law was our photographer. Over the years, my inner Martha Stewart emerged, and our Christmas pajama tradition was born.
Every Christmas Eve, Brooke and I would open one gift: matching or coordinating holiday pajamas to wear on Christmas morning. As she got older, we shifted away from matching PJs, but the tradition lives on in our memories. These days, many families enjoy this tradition and share photos on social media. Family pajamas are a fun tradition that can be celebrated not just on Christmas Day, but also for watching Christmas movies earlier in the season.
Years back, I started collecting Spode’s **A Christmas Tree china** to add a festive touch to our Christmas table. We enjoy getting out the china each Christmas season, it’s a great way to start the holidays and generate a little Christmas spirit.
I love hosting a few events leading up to Christmas, all of which lead to the festivities on Christmas morning.
1. Hosting a Christmas Present Wrapping Party. Once I get a fair amount of Christmas shopping done, I invite a few close friends over to wrap gifts. It’s one of the Christmas activities that is fun and gets a chore done in short order.
2. Attending or hosting a cookie or baked good exchange: While cookie exchanges have been super popular over the years, exchanging baked goods and treats that can be used on Christmas morning or for Christmas entertaining is a great way to add delicious offerings to the Christmas table without all the work of making each thing yourself.
3. A holiday craft party can help with decorating for the holidays. We often attend or host various holiday crafting parties, then use what we made as gifts or decor for our home. Think gingerbread house decorating, ornament making, ceramic paining, and wreath making to name a few.
All of these activities contribute to the ease of the day and help check items off our gift lists as we go along. The holidays are hard work, but are definitely lots of fun.
Getting to Christmas morning, as a planner, I always pour over cookbooks and plan a make ahead Christmas Morning Brunch menu. I am not above purchasing a few things to make preparations easier.
Top Tips for a Smooth and Festive Christmas Morning
To create a stress-free holiday morning, here are my top tips:
1. Make brunch ahead of time: Quiche, egg strata, or our favorite blueberry coffee cake can be made in advance and reheated. Pair it with a big fruit bowl for a colorful and easy breakfast.
2. Prepare holiday drinks: Mimosas, champagne, or a simple champagne punch made in advance work well for the adults. I also have a special hot chocolate recipe for the kids—made in a crockpot—that everyone loves (recipe below!).
3. Set the table the night before: After all the Christmas Eve excitement, we take a few minutes to set the table for a festive Christmas morning.
4. Get dolled up for photos: I don’t sleep in my holiday pajamas, so I can look refreshed for our Christmas morning photos. It’s a simple trick for looking your best, especially since these memories will likely be shared on social media! I also make sure my hair and makeup are presentable–without going overboard. I want to look natural, but not too natural!
5. Create a festive atmosphere: Turn on the Christmas lights, play holiday music, and light some Christmas scented candles (away from the kitchen, so they don’t interfere with the food aromas). The sights, sounds, and scents make it the most wonderful time of the year. Or, you can make cinnamon buns and fill your home with the scent of fresh baked goods and cinnamon. We love making easy cinnamon rolls using puff pastry, cinnamon and sugar. It is delicious and super easy to make.
6. Prepare for the mess of opening Christmas gifts, have a trash bag or two on hand so gift wrap can be cleaned up easily. You may have noticed that I am a bit OCD, but that’s the way I am wired! I like to make it super simple to clean up, because as I have said before, I don’t like to come home to a messy house after the day’s festivities, especially since we will be coming home with an additional pile of gifts!
7. Start entertaining with an empty dishwasher so that dirty dishes can be put right into the dishwasher–allowing the kitchen to stay tidier. (Nothing is worse than coming home to a dirty kitchen!). Anything I can do to get ahead of a potential mess and it’s overwhelm I try to do!
8. Make a serving plan so you have serving dishes and utensils set out in advance making it easier to set up a buffet or get things ready to serve the meal. This is especially helpful if someone offers to help set the table. You can also heat or chill the serving dishes to help keep the food warm or cool. It’s those little touches that make a difference!
9. If you are like me, you will forget to take pictures! Have someone on hand to take photos and videos so you do get photos and it is one less thing to worry about.
10. Avoid setting unrealistic expectations: the holidays can be complicated in the excitement of the day. Relax, breathe, have fun. What ever you forgot to serve doesn’t matter. Focus on enjoying your guests and making happy Christmas memories,.
Making Christmas Morning Special
I have been blessed to have enjoyed many, many happy Christmas mornings in my life. It has been fun celebrating other people’s family traditions as well as creating traditions of my own. I hope this inspires you to create new traditions for you and your family.
Whether you’re celebrating with immediate family, extended family, or friends, creating your own family traditions can make Christmas morning even more memorable. Whether you’re matching in Christmas pajamas, cooking up a special breakfast, or sharing quality time, the little things make this time of year so special. I hope these tips and ideas bring a touch of joy to your Christmas morning.
Happy holidays and Merry Christmas to you and your family!
–
My Favorite
Brunch Menu
Good Morning Pastry Pocket, Chicken Boursin Bundles or Brie and Sausage Brunch Soufflé
Festival Strawberry Salad
Muffins or Berry Crumb Cake
Peach Champagne Cocktail
Fresh Orange Juice, Fresh Ground Coffee
All from The Life Of The Party by The Junior League of Tampa Click the link to purchase this cookbook-it is so good!
Hot Chocolate
In the crockpot
- 1-1/2 c Heavy Cream
- 1 can Sweetened condensed milk
- 2 c whole milk
- 2T Vanilla
- 2 c chopped semi sweet chocolate (I like Guittard)
- 1/4 c cocoa powder-(I like Ghiradelli)
Combine in crockpot, stirring occasionally, cook for two hours. Serve with marshmallows, whipped cream and sprinkle with cocoa powder
Holidays are so special when spent with loved ones, no matter what happens! Whether your family is super casual, or you like to plan things out like I do, we can all create our own version of the perfect Christmas morning. I hope these tips will help you make your holidays even more special.
More Holiday Content:
Holiday Weight Gain: 8 Secrets to Keeping Weight Off During the Holidays
5 Holiday Traditions to Start Now
4 Holiday Gatherings that are Fun and Productive
Updated and republished 12/3/2021
Nina, just love your Christmas morning preparations, so worth it to stage the setting! And you look absolutely gorgeous in your black and gold, what a fabulous outfit – the Season’s joy to you and your family
Pamela xx
http://www.style-yourself-confident.com
Happy Holidays Nina!
Oh my gosh, I love your outfit! That top is a stunner, Id wear in a heartbeat, love the neckline. I enjoyed reading how you and your family celebrate the day. The Barbie car idea sounded so fun, I love that you parked it in a spot in the garage! We have a similar mode for that day, a breakfast casserole, opening gifts, planning pics, although this year, my 1 yr old nephew Aedan will be tearing into gifts too!
jess xx
http://www.elegantlydressedandstylish.com
I love all your suggestions – except the cake for brunch which is genius! I will be baking a blueberry cake if I get the time!! xx Maria
https://www.passionfruitpawsandpeonies.com
Your outfit is just stunning! That skirt and top combo is amazing together. Your tips are perfect and I do a few of those myself. I definitely have coffee and drinks all prepped from the night before and I love making dutch babies or cinnamon rolls and have everything ready to go the night before!
http://www.mylittlenest.org
Thank you so much for stopping by. I’d love to know what Dutch babies are, a recipe maybe? I love cinnamon rolls and we make orange rolls as well.
A little preparation really does help things to run smoothly. Although we generally prefer a more laid-back approach. Similarly to you, though, our Christmas morning traditions are some of my favourite bits of the day, when it’s just us and the kids and we can have the fun of opening presents.
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Delightful outfit, perfect for the festive parties. thanks for sharing on #chicandstylish #linkup Jacqui Mummabstylish
Some great ideas here Nina! This year I washed my hair the night before so I didn’t look and feel like a mess in the morning – Isobel woke us up at 6am! Hope you had a great Christmas, thanks for linking up!
Emma xxx
http://www.style-splash.com