42 Best Christmas Traditions, From Classic to New Activities to Try

The holidays wouldn’t be the same without dazzling Christmas trees. From festive lights to colorful ornaments, plan to go see your community’s Christmas tree lighting ceremony! And no matter where you are, you can always stream the Rockefeller Center Christmas Tree Lighting.

Make a reservation with the people you love at a decorated restaurant full of lights and ornaments galore. Rolf’s in NYC is a classic place to eat and drink during the holidays because of their spectacular Christmas décor!

If you want to forgo the gifts and white elephant exchanges, try having a cookie exchange where everyone bakes holiday cookies and swaps!

Get ready for Christmas by visiting a holiday market! Check out the festive shops, sip on hot chocolate, listen to Christmas music and more all in one place. This can be a great place to get some shopping done, while participating in all the Christmas fun.

There is no activity quite like ice skating to get you in the holiday mood. Make it a tradition every year to lace up your skates for a fun outing with the family. Plus, you'll likely get to see a grand Christmas tree and listen to festive music while hitting the ice.

Skip the instant hot chocolate packets and make a decadent hot cocoa that is extra special for the holidays. Kids will love sipping on this sweet treat and adults can make a boozy hot chocolate with bourbon or rye.

RELATED: Spiked Hot Chocolate Recipe

Sure, you can buy an advent calendar based on your kids' favorite activities and watch with joy as they get a new goodie each day. But it's even more fun to make your own. "Each year we fill an advent calendar for my son with tiny toys, sweets and notes promising trips to his favorite bakery," says Jacquelyn Rodgers, Founder at Greentop Gifts. Try this: Fill 24 advent calendar bags, boxes or drawers with love notes, candy, small toys or ideas for good deeds they can do that day to spread good cheer. Or, keep special ornaments aside in a box and add a new one to the tree each morning!

TAKE A LOOK: Best DIY Christmas Advent Calendars That Double as Holiday Decor

Some families do a Feast of the Seven Fishes, a Southern Italian tradition that likely started due to the Roman Catholic mandate to abstain from meat on Christmas Eve. "We start with fried smelts with a squeeze of lemon juice and scungilli salad," says Alyssa Jung, senior editor for the Hearst Health Newsroom. "For dinner, we have baccala, or salted cod; roasted shrimp scampi; jumbo pesto scallops; stuffed squid; and spaghetti aglio e olio. This is the one and only time we eat these foods. It’s my favorite meal of the year!” If they don't do the Feast of the Seven Fishes, other families might do a Polish wigilia, a Sweidsh julbord or just some of their favorite passed-down recipes, but the end result is the same: food coma.

RELATED: Creative Christmas Dinner Ideas That'll Steal the Show

When it comes time to trim the tree, find a way to commemorate a milestone or memory from the past year. "One of my favorite holiday traditions is adding to our ornament collection," says Jeanine Hays, writer, interior and product designer of AphroChic. "In the past, ornaments have been from a place we'd traveled or a gift from a dear friend. This year we are adding Black Panther to our tree. I love knowing that each year our tree reveals a little bit more about our family and our heritage." Making handmade ornaments together is another way to sneak some bonding time into a busy time of year.

Opening up all those presents sure whips up an appetite. If you can tear the kids away from their new toys for a minute, have everyone help out in the kitchen and make breakfast. (Put the little ones in charge of the toast.) "My family does a big brunch of eggs Benedict every year," says writer Chelsea Frisbie. "My mom makes it super lemony just like we like it, and we stay in our pajamas all day."

"Since I’ve begun hosting holidays, I’ve started my own tradition of preparing a festive waffle bar brunch for my family and friends," says Nicole Gibbons. Who would turn down that invite?

RELATED: 70 Best Christmas Breakfast Ideas to Kick Off Your Holiday Morning the Right Way

True, we all walk around with cameras in our pockets and take more photos now than ever before — but how often do you really stop to make sure you get everyone in the same picture, all spiffed up and looking at the camera at the same time? Probably only once or twice a year, so go all-out when it comes to the yearly holiday photo. Costumes, matching outfits, props — the sky's the limit!

RELATED: 30 Creative Christmas Card Photo Ideas from Photography Pros

Your holiday cards just might be the only postal mail you send all year, so make sure they're a big to-do! You can DIY a card, send a funny greeting card or just pass along a note that says you're thinking of your friends and loved ones. You can also figure out a fun way to display the cards you receive.

Sinterklaas, also known as Saint Nicholas Day, is celebrated on December 5, when "Sint" traditionally leaves a small gift, sweet or poem in the shoes of Dutch children. Gifts are often elaborately disguised as other objects. "My husband's mother is Dutch, and together we celebrate Sinterklaas," says Lis Engelhart, Good Housekeeping's Visual Styling Director. "In the past I've received gifts that looked like a giant bagel, a fish tank and a wedding cake — I had to dig out the gift hidden in layers of real cake and frosting!"

"In my house, we have a big, felt cardinal as our tree topper — the cardinal was the mascot at the university where I met my husband," says Marisa LaScala, Senior Parenting and Relationship Editor. You can choose your own tree topper based on something important to your family (like the dinosaur topper pictured here, which can be found on Etsy). Or, better yet, you can make one yourself!

RELATED: 30 Creative Christmas Tree Toppers for Picture-Perfect Holiday Decor

There's a Christmas movie out there for every personality. Do you like romance? Hallmark Christmas movies have you covered. Action? There's always Die Hard or Batman Returns. Kids at home? There are tons of Christmas movies for kids to choose from. "My family is obsessed with National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation — now we all wear sweatshirts with funny sayings from the movie for our holiday portrait," says April Franzino, Good Housekeeping's Beauty Director.

In December, have every person in the family pick a favorite, then either take a weekend to binge them all, or watch one a week leading up to Christmas. You can even design a bingo card to keep track of movie tropes.

RELATED: 75 Best Christmas Movies of All Time, Ranked

This year's Rockefeller Center Christmas tree is a Norway Spruce — what will yours be? Some tree varieties are known for their scent, others are celebrated for their shape, sturdiness or needle retention. But choosing a real tree helps support a farm — and a trip to go get one is always a fun family outing.

No doubt, come December your feeds are filled with elves that get up to mischief in the night. But whether you commit to an Elf on the Shelf or find another way to bring enchantment into the house — like hiding and "discovering" a Santa Key that lets Santa into the house on Christmas Eve — do something that keeps them guessing about the nature of Santa's magic.

RELATED: Best Elf on the Shelf Ideas for Funny and Mischievous Elves

You only get to use one of these bad boys this time of year. Better (carefully) make the most of it.

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A letter to the North Pole is probably the best (and most long-lasting) way to get in touch with St. Nick. But, in this digital age, of course you can reach out through an app, too. Capture the Magic lets you snap a pic of Santa in your living room by your tree, Portable North Pole allows Santa send a personalized video message, or and Santa's Magic Phone lets kids get a voicemail from him. Either way, you get a helpful reminder to stay on the "nice" list.

Some people collect holiday dishes, like Spode, Lenox or Nikko. Others gravitate towards designer collections, like ornaments from Christopher Radko or decorations from Annalee. Your family might want to put together an elaborate ceramic Christmas village, or find something else — nutcrackers, ceramic trees, old Coca-Cola polar bears — to gather en masse. Whatever you choose, you'll have a great time hunting year after year for the perfect piece to add to your collection.