Instagram iconInstagram icon
Facebook iconFacebook icon
pinterest iconpinterest icon
YouTube iconYouTube icon
Tiktok iconTiktok icon
LTK iconLTK icon

Collective Q+A: What Is Your Favorite Holiday Tradition?

Kim, Lucy and Catfish enjoy creating a Christmas village with train tracks as a part of their holiday time together | via Yellow Brick Home

Every year, we choose a free Saturday in December for ‘Suburb Day.’ Hear me out. Living in the city, we rarely need to leave, since most things our hearts desire can be found down the block! But we always look forward to Suburb Day, a special day each holiday season that we go to the mall (despite having completed our Christmas shopping), order the biggest, most sugary coffee drink, and we… walk around. We soak in the frenzied pace of fellow shoppers, we share a big pretzel for lunch, and we eat all the breadsticks our hearts desire at Olive Garden for dinner. We go to IKEA. We do all these things, because they’re things we can’t do in the city!

This year, we’ll sadly have to skip that tradition (at least 10 years strong – womp womp), so instead, we’ll cuddle up indoors. We’ll watch Snowy Day (our favorite!), eat popcorn, make cookies, play trains and, hopefully, pop downtown for a family photo or two (safely).

Christmas 2018

This is another round of Collective Q+A, a blog series focused on sharing voices other than our own to promote new ideas and encourage outside-of-the-box thinking. Today we’re asking: What is your favorite holiday tradition, unique to your family?



We have always loved the tradition of placing candle lights in every window. We both remember our parents assigning the task of plugging in each light at dusk for the evening ahead.Renovation Husbands

Stephen and David, Renovation Husbands | We are both from a small historic town nestled in Western Massachusetts, and have always loved the tradition of placing candle lights in every window. We both remember our parents assigning the task of plugging in each light at dusk for the evening ahead. Now, in our own home, we carry on the tradition (luckily they turn themselves on now) and appreciate the warm and welcoming glow they provide for not only us but for our neighbors. When the time comes each year we really go all in, the eggnog comes out, the music turns on, and we grab our matching flannels. For us, there is no warmer way to ring in the holidays.

Stephen and David of Renovation Husbands share their favorite holiday tradition, unique to their family! via Yellow Brick Home

Find Stephen and David on their blog, Renovation Husbands, and on Instagram @renovationhusbands.


We know it’s technically an activity for kids (and this will actually be our first Christmas as parents!), but we still have so much fun putting our elf into various situations around our house.​​​​​​​ The DIY Playbook

Casey, The DIY Playbook | My husband, Finn, and I have been married for six years, and every Christmas we’ve created our own Elf on the Shelf shenanigans. We know it’s technically an activity for kids (and this will actually be our first Christmas as parents!), but we still have so much fun putting our elf (Cocoa) into various situations around our house. It’s a competition to figure out who can come up with the most over-the-top situation for Cocoa and Finn usually beats me every time. This year, our 7-month-old daughter will probably just enjoy munching on the elf. But we look forward to many Christmases in the future with our daughter enjoying her parent’s weird holiday tradition. 

The DIY Playbook shares their favorite holiday tradition, unique to their family! via Yellow Brick Home

Find Casey on her blog, The DIY Playbook, and on Instagram @diyplaybook.


Our family is very big on holiday traditions, from Christmas Karaoke, to opening a gift on Christmas eve (usually pjs).​​​​​​​ — Made by Carli

Carli, Made by Carli | Our family is very big on holiday traditions, from Christmas Karaoke, to opening a gift on Christmas eve (usually pjs), but I’d have to say one of my favorite traditions is our annual “gingerbread” (graham cracker) house contest.  Naturally, I’m very competitive in this competition, but I compete against the kids, and my hubs is usually the judge. We then display our houses until Christmas (or until all of the candy is mysteriously picked off of them).  My older boys usually just make mountains of graham crackers and frosting, and say that their’s failed so they can snack on all of the excess sugar, and I usually help our little guy build his foundation so he can stay in the game.  It’s such a great family activity and it’s so much fun to have a little friendly competition.  This year we set out to make them with only ingredients we had on hand, it made us get a little more creative with our houses which was a really fun twist on our old tradition.

Carli of Made by Carli shares her favorite holiday tradition, unique to her family! via Yellow Brick Home

Find Carli on her blog, Made by Carli, and on Instagram @madebycarli.


I continue to build on the previous year, with new ornaments and looking for new ways to make the holiday season feel like “us” as much as possible.​​​​​​ — Albie Knows

Albie, Albie Knows | I remember our very first Christmas as a family of 3 — our daughter was born earlier that year — being the first time my husband & I even got a tree together, and it was a hand-me-down. A year later, we had our first Christmas on the west coast, so it was the first time I really took the time to think about decorating for the holidays. We bought our very first tree, and I hung stockings on the wall with command hooks. Every year since then, I continue to build on the previous year, with new ornaments and looking for new ways to make the holiday season feel like “us” as much as possible. This year will be our very first holiday season in our very first home and after not spending last Christmas together because of a deployment, I am excited to do some of the fun traditions we’ve always seen but have never done — matching pajamas on Christmas Eve, milk & cookies for Santa by the fireplace, and family movie nights for each of our holiday favorites!

Find Albie on her blog, Albie Knows, and on Instagram @albieknows.



PS: Here’s our holiday home tour from 2019, the best chocolate chip cookies you should be making this season, and a round-up of flocked trees in every shape and size!

Add a comment...

Your email is never published or shared. Required fields are marked *

  • Deb12.3.20 - 7:13 AM

    Have you seen this list of outdoor Christmas displays outside Chicago? They appear to be drivebys. Since the weather will be great this week, it might be worth the drive. That one in Elburn!
    https://mykidlist.com/best-christmas-lights/ReplyCancel

  • Brenda12.3.20 - 7:15 AM

    I enjoyed hearing about other traditions. Thanks for including other influencers in your post. ReplyCancel

  • Katie12.3.20 - 9:42 AM

    I thought for sure “suburb day” was going to be an evening where you get hot chocolate and drive around the suburbs looking at all the houses decorated in Christmas lights while listening to Christmas music! You can even make a game of pretending that you are the official judges for the Christmas decoration contest and pick winners. (When I was on the village board I got to do this for real one year; so fun!) That’s one of my favorite traditions, and luckily something that can still happen this year. :)ReplyCancel

    • Kim12.3.20 - 10:33 AM

      Love that so much! Suburb day began shortly after we moved to Chicago and I missed just going to the mall. There are no malls in the city, haha, and it’s a symbol of my childhood.???? There’s a lot of nostalgia there.ReplyCancel

  • Abby P12.3.20 - 9:56 AM

    I love your suburbs day. Before moving to Kentucky, my husband and I lived in Chicago for nearly a decade. When we just needed to feel closer to home we’d drive to the suburbs and eat somewhere like Olive Garden or Red Lobster and it totally cured our homesick vibes.ReplyCancel

    • Kim12.3.20 - 10:32 AM

      YOU GET IT. Childhood memories, haha.ReplyCancel

  • Lisa12.3.20 - 11:50 AM

    I love how Catfish is always right next to you, in the center of things. She wants to participate!ReplyCancel

  • Wendy12.3.20 - 2:07 PM

    Growing up, my parents always helped my brother and I get each other one gift. They were the only gift we opened on Christmas Eve, so they were extra special. One year my brother wrapped my gift, a calendar, in a huge box filled with the living room throw pillows!ReplyCancel

    • Kim12.3.20 - 2:11 PM

      Aaaah, that is the CUTEST thing ever! What a sweet tradition.ReplyCancel

  • Brittany12.3.20 - 6:17 PM

    My family’s Christmas tradition is making potica, a Slovenian yeast bread. We often made it together and would always eat a piece on Christmas morning (and other mornings leading up to/after it!).ReplyCancel

    • Kim12.4.20 - 10:41 AM

      Yumm! I love any tradition that includes food, haha.ReplyCancel

  • Maura12.3.20 - 6:38 PM

    I wrote this via a DM on Instagram, but I want to share here too because I want everyone to do it with their little kids. I would change my kid’s pajamas into brand new special ones while they slept on Christmas Eve so then when they woke up on Christmas morning they would find themselves in their new PJs. They loved it while it lasted (until 7 or so.)ReplyCancel

    • Kim12.4.20 - 10:42 AM

      Maura, this is so sweet! I’m trying to imagine Lucy sleeping through a pj change…!ReplyCancel

  • Carrie12.4.20 - 1:15 PM

    Catfish looks like she REALLY wants Scott to get down in the floor with you guys!  :) 
    I love this post so much! I take Thanksgiving week off of work every year (since 2002!) and spend the first half of the week cleaning out closets and drawers, and purging to make room for new gifts.  Then I clean the house really well, and take down all my normal decor.  I spend the Friday and Saturday after Thanksgiving decorating every room in my house.  Then the following weekend (which will be this weekend!  I’m so excited!) I make one of my favorite meals and get all my chores done early in the day, and snuggle in to watch Elf and Love Actually.  Then it feels like Christmas time to me. I’m single and have lived alone (but with dogs!) most of my adult life (with the exception of 4 years with my ex and my two amazing bonus kiddos that made everything more magical and they were great help decorating the tree.) and so many people ask why I decorate so much when it’s just me.  Um, because I love it and I deserve to have a magical Christmas season too!  Plus my current house was just made for Christmas.  I would  be doing it an injustice to not deck it out.  ReplyCancel

    • Kim12.4.20 - 2:23 PM

      Carrie, yes!! You’re giving me the warm fuzzies!ReplyCancel

  • Lisa Dyer12.23.20 - 1:47 PM

    Random question – where is your daughter’s dinosaur/lizard onesie from? It is so cute!!ReplyCancel

    • Kim12.23.20 - 8:37 PM

      It’s a Halloween costume from Target last year and she wears it every day.????ReplyCancel

  • Molly12.28.20 - 10:09 PM

    We watched The Snowy Day this year, right after watching the British classic, The Snowman, which a friend of mine who lived in London had recommended to us. It was a really interesting artistic contrast in how the two animated films treated similar subjects. It’s free on Amazon. I recommend.ReplyCancel

Let's be Pen Pals

Our Pen Pals have direct access to first looks, a peek behind-the-scenes, and exclusive interviews showcasing members of the #YBHDIY community. We can’t wait to connect with you!

Kim and Scott

We’re Kim + Scott, Chicago based content creators behind the Home + Lifestyle brand Yellow Brick Home.

Join us as we renovate and nurture vintage homes across Chicago + SW Michigan!

Instagram iconInstagram icon
Facebook iconFacebook icon
pinterest iconpinterest icon
YouTube iconYouTube icon
Tiktok iconTiktok icon
LTK iconLTK icon

LEt's be Pen Pals

Subscribe for first looks, behind-the-scenes, and exclusive community content

/* footer flodesk form */

This site uses affiliate links. We will always disclose sponsored posts in the text and by using the ‘sponsored' tag.

© 2024 Yellow Brick Home. | All Rights Reserved. | PRIVACY POLICY