With the holiday season just around the corner we can expect our schedules to be hectic and greatly divided among family, friends, special events and so on. This also means they can be a little bit stressful which is even more reason for couples to find a little alone time and instill your own traditions as a couple. 

Finding your own tradition as a couple will help reinforce and celebrate the importance of your relationship while setting a strong foundation for all that the fun, or not so fun experiences that the holidays can bring. 

To help you do so we have come up with a list of some holiday tradition ideas for couples that you can begin to implement starting this Thanksgiving. 

What better way to kick off your holiday season than to practice an exercise to commemorate all the things you are grateful for. In this exercise you’ll need two jars, one for each of you, pen and paper. Every day starting on Thanksgiving you will be writing down one thing you are grateful for in your relationship, about your partner, or your lives together, then you will fold it up and place it in your partner’s jar. Do this for the entire holiday season, get as crafty as you want and make it your own. At the very end of the holidays season, to kick off your new year, you get to open your corresponding jars and read what your partner has written to you.

We know the holidays can be very disruptive to our routines so what better way to stay committed to ourselves than to practice one healthy activity a day together. Our suggestion is that you pick an exercise challenge, whether it is taking a daily walk, doing 15 minutes of squats a day, or whatever you can think of. You can search online for different exercise challenges together and pick the one that best fits you, your lives and your routines. You might not have the energy at the beginning, but we are positive you’ll look forward to this time together and that you’ll enjoy achieving a common goal together.

Pick a day of the week when you’d like to have a weekly movie date and enjoy some alone time. Setting a schedule ahead of time helps you get organized in order to accomplish this. These days you’ll make sure you get everything done earlier, so you can be ready to spend some time with each other while enjoying the movies you like.

We all know very well that days with special occasions can be overwhelming, hectic and stressful, but we can practice starting these days on good notes and feeling connected to one another. Plan to have a breakfast date and spend some quality time together before the madness starts. 

Prioritize each other and sneak some time in just to have a little talk. A conversations starters game can help you ignite meaningful, fun and creative conversations so you can stay feeling connected to one another. A few minutes a day will go a long way.

Sometimes our routines are hard to let go of and finding the time to be together can be hard, so why not turn daily chores into dates? Gather a list of the things that need to get done outside of the house and go do them together. Whether you need to go grocery shopping, holiday shopping, or run simple errands, you can use this time to talk during your drives or simply spend time with each other.

A simple foot rub goes a long way, but you can also find activities to do that will help you disconnect from daily life and just focus on your quality time. For example, you can find a puzzle to do together, play a board game, learn to cook something together, or any activity that will help you de-stress from your routines and just focus on simple tasks together. 

During the holidays we usually feel more inspired to do some good for others who are less fortunate. Sit together and talk about the things that are important to you and the way you’d like to impact somebody else’s life and start a giving tradition together. Each year you can commit to doing something charitable together. You’ll be surprised how much these activities can put our own lives into perspective and make us more grateful for what we have and who we have around.

We hope some of these ideas inspire you to start some new traditions as a couple where you can keep prioritizing each other regardless of the time of year or situations that we are in.

We would also love to hear if you have any traditions of your own that you want to share with other couples out there. Tell us in the comments.