Hosting & celebrations · September 11, 2026 · 6 min read
20 Holiday Traditions for Families to Make Your Own
Find 20 optional winter holiday traditions for families, with simple ways to adapt them and a free worksheet for what to choose, skip, and repeat.
A puzzle brought out every winter can be a holiday tradition. So can a playlist that begins with last year's songs, with a new choice from each person. Start with an activity you'd like to return to and give it a version that fits your family.
These 20 holiday traditions for families are optional ideas for the winter holiday season. Use the names of the holidays you observe, or simply call them winter activities. Add something new alongside your existing traditions if you like. Change or skip any suggestion. The free worksheet has space to keep a few choices for another year.
Music, stories, and an evening at home
1. Make a winter playlist with one choice per person. Pick a song each and listen in the order people added them. Give the playlist the year as its title. Next season, you can play the old version before deciding whether to add new songs.
2. Return to one favorite puzzle. Choose a jigsaw you already want to do and bring it out during the holiday season. Leave it available for people to work on in short visits, or put it away after one evening. Finishing the whole picture is optional.
3. Give a familiar movie its own evening. Pick a film your family wants to rewatch. Someone can make a paper ticket with the title, or you can press play without any extras. Keep the movie and change the surrounding activity whenever you like.
4. Read the opening of a winter book. Choose a story your family associates with this time of year and read a chapter or a few pages. An audiobook excerpt can fill the same place if you'd rather listen.
5. Choose a returning game. Bring out one familiar board or card game for a holiday game evening. Write its name on the worksheet if you'd like to remember the choice. Use the game you already know how to play.
Something to make and keep
6. Add one page to a winter sketchbook. Share a page or give each person their own. Draw something from this season, such as the view from your window. An imaginary winter creature belongs here too. Date the page so you can find it next year.
7. Make a paper neighborhood. Draw small buildings on folded sheets of paper and stand them together on a shelf. Choose familiar places or invent a whole street. Keep one building for next year if you want the neighborhood to grow gradually.
8. Design a family winter postcard. Draw a scene on one side and write a short seasonal greeting on the other. You can keep it in an album; it doesn't have to become a mailing project. Try a different illustrator or color palette next time.
9. Make a page of paper snowflakes. Draw snowflake shapes across a sheet, each with a different pattern. Display the whole page or keep it with your seasonal drawings. This version works without real snow or a particular holiday theme.
10. Draw a bookmark for a returning book. Use a rectangle of paper and decorate it with a pattern or scene. Write the year on the back. Leave it in the book you want to revisit, so the bookmark appears with the story next season.
A small record of this year
11. Fill in the same short favorites page. Write a favorite song, book, game, and ordinary moment from this season. Keep the same prompts next year to see what people choose then. Draw an answer wherever you'd prefer a picture.
12. Give a photograph a handwritten caption. Choose one photo from the season and add a sentence about what was happening just outside the frame. Put it with the pictures you already keep. A single caption is a complete version of this idea.
13. Draw the same view each winter. Pick a view from a window or a familiar corner of your home. Everyone who wants to can make a sketch from that spot. Write the year on each drawing and keep them together, even when the view barely changes.
14. Make a seasonal title page. Give this winter a made-up book title and draw its cover. “The Year of the Blue Puzzle” or “Winter by the Window” can be enough to start. File it with any drawings or notes you decide to save.
15. Add a note to something you bring out again. Choose a seasonal object you already use and write down what you call it. Add where it came from if you know, or something you noticed about it this year. Store the note with that object rather than starting a separate catalog.
Playful ways to mark the season
16. Invent an annual drawing prompt. Try “a winter house with a surprising door” or “a creature wearing a very long scarf.” Draw separate answers to the same prompt. Save the prompt itself if you'd like to see new versions next year.
17. Tell a story in turns. Begin with a winter setting and let each willing storyteller add a sentence. You might start with an empty train station or a mitten found on a windowsill. Stop whenever the story reaches an ending you like.
18. Name a color for this winter. Let each person choose a color and make a small page of the choices. Use those colors for a drawing or leave the page as a set of swatches. Next year's choices can be entirely different.
19. Make a tiny winter exhibition. Arrange a few things you've drawn or made on a shelf or table. Give each piece a title on a folded paper label. The exhibition can last for one evening; there's no need to preserve the whole display.
20. Write a note to open next winter. Include a favorite from this year and a question for your future self, such as “Do you still like this song?” Fold the page, write when you'd like to open it, and keep it with your seasonal papers. Writing another note next year is optional.
Choose, adapt, skip, and repeat on one page
Download the free holiday traditions worksheet (PDF)
The one-page worksheet is US Letter size. Use it for one or two ideas, with room to write how you'd change them, what you'll skip, and what you'd like to repeat. Print it for handwriting, or use a PDF viewer that supports form fields to type short phrases and save a copy. No signup is needed.
For example, a family might choose a puzzle evening and a winter playlist. They could adapt the playlist to one song each, skip making movie tickets, and note later that they'd like to bring out the same puzzle again. Those are illustrative choices; the sheet starts blank.
You can leave any section empty. Keep the page with your seasonal papers if you want to return to it next winter. If you're looking for a place to track Christmas tasks and dates, use the separate Christmas planning checklist. For the look and invitation for one gathering, browse these Christmas party theme ideas.
