We need your Christmas customs and family traditions

Tree presents - we have the main big presents in the morning and then to keep the fun going we do tree presents in the afternoon. These are smaller silly presents often got from charity shops. My favourite tree present was a book on using your microwave to dry flowers.

1. Tree and decs go up the weekend before Christmas.
2. Litsen to Carols from Kings on New Years Eve.
3. We track Santa using the NORAD site, DN lives in NZ so DD likes to check that Santa has visted her and where he get is / how long it will be till he gets to the UK.
4. Carrot, mince pie and a glass of whiskey left out for Santa and reindeers. All eaten / drunk by morning with crumbs etc as evidence.
5. Presents appear under the tree during the night including a stocking for DD.
6. Present opening in PJs.
7. Lovely Xmas turkey with all trimmings.
8. Soundtrack cheesy Christmas CDs picked by DD.

our traditions, slightly german marked (as I am german )....
we have old fashioned wooden decoration on the tree,like red wooden apples, little wooden figures, natural things like pinecones and nuts....

baking biskuits....iced and not iced, but baking lots

on x-mas eve we have a nice festive special dinner at home and then kids get a few presents (the german presents)....all get a pyjama and we also open up a dvd for the family to watch that night....

than c-mas morning etc...normal...but might change this year...because last x-mas went kinda very wrog, and not sure we risk that

The Bullerby children dance around the tree in their chrismas festivities in their little Swedish village.

I wasn't sure if this was based on reality or rather idealised. Am pleased to hear it really happens.

Thinking back to when we were kids, some traditions I'd like to carry on with DD when she is older...

We used to write a list to Santa, never a massive list but our ideal pressie and a few stocking fillers

We used to make signs for where Santa was to leave our pressies - each year we'd take turns on who got the sofa / 2 seater or chair (and therefore sitting on floor to open pressies!)

We were not allowed downstairs until we were showed and dressed properly, in a new dress usually, whilst dad was downstairs wondering loudly if Santa had come

If it had snowed the night before, back in the good old days, mum and dad would be excited about the tracks that were showing in the snow (which made us sob one year as we realised we'd missed santa!)

Me and my sisters would open our pressies.

Then Dad would go to the cemetary to put flowers on his mum, dad and brothers graves.

We'd move our pressies to our room while Dad was gone (and I for some reason would always look out the window waiting for him to get home, fearing something bad would happen) and when he got back, mum and dad would open their pressies.

Big dinner, we were never allowed any brekkie on Xmas day to ensure we had enough room for dinner! In the good old days, it was mum dad me my two sisters my step sister and step brother, their partners, my uncle

Afterwards dad would go for a sleep.

Everybody would dive in and tidy up then we'd retire to the living room to watch one of the new dvd's and eat the sweets (I always ear marked myself a box of matchmakers and then refused to eat anything else)

Dad would get up and we'd go for a walk around the block and then come back home for turkey sandwiches.

Boxing day was also fab, we'd have the same people for dinner plus another aunt and uncle and grandparents etc as it is my dad's birthday. We used to have a massive table in the dining room and then people sitting on the chairs around the room as there was not enough room.

Since I (and my sisters) have moved into my own place, with exception of last year, it has meant that we all moved back into the home for xmas eve so we all got up at the same time.

Last year DH said we should have xmas by ourselves as a family, so we did and after dinner went to my mum and dad's, was lovely.

we do the german thing and have a family christmas meal on christmas eve and open some presents then.

DH is a chimney sweep so working right up to Christmas Eve making sure all chimneys are nice and clean for Father Christmas.
Ridiculously overexcited me during Christmas eve working children up to a state of hysteria that can't be calmed down. DD1 anxious to be in bed however so can hang up stocking. DH stays in room with her and looks out of window whilst I sneak into garden and ring jingle bells so we can pretend the reindeers are passing overhead!
Christmas sex in new negligee!
Christmas day....champagne, presents, a lovely walk, church if I can remember the service time. Enormous and jolly dinner, homemade crackers. Raising a glass to absent friends, phone calls with family miles apart, enormous feeling of how exceptionally blessed we are. LOVE IT. LOVE IT LOVE IT

Tree goes up on the evening of the day school breaks up (DH and I both teachers) - we decorate after DS has gone to bed and then he discovers it all Christmassy the next morning.

Visit to Santa sometime in the week before Xmas - this year on a steam train

Pantomime - Birmingham Hipppodrome (John Barrowman ) - as close to Xmas as poss.

Christmas Eve - carols from Kings - Christmas Eve party with Secret Santa pressies. Christmassy stories round the tree before hanging up stockings (we all have one)

Christmas Day: stockings at about 7 am round tree. Breakfast, walk, lunch. Presents after lunch. Xmas TV and buffet tea. Once DS is in bed, crappy TV and wine and chocs for me and DH!

Christmas eve we let the kids have one present from under the tree, which is always their new pjamas ! we watch christmassy tv and read christmasssy stories, then put them to put not too late but a bit later than usual.
Christmas morning their stockings are all at the bottam of their beds, we let them wake up and find them and bring them into our bed to open. I usually video this bit cos it is so sweet, they LOVE their stockings.

Once thats over its traipse downstairs for more presents, saving some for later. Have breakfast, usually anything, we haven't started a tradition yet, but think we now should !!

Lazy morning, not getting dressed too early etc, phone family members, visits from whoever is not coming for dinner, more presents.

Joint parental effort on christmas dinner, usually for my mum plus fil and bil as well some years, drinks, crackers, photos etc ! Presents from dinner guests not till after dinner, so then can have a good play and chill out, watch tv, nap etc, guests to help wash up !

Usually a nice walk later afternoon, then home for more play, tv, food etc, plus cheese and crackers, salad, ham and the like all put out on the table so you can help yourself.

On reflection, this sounds rather dull and we dpn't have nearly as many set traditions and family customs as others do ! Hmm, must steal some methinks..........

My friend's tradition, when her DC were small, was to tell her DC the wrong date, so they went to bed on Christmas Eve, not knowing what night it was. Then they'd wake up and find stockings on their bed. Cue gasps of wonder and creeping downstairs to find half-eaten carrots and snowy footprints, and of course, presents heaped under the tree

Decorating the tree is always one of those moments which SHOULD be lovely and special, children's eyes shining etc but always ends up as a bickerfest. So you feel pissed off but also guilty for being pissed off that you re an antiXmas miseryguts.

Glad to realise, reading this, I m not alone.

Can't open presents on Christmas morning until street lights have been switched off (santa not guaranteed to have been until then we were told - obv to keep kiddies away from pressies until parents up)

the tree is finished when the christmas octopus are flung at it (there are 5 they have googly eyes and pipe cleaner legs and roll through the branches and stick where they will)

we do not mention Christmas till December 1st

Chrsitmas eve - children have new pjs and to bed early

Christmas day - Kids wake up we go downstairs as a family and make a cuppa then open all the pressies. Usually we go to my parents or mil but this year we are home alone . Dinner usually around 3.

Boxing day - Visit family

Oooh must leave a carrot for rudolph and a mince pie for santa, and santa must leave the crumbs.

I do love Christmas but the only tradition worth passing on is the Goodnight Present - always a new book, to each child, to bribe them to go to bed on Christmas Day. Some of the fondest memories of Christmas I have are settling down in bed with a brand new story and a bit of peace.

Tree goes up between 1 and 2 weeks before - always have a real one (although this year is more likely to be a twig from the garden, they're free!) and DH puts the lights on then goes and gets tea while I try and manage a toddler and a 9 year old who put all decs in one square inch! Have an argument about tinsel - I hate it, they love it! Wait til they are in bed and re-decorate tree in anal sensible fashion.

Kids have new jammies on xmas eve which they put on at about 5pm as they think this will make santa get here sooner!

We MUST ALWAYS watch the Muppett Christmas Carol DVD on Christmas Eve (snuggled up in said new jammies)otherwise it's just not Christmas.

Also - we try and watch as many cheesy Christmas movies as we can, usually on Sunday afternoons in December

SorenLorensen, that made me laff

Yes indeed we do dance around the tree whilst singing x-mas songs. It is fun, everybody gets a good laugh (at how badly I sing, or whenever somebody keeps tripping over the wire/carpet).

Also yes to the fact that I am Scandinavian. However I live in Scotland with a Scottish husband with our Scotnavian children.

..........why does this mean that my traditions don't count?

Up until last year our main Christmas traditions were all to do with getting DS to and from every single service and rehearsal as he was a cathedral chorister, and surprisingly enough they are working very hard right up to and including Christmas morning. All other Christmas preparations had to be fitted in round that.

As of last year, the new tradition is going to Midnight Mass and then having a very long-lie on Christmas morning enjoying the fact that we don't have to get up again in time for the Christmas morning service. I think we will be repeating that this year.

I think we're scrapping one of ours this year - ds2's birthday is on December 7th and we always put the tree up and decorate the house the night before his birthday. We used to do it secretly, after the kids had gone to bed, so that he would get up on his birthday morning and the house would be all magical and Christmassy but now the kids want to interfere help with the decorating of the tree etc so we do it when dh gets home from work.

Only last year he was late home, it was a school night, we all had colds and were tired and grumpy - but, nonetheless, we had to put the tree up and decorate. It's traditional, innit? We have an artificial tree (that's another bone of contention but I won't get side-tracked). We put the tree up (grumpily), the kids decorated it (all one one side and only as far up as they could reach so it listed drunkenly to one side).

Dh says (grumpily) "I can't see the TV with it there."
I say (grumpily) "it's in the same place it was last year."
Dh (grumpily)"Yes, and I couldn't see the TV last year"
Me (grumpily) "You never said."
Dh (very grumpily) "And it seems worse this year - the branches are half obscuring the screen."
Me (wittily) "Maybe it's grown."

We carry on in a similar vein for some time and then decide that perhaps if we move the furniture around it will improve matters. It doesn't.

"Right," says dh, "we will go and get another bloody tree at B&Q and we will get rid of this one which I always said was too big."

I ponder suggesting we get a real one but look at dh's face and decide this isn't the year.

Off we go to B&Q in the cold and dark and rain, dragging our two miserable kids behind us and bickering all the way. Then we argue some more in B&Q (dh wants a 2' plastic shrub, ds2 wants a pink one, ds1 wants this hideous fibre optic creation and I want a Real One). We buy the most unrealistic looking fake tree ever - but it's tall and skinny so he can see the bloody TV, go home and put the damn thing up and throw a few decorations on it.

And we have upheld our family tradition but the kids are tired, dh and I aren't speaking, and the tree looks crap.

So this year I think we'll put it up at a weekend - when we are less tired and in a better mood!

Spidermama - I'd like some of that in my christmas stocking...

More, are you Scandanavian?

I bloody love Mandelbrot's.

lol at Mandelbrot's - sounds vaaaiiry familiar.Still trying to work out combustible recreational aids, spidermama. Is it...fireworks? Or - like me - are you sniffing Tippex in the kitchen, whilst preparing the organic sage and red onion stuffing?