Holiday Traditions to Try in 2022

The holiday season is one of the most special times of the year and has become synonymous with good food, time spent with family and friends, and gift-giving. Most of us are familiar with some of the popular and more traditional holiday trends such as gingerbread house decorating, Christmas caroling, and wearing ugly sweaters, but there are many lesser-known holiday traditions to try that can keep your holiday season exciting! Continue reading below to get inspiration for some new holiday traditions to try for 2022!

Explore Different Cultural Holiday Practices

Many foreign countries celebrate the same holidays as the United States, but in a completely different way from what we are used to in America! Each year select a new country and research their traditions around Christmas or Hannukah and recreate them right here in the US. The choice of countries is totally up to you, but some favorites include Italian La Vigilia on Christmas eve, which is a large non-meat feast or indulge in the French tradition of baking and splitting 13 desserts amongst your family on Christmas night. Get creative and have fun experiencing new cultures right at home!

Host a Gift Exchange

Depending on the region you live in you may have heard this referred to as a White Elephant or Yankee Swap as well, but a gift exchange is a great activity for the holidays that can easily be done with family, friends, corworkers and more! The basic rules are outlined below, but feel free to put your own twists on it:

• Each person brings one wrapped gift to the event, nobody but the person who brought the gift should know what it is
• Players draw numbers from a hat to determine the order in which they pick gifts
• The first player selects a gift and unwraps it
• After the first player opens their gift the rest of the players can either “steal” a gift that is already open or select one that is still wrapped. If your gift gets stolen you then do the same – choose a new gift or steal from someone else.