Christmas keepsakes: a box of new family traditions
The first Christmas after a divorce, three children, and a box that now holds three years of letters, ornaments and songs.
The old decorations were still in a storage unit in Al Quoz, labelled in somebody else’s handwriting, and Elena decided that this year they could stay there.
It was her first Christmas after the divorce, in a new apartment, with three children who had opinions about everything. What she started that December was small: a cardboard box, one ornament each, the letters to Santa, a list of songs. Three Christmases later, the box has become the thing the children ask about first, and the most useful lesson we know about Christmas keepsakes.
This is the story of that box, year by year. Along the way, it is a practical guide to Christmas keepsakes that turn into family traditions: what to keep, how to choose personalised ornaments that mean something, what goes into a Christmas Eve box, and how to store it all so it survives a Dubai summer.
December, three years ago
The first Christmas in the new apartment
Elena was thirty-five that year, Romanian, a project manager who could plan anything except the feeling of opening the first box of decorations alone. Sofia was seven, Matei four, and Ana had just turned one. The apartment had a balcony, a view of three other towers, and nothing on the walls.
She bought a tree, a box of plain glass baubles and one string of warm lights, and then she found a sturdy cardboard box left over from the move. She wrote on the lid, in marker, “Our Christmas”, and the year underneath.
The rule, she told the children, was simple. Every December, each of them would put one thing in the box. Nothing would ever be taken out. On Christmas Eve they would open it and look at everything that was already there.
The first weekend of December
One personalised ornament each, with the year on the back
The first thing in the box was an ornament for each child. Sofia chose a white ceramic star with her name painted on it. Matei, who was four and suspicious of anything already finished, wanted to draw his own, so Elena bought a plain wooden slice and a set of paint pens, and he drew a sun and two people holding hands, and his name with the S backwards.
Ana, at one, had an ornament chosen for her: a small glass bauble with her name and her first Christmas written in gold.
On the back of every ornament, Elena wrote the year in permanent pen. That is the detail she would tell anyone to copy. In ten years nobody will remember which Christmas the backwards S belonged to. The back of the ornament will.
Mid-December
The letters to Santa that came back
The children wrote their letters to Santa at the dining table on a Friday afternoon. Sofia wrote a full page with a numbered list and a polite paragraph about her brother. Matei drew a fire engine and dictated the rest. Ana’s letter was a scribble in green crayon that Elena signed on her behalf.
Elena had always posted the letters before. This time she told them that Santa reads every letter, and then, if a family asks nicely, sends it back to be kept. On Christmas morning the three letters were in the box, each in its own envelope with a gold star on the front.
Nobody questioned it. Two years later, Sofia worked out exactly how it had happened and decided, with great dignity, to say nothing to the others.
The week before Christmas
A Christmas songs playlist for each year
The third tradition happened almost by accident. The children were arguing about the music in the car, so Elena made a rule: each of them could choose one Christmas song, she would choose one, and those four would be that year’s playlist.
Sofia chose “All I Want for Christmas Is You”. Matei chose “Jingle Bell Rock”, mainly for the word rock. Ana, by proxy, was given “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer”. Elena chose “O, ce veste minunată”, the carol her grandmother sang in Brașov, and played it on the record player that had once been her father’s.
She wrote the four titles on a card and put it in the box. Every year since, the playlist has been rebuilt from the cards, so a single December now plays every year’s songs in order. The children can tell you which year each one joined.
Christmas Eve, 6pm
The Christmas Eve box, and the other box
Elena had heard of the Christmas Eve box from friends in the UK: a small box opened the night before Christmas, with new pyjamas, a book, a hot chocolate and something to do. She made three, and they were a success for exactly the reason she had hoped. They gave the long evening a shape.
But the box the children remembered was the other one. After the pyjamas and the hot chocolate, Elena brought out “Our Christmas”, still mostly empty, and they took out the ornaments and read the letters aloud, and played the four songs. It took eleven minutes. Ana fell asleep halfway through Rudolph.
It was, Elena said later, the first moment of that Christmas that felt like theirs rather than like a gap where something else used to be.
The second December
Handwriting changes faster than you think
By the second year the box had rules the children enforced themselves. Matei, five now, wanted to make his ornament again, so the wooden slices became a tradition of their own: one each, painted at the kitchen table on the first weekend of December, dated on the back. Sofia, who had decided she was too old for painting, wrote hers in her neatest joined-up writing instead.
The letters to Santa changed most. Opened side by side on Christmas Eve, last year’s and this year’s told the story better than any growth chart. Matei’s fire engine had become a sentence. Ana’s green scribble had become an A, very large, in the middle of the page.
Elena started photographing each letter before it went into its envelope, just in case. The photographs live in a folder on her phone. The letters live in the box.
This December
Three years of letters in one box
Sofia is ten now. She does not believe in Santa and has not for a while, and she still writes a letter every year, she says, so that Ana has someone to copy. Her letter this year was mostly about her sister.
The box has moved from cardboard to a wooden chest with a hinged lid, because the cardboard one was beginning to give way at the corners. It holds nine ornaments, nine letters, three song cards, a paper crown from the first year, and a printed family photograph from each December, which is the one thing Elena added for herself.
On Christmas Eve they still open it after the pyjamas. It takes longer now, nearly forty minutes, because everyone wants to read their own letters in a silly voice. That is the part Elena would never give up.
What she has learned
Keep less, label everything
Elena is firm about one thing: the box works because it is small. One thing per person per year. If everything is kept, nothing is special, and the box becomes a cupboard. The children choose what goes in, and the choosing is half the tradition.
She is equally firm about labels. Every ornament has the year on the back. Every letter is in a dated envelope. Every song card is signed. She has watched friends inherit beautiful family decorations with no story attached, and she would rather leave her children a box that explains itself.
The old decorations are still in Al Quoz. She may bring them back one day. There is no hurry.
Christmas keepsakes that turn into traditions
A keepsake box does not need to start with a big moment. Any December will do, and the first year can be very small. These are the pieces that worked for Elena, and the ones we hear about most often from families.
A personalised ornament each year. One per child, chosen or made by them, with the name on the front and the year on the back. Wooden slices and plain ceramic stars are easy to personalise at home with paint pens. For made-to-order ideas, see our guide to Christmas personalised gifts and keepsakes.
The letters to Santa. Keep the originals in dated envelopes, and photograph them as a backup. Read last year’s next to this year’s: the handwriting tells the story.
A song card. Each person chooses one Christmas song, and the titles go on a card with the year. Rebuild the playlist from every card in the box, in order, and play it on Christmas Eve.
One family photograph. Printed, not only on a phone, with the date and everyone’s ages on the back. It is the keepsake that changes most from year to year, and the one children look for first.
Something small from the day. A paper crown, a place card, the label from a present. Small and flat is easiest to keep.
A Christmas Eve box to open first. New pyjamas, a book, a hot chocolate and something quiet to do. It gives the evening a shape, and the keepsake box comes out once everyone is warm and fed. Our guide to family matching Christmas pyjamas has ideas for the pyjamas.
A countdown that leads to it. The box is most exciting when the children know it is coming. Make opening it the last door of the advent calendar, or the final task on a countdown list pinned to the fridge. Our Christmas countdown and advent calendar ideas have plenty that end on Christmas Eve.
Store it somewhere cool. In Dubai, keep the box inside the apartment rather than in a hot storeroom, a car boot or a balcony cupboard, where summer heat warps wood, fades ink and melts anything with glue. Wrap ornaments in acid-free tissue and keep paper flat in envelopes.
Let’s sum up
The best Christmas keepsakes are small, chosen by the children, and labelled with the year: a personalised ornament each, the letters to Santa, a card with that year’s Christmas songs and one printed family photograph. Keep one thing per person per year, open the box on Christmas Eve, and let the children read their own letters aloud. In three years you will have a tradition. In ten you will have a history.
Questions about Christmas keepsakes
Keep it to one thing per person per year: a personalised ornament, a letter to Santa, a card with a chosen Christmas song, or a small memento from the day. Add one printed family photograph each December. Label everything with the year so the box explains itself later.
An ornament with their name and the year, a book with a written dedication inside the cover, an embroidered stocking, or a framed family photograph. The best ones carry a name, a date or the child’s own handwriting, so they mean more in ten years than they do on the day.
Most families include new pyjamas, a Christmas book, a hot chocolate sachet or a mug, and something calm to do, such as a puzzle or a colouring set. Keep it modest. The point is to give the evening a shape and settle children before the big day.
Yes. They are one of the best records of how a child grows: handwriting, spelling, priorities and humour all change from year to year. Keep the originals in dated envelopes, photograph them as a backup, and read them together on Christmas Eve.
If we are using one of your photographs and you are not happy with how we have credited it, or would simply rather it were not on our site, let us know at hello@setupcollective.ae and we will take it down immediately.
The Setup Collective builds three Christmas rooms in Dubai each season, the Christmas Room, the Christmas Kitchen and Christmas Morning, then photographs families in them. Candidly: nobody gets told to tuck their chin in. Who we are
