Throughout history Christmas has mostly been a time of great celebration and fun. Accept for a short period in the 17th century when Christmas was banned. Today we can draw on celebrations of not only the past but create new ways of celebrating in the modern world where family can come together and enjoy quality and fun time together. Here are some fun and creative ways to celebrate together as a family this coming festive Christmas season without spending a lot of money. Discover three fun tips for things to do as a family to get you all interacting together and creating warm and lasting memories of a fun and cherished Christmas:

1. Watch Christmas movies together: at the beginning of November get each family member to do some research to come up with 10 Christmas movies they would like to watch during the festive season. Get them to choose 5 modern time movies and 5 old-time movies. Then give each person 1 week to check out the local library, a video shop or do a Google search on the internet for Christmas movies. Once they have their choice write each choice onto a strip of paper and put it into a hat. Each family member takes it in turns to pull out one strip of paper out of the hat and then continue clock-wise for the next person's turn until ten movies have been chosen. Then write each move onto a sheet of paper in the order taken out from the hat and choose one night per week eg. a Saturday evening that all the family come together to watch the Christmas movie and then chat and discuss it after. A great idea is to ask each family member what they thought the message of the movie was for them and how they could incorporate the gift of the message they found in the movie into their Christmas this festive season.

2. Read some Christmas stories together: while time is at a premium in today's busy world reading a short inspirational Christmas story together as a family has many benefits. This is a great way to create some magic and close family time together. Here we can recapture the magic of an old-fashion Christmas. You can go to the local library and pick up an array of wonderful short Christmas story books. Make sure you get a copy of the classic ?A Christmas Carol' by Charles Dickens. This is a classic for each Christmas. It is magical for both young and old and will transport you to a magical wonderland. This is quality time shared together that will be remembered loving as a cherished family tradition. This is a really economical way to create festive fun, meaning and togetherness.

3. Make Christmas ornaments together: back in the early days when Christmas ornaments first appeared they were made from hard cookies. This is inexpensive and easy to do and the whole family can be involved and have lots of fun in the process. There are some great Christmas decoration and cookie recipe books available. Go to the library and find some hard cookie recipes such as hard gingerbread. Buy the ingredients and look for some decorations to add such as color for the icing sugar, sprinkles and other cake or festive decorations like mistletoe. Purchase some string or ribbon to thread through the cookie to place on the tree once made. Organize a cooking day with the whole family getting together for around 2-3 hours of focused fun. Get everyone to take it in turns to stir the mixture from east to west 4 times then make a wish, then the next person clockwise takes their turn in stirring the mixture. Make it lots of fun. You are creating magic moments and lasting memories. Once cooked get each person to choose a base color for their icing so that everyone will know it relates to them. Then go ahead and decorate, encourage everyone to be creative and have fun. Lastly once dried, string them and hang them on the tree. Imagine each year the memories and stories of each decoration created by each family member!

Create an exciting and fun time this festive holiday season by adding new traditions to your family activities. As you can see you can do it very cost effectively. Even if you only incorporate one of the above you start the process of creating fun and cherished family memories together. So go ahead and create some wonderful family traditions that you will all cherish, and pass down from one generation to another. You will all look forward to the magical fun family traditions each year with a festive twinkle in your eye and in your heart!