Creating Cozy, Familiar Holidays After a Move
The first holiday season after moving with kids feels different. My focus this year? Keeping traditions, creating cozy moments, and finding comfort and calm in our new home.
Creating Cozy Holidays After a Move With Kids
This move has definitely had its ups and downs, and I’ll share more about that soon, but right now, we’re finally in a season that feels calmer and more settled. Since I haven’t blogged much since we first found out we were moving, it feels good to pop in with an update during the holidays. There’s still so much I want to say and process, but for now, I’m simply focusing on the sweetness of experiencing our first holiday season after moving with kids.
Moving with children adds a whole new layer to everything, especially around the holidays. There have been emotional moments for all of us, but also so many unexpectedly special ones. Relocating with kids during the holidays has reminded me that even when a transition isn’t easy, comfort can be found in familiar traditions and small, everyday moments.
The holidays have a way of slowing life down just enough to notice where you are. We still miss pieces of our old normal, but this season has brought a sense of warmth, connection, and calm that we really needed.
So far, we’ve loved setting up the tree, finding local spots to look at holiday lights, watching our favorite Christmas movies, making hot chocolate, and talking about past holiday memories. After months of change, these routines have been grounding. There’s something about the holidays that makes time feel softer and slower, and that feeling has helped this new place start to feel like home.
Here’s what I’m reminding myself this season, and if you’re navigating a move now or preparing for one in the future, I hope it helps you feel supported during the holidays too.
Keeping Holiday Traditions After Moving
Not everything has to change just because your address did. Keeping holiday traditions after a move has been one of the simplest ways to help our family feel connected and steady.
If you’ve always gone to see holiday lights, keep doing it, even if it’s a new neighborhood or park this year. If matching holiday pajamas are part of your family rhythm, keep them. If movie night has always been your thing, cue up the same favorite everyone looks forward to.
Those familiar traditions give kids, and parents, a comforting reminder that some things stay the same, even when a lot has changed.
Making a New House Feel Like Home During the Holidays
Decorating matters more than you might expect after a move. Pulling out the ornaments with memories attached, the slightly worn decorations your kids love, or the stockings they search for each December helps bring familiarity into a new space.
Even if your decorations are simpler this year, these familiar touches quietly say, this is home too. Creating that sense of comfort has been one of the easiest ways to make a new house feel like home during the holidays.
Creating Cozy Holiday Moments After Relocating
This hasn’t been the year for overdoing it, and that’s okay.
For us, cozy has looked like a holiday-scented candle I love in the evening, holiday music while making dinner, hot chocolate after school, and extra blankets on the couch. Cozy doesn’t have to be overproduced or perfectly styled. After relocating, it’s about creating moments that feel calming and supportive for your family.
Simple cozy moments have gone a long way in helping us settle into this season.
Celebrating the Holidays Far From Family
Being away from family during the holidays can feel different after a move. If visiting home is possible, it can be such a gift during that first year. We’ve been looking forward to our own trip and the comfort that comes with familiar faces.
And if traveling isn’t doable, connection can still happen in smaller ways, like video calls, sharing old photos, or making a favorite family recipe together. There’s no right way to do the holidays after a move, only what feels best for you and your family.
How to Simplify the Holidays After a Move
The holidays already come with emotions, and relocation adds another layer. Giving yourself permission to keep things simple can make this season feel much lighter.
It doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to look like previous years. Let the holidays be calm, familiar, and gentle. Your kids will feel the magic in the safety and love you create, not in how much you do.
If this is your first holiday season after moving, I hope you know you’re not alone.
From one relocating mom to another, you’re doing an incredible job.
