To ask what Christmas traditions you HAVEN’T carried on from childhood?

[LlamaParma]

I don’t cook from scratch. I buy everything M&S ready made in foil tins and whack it in the oven on the day.

Simply because I have HORRIBLE memories of Christmas as a child and my mum absolutely stressing to high heaven in the kitchen from about 7am until 3pm, banging pots and at some point having a tantrum because “NOBODY IS HELPING”. Me and my siblings and stepdad would be and when offered to help would get told “No it’s FINE I’m FINE”. All because we’d usually have guests and she was adamant everyone would have a lovely ‘everything homemade’ meal every year. And TBF it tasted amazing and whilst we take the piss out of her now about it (when we all buggered off to Uni she had a Christmas Day Amnesty and declared it’s pizza and chips if we spend it at hers - good for her!) at the time I always wish she’d have chilled out and spent time with us, watched films, help us set up toys etc. Nobody needed homemade horseradish sauce and chicken liver pâté. The atmosphere would be awful, it was a running joke that the kitchen was a no-go area on Christmas Day, but as a result I don’t stress at all about food with my own family. If it’s crap then tough luck, there’s always Pudding to fall back on

What Christmas traditions or things have you not passed on to your kids from your childhood?

Llama sounds like my mum! I swiftly ditched the tradition of not opening presents until after lunch. My children were allowed to open them in the morning.

Mass

Going to church.

Mass, Santa Claus as literally real, joyless stressing over dinner.

Not being a fucking misery guts about it, thanks Mum (she's still the same at 90).

Going to church and not opening any presents until we were back.

Soon stopped that one!

Having the world and his dog over for Christmas dinner. Dinner for 23 at short notice? No thanks.

We don't have children, so not many traditions have persisted. However, I cook far more of Christmas dinner from scratch than my parents ever did.

Beating the shit out of each other and someone being arrested

Mass drunkenness before the above ^^

I can remember having to be up, washed and dressed, and having to have breakfast before opening presents, and having to dress "nicely" for the forced family photos.

Fucked that off, we get straight on the presents, and stay in PJs all day.

Church. Was raised Catholic but have been a staunch Atheist since my early teens so Mass on Christmas morning does not feature in our house.

Stressing over Christmas dinner like my mum did - nope. I'm a better cook than she was but also not adverse to the old M&S foil trays.

The queen's speech - not interested.

The family screaming row

I have not carried on the tradition of putting up the tree on Christmas Eve. I like to have the tree up a couple of weeks before Christmas. Also we never had lights on the tree when I was a child, and I absolutely love lights now.

Another tradition my family had was to write gift tags with a clue about the present. Nothing too obvious, just a hint to the recipient about what they were about to unwrap. It's actually a nice tradition and I always enjoyed it, but I was happy to dispense with it in my own family. I could never think of clever clues and would agonise over the whole thing far too much.

I also do the M&S pre-prepped dinner! My mum always made an amazing homemade Xmas dinner but there was no stress, it just "appeared" as if from heaven. I have no idea how the fuck she did it. My memory of Christmas is my parents in such a lovely mood, playing with toys, watching films etc and I want to re-create that for my kids. I get stressed making beans on toast so if I made dinner I would be a fucking nightmare. So I don't. Fuck it!

I'm glad to hear I'm doing the right thing!!

As kids we had all our presents in a big sack at the end of the bed. We put stockings in our kids rooms but not the big presents - we did those together after breakfast. a) I wanted the pleasure of seeing the kids open their presents and b) I still remember the year when I got a pogo stick, opened it at 4am, and pogoed around the landing with my brother - not going to happen in my house

I've moved my main meal to Christmas Eve, as I like that day better.

Oh, and boiling the sprouts for 3 days...

The abuse, the massive arguments, the fear.

Cooking the turkey over night! It was so dry it was like dehydrated cotton wool.

@LockdownCheeseToastie

The abuse, the massive arguments, the fear.

Yep. Calm fearless Christmases for me now too. for you

Having to wait till after breakfast to open presents. Remember the frustration of being forced to eat a fry up and being banned from the lounge.

We do cook from frozen pastries and fruit here so we can tuck in when we like and open as we go.

Also... Parent and step parent buggering off to the pub at midday and leaving me aged 11 at home by myself and having to deal with them drunk and rowing at Christmas Dinner. 😒😒
Definitely didn't carry that one on.

Getting wasted and passing out on the sofa before dinner is even cooked

@LockdownCheeseToastie

The abuse, the massive arguments, the fear.

Same here.

No drinking here either.
I used to hate Christmas when I was a child

i The abuse, the massive arguments, the fear.

Same here. Not part of my Christmas any more for all kinds of reasons.

We don't have kids yet so I'm not sure what we will/won't do when that time comes.

However, things I currently do differently:

• I don't go to mass.
• I don't cook from scratch. Christmas day is for relaxing.
• Don't go around visting lots of people.