Here Are 12 Ideas and Traditions for Couples To Use at Christmas Time
It’s so easy for your relationship to be pushed aside amid all the holiday season’s activities and demands. However, if you are intentional, you can create unique traditions and times for fun and connecting with your mate. Here are a dozen ideas to spur your own creativity and enrich your Christmas experience as a couple.
- Classic Christmas Movie Night in Bed. Put on those PJs and get a mug of hot chocolate or a bottle of wine and watch a favorite traditional
Christmas movie. Take turns watching each other’s favorites.
- Christmas Movie Drinking Game. Another option for movie night is to make it into a drinking game if you are going to be home and/or in bed. Every time someone in the movie says the word “Santa” or Santa appears, take a drink. Every time someone says “snow” or it snows in the film, take a drink. Make up your own trigger words and have fun… and only try this at home. If you are sans-alcohol in your home, get Christmas candy and cookies, and take a bite with each trigger word.
- Christmas Dates. Schedule dates for just the two of you that are fun and help you get into the Christmas spirit. Catch a local production of “A Christmas Carol” or “The Nutcracker” ballet. Drive through neighborhoods known for their Christmas lights displays and rate them and choose a “winner.”
- Christmas Music. Nothing spreads the Christmas spirit like music. Christmas concerts by well-known artists or a local church’s quality production are just a couple of the options that you might have. You can also make a Christmas playlist of songs that you both love and enjoy and play it throughout the season.
- Christmas Ornaments. Shop together for a new ornament to represent your relationship for that year. You can also choose an individual decoration that expresses something about each of you that year. Did you get a new puppy? Then put a puppy ornament on the tree. Did you start a new job? Maybe a laptop ornament or an ornament depicting something about your position would do.
- Christmas Tree Discs. If you get a live tree each year, you can cut off the bottom of the trunk so that you have a “disc.” On the disc, write something significant about you and your relationship for that year. After a few years, you will have several discs that you can use for decorating your home. Some of my friends have a garland full of the discs that they drape over the central doorway in their home.
- Cut or Find Your Tree. If It’s possible, and you want a natural tree, go to a tree farm. Plan to spend time picking out a tree and taking pictures. If a tree farm isn’t nearby, picking out a tree from a local lot is fun as well. Once this South Texas author and his wife picked out a tree fresh off of the truck, and when the binding was cut from the tree, ice and snow flew out of it! It was as if it was snowing on us. That frozen snow had traveled from Canada to Texas inside of the tree. We have a lasting memory of that tree that we share every Christmas.
- Sexy Stockings. Stuff your mate’s stockings with love notes and adults-only items. Make sure the kids aren’t around when you discover what your mate has put in your stocking!
- Holiday Bake-off. In the spirit of cooking shows, have a holiday baking competition. You can write unusual ingredients on paper strips, fold them, and then each draw three out of a hat. You must then bake and decorate something using the ingredients you drew plus any other ingredients you choose. Or you can just bake and decorate your favorite Christmas treat or cookies. Invite another couple to judge your finished products, but don’t tell them who baked what.
- Christmas Cocktails. Concoct your own cocktails using Christmas ingredients like peppermint, chocolate, ginger, etc. You could make different flavored margaritas using simple syrup that you infuse with Christmas flavors. Just give your favorite drinks a Christmas twist and let the Christmas spirits flow!
- Moving Mistletoe. In the same spirit of the elf that delights children by moving to a different spot in the house each night, get a “moving mistletoe” for you and your mate. One or both of you can move the mistletoe to a new spot in the house as often as you like. The key is to try to put it in a location where your spouse will unknowingly step beneath it. And you know what comes next! To spice it up, make the kisses last for 10 seconds each. Merry Christmas!
- Christmas Eve Service. For a meaningful Christmas with your mate, attend a Christmas Eve Service in your area. Most churches offer them, and you can find them in a wide range of times. A Midnight Christmas Eve Mass or Service usually begins at 11:00 PM and ends at midnight, so you leave the building on Christmas Day. Take a walk after the service if it’s a clear evening. It’s a great time to make a list of all of life’s gifts that you enjoy as a couple and remember the “reason for the season.”