BHG Editors' Favorite Finds: Favorite Holiday Traditions

We independently evaluate all recommended products and services. If you click on links we provide, we may receive compensation. Learn more.

Whether it's decorating the tree as a family or watching Christmas Vacation for the umpteenth time, we all have traditions that make it truly feel like the holiday season. If you're on the hunt for a new family tradition to start this year, take inspiration from our editors' favorite holiday activities.

Bake and decorate sugar cookies, hide a fun ornament on your tree, or light a countdown candle to mark the days until Santa's arrival. These are the traditions our editors do with their families year after year.

Jacob Fox. Food Styling: Annie Probst

«My family always makes an abundance of cookies and candies during the holiday season, but it's definitely not Christmas until the sugar cookies come to the table. My brother and I still laugh our way through some silly decorations every year at our parents' house. We finish the decorating event with cocoa and make sure to save enough for Santa.»

— Katlyn Moncada, Food Editor

«Each Christmas, our family hides a pickle ornament in the tree. The first person to find it gets an extra (small) gift that is usually something the entire family can enjoy, like a puzzle.»

— Caitlin Sole, Senior Home Editor

Jacob Fox

«In all the craziness of the season, holiday activities that are supposed to be enjoyable—like making Christmas cookies—can feel like a chore waiting to be checked off a never-ending to-do list. A few weeks before Christmas, I take a day off of work and spend the day making Christmas cookie recipes I’ve collected from all my favorite people: My mom’s fudge, my best friend’s magic bars, and my grandma’s famous mint chocolate brownies. I