How do you make Christmas magical?

[jimjamjoo]

I'm stuck in hospital and thinking about Christmas.

How do you make it magical? I have 3 under 6!

Don't put any pressure on yourself. Full stop.

Don't fall into the trap of feeling like you need to do lots of Christmas (expensive) outings like breakfast with Santa/Santa's grotto/ Santa train ride. It's a big thing in my area. My friend went to see Santa 3 times in the run up to Christmas one year and her daughter was so confused about which Santa was THE Santa.

Think very carefully before bringing in an elf on the shelf into your house.... Luckily when my kids were wee the childminder had an elf so they didn't pester me for one. Once the elf appears, you can't stop. Ever!

We don't do Christmas Eve boxes or matching pjs.

I try to buy a new Christmas tree decoration to put in their stocking and none of my tree decorations match 🙈

We go for a walk to look at the lights at twilight, with a hot chocolate from the local coffee shop to take with us. One house has a life size Grinch hiding so we always look out for it.

We do the local run club Christmas dress up fun run and 5k.

The elf got lost one year, so my husband dashed to The Works and bought a couple more. We'd found the original one by the time he got home (someone had sneaked him into their nursery bag) so now we have 3 elves that arrive on December the 1st bringing the advent calendars with them

Throughout December we have to watch all the essential movies: Home Alone 1 and 2, the muppets Christmas carol, Elf, the Grinch. Plus some further optional ones like Miracle on 34th Street, Jingle all the Way etc.

I bake Austrian Crescent biscuits and mince pies. Occasionally a Christmas cake

Christmas music, pop and carols

Candles, decorations, the tree

Stockings from Santa on beds opened altogether in our room on Christmas morning, with a main gift from us under the tree

And books! The Christmas pig, the night before Christmas etc

You really don't have to do much. 😊 Kids love it anyway. My twos favourite things are Christmas dinner, the presents and spending time with family.

We do other stuff like light walks and panto ect but they love the basic stuff the most.

Everything on here I'm in total agreement with but the matching decorations has confused me no end...is this a thing? I'm a very unobservant person as a rule but...how can you match your decorations? Aren't they always a random collection of tat your kids made and stuff you collected on travels/random Christmas markets?

Keep your traditions simple so you don't get stressed. I think the absolute #1 way to make Christmas magical is that the parents themselves are relaxed and genuinely enjoying themselves with their kids instead of tying themselves in knots with extra "magic" that is completely unnecessary.

I'm now chuckling to myself remembering my pre teen boys getting the stupid jokey electric shock chewing gum packets and offering us a piece every five seconds. And also, kind of welling up 😢

Sadly yes, it is a thing! I know quite a lot of people who have a colour theme for their tree. They will change all their decorations every few years to a different colour and they all think tinsel is tacky!
My tree is exactly as you describe, I often say my tree looks like Christmas threw up on it as its so random 😂

that's a phrase I use too 😂

Wow, sometimes my ability to be oblivious surprises even me. I honestly never knew that was a thing!!

Hope you're feeling better soon! I don't necessarily do anything in particular to make Christmas magical in a sense but I definitely fell into some traditions since the kids were born

1st of December, my kids get pyjamas and a Christmas jumper (I usually buy on eBay hardly worn or new never worn earlier on in the year so it doesn't cost an arm and a leg!)

Put on their Christmas duvet covers (I didn't actually buy them my in-laws did, but they love them!)

Decorate the dining table on the 23rd and on Christmas Eve do our own Christmas dinner with a film on in the background (we go to the in-laws on Christmas Day and my kids seem to get more excited about our Christmas Eve dinner!)

We always see Santa around the 5th of December. Though sadly this is probably the last year.

Drive around and see the Christmas lights.

If we can afford it when the kids break up for the holidays, go for a nice meal in the local restaurant.

Every day have a different Christmas film on. (Saving Jingle All The Way till Christmas Eve)

Our cosy Saturday nights with the fire on watching Strictly

Great suggestions re the Christmas light safaris.

We don’t have lots of decorations outside, but we do have a large potted Christmas tree in the front garden absolutely covered in lights so it really sparkles. So nice to come home to.

I was thinking about this the other day and came to the conclusion that Christmas is magical in itself without any of the extras - light shows, breakfast with Santa, the bloody elf on a shelf, Xmas eve boxes, hot chocolate at the Xmas market ...

So decoarating the tree, fairy lights in the house and lights in neighbours' gardens. Putting out a sherry and a mince pie and a carrot on Christmas Eve. The sense of expectation. Believing that Father Christmas is going to be visiting your house with lots of presents. A special meal on the day and lots of chocolate.

These things that British families have been doing for decades without all the expensive extras which can make Christmas so expensive, stressful and a bit underwhelming.

As @ghostbusters says - don’t put pressure on yourself. But also don’t put pressure on your children to enjoy everything! Trying to make everything “magical” is just setting yourself, and them, up for disappointment.

Go easy on the presents.

Go big on the (small, free) experiences.

• Decorate the tree together
• sing Christmas songs
• teach them giving is fun - mum takes them shopping for dad, dad takes the, shopping for mum
• bake mince pies together
• leave a mince pie and sherry for Father Christmas
• go to a carol concert
• make a thing of watching a Christmas movie a day or every Friday or whatever suits you

I think it’s kids your age that make it magic! Mine are almost 2 and 10.

We walk around our local area to look at the lights, and get a hot chocolate from the garden centre on the way.

DS1 is allowed a late night on Saturdays, we watch all the obligatory Christmas films.

I’ll sometimes make alcohol free mulled wine at the weekend, it makes the house smell amazing.

Make mince pies on Christmas Eve, we leave one out for Santa (although DS1 doesn’t believe anymore we’ll be starting this with the little one this year.)

The only Christmas themed days out we do are Christmas at Dunham Massey and the pantomime at our small local theatre, but we look forward to it so much.

I also echo a PP who said to try and be as prepared as you humanly can. Every year I strive to be ‘done’ by early December so I can just relax in the run up. Inevitably I forget things or end up adding things on but I have spent too many Christmases running around like a headless chicken on the 22/23/24 and then cooked all day on 25th and before you know it Christmas is over!

Finally for the grown ups - I make sure we have espresso martini ingredients in for myself and DH, it has become the tipple of the season somehow 😂 we’ll have one or two at the weekend through December. We also watch Royal Family on repeat, that show always means Christmas for me. We also buy a bottle of nice champagne on Christmas Eve when everything is wrapped, set up and done and enjoy a little glass of fizz together before the chaos begins in the morning. This is my favourite 😃

I have loved reading these suggestions! They are definitely cheering me up and have given me some inspiration. Thank you!