A few years ago this sweet Santa letter for first responder and military families went viral. I’ve already received a ton of messages this year from fellow mamas wanting to know how to handle their officer working Christmas Day, so I wanted to make my own version of that letter and put a little post together! Throughout the years I’ve also seen great ideas from Police Wives of America and Proud Police Wife, so do some digging and find the letters and traditions that fit your family best-or better yet, create your own!
How the holidays are going to look depends on the age of your kiddos and what traditions you have. I don’t think there’s one specific right or wrong way-it’s whatever works for your family! I know I also appreciate hearing what other first responder families do, so I hope this little holiday post helps out someone looking for more ideas, too.
Because my officer grew up a LEO kid I feel like we have a leg up on holidays-the family already had experience with shift work and wonky schedules. Now my FIL is retired, but my BIL is in corrections and my own husband is full time as an officer-so we’re always shifting things around!
Whether or not you come from a first responder/military family or you’re brand new to it, try to focus on what’s really important. For us that’s being together as a family and celebrating Jesus! We can do that on any day, not just December 25.
However, it can definitely be hard to explain to younger kiddos why their friends are opening presents one day but not them-so this Santa letter I made might be helpful! I tailored it specifically to law enforcement families (I also made a general first responder version) and made a letter for both moms and dads.
Consider making other holiday traditions that have nothing to do with the date on the calendar-things like:
•making hot cocoa, getting into jammies, and driving around to look at Christmas lights
•making Christmas cards or a craft (I always scour Pinterest for printables and ideas!)
•cutting out paper snowflakes and turning an entire room in your house into a winter wonderland
•having a candy cane contest (who can make it last the longest? who can eat it the quickest? how many licks does it take to eat it all?)
•writing a letter to Santa
•watching a certain movie (bonus points if you make a hot chocolate board or yummy snack to go with it!)
•using these advent blocks to learn about the Christmas story
•adopting a family from an angel tree and shopping for them (I love doing this as a way to teach kiddos about giving!)
•volunteering (can you build holiday meal kits with a church? serve a meal? help put up lights downtown?)
•singing Christmas carols (or writing your own version!)
•doing random acts of kindness (offer to return someone’s cart while out shopping, deliver a treat to a neighbor, shovel someone’s driveway)
•making popcorn and cranberry garlands
•cooking a certain special meal (we used to always do chili dogs on holidays for a fun twist on a holiday meal and something easy when my LEO was working that day)
•baking a treat tray for your hero’s department (I always bake a ton of goodies to send in on the holidays!)
•decorating gingerbread houses (we like to get the prebuilt ones from Costco to make it easier!)
If you have tips and tricks about finding joy during the holidays as a first responder family, please add them to the comments (here or on Instagram!) so we can all learn from each other!
Below are the Santa letters I made for our blue families as well as a more general one for our first responder families. There are versions for both moms and dads! Simply download the one you want and print it out. Merry Christmas!
