Hallowgivemas: How to Celebrate Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas in One Weekend

Hallowgivemas (noun) | hallow-giv-mas
A family-created holiday celebrated over one fall weekend that combines Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas into one joyful gathering filled with festive traditions, good food, and quality time with loved ones. Created to bring family together when celebrating every holiday separately isn’t possible.

Example: “We can’t all be together for Christmas this year, but we’ll celebrate Hallowgivemas in October!”

You know how every year the holidays roll around, and suddenly your calendar looks like a game of Tetris? One family wants you for Thanksgiving. Another wants Christmas Eve. Then there’s Halloween to celebrate, Thanksgiving dinner to prepare, and Christmas traditions to squeeze in between already busy schedules. Add a few states between family members, spouses with families of their own, and little kids who think bedtime is optional, and suddenly the most wonderful time of the year can start to feel like a logistical nightmare.

That’s exactly why my family came up with Hallowgivemas, our very own holiday that combines Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas into one jam-packed weekend filled with family, food, decorations, and traditions spanning generations.

Every other year, we gather at my parents’ house in the fall to celebrate all three holidays together. Friday kicks things off with Halloween costumes, pumpkin carving, and s’mores around a bonfire. On Saturday, we head out to pick apples (or at least attempt to!) before returning home to cook a full Thanksgiving dinner. Then, on Sunday, we wrap things up with morning Mass, Christmas cookie decorating, and a gift exchange. We even decorate the house for all three holidays, with Halloween taking over the porch and front room, fall filling the dining room, and Christmas transforming the family room.

It’s a little unconventional, a little chaotic, and a whole lot of fun! But more than anything, it’s a way for us to keep the traditions we grew up with alive while making new memories with the next generation. As our family has grown and spread out, finding time to get everyone together hasn’t always been easy, and that’s what makes this weekend so special.

And the best part? You don’t have to be an event planner to create something similar with your own family! Whether you want to celebrate all three holidays in one weekend or simply start a new tradition that makes getting everyone together a little easier, Hallowgivemas is all about making time for the people you love.

How Hallowgivemas Became Our Family Tradition

Hallowgivemas actually started with a pretty simple plan. Two years ago, I was organizing a fall trip to visit my parents and planned to fly in with my two girls. When one of my sisters heard I was coming, she decided to fly in, too. Then one of our brothers found out we would both be there and figured he might as well join us. Before long, word had spread, and more and more family members were interested in making the trip. Coming from a good-sized family of eight, we realized we had an opportunity to turn what started as a simple visit into a family reunion.

As we started tossing around ideas for what we could do while everyone was together, someone jokingly suggested throwing an early Halloween party. After all, if we were going to go through the trouble of getting everyone in one place, we might as well make a weekend of it!

Of course, one holiday wasn’t quite enough. The idea soon grew to include Thanksgiving and Christmas, too. Before we knew it, we had three holidays to celebrate, a house to decorate, and extended family joining in on the fun. I combined the names of all three holidays to come up with Hallowgivemas, and just like that, a new family tradition was born.

Why We Celebrate Three Holidays at Once

As much as I love the holidays, one of the hardest parts of growing up is realizing that they don’t always look the way they did when you were little. As a kid, you don’t think much about how everyone managed to end up under the same roof, how many hours someone spent in the kitchen, or how much planning went into making Christmas morning feel so magical. You just show up, eat the cookies, open your presents, and enjoy having everyone together.

Then you grow up, move away, get married, have kids of your own, and suddenly you understand just how much goes into making those family gatherings happen. Between busy schedules, different states, and family commitments of our own, getting everyone together on the actual holidays every year isn’t always realistic.

That’s one of the things I love most about Hallowgivemas. It gives us a chance to celebrate together without having to choose which holiday to spend together or whose family gets our time on the actual day. We can enjoy the traditions we grew up with, all under one roof, while still making time for in-laws and other loved ones when the holidays roll around.

And honestly, watching my daughters experience these traditions with my siblings is one of my favorite parts. Seeing them decorate Christmas cookies with their aunts and uncles, run around the house with their cousins, and get swept up in the same excitement I remember from my own childhood makes the whole weekend feel that much more special. It’s a reminder that these traditions aren’t just memories we’re looking back on; they’re memories we’re creating all over again for the next generation.

It’s the same traditions, just with a few more people, a little more noise, and considerably more chaos. And I wouldn’t have it any other way.

How We Celebrate Hallowgivemas

We usually schedule Hallowgivemas for early October, when the weather is perfect for enjoying the fall season, apple picking is still an option, and we can beat the hustle and bustle of the actual holiday season. Our most recent celebration spanned Friday through Sunday, with each day dedicated to a different holiday. From Halloween festivities to a full Thanksgiving dinner and our own Christmas celebration, we packed three holidays’ worth of traditions into one unforgettable weekend.

Friday: Halloween

We kick things off late Friday afternoon with Halloween. This way, no one has to take a full day off work just to join the fun. Everyone is encouraged to dress up, adults included, although the kids tend to be the most enthusiastic participants. Their costumes, however, don’t come out until after the day’s messier activities. There’s nothing like spending time putting together an adorable Halloween outfit only to cover it in pumpkin guts and pizza sauce before you even leave the house!

As family members began to arrive, we covered the kitchen table with newspapers, carving tools, and pumpkins. While some adults helped the kids bring their pumpkin designs to life, others gathered around the themed snacks and drinks of the night. The spread included a char-boo-terie board, a pumpkin-shaped cheese ball, and the favorite cocktail of the evening, the Batty Bourbon.
To keep dinner simple, we ordered pizza. And since we’re near Chicago, Giordano’s and Lou Malnati’s are both must-haves! We had a little bit of everything, from deep dish to thin crust, with just about every topping you could hope for. With so many activities packed into the weekend, having dinner taken care of meant one less thing to worry about.

Once the plates were cleared and the kids had changed into their costumes, everyone gathered outside for a new activity I introduced this year: a Halloween Decoration Scavenger Hunt. Everyone received a scavenger hunt sheet and a crayon to mark off their findings, with the adults’ version being a little more challenging than the children’s. The kids also received glow-in-the-dark bracelets and battery-powered lanterns to light their way. Everyone had a blast searching the neighborhood for spooky displays, and the walk gave us a chance to burn off some of that pizza before dessert.

When we returned to my parents’ house, we had one more surprise waiting, this time for my mom! Last year, several of my siblings dressed up as different eras of our brother Kevin’s life, including College Kevin, Work Kevin and . This year, they decided it was Mom’s turn to be the inspiration. We gathered everyone in the foyer and watched as College Mom, Baby Mom, Zoom Rosary Mom, and Swag Mom made their way down the stairs. My siblings even bought wigs on Amazon and cut them to mimic Mom’s hairstyle. The result was hilarious, and the creativity that went into each costume made it even better. Watch out, Dad. I think you’re next!

To close out the night, we gathered in the backyard for a rosary around the outdoor bonfire, followed by s’mores. Since we weren’t collecting candy during our neighborhood walk, we needed another way to end the evening on a sweet note. One fun way to give this classic treat a Halloween twist is to swap regular marshmallows for ghost-shaped Peeps. Shout-out to our honorary family member Jen for that idea!

Once the fire died down and the kids were tucked into bed, the adults gathered in the front room for a few rounds of Tapple. A Halloween movie would also be a perfect way to end the night. Whether your group prefers comedy, spooky classics, or full-on horror, it’s worth choosing the movie ahead of time so you’re not scrolling through streaming options long after everyone is ready to settle in.

It’s a pretty full first day, but it sets the tone for the entire weekend. By the time we finally call it a night, we’ve carved pumpkins, eaten more than our fair share of food, taken a ridiculous number of pictures, and made another round of memories together. And with Thanksgiving still to come, the big question is: How could tomorrow possibly top this?

Saturday: Thanksgiving

Saturday began with breakfast and a little nostalgia as we turned on a Macy’s Thanksgiving Day Parade from years past. Even though the calendar said October, watching the familiar floats and performances helped set the tone for the day and brought a little Thanksgiving magic to our morning.

A little while later, we all piled into the cars and headed to a nearby apple orchard for one of our favorite fall traditions: apple picking. This has been a tradition in my family since my dad was a child, and it’s something I looked forward to every year growing up. It was such a staple of our family’s fall that there was no way we were leaving it out of Hallowgivemas.

Unfortunately, when we arrived, we learned that apple picking had already closed for the season, despite my mom calling earlier in the week to confirm it was still available. Was it disappointing? Absolutely. Did we let it ruin the day? Not a chance! Instead, we made the most of our visit to Keller’s Farmstand with apple cider donuts and coffee, a little exploring in the farm store, and a walk through the pumpkin patch. We also took advantage of the kids’ that had several playgrounds, a small barn with animals, and a large corn maze to explore. Although we could only buy apples by the bag rather than pick our own, everyone still had a great time.

After the orchard, we headed back to my parents’ house and ordered sandwiches from a local restaurant. With a big Thanksgiving dinner on the horizon, keeping lunch simple meant no one had to spend the afternoon preparing an extra meal.

While the kids ran around and played, the adults caught up, and my mom and sisters got to work on dinner. We served all the classics: turkey, mashed potatoes and gravy, stuffing, sweet potatoes, vegetables, cranberries, and bread. There’s just something about sitting down to the same Thanksgiving dishes I grew up enjoying that makes this the most nostalgic meal of the entire weekend.

After dinner, we took a walk around the neighborhood and stopped at a park so the kids could run off some energy. Going for a walk after a meal was such a normal part of my childhood that I never really thought twice about it. It wasn’t until I grew up that I realized not every family does it. It’s one of those simple traditions that might not seem like much, but I’m glad we’ve been able to carry it into our own family gatherings. When we returned, we settled in for dessert before gathering around the bonfire for another rosary.

For the past two Hallowgivemas celebrations, I’ve been determined to make an outdoor movie night happen, but it hasn’t quite worked out as planned. The idea is so appealing: crisp fall air, a cozy bonfire, and a movie playing under the stars. Two years ago, we came close, but our internet connection wasn’t strong enough for the projector to cooperate. This year, rather than waste another evening arguing with our technology, we decided to cut our losses early and move the movie indoors.

Every year, we seem to come to the same conclusion: there just aren’t enough Thanksgiving movies! Two years ago, we watched the classic Planes, Trains and Automobiles. This time, we chose Miracle on 34th Street, which begins around Thanksgiving and made the perfect transition into our Christmas celebration the following day. Moving the movie indoors actually worked out in my favor, too. While everyone watched, I had the chance to wrap a few gifts my parents had bought for the grandkids, checking one more thing off the Christmas list before the festivities continued the next morning.

By the end of Saturday, we’d enjoyed a little fall adventure, gathered around a table full of Thanksgiving favorites, and squeezed in some of the simple traditions that have been part of our family for years. With one holiday behind us and Christmas still to come, we were ready to trade our fall decorations for a little Christmas magic.

Sunday: Christmas

By Sunday morning, the house is officially in Christmas mode. After two days of celebrating fall and Halloween, it’s time for Christmas music, cookies, gifts, and one final day of making memories together before everyone heads home.

We started the morning with a quick breakfast before hustling everyone out the door for Mass at the church where we grew up. This church holds a special place in our family history. Not only did we attend Mass there throughout our childhoods, but several family members, including myself, have been married there, while others have been laid to rest there. It’s one of those places that holds generations of memories, making it a particularly meaningful way to begin our Christmas celebration.

After Mass, we took advantage of having everyone together to snap one big family photo for my mom to include in the Christmas card. Getting a picture with this many people can be an adventure in itself, but it’s worth the effort to capture everyone in one place.

Once we returned to my parents’ house, we sat down to a big Christmas brunch of crepes, scrambled eggs, bacon, and plenty of coffee. Christmas music filled the house, and the snow-dusted windows gave everything a bit of a wintry feel, even if the weather outside wasn’t cooperating. Meanwhile, the kids gathered around the Christmas tree to open gifts, just as we did when we were growing up. It was a sweet, relaxed start to the day before the kitchen transformed into a flurry of cookie decorating and Christmas dinner preparations.

The tradition of baking Christmas cookies goes all the way back to when my dad was a little boy. Every year, two days before Christmas, our family would gather to make recipes passed down through the generations, along with a few new favorites mixed in. Naturally, we wanted to include this tradition in Hallowgivemas, although we kept things a little simpler by making just one kind of cookie: cutout sugar cookies. They’re always a hit with the kids, especially because the best part is decorating them with plenty of frosting and sprinkles. Over the years, friends have become part of the tradition, too, and several stopped by this year to join in on the fun. There’s something special about watching a tradition that started generations ago continue to bring people together, even as the faces around the table change.

While we were busy rolling dough, cutting out cookies, and inevitably sneaking a few tastes of frosting, my uncle was hard at work preparing Christmas dinner. He’s always been in charge of the meal, so why would we change that now? This year, he outdid himself with a spread of beef, chicken, potatoes, corn, carrots, roasted onions, and bread. It was an amazing meal, although getting everything to the table involved a little more excitement than we had planned.

At one point, something leaked in the oven, filling the house with smoke and setting off the alarms. Suddenly, everyone was scrambling to open windows and clear the air with whatever they could find. Pillows, cookie trays, and even fans were recruited for the job. Nothing says Christmas quite like a house full of people waving random household objects around while the smoke alarms announce that dinner is officially underway!

Thankfully, the smoke eventually cleared, and dinner turned out beautifully, as it always does. We settled in to enjoy the meal while blissfully ignoring the kitchen that had seen better days. Afterward, we treated ourselves to Christmas cookies for dessert before moving into the family room for our gift exchange.

This tradition is especially meaningful to me because it’s the same game my parents, aunts, and uncles played when I was growing up. Now that I’m an adult, I find myself looking around the room and marveling at the fact that my own children are now the ones running gifts back and forth while I sit back with the adults. It’s funny how a tradition can feel so different as you get older, even when the game itself hasn’t changed at all.

If you’re looking for a fun alternative to a traditional gift exchange, this is one my family has enjoyed for years. Here’s how we play.

1. Everyone brings a gift. Each participant who brings a present places it in a pile in the middle of the room.

2. Deal out the cards. Shuffle one deck of playing cards and divide the cards evenly among the participants. Shuffle a second deck, which will be used to call out the cards.

3. Start choosing gifts. A designated caller draws cards from the second deck one at a time. Whenever someone’s card is called, that person discards the matching card from their hand and chooses a gift from the center pile.

4. Let the stealing begin! Once all the gifts have been chosen from the center, the game continues as the caller draws the remaining cards. When someone’s card is called, they can steal a gift from another player. The game continues until all the cards have been called.

5. Keep what you’re holding. Once all of your cards are gone, the gift in your hands is yours to keep and can no longer be stolen. There’s just one important rule: you can’t finish with the gift you brought yourself!

It’s a little unpredictable, which is exactly what makes it fun. You never know what you’ll end up with, and there’s always someone hoping to steal back a gift they thought was safely theirs. Just be prepared for a little friendly competition!

After the exchange, the kids headed to bed, and we gathered for our final rosary of the weekend. Last year, we finished with a Christmas movie, but this time it was too late to start one, so we squeezed in a few rounds of Tapple instead. It wasn’t quite the cinematic ending we’d planned, but by that point, we were all happy just to enjoy a little more time together.

And just like that, Hallowgivemas was over for another two years. The decorations would eventually come down, the house would grow quiet again, and everyone would return to their usual routines. But we’d leave with full stomachs, plenty of pictures, a few new inside jokes, and another weekend of memories to hold onto until we could all be together again. More importantly, we’d carried on the traditions that have connected our family for generations while creating new ones for our children to pass along someday.

That’s what Hallowgivemas is really about. It isn’t about perfectly executing three holidays in one weekend or making every detail Pinterest-worthy (although I try my hardest). It’s about finding a way to show up for one another, making room for the traditions that matter, and enjoying the people who make those traditions special. And if we can do all that with a few hiccups along the way, a mountain of cookies, and a few stolen gifts, even better.

The Little Details That Made This Hallowgivemas Easier

Since I’m naturally someone who enjoys planning an event, I tend to go a little overboard with the details. Hallowgivemas is no exception! But over the past two celebrations, I’ve learned that a few simple strategies can make the entire weekend run more smoothly without adding even more work to an already busy schedule. If you’re thinking about planning your own version of Hallowgivemas, here are a few things I’d absolutely recommend.

Create a schedule for the entire weekend. I put together a schedule for each day that included event times, addresses, and cute, holiday-themed graphics. This was especially helpful with family members arriving and leaving at different times and some activities taking place away from my parents’ house. Everyone could see what was happening, where they needed to be, and when, without having to ask for the details over and over. It also helped everyone know what to expect, which made the weekend feel a little less chaotic.

Divide up the responsibilities. A weekend-long celebration with this many moving parts is too much for one person to manage alone. The best way to make it work is to treat it as a group effort and give everyone a few tasks of their own. Between decorating, grocery shopping, preparing snacks, baking cookies, and cooking dinner, there was plenty to go around. Having everyone pitch in made the workload more manageable and gave everyone a part in bringing the weekend together.

Keep the meals simple between the big celebrations. With three holidays packed into one weekend, there’s no need to make every meal an elaborate production. Ordering pizza on Halloween and sandwiches on Saturday afternoon meant we could spend more time enjoying the festivities and less time in the kitchen. We saved our energy for the meals that really mattered, like our Thanksgiving dinner and Christmas feast. Sometimes the easiest way to make a celebration special is knowing which details deserve the extra effort and which ones don’t.

Leave room for flexibility. We didn’t get to pick apples, our outdoor movie setup refused to cooperate, and Christmas dinner came with an unexpected smoke-alarm performance. Not everything went according to plan, but we still had a wonderful weekend. If there’s one thing I’ve learned from organizing family celebrations, it’s that a good plan can make all the difference, but being willing to change course is just as important. Sometimes the unplanned moments end up being the stories everyone remembers most!

At the end of the day, Hallowgivemas doesn’t have to be perfectly organized to be meaningful. A little planning can help everyone make the most of their time together, but the real goal is to enjoy one another’s company and create memories worth repeating.

Why I Hope Hallowgivemas Inspires You to Start a Tradition of Your Own

When we first started talking about Hallowgivemas, we weren’t trying to create an elaborate new holiday. We were simply excited that so many of us would be together at the same time and wanted to make the most of it. What started as a simple family get-together somehow turned into a weekend full of old traditions, new memories, themed food and drinks, cookie decorating, family games, and plenty of laughter. Along the way, it gave us a way to celebrate the holidays together without having to choose between them or feel guilty about where we spend the actual days.

As much as I love the decorations and all the little details that go into planning the weekend, what I love most is seeing everyone together. I love watching my girls experience the same traditions I grew up with. I love that friends who baked cookies with us years ago are still showing up to do it all over again. And I love knowing that, even as our lives change and our family grows, we’re finding ways to keep these traditions alive while creating new memories for the next generation.

Maybe your version of Hallowgivemas will be a full weekend with three decorated rooms, themed meals, and a packed schedule. Maybe it’ll be a Halloween costume night, a Thanksgiving dinner, and an afternoon spent decorating Christmas cookies. Or maybe you’ll come up with your own holiday mashup that combines the traditions your family loves most. There’s no right or wrong way to do it, and you certainly don’t need to be an event planner to make it happen!

Whatever it looks like, I hope our little family tradition reminds you that traditions don’t have to stay exactly the same to remain meaningful. Sometimes, life changes, schedules get complicated, and getting everyone together takes a little creativity. But with a willingness to try something different, you might discover a new tradition that your family looks forward to for years to come.
Because at the end of the day, the best part of the holidays isn’t the date on the calendar, the perfectly decorated house, or even the food on the table. It’s the people gathered around it, sharing stories, laughing over the things that didn’t go according to plan, and making memories that will last long after the decorations are packed away.

Here’s to making time for the people we love, keeping the traditions that matter, and finding new ways to celebrate together. Happy Hallowgivemas!