Christmas is my favorite holiday, especially Christmas morning. I have wonderful memories of waking up Christmas morning and rushing to see the Christmas Tree with my siblings. As Colter and I have navigated our married Christmas seasons, we have integrated our Christmas traditions and some of them make for a magical morning.
Who doesn’t love Christmas morning! Especially when you have kids. This is our first holiday season as parents and we are loving sharing all of our traditions with Calvin. I am especially excited for his very first Christmas morning. We have been talking about the traditions that we want to share with our kids, now and future, and a lot of them revolve around the morning of Christmas.
#1 CHRISTMAS MORNING WAKE UP SONG
This is a tradition from my father-in-law’s family. Every Christmas morning, my father-in-law’s parents would wake up early enough to satisfy the kids and start to play Manheim Steamroller’s Deck the Halls loud enough to be heard throughout the house. Sleeping kids woke up to the sounds of Christmas and kids who were already awake knew that it was time. I was skeptical my first Christmas with Colter, but it really does add another layer of magic.
#2 CHRISTMAS TREE LIGHTS ON AND OVERHEAD LIGHTS OFF
Christmas lights are magic to me. On houses, on trees, on railings, at the zoo, but especially on the Christmas tree. One of my most vivid childhood holiday memories is waking up on December 25th, coming around the corner, and seeing the lit Christmas tree in a darkened room, surrounded by Christmas presents. Those are memories of pure joy and magic.
#3 SET UP A TRIPOD/VIDEO CAMERA THE NIGHT BEFORE
My parents filmed every Christmas morning when we were growing up and those are some of our favorite home videos to go back and watch now that we are all grown. When my parents did it, they went into the room with the tree and gifts first, started recording on their 8mm tape recorder and passed the giant camera back and forth between them as the morning went on.
My plan is to set up a tripod with a video camera the night before in a location that will have a good view of the tree, the couch, and the floor in front of them. Then, Christmas morning, all I have to do is to hit the record button and let the camera to the rest. I can enjoy Christmas with my family without worrying about videography, but we will still be able to look back at Calvin’s first Christmas.
#4 SET THE HEAT TO TURN ON BEFORE EVERYONE WAKES
Okay. Hear me out. I know that the heating bill shoots sky high in the winter. But if there is one morning to wake up to a warm house, it’s Christmas morning. If you can set your thermostat to turn the heat on a hour or two before your morning starts, great. Other options are running a space heater, stoking a fire if you have a wood burning stove, or even preheating your oven to warm the room a little can make a huge difference to the vibe of your Christmas morning.
#5 PREP AN EASY BREAKFAST TO BAKE DURING GIFT OPENING
This tip is kind of two in one. The first part of the tip is: don’t try to feed your family before opening gifts. It makes for impatient little people and a lot of potentially sticky fingers on new gifts. The second part of the tip is: don’t make your little people wait too long after the excitement of gift opening to eat.
I shared my family’s traditional Christmas breakfast on the blog yesterday. You can find that post and recipe here. These breakfast rolls are crazy easy, crazy fast, and such a perfect sweet treat of a breakfast to make your morning super extra special.
I hope you all have a wonderful Christmas. I know that this year is hard and different, but I am a firm believer in making the best out of a hard day. If you have any Christmas morning traditions that you love, I would love to hear them! Leave me a comment below, shoot me an email, or join me on Instagram and send a message. I would love to hear from you!
BARREL OF MERRELL'S 
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