What Christmas traditions do you have in your family?

[GingerAndLemonn]

It’s just dawned on us (husband and I) that we’ve never ever spent a Christmas just us as a family. We’ve always gone to various family members homes or had people here. We’ve decided this year we just want it to be us and the kids.

Im just scouting for some ideas of what other families get up to over Christmas? We’d love some traditions that we can do each year and that our kids might then do with their kids.

Ask in the Christmas topic?

Christmas morning kids always bring their stockings into our room to open

Large buffet breakfast

We put fake snow and 'evidence' of Santa and his reindeer out the night before downstairs and in each of their rooms too

If we are hosting dinner DH takes the kids out while I start cooking

We alternate so every other year we host, the other we go to my mums

I really didn't enjoy our small just us family Christmases over the past few years so am keen to never repeat that any time soon!

For me Christmas is all about wider family.

Yeah this is what I’m worried about! It’s going to feel boring just the 4 of us. However I’m going no contact with half of my family so that kind of rules that out and my husbands family are quite dull.

@GingerAndLemonn

Depends what you enjoy

My DH is an introvert and liked the just the 4 of us Christmases

I'm used to 25+ people family affairs every year so it was boring as heck

By about 17:00 I was done with the day - didn't feel special

Dressing up as Elves and picking a xmas tree from a field that sells them.

Making wreaths, xmas decorations, baking things to go on the tree.

Oh and on xmas eve when they are all asleep we turn the living room into a santa grotto by laying down that white fluffy sheet that's like cotton wool hopefully you know what I mean and then we sprinkle fake snow - always fun clearing it up after 😂

DS2 arrived a few days before Christmas 8yr ago and we’ve had every Christmas at home, just the 4 of us ever since. My family are too far away, and DHs tend to be overwhelming, so a few of them pop in on the day to exchange presents which is nice because they stagger visits.

we let the DC stay in pjs all day if they want, have a massive buffet breakfast of croissants, Danish pastries, cinnamon buns, etc on the kitchen table for us and the visitors to graze at all day until we have Christmas dinner late afternoon. That works best for us, as by then the DC have actually calmed down enough to sit and eat!

we spend the time between visitors playing games, watching Christmas movies, building whatever they’ve been given that needs put together. Works well for us as DS2 is autistic, and cant cope with big gatherings and social pressure.
means we can spend the day the way we
want, and he doesn’t get overwhelmed. Christmas dinner is from M&S, so minimal cooking too!

Stockings filled with small “comedy” gifts left at the foot of the kids beds. As they go to bed later than me now I have to set my alarm for 2am to get up and do it.
Then when they wake up they come and sit on our bed to look at them. Then downstairs to open the stuff under the tree.
They are teens now but I will do it every year they are here

I love Christmas with just the four of us. We do stockings, church, brunch, opening presents, a walk, and then supper with maybe a family film night afterwards.

But there are lots of other things that we do every year around Christmas, too - like making gingerbread houses and decorating the tree, and making the Christmas cake and making a wreath for the front door, and going to see The Nutcracker at the Royal Opera House, and going ice-skating at Somerset House.

One from my childhood: Santa hides a biggish present somewhere in the house to be found at the end of the day after all the tidying up and washing up has been done. Means the day ends on a high.

One from DP and myself: the day starts with eggnog.

We open our presents as soon as we are up. Then have a nice brunch - French toast and bacon for example. Then tidy up a bit chill out and I start the dinner - we eat about 4pm. We have stockings for the pets - seems silly to have them now for my teens (and I never had them as a kid, but I like the look on the mantle so we have them for our four pets).
After dinner we play games - poker, card games, a board game, whatever. Then a film.
I'm a widow so it's usually just me and my kids. Every other year (other than last few covid years) we go abroad to visit my siblings and there's usually about 8 or more of us. Have to say it feels a bit more festive with more people.

Am in Denmark so we've combined the two cultures and added some of our own.

Little Christmas Eve - hot dogs and home alone. (Us) Last year it snowed so we went sledging and then had an indoor camp out (tent up in the lounge)

Christmas Eve - Christmas dinner in the evening (Danish) but we eat turkey (British) followed by cold rice pudding and hot cherry sauce (Danish). Then the elf leaves a hamper under the tree with pjs, with a game or selfie sticks or something silly(us). We dance (run) round the tree and house (Danish)

Christmas day - presents in the morning (British )and turkey sandwiches for lunch.

Oh and stockings go up Xmas Eve like in the UK.

We host everyone for "Christmas dinner" on 24th and have Christmas day at home. People tend to pop in and out but we don't have to cook for them. We used to do the Christingle service at 4pm in Xmas eve too but it's changed recently and we've not been able to make it since before covid!

Love love love the small "just us" at home Christmases. Christmas Eve is my family, boxing day is his family, Christmas Day is just for us.

Stockings in bed with bucks fizz.

Then pancakes for breakfast with more bucks fizz.

Presents!

Choice between coming for a dog walk or cleaning up the wrapping paper.

Nibbles and playing with new presents while dinner gets started. We get a Christmas box from Donald Russell every year now so most of it just gets bunged in the oven, no real prep required. Nice and easy.

Pre-dinner dog walk.

Dinner! Best bit of the day!

Slightly tipsy party games. Silly stuff like charades.

Christmas Quiz, a tradition my mum started that I've continued because it's always hilarious.

Last dog walk to work off a bit of turkey.

Christmas movie and then bed (if we don't fall asleep on the sofa!)

Me and DH always exchange our presents to each other at midnight Xmas eve. We also have champagne and smoked salmon bagels for breakfast before all the family arrive and my dad who says he doesn’t like champagne always arrives a little early so he gets a glass. We also replace the angel with baby yoda (no one has yet noticed!).

We make eggnog every Christmas Eve. We get excited buying all the stuff to make it and spent a few hours making and drinking it Xmas Eve

Oh, when we still lived in London, we used to go to Borough Market as it opened on Christmas Eve, and buy the vegetables we needed, as well as delicious cheese and sausage. And we'd have breakfast there.

This sounds really fun!

We love the just us Christmases. I have a big family- who we see on Boxing Day (usually my house!). Both our parents are gone now, but we love getting together on Boxing Day for a buffet, silly games and general madness (there are a lot of kids as I have 4 brothers and sisters.)

Christmas Eve the Elves leave new PJs for the 3DC in the porch. Much excitement. We always watch 'It's a Wonderful Life' once kids are in bed/ with teens. After stockings we open presently immediately- everyone has to be downstairs together. Youngest is still a believer so it's exciting.

Scrambled eggs and smoked salmon with bagels for breakfast around 11am (DH cooks) and exDH joins us. He takes 2 teens to their grandma's for dinner (she's on her own) and I lie in my PJs napping on and off and watching TV whilst Youngest plays with presents and DH cooks dinner.

Bliss

It’s AUGUST. For that alone YABU

We always go to a local stately home that has sleigh rides, the house all dressed up for Christmas, a postbox to post letters to Santa (he replies!) and the gardens all lit up.
We also go to a Glow light show either at Kew or Wisley RHS.
We go to a local farm to choose a Christmas tree
We walk by a local lake where white doves nest and feed them by hand. There's also a little stall there selling mistletoe so we buy it from them.

The DC always hang up stockings by the fire in the living room and then on Christmas morning unwrap them.
We go to a carols by candlelight service (used to do Christingle or Nativity service when DC were younger)
We always have a family outing. When DC were little it was to a local steam railway where santa stopped off or to a local petting farm that has reindeer. Or the panto. Now they are grown up we still do, but we go to a comedy in the West End and out for cocktails somewhere fun.
I always make a wreath for the door, bake Christmas puddings and cakes, mince pies and a yule log.

Not too talk about it till October

YABU!!

That we can't be bothered to do Christmas....