Mom shares the family Christmas tradition she’ll cherish until her kids grow too old for it

The holiday season is synonymous with warm eggnog, sparkling lights, and cherished time with loved ones. At its core, Christmas is about connection—a time when families gather to celebrate love and honor shared traditions. For the Ellison family, their unique holiday tradition creates lasting memories every year. Katie Ellison, known on Instagram as @katie_ellison, recently shared this heartwarming tradition, capturing hearts across the platform.

In the video, Katie shares a series of clips showing her family arranging mattresses and preparing for their annual tradition of sleeping beside the Christmas tree. "When our children were small, we started a Christmas tradition that one night during December we'd sleep downstairs next to the Christmas tree. No one gets much sleep and we are all tired the next day but it's become one of my favorite family memories and I'll treasure these moments when they are grown up," the text overlay reads.

The first clip in the video is from 2018, where the little kids can be seen jumping on the mattresses next to the Christmas tree. The next clip, from 2021, shows the family coming together once again for the beloved tradition. In the 2023 clip, the father is seen carrying the mattress to the designated spot and making the bed for the family to jump in. The final clip, from 2024, shows the kids and their dog having a great time cuddling and chatting on the mattress. "When our children were young, I think we might have started it in 2017, we began a little festive tradition of sleeping next to the Christmas tree," Katie wrote in the caption. 

"When they were younger no one got much sleep, we used to bring our little boy asleep downstairs later when he was a toddler as there was no chance he’d fall asleep with that excitement," she added. "Nowadays we still don’t sleep all that well, I can’t say it’s the comfiest between the lack of space, the dog lying on our heads, and every time someone moves the Christmas lights knocking against the window and making a noise," the caption continued. The mother then shared how this has become one of her favorite family activities, despite everyone waking up grumpy the next day. "I’ll continue to do it until they tell me to stop," she wrote in the caption.

The comment section quickly filled with stories from others who had adopted similar traditions. "We started doing it a couple of years ago after seeing you do it and it’s our favorite Christmas thing to do! We did ours last weekend and we had Christmas films and a picky tea. Didn’t realize the time and it was 1 am by the time we all went to sleep," read a comment by @wearethecares. "Love this. Our family of five sleeps downstairs like this every Friday night! Started in COVID as something to mark the weekend and we’ve just carried on," added @adventures_of_the_ukcoles. "I'm one of five. We would always do this on Christmas Eve. Complete chaos with five mattresses but totally worth it," wrote @kellyblyth. 

You can follow Katie Ellison (@katie_ellison) for more family content on Instagram.