Christmastime is a magical time of year. It’s even more magical if you are sharing it with someone special. A great way to build a bond with your partner is to create Christmas traditions that you can look forward to each year.
Whether it’s your first Christmas together or you’re just wanting to add a new tradition to the ones you’ve already made, the ideas in this article can help you find something fun to do with your sweetie during the Christmas holiday.
Here are the best Christmas traditions for couples. Have fun reading through and choosing a fun tradition to add to your holiday season!
Fun Christmas Traditions for Couples
Here are our favorite Christmas traditions that you can add to your own traditions this coming year!
1. Make a Gingerbread House
Making gingerbread houses is a favorite activity during the Christmas season. It’s so much fun! You get to play architect while designing a beautiful house out of delicious ingredients.
It’s easy to make this idea a tradition by simply buying the building materials and sitting down as a couple, or family, and building together. You can either build one gingerbread house as a team. Or, if you’re a bit competitive, you can have a contest each year to see who can build the better gingerbread house.
2. Enjoy the Christmas Lights
Enjoying the holiday lights each year is a simple and timeless tradition. It requires little effort to do so you can easily repeat this tradition.
Where you go to look at Christmas lights is up to you! There might be certain neighborhoods that go all out each year. Or your town might host a light show where you drive down a particular route to check out the lights. Even if you live in a small town, there are usually some decorations to enjoy.
Find out what options you have locally and get out there and enjoy them with your someone special. You’ll have fun making memories and getting into the holiday spirit.
3. Drink Hot Chocolate
Hot chocolate is great any time of the year. However, there is something special about sipping on hot chocolate together during the holidays. You can make a whole event out of it and set up a hot chocolate bar and drink gourmet hot chocolate while decorating, watching movies, or simply enjoying your Christmas tree.
4. Rewatch Your Favorite Christmas Movies
Rewatching classing Christmas movies like It’s a Wonderful Life, Home Alone, and A Christmas Story will never get old. So, it’s no wonder that a favorite tradition for many couples is to watch Christmas movies.
You can snuggle up and watch the movies you grew up with together. You might discover that you were sharing traditions before you even met.
5. Watch a New Christmas Movie
Another fun tradition is to find a new holiday movie each year. There are tons of old Christmas movies that you may not have seen. There are also great ones that are made just about every year. See which ones you love that you can add to your regular rotation.
6. Spend Christmas Morning Alone
One complaint that is pretty common among couples is that the holiday seasons can be chaotic. Especially if you’re trying to visit both sides of the family and juggling a bunch of social events.
In order to avoid Holiday burnout, you can make it part of your tradition to spend Christmas morning alone. Whether it’s just the two of you or you and your children, you can enjoy each other’s company without any guests or obligations on Christmas morning.
This sacred time will give you time to exchange gifts, eat a nice breakfast, or just relax and savor the magic of Christmas morning.
7. Pick a Day to Decorate
A lot of couples choose to decorate on Thanksgiving weekend since that weekend is long for many people. Whichever date you choose, you can turn decorating together into a holiday tradition.
Put the tree up and enjoy coming up with creative ways to make your home look ready for Christmas. This is a great way to spend quality time together while surrounding yourselves with things that get you into the holiday spirit.
8. Listen to Your Favorite Christmas Songs
Christmas music is one of the best things about the holiday season! Make a date out of creating a playlist that you can listen to together year after year.
Include Christmas songs that you both love that you can listen to while doing other festive things like baking cookies or just hanging out by the Christmas tree.
9. Wear Matching Christmas Pajamas
You can either purchase new matching holiday-themed pajamas each year or wear the same ones each year. This idea makes for great photos! Have fun picking out pajamas that match each other with things like snowmen, funny sayings, and other fun things.
10. Go Caroling
Christmas carols help spread the holiday spirit. It can be really romantic to stroll with your hunny and sing your favorite songs. Find a group of friends to spend the evening with and go caroling. This is a really fun tradition that will help you spread joy each year.
11. Write a Christmas Love Letter
A really romantic Christmas tradition that you can do each year as a couple is to exchange love letters. You can consider doing this instead of a Christmas card for each other.
This is a great time of year to remind each other how thankful you are to be together!
12. Exchange Homemade Christmas Cards
You don’t have to be really crafty to make Christmas cards for each other. This tradition will allow you to get creative and make something fun for each other each year.
You can save the cards in a box and make it part of the tradition to look back on all of the ways you’ve wished each other a merry Christmas throughout the years.
13. Make Christmas Dinner Together
There is something about the holidays that makes cooking more fun than usual. Taking the time to make a delicious holiday meal together can be a really fun tradition for couples.
You can work together to make a great dinner while listening to music and enjoying each other’s company.
14. Order Chinese Food
If you aren’t up for cooking during the busy holiday season, don’t worry! A fun tradition that a lot of couples enjoy is to order Chinese food.
Since a lot of Chinese restaurants don’t observe the Christmas holiday, they tend to be open when most others are closed. So, if you don’t feel like working to create a meal on Christmas Eve or Christmas, grab some takeout and make a tradition out of it.
15. Volunteer Together
Christmas is all about giving so what better tradition to create than volunteering? You can spend time with your partner while helping others. Favorite places to volunteer during the holidays are places like a soup kitchen, homeless shelter, food bank, and other local centers.
16. Go Ice Skating
Ice skating can be really romantic. You get bundled up and get to hold hands while skating together. Make a tradition out of this fun activity by finding somewhere local to skate each year.
17. Attend Church Services
Many churches offer special holiday services during Christmastime. Some even put on performances that can be very enjoyable. Find out what’s going on at your church or other local churches. This is a great tradition to go and hear the meaning of Christmas.
18. Exchange Flirty Christmas Stockings
If you want to spice up your holiday a bit, you can exchange sexy stockings with your partner. This is a romantic tradition that can make the rest of your year even more fun!
19. Play Games on Christmas Eve
If you love playing games together, make it a tradition to play board games or any other games on Christmas Eve or Christmas. We love staying up late to play board games on Christmas Eve!
20. Exchange Christmas Eve Boxes
Giving a Christmas eve box to your loved ones is a growing tradition. You put things like treats, pajamas, small toys, hot cocoa sets, and other things that your family can enjoy on Christmas Eve.
You and your partner can adopt this tradition for your own holiday celebrations. Simply add in things that you would like them to enjoy the night before Christmas. You can pair this with some other traditional ideas like Christmas pajamas, new holiday movies, and fancy hot chocolate.
21. Pick Out a Christmas Tree Together
Whether you visit a Christmas tree farm or go out and cut down your own Christmas tree, you can make a tradition out of it. Have fun spending time together while you hunt down the perfect tree to display for the holidays. This is a great opportunity to spend the whole day making holiday memories.
22. Use an Advent Calendar
Count down the dates of Christmas together with an advent calendar. You can use the same calendar each year or switch it up to make it a little more interesting.
Instead of using only treats in the calendar, you might choose to include actual date ideas, flirty dares, or whatever else you can think of that would make your holiday time more romantic. This is a great way to use some Christmas date ideas and plan them out with your advent calendar.
23. Read a Christmas Story
Read a new or favorite Christmas story together! This is the perfect activity to spend some quality time together while cuddled up near your Christmas tree and enjoying some hot chocolate together.
24. Visit Family
If you and your partner prefer to travel during the holidays. You can make a tradition out of going to visit friends or family. Not only will you get to spend the trip with your sweetheart, but you’ll also get to visit other people who are special to you.
So, if you live apart from family, this is a great time to make plans each year to go visit them.
25. Host a Meal
If it’s hard to see both families during the holidays, you can host a meal for the whole family. This allows you to see all of your loved ones under one roof. You can serve Christmas favorites and spend time with the people you love.
You and your partner can make a tradition out of hosting a meal. You’ll have fun planning and preparing together for your many guests.
26. Pick Out a New Ornament
Why not celebrate another year together with a new tree ornament each year? Pick something out that you both love so you can remember each individual year together.
Before you know it, you’ll have a big collection of ornaments you both picked out together that remind you of your love for one another. How romantic!
27. Binge-Watch the Hallmark Channel
If you want to have a marathon movie night, the Hallmark channel never disappoints when it comes to sappy, family-friendly Christmas movies. Make a whole day or night of it and enjoy some down time together.
28. Do Your Holiday Shopping Together
Holiday gift shopping can either be really stressful or really fun. Make it fun by doing all of your shopping together. It’s much more enjoyable to brave the crowds when you’re with your partner and you can make a day of it.
It’s better if you can do this one earlier than the middle of the Christmas season. Many people choose to go out after Thanksgiving to check out the Black Friday deals.
Make a tradition out of shopping for all of your friends and family together. You can help each other come up with gift ideas and make the whole experience a lot more fun. Just don’t shop for each other’s gifts on this day.
29. Have a Slumber Party on Christmas Eve
Don’t lose the magic of waiting for Santa on Christmas Eve! Grab your partner and have a slumber party in the living room the night before Christmas.
You can fall asleep to your favorite Christmas shows and the light of your Christmas tree. When you wake up on Christmas day, you’ll be with your loved one and the magic of Christmas morning!
30. Bake Christmas Cookies
Get your aprons on and whip up some Christmas cookies together for a fun holiday tradition. You’ll get to spend quality time together while you bake! Plus you get to enjoy the cookies you make.
You can spread the cheer with this tradition by making extra goodies to share with your friends, family, neighbors, and coworkers. Before you know it, everyone will be looking forward to this tradition.
31. Go on a Hot Cocoa Date
Branch off from your usual date ideas and visit a local coffee shop for a hot cocoa. This is the perfect winter date activity that you can add into your day during the holidays. Find the best hot chocolate spot in town and make a tradition out of visiting each year.
32. Take a Christmas Vacation
If staying in during the holidays isn’t your thing, make a tradition out of traveling to a vacation spot over Christmas instead. You can visit the same place each year or try somewhere new each holiday season.
This is a fun way to get away from the hustle and bustle of the holidays and get some quality time in as a couple.
33. Go on a Christmas Stroll Downtown
Most shops and stores decorate during the holidays. Going downtown to enjoy all of the decor can be really fun. You can get your shopping done during this time too. Or just relax and enjoy walking around and looking at all the different setups.
34. See a Live Performance
The holidays bring a lot of good opportunities to see amazing live performances. You can attend the ballet and watch The Nutcracker, attend a Christmas symphony, or catch another local live performance.
Many of these performances are held each year so making a tradition out of going to see them is a must!
35. Get Professional Photos Taken
If you want to capture each holiday together, schedule a professional to take a family photo. You’ll have a photo each year to look back on.
If you get your photos taken in advance, you can also send these out as Christmas cards to your friends and family each year.
36. Write a Holiday Newsletter Together
Many couples like to send out a newsletter to friends and family along with a Christmas card every year. This tradition allows you to update your loved ones on what you and your partner have been up to that year.
Not only is it fun to send these out, you’ll have a great time putting it together with your partner. You can go through photos and events of the year together and spend time writing a recap.
37. Make Holiday Foods Inspired by Other Countries
You can expand upon your usual traditions by adding in those from other countries as well! Do some research on how other people celebrate the Christmas season and adopt some of their traditions as your own.
You can research a different country each year or find your favorites and add them to your yearly menu. This is an especially fun tradition if you have children and can teach them about different cultures together.
38. Get Crafty
Use your arts and crafts skills to create things like ornaments and other holiday decor together. You’ll end up with unique items that you made together to decorate your home with. Find different projects each year or build upon your collection together.
39. Adopt a Family for Christmas
A lot of organizations allow you to “adopt” a local family for Christmas. This is for families who can’t afford a Christmas due to their circumstances that year.
You can adopt a tradition of finding a family in need together. You’ll be able to help others and feel great about doing so.
40. Plan Your Yearly Vacation
As part of a gift to each other each year, you can spend some time during the holidays to plan and book a yearly vacation. This is a great idea for minimalist couples or those who just love to travel.
Plus, this idea gives you something amazing to look forward to even after the Christmas season has come and gone.
Conclusion
Finding and keeping Christmas traditions as a couple can be really special. Sharing something each year can help show your commitment to each other and build a sense of security in your relationship.
So, find some traditions that you love together to celebrate the holiday season. By doing so, you’ll create lasting memories and make Christmas that much more special. You’ll find yourself looking forward to these traditions all year long!