Your favourite silly Christmas traditions

[Cannothavethenameiwanted]

This is our first year as hosts!
No children.

We never did big Christmases in my family just eat your dinner, open your presents, visit the grandparents and off home for tv and bed. I want it to be magical though! (I know I sound a loon)

So what are your fave little Christmas traditions that I can borrow to create a fun, family day that I'll want to repeat!

We are eating mid afternoon, then nibbles later on. I've thought maybe play a few silly board games with a drink for an hour or two in the evening but other than that I'm stuck.

Just me and DH until the guests come so it would be nice for us to have our own special Christmas thing as well.

(I realise I'm getting far too invested in the 'magic' of one day!)

Dh and I have a tradition of trying to buy each other the daftest, weirdest presents possible for less than £3. It's a little bit scary opening my presents on Xmas morning because I have no idea what will be wrapped up for me. I think I win this year cos I bought wasabi flavour popping candy and strange pea snacks (I think they're trying to be crisps but are made of whole pea pods).

Following with interest!

The snowman/ flour game. You have to put on a scarf and gloves and hat. Someone prepares flour in a mould (push it tight, turn it out) balance a small plastic toy (crackers are handy for this) on the flour mound.
The snowman the has to cut the flour without knocjing down the toy. The next person then has to don the snowman gear. If it collapses after you cut but are still the snowman you lose.
Silly. All ages can play and it can get surprisingly tense.You can raise the stakes by betting chocolates on the outcome.

We always go to a panto, and then home to prep the veg, clean our rooms and do all the Santa things...

We always pretend that we forget to leave Santas key out and Ds2 always runs down with the key and puts it on the door... he always then gives us a massive cuddle and says he loves us, melts my heart every time, he's done it since he was 3.

We always do a treasure hunt, for all the family on After Christmas dinner, the boys will leave hints to their presents, and me and dh will do the same and for the presents we bought the boys, they sent Dh to the loft and shed last year

not mine, but friend have a thing where you play pass the parcel, but you have to make sure its really well wrapped so VERY hard to open.

You then don a silly hat and oven gloves, and have to try to open the present... something small and unbreakable.

The next person then has 2 dice and they have to throw a double, as soon as they do, you pass the hat, gloves and present on and that person gets a go at trying to open it, while the next person throws the dice, and so on.

its best played after a few drinks tbh, but its fun!

We have a weird musical plush bear/dog hybrid thing that sings Jingle Bells in a Chinese accent. My grandmother bought it for us from the market just after DS1 was born and it's just not Christmas without it.

Christmas eve carol service.

Christmas quiz.

After dinner and cleaning is done, a glass of Baileys and a cheesy but good comedy or action movie. This year will probably be Tropic Thunder as I can't track down Elf.

After dinner mint game. After dinner on Christmas Eve, each family member puts an After Eight mint on their forehead. The competition goes that the first person to get the mint in to their mouths is the winner (no hands obviously).....always lots of laughs, especially as the mints start melting!

Hundreds of very silly Xmas jokes that people have to guess the answer to, just keep going til people beg you to stop lol. Silly balancing games at the table when everyone is too full to move, e.g. who can balance the most chocolates and get the highest tower. Or give a set amount and insist it has to be topped with a mince pie if it is to be a contender. Cheat to make it fun and look all innocent that you used all the choice you were given. Always brings out comments like, I only lost as I'd rather eat them. Get the children to sneakily cheat a little to make it fun. Snowball fight with white balloons is a good one

Myself and DW are playing Operation but to make it more difficult we're distracting the other by insulting our MILs

Sorry just read no children but adults cheating and behaving like children is even funnier!!!
If it was just me and partner before others arrived at this late stage I would start a tradition of hiding little messages around the house and then racing for them, e.g. 'oh no, I think I left something in xxxxxx, race me for it' , at this point give a cheeky wink and race each other. I would put 'chariots of fire' or 'rocky' theme on and just yell gooooooo
We enjoy being silly/daft tho

MsAwesomeDragon I have tried salted rice and pea crisp type snacks recently, if it's those then they are nice. Little bit odd because there is a pea flavour, but it works

Yeah the pea crisp things are okay, but the best potato-crisp substitute are the ones made from beans (beanitos are the ones I've tried, not sure if available in the uk)