Christmas Traditions for Couples
A huge list of hundreds of Christmas traditions for couples. Plan the best holiday season with these fun Christmas tradition ideas for couples!
We’ve had an unusual holiday season this year. My husband is a consultant who travels often for work, but typically only for a day or two here and there. This Christmas, he’s been gone almost the entire month, traveling to finish up a deadline. We’ve missed out on a lot of our time to celebrate Christmas together. It’s left us spending every weekend focusing on our favorite holiday traditions, trying to fit in that quality time and memory-making before the holiday season is over.
I’m pleased to report we have a week to catch up and fit in every Christmas themed fun activity we can! We’re setting our sights on our favorite Christmas traditions for couples. And while we’re selecting our favorites, I asked our FWIL community to help share their traditions for couples, too! Hooray for hundreds of community members weighing in our what they love to do during the Christmas season with their spouse!
Here is the list to help any other couples looking for some fun ways to spend time together or create their own Christmas traditions.
Christmas Tradition Ideas for Couples
We’ve rounded up hundreds of ideas to help you create your own Christmas traditions for couples!
Date Night Christmas Traditions
Plan a Christmas Date Night:
You know we have your back with 50 Christmas date ideas to choose from. Make sure to pick at least one. But truly, you could fit in several and have lots of magical holiday date nights together.
12 Dates of Christmas:
We’ve paired the classic 12 Days of Christmas song with date ideas to create the 12 Dates of Christmas you can do for 12 days (or less). There’s a free printable and all the ideas to create the Couple’s Christmas tradition.
Enjoy the Mistletoe:
I remember hating mistletoe while single. Now, it’s something I adore for the excuse to kiss my husband. I love scheduling a few minutes or an evening excuse to enjoy the mistle together.
Have a Sleepover Under Your Tree
I love that so many families do this! But a sleepover next to or under the tree is completely appropriate for couples, too! Grab the pillows, blankets, and maybe a sleeping bag, and get ready to feel like a kid again!
Fun Christmas Ideas for Couples
Couple’s Christmas Ornament:
Find an ornament that represents your year together. It can be somewhere you traveled, a fun experience, a new milestone, an inside joke, etc. Find one that fits your life and add it to your tree! It’s a Christmas gift that will keep on giving with fun memories of this year of your lives together.
Gift Advent Calendars
There’s something so fun about counting down the days until Christmas day with a small gift or enjoying a small treat. We love enjoying daily sweets with a great chocolate advent calendar. Our kids love LEGO advent calendars, but I know adults who love them too! You can also grab beauty advent calendars, drink calendars, and gourmet food options. It’s a tradition you can enjoy every day until Christmas Eve!
Matching Christmas Pajamas for Couples:
As newlyweds, Jacob thought it would be hilarious to buy matching Christmas union suits. It was hilarious, and I still cherish the pictures of those goofy couples’ onesie pajamas.
We’ve grown up a bit, and we love having a classic pair of Christmas pajamas for couples to wear. They can match or coordinate, but holiday PJs make for a really fun tradition!
We have an entire post about matching Christmas pajamas with plenty of great options for couples!
Open Presents, Just the Two of You
Who said you have to open gifts in front of a crowd? Find a special time you get to be alone during the holiday season, and create a gift-opening tradition that’s intimate and special for you as a couple.
Couples Christmas Activities
Watch Your Favorite Christmas Movie
There’s always one or two that’s even more fun to watch as a couple. We love The Holiday, and It’s a Wonderful Life is a movie our kids aren’t quite old enough for. Use this as an excuse to pop the popcorn, or make our Christmas popcorn recipe. Christmas movie nights are an easy and fun tradition!
Have a Movie Marathon
Why limit yourself to one movie when you can park it on the couch and have a Christmas movie marathon? Find a day or start early in the evening, and watch an entire series of holiday movies while you cuddle up together.
Drive Around and See Christmas Lights
I mean, there’s something so special and romantic about looking at twinkling lights. There’s some extra magicin getting to do this activity as a couple. I mean, who doesn’t love admiring the nice things people include in their Christmas decorations and light shows? We love having a minute to talk without kids. And bonus points, this is a free Christmas date idea!
Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt
A few years ago we started one of our favorite new traditions of turning Christmas lights and decorations into a fun game. Grab our Christmas Lights Scavenger Hunt free printable and enjoy a little friendly competition trying to find the different items on the list first.
Enjoy a Romantic Night In
Okay, here’s our not-so-PG-rated suggestion. Set up a romantic night for two. Grab some Christmas lingerie, grab a sexy game, get some naughty things if that’s what excites you, and plan a romantic night for two. Any married couple will tell you that formally scheduling a romantic night is often needed to make a special night happen.
See a Christmas Concert
So many schools, churches, and community Christmas concerts happen this time of year. And listening to Christmas music live is just something special! We may not be Catholic, but that doesn’t mean a Christmas mass isn’t a great tradition to enjoy! It’s a great tradition to choose your favorite and make it happen every year.
Attend The Christmas Carol:
We make this happen about every other year, and it’s just one of our favorite traditions! It always reminds us to cherish the now, be kind, and puts us in the Christmas spirit.
Go Ice Skating
My teenage heart fell in love with the ice skating scene in Serendipity and also in Elf. I mean, an ice skating date is always a fun romantic date. Find a local skating rink pop-up surrounded by Christmas decorations or lights, and enjoy a romantic night out.
Visit a Christmas Tree Farm
Go pick out a Christmas tree together. But even if you are team artificial Christmas tree, this is a fun place to visit! They typically have hot chocolate stands, farmer’s market items from local vendors, and plenty to see and enjoy at the farm.
Social Christmas Traditions for Couples
Host a Christmas Party
I love a house party with some holiday flair. No matter how busy our schedule is, we always make Christmas parties with our dear friends part of our tradition! You could invite the adults in your family, coworkerss, other couples, or friends in your neighborhood for a block party feel. Some adult conversation and appetizers make for extra fun holiday gatherings.
Plus, so much is done with our children; these are lovely excuses for some adult time.
Have an Ugly Sweater Party
We hosted an ugly sweater party for couples years ago, and these photos are still all over Pinterest! It’s funny, it’s easy, and everyone loves a good ugly sweater.
Plan a Gingerbread House Party
We do this every year with our extended family, and it’s so fun to see the adults enjoy their time! I have all the tips to plan an easy graham cracker gingerbread house party and turn what can be chaos into stations and kits for particpants. This makes it easy, fun, gives you one less thing to worry about if you’re the host!
Plan a New Year’s Eve Mocktail Night
We’ve found December is so busy, until the night of the 26th! The week after Christmas is such a great time to host a party. Our New Year’s Eve Mocktail Party was one of our favorites. Everyone who came raved how much they appreciated the invite! I’m glad we made it a couple’s tradition for Christmas to include fun New Year’s Eve plans. Plus who doesn’t love a romantic countdown to midnight, a toast to each other, and a midnight kiss?
Christmas Traditions in the Kitchen
Grab a Cup of Hot Chocolate
A hot chocolate date is a simple tradition that’s easy to fit in on even the busiest of days! Plan a time to either go out and get a cup of hot cocoa or schedule a night in to make some hot chocolate and enjoy it together.
Bake Christmas Cookies Together
Make some of Santa’s favorite snacks and bake some cookies. And Christmas sugar cookies are by far the crowd favorite to make with their sweetheart. We love the process of rolling out dough, baking cookies, and spending some time decorating. Check out our Christmas cookie post for our favorite sugar cookie recipe.
Plan a Christmas Menu
Even if you’re spending the holidays with family, there’s a good chance you’ll be involved with a holiday dinner. Plan a Christmas menu for one of the meals of the day, and get organized and excited together.
Try a New Culinary Adventure to Serve on Christmas
I recently heard a celebrity chef recommend four classics at a holiday dinner and one new wildcard recipe. Plan to be the wildcard recipe and find something fun to make together!
Make Treats for Neighbors or Coworkers
We love assembling treats even on busy years. Sometimes it is our favorite hand soap, often it’s our Christmas puppy chow mix, and sometimes we spend all day baking goodies. Whatever your time and budget may be, it’s a fun tradition to do together!
Make Your List, And Check Things Off Twice
Go Christmas Shopping Together
What can feel overwhelming is way more fun when you do it together! Brave the mall, search through Amazon, and divide and conquer to finish it together.
Let me add we’ve loved this Christmas tradition for couples even more since becoming parents! Choosing toys for our kids has been one of the most fun things we’ve done together!
Wrap Presents
It’s a big task, and it never hurts to turn into a fun tradition to tackle together. We love including a Christmas movie or our favorite holiday playlist.
Plan Christmas Stockings
There’s a huge trend on social media right now for moms to show how forgotten they’ve been on Christmas morning. I mean they make childhood magic and often don’t see a lot in return. It breaks our hearts, and here’s our quick love letter to awesome moms. You derve a stocking! And it may be worth your time as a couple to plan an outing to go stocking stuffer shopping.
I love to show my husband a few earrings and treats I’d like, and let him pick from the options.
You can online shop too! Check out our stocking stuffer ideas for women, and our stocking stuffer ideas for men and help set each other up for success!
Divide and Conquer
One year, Jacob built a wall made out of a sheet to divide our room. It lets us be close together while wrapping gifts for each other. It was hilarious, clever, and functional! Make present wrapping for each other a fun experience with a room divider and a time to share some conversation.
Send Holiday Cards
Holiday cards are always a fun tradition, but they do take time! Make it a tradition to take pictures together sometime during the year, and spend a date night creating customized holiday cards. You can spend another night stuffing the printed cards and taking them to be mailed.
Pro tip, try to send them the week of Thanksgiving if you want to receive the most cards and enjoy this fun tradition the entire season together.
Christmas Service Traditions
Visit a Giving Machine and Make a Donation
Have you heard of giving machines? It can be as little as $5 or you can give hundreds. But these directly profit charities both local and abroad. 100% of the proceeds go to the charity!
Volunteer
Your local soup kitchen and homeless shelter need extra help. Nursing homes could use extra hands, check for opportunities to donate toys or time to your local hospital, and most churches organize drives for the needy. We’ve even turned it into a service group date for other couples to enjoy! Do some good together for a heart-warming Christmas tradition for couples.
Do a Random Act of Kindness
We have tons of Random Acts of Kindness Ideas in this post, but there are so many holiday RAOK to do too! Look for a neighbor in need and help them out. But someone’s meal. Write nice notes and leave them for others to find. Finish a deadline for an overwhelmed coworker. Small and simple spread a lot of holiday cheer!
We hope these encourage some new Christmas traditions to do with your sweetheart this holiday season!
Christmas Traditions for Couples Frequently Asked Questions
Most find a special meal to eat together. Many drive around and look at Christmas lights. Lots of couples like to meet up with friends and gather for holiday parties. And many try to recreate traditions from their childhood to share together.
– Watching holiday movies together
– Baking holiday treats
– Driving around to look at Christmas lights
– Attending holiday church services
– Visiting friends and family
One amazing thing about being a couple is deciding which Christmas traditions you want to do together.
Here are a few Christmas traditions to discuss:
– What food do you want to eat?
– Do you want to cook, eat out, or order out?
– Do you like going to specific places?
– Are there movies you love to watch on Christmas?
– What does gift-giving look like for you?
– What is your budget for holiday events and gifts?
– How much time do you have to spend together?
Make sure to have a discussion and make a plan so that both spouses’ expectations and needs are met.
