It’s hard to find someone who doesn’t enjoy decorating for Christmas. Children and adults alike love and look forward to putting out all of those lights, nativity scenes, ornaments, angels, and Santas. There are likely some Christmas memories and traditions wrapped up into all of those decorations too. So why not decorate with creating Christmas memories in mind?

Make it a family affair by going out and finding greenery in your yard or at a friend’s house, if they have some pine trees. Pick up pinecones and loose branches to decorate your home with. The kids can decorate the pinecones with glitter, glue, and paint, then you can hang them on the tree or use them as decorations elsewhere in your home, like on the mantle or kitchen table.

Creating homemade Christmas decorations is another way to make memories while you decorate for the holidays. Make a popcorn garland or a gingerbread house, or use felt cutouts or pipe cleaners to make your own ornaments. A family craft night makes for a great holiday memory that everyone will treasure.

Do your kids love looking at Christmas lights? Why not take a page out of Clark Griswold’s book and decorate with thousands of lights? (But first, be sure that your decorations won’t disturb the neighbors, and don’t overload any outlets.) It might cost you a little more on your electric bill this Christmas, but your kids will probably love it, especially if they have first-hand involvement in picking out the decorations or putting them on.

Even the simplest Christmas decorating tasks can turn into great memories if you take the time to make it “family time.”

It’s truly amazing how, when you think you truly have nothing, faith always comes through to provide. This beautifully heartwarming Christmas story details one family’s account of a desolate Christmas during which they weren’t sure if they’d have food to eat, much less presents. The mother of the family encouraged the children to pray that they would be able to get what they needed, and when they went to bed, they didn’t know if their prayers would be answered…

When you do your gift-giving this year, why not commemorate your holiday memories and all of the special events in your gift recipients’ lives with personalized gifts? Dozens of different items can be purchased online, personalized with the recipient’s name, a significant date, or a special message. For some personalized gift ideas, check out the Santa’s Mall blog.

The internet has made it possible to close so many distance gaps by making it easy to communicate instantly, even across oceans and continents. So why not harness the power of the internet to share your Christmas memories with family and friends who can’t be there? All you need is some basic video creation software to make a photo slideshow that looks something like this:

For me, it’s fun to read the Christmas memories of others, because it conjures up all of those feelings of warmth and family and the spirit of the holiday season. On the TitleTrakk web site, 31 Christian authors were asked to share their favorite Christmas memory. From the presents under the tree to reading Bible verses and seeing the wonder of the sacred day, this collection of Christmas memories is sure to invoke a little warmth even on the coldest of days.

Opening gifts is one of the biggest events of the Christmas season in most families, and tearing into the stockings is probably the first part of the gift-giving frenzy. But you don’t have to struggle to come up with ideas to fill your kids’ stockings. Check out ChristmasStockingStuffers.info, a blog dedicated to finding great ideas to help you stuff all of the stockings you’ve got on your list. This week, they are featuring an article on toy stocking stuffer recommendations.

You probably have at least a few family Christmas traditions you remember from your childhood, and now that you have a family of your own, you can create your own family traditions for the holidays.

Christmas traditions are a way to build strong bonds, which is why they are so important. The holiday season can be very stressful, with all of the rush to get the gift shopping done and attend all of the holiday parties before December 25. When your Christmas focus is on shopping, everyone comes home tired and stressed out. So why not turn your holiday around by making it a day of bonding and togetherness?

Don’t know what kind of Christmas tradition to start? Sit down together as a family and have each family member suggest one activity to do together as a family. This can be as simple as baking cookies together or popping popcorn and watching a Christmas movie, or as elaborate as decorating the outside of the house. Regardless, make sure it’s something that will give each family member a chance to participate.

Try everyone’s suggestions, no matter what they are, and evaluate how much everyone enjoyed that particular activity. If everyone likes it, then you can do it again the next year, and the next after that, and ta-da, you have a family Christmas tradition! If something you try doesn’t turn out the way you’d imagined, don’t despair, just move on to the next suggestion and cross that one off your list.

As you participate in your newfound family traditions every year, your own family develops a holiday “routine” of sorts, together with the strong bond of doing things together as a family. Then, your children will look back fondly on what you’ve done as a family and perhaps choose to continue the same traditions when they start families of their own.

Do you want to keep your family’s Christmas memories in a beautiful scrapbook that can be enjoyed for years to come? Regardless of whether or not you consider yourself creative, you can put your Christmas pictures into a scrapbook that is sure to be enjoyed.  From-Santa.com is featuring a two-part series this week to help you get started preserving your Christmas memories, no matter what your skill level.

A great deal of our Christmas memories are wrapped up in the many holiday traditions our families have had over the years. Maybe you have fond memories of piling into the car and driving to a tree farm to pick out the perfect Christmas tree, or of drinking hot chocolate and partaking in homemade goodies as you decorated it. Or perhaps your family had a tradition of opening one gift on Christmas Eve and saving the rest for Christmas morning.  Whatever your family traditions, they are surely something that you look forward to each year and will always remember.  It’s important to make sure that your own children have the same set of rich Christmas memories by starting a few traditions of your own.  If you need help thinking of a new tradition, check out the Christmas Traditions Blog for some excellent suggestions.

Do you remember what presents you got for Christmas when you were 5 years old? Fifteen years old? Most of us just remember a select few of the gifts we’ve received throughout the years, yet we can recall other traditions very easily, like driving around the neighborhood looking at Christmas lights, or baking Christmas cookies as a family. This year, when there might not be quite as much cash to go around as last year, it’s even more important to make memories. Although this video was created in response to a video that was deleted by its author, it still stands alone very well and is sure to get you thinking about what’s really important this Christmas season.