Creative Country Christmas Traditions

Ranchers and farmers spend much of the year isolated by distance, weather and the constant work their lifestyle requires. The holiday season is during the slowest part of the year, though—after haying, harvest and weaning, but before calving and planting, so rural folks often have a little extra time to spend with their family, friends and neighbors doing holiday activities and forging their own holiday traditions..

The following are some creative country Christmas traditions. These ideas were either gathered from my acquaintances or inspired by my own family’s traditions.

Christmas Quilt Blocks
If you come from a family of quilters or have a quilting group, why not combine your various quilting talents on one Christmas quilt each year? Each member could design and sew a quilt block (or more than one, depending on the size of the group).Your group could set up guidelines for the blocks, governing the colors or the designs. Or perhaps everyone could have free rein with the design and fabrics.

Once the quilt is assembled, the group could hold a drawing to decide who gets that year’s quilt. If this is made a yearly Christmas tradition, eventually everyone in the family or group will receive a one-of-a-kind holiday quilt. Another option would be to donate the quilt to a holiday charity auction, a great way to make a holiday tradition out of giving. A local group of quilting ladies makes a quilt every fall to donate to their church’s holiday auction. The proceeds go to local needy families. Their beautiful handiwork is looked forward each year by fellow church members. It makes a lovely holiday tradition.


Christmas Tree Hunt
I was raised in the rural Northwest, where Christmas tree farms abound. Although mostly surrounded by Ponderosa pines, we could even find a small Douglas fir on our own property if we searched hard enough. Now living on the prairie, trees, especially conifers, are so few and far between that it would nearly be a crime to chop one down for Christmas. And Christmas tree farms? Unheard of in our part of the state.