....to ask what your Christmas traditions are?

[wherethewildthingis]

This will be our first Christmas as a family with DS, who will be six months. Really keen to start some traditions and looking for ideas! Please share yours and give me inspiration!

will have to add - the eldest DS is 19 and still has his pressies from the dog on xmas eve!

Come on over to the Christmas section OP! It's fantastically festive

There are other threads asking about traditions if you search. That's not saying you shouldn't have started one, just that there will be other responses floating about on those as well.

I have shamelessly nicked the Christmas PJs thing from here. Also last year we did baking with DS on Christmas Eve, to leave some for Santa, and that was such a success it is now going to be a regular Christmas Eve thing.

If your baby is still very young, my personal tip would be to not bother buying anything for them beyond one small token item. Enjoy it in a more relaxed fashion while you can. On the other hand, a Christmas pudding/elf outfit you can photograph them in is priceless...

We have loads of traditions - many of them developed as a family and not brought from our parental homes- too many to list .

One thing I do: when I pack away the decorations each year I also pack away all the Christmas story books, activity books, games, jigsaws, soft toys, ornaments etc.

The children get so many other toys, games and books that they don't notice particularly. Then, in December, when we bring out all the Christmas decorations out come all the children's Christmas toys and books. It's brilliant to watch them re-discover those toys and games; to remember where we bought them or who gave them. It means the children have 'new' toys to amuse them in the run up to Christmas and we have
'new' stories for bedtime - all with a Christmas theme.

This year dd1 is almost six and has mentioned a few times in the last week that she'slooking forward to reading her snowman book and showing dd2 the book with the twinkly lights.

we tend to do something nice Christmas eve day (cinema or meal)
Church Christmas Eve
Then the big girls are allowed a snowball (99.9% lemonade)
then bed

Christmas day they open their Father Christmas gifts
Daddy comes and we open the tree presents
Daddy take them to MIL's and I cook dinner
they come back and eat dinner then go to their dads until 27th
I drink champagne and watch Dr Who

Ds gets a special Xmas tree decoration bought each year and we write the year on them so he will be able to look back and see when he got them.

We all open our stockings in bed together.

Board games and tv after lunch throughout the afternoon.

Spending as little time with my mil as possible.

Xmas eve is-New PJ's, gammon sandwiches & roast tatties, make & eat gingerbread house & scatter reindeer food.
Love, love, LOVE Xmas!!!

Growing up it was always wake up and open stockings, wait until FOREVER... (prob actually 7), go into the parents, line up at the top of the stairs in age order. Go downstairs and have presents from father Christmas in big sacks. Normal breakfast. Presents under the tree from family. Christmas lunch mid afternoon. Cold meats etc for evening meal, lots of chocolate and general crap to eat. Boxing day round to my grandparents for more of the same.

Now we tend to all have Christmas at my mum's (dad is a veggie, no turkey...), and then go to my dad's a few days later for nibbles and drinks. Mum makes a fry up, massive lunch, swap presents, then have party games and drinks.

DS is not yet 3 and DP goes to see his daughter Christmas morning so we haven't made our own Christmas traditions yet.

I did see a good idea on fb, it was a Christmas box they get to open Christmas eve, it contains new pyjamas, a Christmas movie, hot chocolate and film type snacks. Then everyone cuddles up and gets all festive before bed :-)

Not sure if this is a widespread tradition or not but we loosely tape the entire doorway that leads into the lounge with wrapping paper and let DS (6) "burst" into the room. Great silly fun

Other than that, the usual beer/mince pie for Santa, carrot/juice for Rudolph.

We have Christmas songs playing in the morning as we open presents.

Massive breakfast , earyl-ish xmas dinner. Wine is drunk steadily (but sensibly!) through out the day.

Boxing Day is spent buffet style with family/friends over. It usually ends with us all playing ridiculous games in the evening.

Thankyou all, brilliant ideas !

Used to have a Christmas Eve tradition of going to see different sets of relatives, dropping off presents and having hot chocolate / wine...

Then home for a Christmas movie and drinks with all my brothers while my mum and stepdad wrapped presents in the other room...

Then I married someone who's birthday is Christmas Eve. Now it's all about him

I get 30 minutes to squeeze in the night before Christmas & cookies for Santa with my DD.

So our new tradition is big birthday meal out with about 30 people..

When you start to fall for someone, check their birth date!!

Christmas Eve: Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings in the kitchen,
seafood for dinner.
A real Christmas tree with ornaments bought and made over the years.
Playing Vaughan Williams' 'Fantasia on Christmas Carols' at various points.
Singing a maximum of 3 carols at the piano.

The Rug - all big presents go under the rug and get picked out one by one, the person who got the last one picks out the next.

I don't think you can contrive Christmas traditions - I think they develop for you as a family over time.

We always host Christmas and our children are 18 and 15 now but this is what we have done/do.

We used to leave a glass of malt and mince pie for FC and a carrot for his reindeer. He was always in a hurry and there was always a half carrot in the grate, pie crumbs on the hearth and a sooty print on the carpet (and we didn't light the fire on Xmas night because ds worried FC would burn his bum .

We used to go to Christingle but don't anymore because the DC are too big but we go on Xmas morning and I'm always head sidesman and they always want to know how much was in the takings and it always takes a long time because it's always a big count and they all go "ooh" when I say how much.

We have smoked salmon and champagne after church and just before presents - but no breakfast.

We always host Xmas at ours.

My mum bought them a first Xmas bauble and these still go on the tree first (actually ds's was second Christmas but that comes later)

When they were little they could each chose a Christmas decoration every year and I still know which is which (about three each) and they put them on themselves still.

Food is always the same every year, although I would like to ring the changes I'm not allowed.

My dad's ashes have crept down to the dining room and sit on the sideboard nowadays and wear a paper hat .

We have birthday cake rather than Christmas cake in the early evening and birthday presents too. That's why the first Xmas dec was actually ds's second Xmas ! .

Xmas in our house is a teeny bit speshul. His third name is Caspar!

The usual stockings, cookies and milk for Rudolph but the main one we love the most and the kids get so excited about is NORAD track Santa! Love it

Every year we shout "he's been" up the stairs to the dc's then they run like a herd of elephants down the stairs. We photograph the looks on their faces as they enter the room

We do 'Little Christmas'. Every year we buy each other one extra present, normally something cheap like bubble bath. These presents stay under the tree until twelfth night. Then after we have packed all the decorations and everything else away, we open them and then take the tree down.

I got the idea from friends, and it does mean DS helps with the big clear up!! Occasionally we only have token presents at Christmas and then get the big present in the sales and open it on twelfth night. Depends what we are after really.

Loving the wrapping up of the door! We go to the carol singing around the village tree every Christmas Eve, then call in at our local sports club for their 'tire your children out' 'do until around 9.30. Then it's Christmas pj's and bed.
One of us will always creep downstairs before everyone else is up to turn the tree lights on and make the room look extra festive
Th best thing we did was to ignore the traditional Christmas dinner and just do whatever we fancy. I'm in charge of the kitchen that day (anybody with sense stays out on pain of death!) and we choose a different meal every year. Last year it was a full English breakfast with Champagne and christmas pudding ice cream!

New pyjamas on Christmas Eve, which are presented to the children in the much maligned (on MN anyway!) hamper also containing:

• a new dvd to watch as a family before bedtime
• "snowman soup" (hot chocolate tied up in cellophane cones with marshmallows and chocolate buttons, with a candy cane for stirring)
• sweets and mince pies
• "reindeer food" (porridge oats and glitter) which is sprinkled in the garden before the children go to bed
• a Christmas book, this year I've bought "Santa Comes To our city"

I love Christmas Eve possibly slightly more than Christmas day.

We have hosted christmas in our house ever since dc1 was due to be born on christmas eve (but he came early), so for 9 years we have evolved some traditions which I love! Christmas was far less of a celebration for dh growing up so he loves the family tradition side of things too.

We always have christmas cd playing and drink lots of baileys & ice whilst putting up the christmas decorations, one year we were very jet-lagged after coming back from Australia a few days before hand so we were up from about 4am and put up the decorations at about 10am swigging a glass of baileys - that was my favourite year!

I LOVE christmas decorations and buy a few every year and we have some really, really lovely ones now. I like traditional and scandinavian style wooden and fabric ones. Every year it makes me so happy to take them all out and remember where we got them etc. We have collected some on our travles too and they have special meaning for us.

I have also collected a set of christmas cups and plates and bowls and napkins and we use these for everyday from when the decorations go up,

We light both open fires downstairs and keep the house very cosy with lots of tealights and fairy lights.

I bake with dc. We bake anyway but make special things that we only make at christmas. My mum has never baked in her life and thinks I am mad but I think it makes the house very homely to have the smell of baking.

My parents and sometimes siblings and partners come to us the day before christmas eve and dh and i usually sneak off for some last minute shopping and a coffee / drink and to meet friends that evening.

On christmas eve we all go to a very nice restaurant and have lots of bubbles and a 3 course lunch. Then we stroll through the city admiring the lights and window displays etc. We collect the turkey and that is the ONLY food shopping allowed on that day, I implemented this rule a number of years ago as I queued in tescos which was MOBBED just to get a carton of cream which had been forgotten. My mum and sister were off browsing in fancy department store and muggins was in the supermarket. So now if it is food and it is not bought by the day before christmas eve is doesn't get bought! Dh goes to collect the turkey.

Most years we stop for a hot chocolate for dc before heading home. Get home by 4.30 - 5ish and light the fires.

Then my mum and I make the stuffing and get the ham into the oven. My dad plays with dc and winds them up! Then they leave treats out for santa and rudolph (mince pie, glass of milk and a carrot) and dc head to bed.

Adults sit by the fire, drink baileys or champagne and watch (crap) tv - my parents choice of programmes usually seems to involve ballroom dancing - yawn.

Then we set out the santa presents and head to bed.

On christmas morning we all go downstairs together and see if santa has been - excitement is very high! Then we help dc with toys etc.

I make a full cooked breakfast and lay the table with all the christmas ware. We usually have bucks fizz with this.

Dh and my dad clean up.

Then we all sort of rest about and I start dinner. We don't eat until evening - around 7pm and I set the big table with the special table cloth and candles etc. We eat a very leisurely dinner and really enjoy ti and sit around talking and dc come and go playing once they have eaten. I love eating in the evening as it gives a lovely focus to the night instead of just sitting in front of the tv.

I love it that we have been doing the same thing more or less for the past 9 years and it feels very familiar and comforting now. For me it was very important for dc to have christmas in our own home as for my entire childhood we went to my maternal grandparents and when I was a teenager and they got too old to host they came to us. But we had never had christma in our own house and it always felt 'weird and wrong' to be there. I hated that and didn't want the same for ours. They would be horrified at the thoughts of not being in our house for christmas! And so would I.

I would look to your own upbringing and that of your DH - why re-invent the wheel!

sometimes the wheel needs re inventing very very much.

Well we don't 'wrap the door' but we do have a Christmas ribbon (two pieces) which I stick each side of the sitting room door before we go to bed and tie it in a big bow so the dc have to untie it to get in

We actually have our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve (early evening). That started happening after a couple of years of whoever was cooking on Christmas day missing half of seeing the DC open their presents because we'd be running in and out checking the turkey, putting on the veg, whatever. So now we cook & eat it Christmas Eve about five-ish, so it's getting dark and all the candles are on & we can sit around and eat and talk about Santa being on his way etc . We have an enormous turkey and I usually stick in a joint of gammon or beef whilst the oven's on too. Then when we've eaten we all settle down to watch a Christmassy film before it's time to put the stockings up and put a note, mince pie and a sherry out of Santa.

Then on Christmas day we have a really lazy day, opening/playing with all the presents then eating an easy lunch/dinner of cold cuts & nibbles.

Can you tell I love Christmas?

Ooh and yes we have Christmas mugs for everyone too that come out for advent. And a Christmas table cover too that I get out with the mugs. It's not too Christmassy, just one with holly & ivy on. And I also have a really jazzy Christmassy one that I put on the table for when it's actually Christmas.

redmayneslips

Your christmas sounds utterly glorious. Especially the fires.

I must admit the real fire at home really gave soul to my childhood christmas, I really struggle without a real fire.Really, really struggle.

Really, OP, its about doing things that you think are lovely, and then repeating them every year because they worked/you really did love them. That's what makes them YOUR traditions.

FWIW, these are the "set in stone" moments in our house

24th - Childrens crib service at 4.30 ....really is the start of Christmas for us, and its wonderful for small children.
New pj's ready for FC visiting!
Sherry and mince pie out, for FC, and carrots for the reindeer.
25th stockings full of very traditional bits (satsuma, chocolate coins, little gifts) which we open in bed.
Usually downstairs by 7.30 (still in pj's) to discover all the other presents have appeared magically under the tree. FC also brings our tree chocolates. We take turns to open gifts. Fresh bake danish pastries in the first hour, then champagne.

Eggs Benedict at about 11 ...then we get very sexist as the chaps teach children how to play with the new toys, while the women head for the kitchen with wine in hand, to sort lunch. (there are normally 18-20 of us in total, of which at least 7 are children, so its a pretty fair division of labour......and the men always clear and wash up!). Lunch is actually afternoon tea as we don't sit down until around 3pm. Silver sixpence in the Christmas pudding.
We don't have bought crackers .... we used to make them, or assorted snowman and FC variations, when the children were small. These days, DD's take it turns to do them .....so I never know what's coming until the table is set!!

After lunch its back to playing with the children. TV is never normally on before the children go to bed ......although there was one year when we all had a bug, when everyone just collapsed and veg'd.
Late supper is always brown bread with smoked salmon & lobster tails. Its as traditional as the turkey....and there was a riot one year when I tried something else.

Late Christmas night, I always make a trifle for Boxing lunch.

Boxing Day is my day off !! I make a quiche and some salads in the morning, to go with the leftovers, lay out whatever can be put out as a buffet, and then its help yourself time all the way. Most of the family go out on a long dog walk, as long as its not actually raining!

I get pissed while i am cooking dinner

What about a scrap book. Each of you put hand (and foot prints) in with paint and date it.

You can add to it every year with other children if you have them and grandparents if they visit.

You can add photos and glitter and messages about favorite presents.