Christmas traditions for couples

Make a meaningful Christmas by instilling traditions made just for two. Try these 50 Christmas traditions for couples this holiday season.

Connection is fundamentally important to human beings: connection to nature, to each other, to our past and to our present.

Whoever the genius was who first came up with the idea for a tradition knew this. Somehow they were aware that repeating certain practices at relevant times would be a simple yet effective way for people to feel like they belonged to something bigger than themselves.

Tradition is necessary for a life well-lived.

Maybe the time has come and gone for you to have made family centered Christmas traditions and you’re wondering what next.

Maybe you don’t have children so part of you has always downplayed Christmas as a result and that causes regret.

Maybe you simply want some more magic in your life together with your spouse.

Whatever the reason, you deserve to feel the joy of Christmas as much as anyone else.

So read through these 50 Christmas traditions for couples and select those which speak to you.

Then make this year Year 0: the year where these traditions come to life!

50 festive Christmas traditions for couples

1. Light Christmas candles every evening in December
2. Write each other a letter to open on Christmas Day which expresses your hopes and dreams for each other in the coming year
3. Take a tour of the Christmas lights
4. Ease the Christmas stress by taking turns to give each other a massage using Christmas essential oils like peppermint
5. Create then gift each other a Christmas Eve box
6. Attend a Christmas parade
7. Make a Christmas trifle
8. Listen to a live performance of Christmas carols
9. Make a Christmas bucket list. Plan for what you can this year and review the list in the years to come
10. Make a Christmas donation to a charity of your choice
11. Bake Christmas cookies together
12. Buy each other a special ornament for the tree
13. Declutter 25 items from the house and donate them
14. Make the house smell like Christmas every day in December
15. Make a time capsule for the year just passed and open them after five or ten years
16. Decorate the Christmas tree together
17. Trial Christmas appetizer recipes until you nail your perfect dish, which from now can only be made at Christmas time
18. Read or listen to A Christmas Carol
19. Visit a Gingerbread House competition 
20. Find a local Christmas event, such as a market, and attend it every year
21. Make a Christmas scavenger hunt by creating a list of items to spy at home and then heading out to locate them!
22. Buy matching Christmas pajamas and wear them every night in December
23. Plan a Christmas project around the house such as sorting out a room, doing some DIY or other needed maintenance 
24. Watch a romantic Christmas movie every night in the 25 days leading up to and including Christmas
25. Create a Christmas playlist together and play it daily
26. Get a Christmas cracker or fun ornament like a Christmas pickle and take turns hiding it daily for the other one to find. Have prizes for locating it in record time
27. Camp out under the Christmas tree one night
28. Pick out a live Christmas tree together the first weekend in December
29. Be your own “Elf on the shelf” – every night in December tell each other something nice you saw the other one do that day
30. Fill a Christmas stocking for each other
31. Buy an experience gift for the year ahead
32. Share your favorite memory of the year and record it
33. Make a different hot chocolate recipe for every day in December up to Christmas
34. Plan a Christmas vacation
35. Create an advent calendar filled with these advent calendar filler ideas so you can count down to Christmas in style
36. Take a couple’s Christmas photo. You could go all out and sit on Santa’s knee or simply arrange a photo session with your phone and a tripod
37. Give kindness by anonymously gifting someone in need anything from some Christmas baking to a week’s worth of groceries
38. Attend Christmas mass
39. Test out Christmas mocktails by making a new one every night in the week’s lead up to Christmas
40. Buy each other a book and gift it to each other on Christmas Eve, and then settle down to read
41. Stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve 
42. Go ice skating
43. Ask your parents what their favorite tradition was as a child and incorporate this into your Christmas routine
44. Call a local nursing home and find out who is unlikely to have a visitor this Christmas. Take them some small gifts and ask them to share their stories of Christmases past
45. Buy special glasses and make a Christmas toast to each other every night
46. Make novelty a tradition: try something new every Christmas and document your experiences with it
47. Have a Christmas breakfast
48. Research a Christmas tradition from another culture and try it
49. Ask each other one of these Christmas questions every night
50. Make some homemade Christmas dog treats and donate them to an animal shelter

Traditions create feelings of connection. That belonging is fundamental to positive mental health.

What’s more, you can bring back the magic of Christmas by starting these Christmas traditions for couples. 

Which one of these traditions will you start this year?

(You might also like Christmas date ideas for couples).