As Christmastime grows in full swing, it brings with it all the fun, festivities, and joys of the season! And while I love just about everything about Christmas, it can also be a season that presents unique challenges to slowing down and being still. That’s why enjoying an old-fashioned cozy Christmas is so important.

So, what exactly is an old-fashioned Christmas? Having an old-fashioned Christmas is when you slow down to take time for what matters most. It’s about filling your heart with good things instead of shallow ones, hope instead of hollow consumerism, and love and charity instead of possessions. An old-fashioned Christmas is when people are more important than profit, and charity becomes the heart of the Christmas season.

In a world that moves too fast, being “old-fashioned” about certain things can be a good thing. If you’re feeling just a little too overburdened and overwhelmed like me, here are a few ways to take a break from life’s breakneck demands this Christmas. Give yourself permission to practice these old pastimes that can serve as a reminder of life’s deeper truth—that life is good, giving is better than receiving, people are more important than things, and God’s love is truly for everyone this Christmas!

12 Ways to Have an Old-Fashioned Cozy Christmas

1. Light Candles

Being old-fashioned can be delightful in the darker months. Turning off artificial lights and utilizing candlelight can be soul-satisfying. It’s a beautiful reminder that humans have existed long before our advanced technological age. Candlelight sets the stage for romance, nostalgia, and time slowing down. By candlelight you can read, write, make love, tell stories, enjoy a sunset or quiet morning, pray, or enjoy a meal.

This year, consider Advent readings by the fire or hosting a holiday party with candles as your mood lighting. However you choose, finding ways to incorporate candlelight into our lives this Christmas reminds us of how beautiful and timeless our lives really are.

For me personally, each year I buy several Christmas-themed candles before the start of the holiday season. By December, I love to light them every evening after work. It’s a lovely Christmas ritual!

2. Wear Beautiful Dresses

It’s hard to believe that for most of history women have worn dresses every single day! Watching favorites like A Christmas Carol, Little Women, and the BBC’s North & South makes me entirely envious of all those gorgeous gowns.

Donning a long, flowing, beautiful dress during the Christmas season might be considered old-fashioned by many today, but I absolutely love the way it makes me feel! So much soft, beautiful fabric around me slows down my heart. I can’t be too hurried in a beautiful flowing dress. There’s an undeniable timeless feminine energy that a long dress brings into a room, and into my heart. This year, pull out some of your most beautiful long dresses and wear them during the Christmas season!

3. Welcome Strangers

Welcoming strangers doesn’t have to be complicated, but it’s an old-school art for sure. And in case you didn’t know, much of the sentiment of charity during the Christmas season is rooted in “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens.

This Christmas, you can show love to strangers by simply bringing a unique gift basket to your new neighbor, your new coworker, or even just a new friend. Other ideas include donating money to wonderful charities, offering a listening ear for a stranger at the grocery store, or inviting new acquaintances over for dinner.

When we have a mindset to welcome new people into our lives, it’s amazing how many friends we can make. In a world that’s increasingly isolated, go against the grain this Christmas and extend a welcoming hand. This old-fashioned habit may just change your life, well beyond the Christmas season!

4. Go Christmas Caroling

Check out my list of the best carols for Christmas caroling here! When I was a child, my family and I actually went Christmas caroling from door to door in someone’s neighborhood. I don’t remember whose neighborhood it was, but this activity definitely made an impression. I remember holding the songbook in my hands, of smiling at our audience, and of people smiling back. Going Christmas caroling is an old school art for sure!

Overall it’s a delightful part of the season! And while the first recorded Christmas carol was “Angel’s Hymn” in 129 A.D., it’s only been the last 200 years that Christmas carols and Christmas caroling have taken on the forms they have today.

Christmas carols today are typically beautiful and fun songs sung about the birth of Christ that can be enjoyed by all people. Additionally, while not religious, classic songs like “We Wish You a Merry Christmas” and “The Twelve Days of Christmas” are also Christmas carols that add joyful numbers to the songbook.

Invite family, friends, neighbors, churchgoers, and new acquaintances to your Christmas caroling. It’s surely to be memorable for the whole family!

5. Gather Around a Campfire

It took effort to build our stone campfire in the backyard. We spent hours researching the right style for us, where to buy the stones, how to place them together, and deciding what the right height should be. This effort has paid off many times over. And as luck would have it, two old trees fell over in the backyard, which means we now have stacks of chopped firewood for years to come.

Today, spending time in the backyard around a beautiful campfire is one of our favorite winter activities, one that we enjoy during the holidays. Gathering around a fire at Christmastime is an ancient ritual that has brought people together for thousands of years. We love to invite friends, tell stories, stargaze, listen to music, sing carols, talk for hours, and remember what’s important in life. I promise that if you enjoy a campfire Christmas night with family or friends, you’ll never forget it!

6. Enjoy Making Homemade Meals

This year, you can enjoy an old-fashioned Christmas by making old-fashioned recipes from scratch! Instead of the regular recipes you turn to again and again every year that involve canned this and boxed that and frozen something or other, try making at least one recipe you’ve never made for (perhaps an old-timey family recipe) from scratch.

There’s a reason that growing your own food, making bread starters, and learning how to cook from scratch is so popular these days. Some have learned the secret that a homemade meal is well worth the effort simply because we learn to embody a simpler time beyond our modern world. We learn the joys of knowing where our food comes from, how it arrives at our plates, and how it nourishes us.

It may be old-fashioned, but learning the joys of preparing homemade treats, desserts, breads, and other delights will be the Christmas gift that keeps on giving for years to come.

7. Take Long Walks

There are few simpler and more enjoyable pastimes than going on a walk. It’s out there in the world, walking the earth, where we find the pleasure of a quiet afternoon or a rainy Sunday. We can hear ourselves think for a peaceful moment in the day. We learn to see the movement of drops of rain in a puddle, appreciate the slight wind in our hair, hear the sound of the crunching leaves beneath our feet, or enjoy the sunlight sparkling like diamonds on dewy grass. Our soul is lifted and gratitude can be restored. This daily retreat becomes like a prayer up to the heavens, waking our sleeping soul from its modern slumber.

This Christmas, you can be intentional about going on walks. Be it prayer walks or walks for vigorous exercise, walks with family and friends (even little ones), or walks with pets, taking the time to go on routine walks will help reset your spirit and keep your heart focused on what truly matters. It’s an old-fashioned activity people have been enjoying for thousands of years.

8. Take Care of Others

Unfortunately, suffering doesn’t stop during the Christmas season. In fact, burdens, grief, and suffering are often most acutely felt during the holidays. While Christmas can stir up some wonderful feelings and memories for all of us, there are also painful memories the holiday season can stir up as well.

From empty seats at the dinner table to painful diseases, from financial hardships and broken hearts to empty nesters and lonely nursing homes, there are so many ways the holidays can remind us of our painful losses. That means there are ample people out there who need your loving encouragement this Christmas!

A part of an old-fashioned Christmas is going outwards instead of inwards. Focusing on God, prayer, and the needs of others will restore the true joys of the Christmas season. Christmas is about giving instead of receiving, and when we take time to give to others we become the love of Christmas embodied to a hurting world. Check out all my ideas of how you can be a blessing to others this Christmas season.

9. Read in the Evenings

Life is just better with a book, and what better way to enjoy Christmas then spending a quiet evening reading with a wonderful Christmas devotional, Christmas novel, or the Bible?

Sometimes, we introverts bend over backwards to make the extroverts in our lives so comfortable that we forget to take time for ourselves. Taking half an hour to read in the midst of the holiday busyness provides a moment of rest and relaxation.

You can also incorporate loved ones, children, or family into your reading time by reading Christmas stories to them, such as stories from “A Treasury of Christmas Stories” or, my personal favorite, “Christmas Miracles” edited by Brad Steiger.

10. Share Homemade Treats

According to one of my favorite old-timey books, “Little Women” by Louisa May Alcott, being old-fashioned is about “being neighborly,” and being neighborly means giving delicious homemade treats to those in need!

From pumpkin breads to gingerbread man cookies, from Christmas fudge to Advent Calendar Cookies, your homemade treats can make an amazing difference at hospitals, fire stations, orphanages, at church, at schools, even at colleges. And to be especially “neighborly”, you can add a welcoming note to your individually wrapped treats and offer them to coworkers and neighbors you haven’t met or taken the time to get to know.

11. Tell Family Christmas Stories

Life is truly about relationships, and one of the greatest pleasures in life is one that is as old as time: telling good stories.

This Christmas, grab friends and loved ones and enjoy a night of storytelling, belly laughs required. Let go of expectations about time and settle into a comfy chair. Grab a nice comforting drink and sit by a warm fire. Embrace deep, meaningful conversations with loved ones that lasts hours into the night. Learn something new about those you love. Dive deep. Miss some sleep. I promise it’s so worth it.

12. Go to Church on Sundays

One of the best old-fashioned things you can do this holiday season is go to church on Sundays, especially during the Advent season. Being a part of a church community is one of the greatest delights at Christmas. You can volunteer, cook, tithe, give to support charities and missions, sing Christmas carols, and offer support however you desire!

Giving your time, energy, and money during the Christmas season is one of the best old-fashioned things you can do to be a blessing to others, especially those who are walking through the doors for your Christmas Eve service.

Making a Difference This Christmas

So, how do you have an old-fashioned Christmas? Start by committing to be a blessing for others. Whether you volunteer at church or go Christmas caroling in your neighborhood, having an old-fashioned Christmas is about taking time to slow down, be still, pray, and remember what’s most important in life.