The month of December is such a fun month and many years ago, when my daughter was 2 and my son was an infant, I wanted a way to kick off our month of fun. I was longing to be creative, but I wasn't sure what that would look like with a toddler and an infant. I kept seeing all of these North Pole breakfasts floating around to welcome back the family's elf and wanted to take that concept and make it work for our family as we do not participate in the Santa/elf side of Christmas. I love a good themed dinner and from all those things our Welcome to December dinner was born. It has looked different each year as our seasons of life have changed, but what hasn't change are the memories we have created and the joy it brings each of us and the joy we have when looking forward to the start of December. If you are looking for an alternative to the North Pole Breakfasts or looking to start a new family tradition, I highly suggest starting a Welcome to December dinner!

Welcome to December Dinners

As I mentioned before, our Welcome to December Dinner has looked different each year. I typically like to start by figuring out what theme I want to go with for the food. My kids LOVE themed food so I like starting with that and going from there. And then from there I will decorate our table, usually with things I already have, but sometimes I will purchase items. I save everything I can to reuse for future years. Some years are elaborate and some are super simple, yet we all still have such fond memories of each one. Some years we have made a whole day out of activities and others are simply just our dinner. And one thing I have learned over the years, it doesn't have to be perfect (a little secret...it never will be) and that sometimes you have to pivot and make the best of your situations, but it's the people and the time spent together that makes the memories.

Welcome to December Dinner Ideas | North Pole Breakfast Alternative

I am sharing all of our past years of Welcome to December Dinners and I hope that if you are looking for a new family tradition to start or don't do Santa or the elf and would like to do something similar with your kids, that you would consider doing a Welcome to December dinner.