....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!

I think your Christmas traditions come as a mixture of both families and stuff you do once and then want to do over again. My DH and I have had 2 Christmas together so we are just starting to come up with stuff.

My mum is Danish so I do some Danish stuff as they are Christmas mad - as a child we had a tradition of making Danish Christmas biscuits and there were supposed to be enough to last til Easter! I still make them but just a couple of batches. I like Danish Christmas pudding so we will have that at some point as well as normal Christmas pudding, I've got some traditional Danish Christmas decorations, red cabbage is compulsory with dinner. We haven't settled on the meal yet as I like trying different things.

Since DH has arrived, port seems to feature quite strongly

Last year we bought some posh bacon and had bacon sandwiches for breakfast - we instantly decided this would be a new tradition as they were fab.

This year we'll probably add to this - the fun ones are the ones you grow yourself.

Thank you all for your kind replies, I have loved reading them and will be trying lots of your ideas! Thanks for helping me feel even more excited!

I didn't know the pyjamas thing was considered 'new', our family have done that for years - I think it was to try and get us to bed on Christmas Eve!

We had:

• pyjamas and a book on Christmas Eve, when we got older this added marshmallows and cocoa and an annual, then even older the book became a glossy magazine or similar and the cocoa became Baileys (I love my mum). She does this for our partners/spouses too.
• Carrot, mince pie and whisky left out for Santa and Rudolph (only traces in the morning, of course)
• All lights off until dad could position himself behind the tree for the big reveal.
• Present opening and breakfast all kind of intermingled, as adults it became a champers and bacon roll with presents...
• Whoever was in the kitchen had done different pieces and enlisted helpers on Christmas Eve so dinner (as it was in ours, served about 5pm) was mostly done, so a leisurely walk and maybe a stop at the pub
• Lovely long dinner with huge big round of stilton
• silly presents at table, almost like Secret Santa. Had to be daft.
• Chilled out evening in front of the telly with presents, or with music on and family/friends dropping in.

Bloody love Christmas. It's DS's first this year and I can't wait.

We have a bit of a random one started by my dad - on December 1st he used to play christmas music downstairs until we woke up - then did this every morning until Christmas. And now we (me and dsis) have moved out, we both get early morning phonecalls on Dec 1st with Christmas music played at us.
We put the tree up on the first Sunday in Dec (like my parents always have) and Christmas eve is all about watching a christmas film in new pj's and eating a choc orange.
DH brought the stocking tradition with him as we never did that when i was small

Cant wait to have DC so i can keep these going and make some of my own

Handbag, that's so lovely!

Yes, sometimes The wheel has to be reinvented. Our christmas traditions are very different from any memories of my childhood.

We have our big xmas dinner on christmas eve, turkey, roast potatoes and veg, then choc dessert.

Real tree with real candles, being put up on xmas eve or the day before and decorated by all of us together.

I cook the dinner (with 1-2 glasses of bubbly), then we go to the neighbours (whole street invited) for a quick xmassy drink, get back and eat.
After the dinner we move to the living room where (Christkind) someone has brought presents, we unwrap them taking turns.

Then we play games, some old, some may be new. Ds plays the piano and dd the violin, they normally practice a bit beforehand to play a duet, sometimes it's more of a jam session (when drumming dh joins in and I join ds on the piano).

We always have a xmas party around 10-15th of December where all friends and neighbours come for a drink, cakes and chat, very relaxed.

The most important tradition of all: no stress. Had relaxed xmas for 15 years now.

OP, you will find your own traditions, they will develop as your son grows up.

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

Like some others here, if I did that, Xmas would be very depressing indeed!

I refuse to put pressure on myself to put on the perfect Xmas but instead we just pick and choose a few new things to try each year and see what sticks. MN has been great for ideas :)

It's funny how the traditions that really evolve are sometimes those you don't expect or plan. DD mentioned Xmas a few weeks back and said "I love Xmas because we get pancakes for breakfast" :o we'd tried it last year and clearly it's here to stay now!