December 1st boxes are one of my favorite holiday traditions. Find out what they are and what to put in them for your family this year!
A really fun and easy way to kick off the holiday season
A few years ago, I did a whole post about holiday traditions with over 50 fantastic ideas submitted by you guys! If you missed that post, you can read it RIGHT HERE. One of my favorite ideas from those that were submitted was December First Boxes.
What are December first boxes?
A December 1st Box is a special box that each family member receives (or you can do one box for the whole family) on December 1st that helps kick off the holiday season — holiday movies or books, a new ornament, Christmas pajamas, etc.
You can fill it with anything you’d like, and you could make the boxes big or small.
Once everyone opens their box, you can watch a Christmas movie together snuggled in your new pajamas and eat a Christmas treat from your box. Or you could do the first day of your advent calendars, make hot cocoa or sugar cookies together, or do a Christmas craft. The point is to spend time together and bring some Christmas spirit into your home.
Lots of ideas for what to put in your December 1st Boxes
We’ve done December first boxes now for three years – this will be our fourth year – and the tradition is so much fun. So many of you started this tradition as well, so with your help, I compiled a big list of items you could put in your December 1st boxes this year.
Clothing Ideas
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- Christmas pajamas — all of our favorite ones are linked RIGHT HERE!
- Christmas socks – here are some fun ones, and there are lots of good ones HERE!
- These pajamas that come with a book are so fun! Here are Nutcracker ones too!
Activity Ideas
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- Christmas books –
- The Christmas Baby boardbook is under $7 here
- One of our favorites is Olive the Other Reindeer
- If you’re a Madeline fan, the Madeline Christmas book is under $12 here
- This beautiful Night Before Christmas book is under $10
- The one, How the Crayons Saved Christmas, looks so cute
- I think I might need this one — I saw Santa in Texas
- If your kids love LEGO look at this 12 days of Christmas book, its all about LEGO Characters
- Christmas coloring or activity books, these paint by stickers books are so fun (or a subscription to Rad and Happy’s ColorHappy – you get like 5 new seasonally appropriate coloring pages per month for only $5!)
- Christmas movie
- Gingerbread house kit – you can order these ones online or pick them up in store.
- Christmas Puzzles —
- Look at this fun 1000 piece ornament puzzle for under $15
- Love this Christmas cookie one too for under $15
- I bought this cute dog and cat puzzle for my kids last year
- I bought THIS HARRY POTTER ONE for the boys in 2018, and THIS HARRY POTTER ONE in 2019 and we loved them!
- Christmas charade cards
- Ornament kits – love THIS ONE and THESE ONES are so cute!
- Snowflake cutout sheets
- Christmas craft (garland making kit, like this one, or this one)
- Christmas books –
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Bedding
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- Christmas pillowcase – you could make your own, or here are some cute ones on Etsy!
- Christmas sheets – this is such a fun way to make your kids bedrooms feel special for the holidays
- Beddy’s is currently doing 20% off if you’re in the market for a new comforter!!
- Cozy blanket – This plaid blanket would be such a great blanket for movies, books or drinking hot cocoa cuddle time!
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Food
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- Movie candy – this is a perfect thing to add if you put a Christmas movie in your kid’s boxes
- Popcorn – same as above, definitely includes popcorn if you include a Christmas movie!
- Hot cocoa mix with tiny candy canes and marshmallows.
- Christmas mugs – THESE ONES are so cute!
- Christmas cups and plates – I love having special dishes for the holidays. THESE ONES are so pretty!
- Holiday cookie cutters for sugar cookies – love these ones RIGHT HERE.
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Holiday Related Gifts
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- 25 Days of Christ. This is a really fantastic scripture advent calendar that we bought a few years ago and have loved. It has assigned passages of scripture for each night, and then a small ornament that represents the verses. You get to hang one ornament up on the tree every night. You can find the box HERE. Code MERRICKWHITE works or 20% off.
- Advent calendars — I have a whole post of Advent Calendars RIGHT HERE!
- For those of you who were going crazy over the sex advent calendar I listed on my Men’s Gift Guide, you can pick one up right here!
- Ornament for each kid representing something they did or were interested in during the year, like a soccer ball, a ballet shoe, something that represented a trip you went on, etc.
- Mistletoe for the house
- Mini Christmas tree for their room so they can hang the ornaments they have received throughout the years
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I have one great idea this year: stop consumerism. Make donations with that money to a cause you hold dear to your heart.
I think thats a great idea. How about spending QUALITY tIme witH eaChother
ALWAYS the best gift of all!!
Great idea!
How is it consumerisim if you’re putting in activities that all the family can do togethre? I buy christmas shirts for my kids every year to wear at school and december events, makes sense to get it first of decamber. Don’t judge, you do what you want, others will do what works for them.
What a fun idea becuase getting christmas related items on christmas is No fun but when else do you give them?! We’ve started the tradition of giving Christmas pajamas sometime during thanksgiving break (the exact time will be a mYstery!) and like your ideas to add to it. I would also like to see some christ centered ideas to make sure He is in our christmas!
We just purchased “The 25 Days of Christ” advent calendar from New Traditions Crafts and it’s fantastic! Definitely recommend.
[…] One of the things I found that called to me was gifting our kids with a ‘December 1st Box.’ I found the idea for this tradition at Merrick’s Art. I just did a little research to make sure that I remembered that correctly and this year she has a great post of 25 Ideas to Put in your December 1st Box. […]
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