Christmas traditions that you do and don't do

[Honkwiching]

Obviously I'm unreasonable for saying the C word so early, but idc - anyone who doesn't want to chat Christmas can leave a snarky comment below for Krampus to enjoy and then hide the thread.

For everyone else, what are Christmas traditions that you enjoy, and are there any popular ones you don't do?

For us, we have some things which are non-negotiable. On the second weekend in December we go and choose our tree, then we decorate it while listening to Christmas music before watching a festive film with sherry and mince pies.

We have a fancy-but-easy Christmas Eve meal (because it's usually the only time it's just our immediate family at home). I make it in advance, usually a pie or similar, so it just needs defrosted and chucked in the oven on the day. We use the posh crockery set I inherited from my great uncle, and the whole room is candlelit.

We give the children a Christmas decoration each on Christmas Eve, usually related to a particular interest for the year. This year my son is getting a ballet slipper and my daughter is getting a rabbit.

We also do a full Christmas meal foodbank shop a couple of weeks before Christmas. I let my kids choose what fun treats to include (along with the necessities / what the foodbank has requested, which I check in advance).

In terms of things we don't do, we're die-hard Elf on the Shelf avoiders. I have ADHD and a million pets so I don't have the time or inclination to create an amusing daily scene for that creepy guy.

We also don't do Christmas Eve boxes or expensive advent calendars. I think my kids enjoy the chocolate calendars as much as anything, and they get enough presents as it is without the Christmas Eve box.

(I've seen people get and give a lot of joy from these things so absolutely no shade, they just aren't things we prioritise).

I want to hear yours!

DC grown now but new Christmas PJ's and all sitting together to watch a Christmas film on Christmas Eve then reading The Night Before Christmas springs to mind. Decorations & Tree up the first Sunday in December. Christingle service.

I love a Christingle service! We don't go every year but it always gets me in the mood when we do. I used to like midnight mass before I had small children.

We don’t do Elf on the Shelf or Christmas Eve boxes, or even matching PJs. I personally feel it’s all pointless, plus not something we did as a family when I was a kid.

Your list of what you do though OP sounds nice bar the sherry 🤮!!!

All our traditions revolve around food and socialising pretty much. We have a family and friends cocktail party the Saturday before Christmas every year and a meal with friends every Christmas Eve at 2pm. These are lovely and also give me a deadline for completing any prep which means I avoid rushing. I can’t enjoy a party if I am thinking about having to finish wrapping or shopping. If I didn’t put out Buck’s Fizz with the traditional Christmas Day buffet breakfast there would be a mutiny.

No elves or Christmas Eve boxes either, never done the matching PJ thing, never had a set day for decorating (depends when everyone is home), no set in stone activities!

Tree up 1st Dec - hell yes
Advent calendars - yes
Basically non-stop crimbo movies all Dec - yes
Christmas carol service at the Cathedral closer to the day - yes
Nativity at the local church on Christmas eve - yes
1 big shared lego pressie on Christmas eve that we all build together (while watching Christmas movies for 1000th time) - yes
Bucks Fizz & bacon sarnies Christmas morning - yes

Pjs, elf on the shelf, Christmas eve boxes - no

We do not do elf on shelf
We do not do Christmas eve boxes.
We do not do matching pj's but the kids always got new pj's,
Showers/baths and fresh bedding for santy coming, xmas film before bed (usually elf)

We DO
Always put certain Christmas Dec's out first. We normally buy a new tree ornament each yr ( we are not designer tree people).
We always go out for Christmas eve lunch with our family and DHs Parents and sibling and their family.
Christmas stocking with daft stuff in , £1, and an orange but not left in bedroom, all downstairs.
We do Christmas presents and then DHs birthday presents.
We will feed who ever comes for lunch, sometimes just us, noone is under ANY obligation to eat/clear stuff and kids can have nuggets .
We always buy DH a birthday cake which for the last 3 yrs we have forgotten about til boxing day or later!
We have our Ds and family over sometime between xmas and new year when we do hot beef sandwiches , roasties etc.

We do not fuss, we are chilled and it goes how it goes!

We are a family of adults.

Things we do:

Advent calendars
Christmas tree
Stockings
Turkey dinner & Christmas pudding
Crackers
Holly round the house
Christmas cake
Party games
Boxing day walk

Things we don’t do:

Gifts on Christmas eve
Christmas day breakfast
Boxing day sales
TV specials
Queen’s speech
Pub
Church

Love the idea of a family Lego set for Christmas Eve!

Always new pjs for Christmas Eve, it was a tradition from my childhood that I’ve carried on.
We always read twas the night before Christmas, I’ve got a beautifully illustrated copy that I’ve had since dd was 1 (she’s now 19).

We have a beautiful wooden Laura Ashley advent house that I fill the draws with sweets and chocolate.

If anyone we are close to has passed away we choose a decoration that reminds us of them in their memory. We also try to choose one from our holiday if we travel near Christmas.

I dont do christmas at all not done for years.
Its freedom.

Since having our family every Christmas Eve we go to the local Cathedral for the Crib service. We aren't religious but all the kids get dressed up (sometimes there are iron men or spiderman) as well as traditional characters. Its only an hour but its a lovely setting to start Christmas.

Things we do:

We put the tree up together as a family first weekend in December while listening to Christmas music, then we watch Home Alone with a mince pie and a hot chocolate for the kids, glass of Baileys for DH and I.

Advent calendars

Stockings

Turkey dinner with all the trimmings

Big party with extended family boxing day evening

Elf on the Shelf- I know MN hates it but my DC love it and I quite enjoy doing it.

A couple of nights before Christmas we go for a drive around the surrounding villages to look at the Christmas lights (some people really go all out round here!) with a hot chocolate from the Costa drive thru. Started during covid when there when everything was closed so there wasnt much to do and the kids loved it so much we've done it every year since.

Christmas eve boxes containing new PJ's, a new book and a Christmas tree ornament for each child. I had the same on Christmas eve growing up but was wrapped rather than in a box.

Put mince pie out for santa and carrot for Rudolf even though the kids know its pretend they still like to do it!

Things we don't do:

Church

Queens speech

Boxing Day sales

Love this thread!
We do:
Big advents, I save all year for the Liberty’s one for me, kids and DH get much less expensive! 😜
Have friends round mid December usually around my DHs birthday for a night of chilli and cheer.
Go to the light switch on and drink mulled wine.
If the tepees are here, usually have an evening there, having drinks and nibble like pigs in blankets and roast potatoes.
Christmas Eve we go to Christingle at church and then out for a meal for tea.
My DH watches Die Hard by himself with a red wine!
Christmas Day, stockings are opened by all in our bed, then downstairs for a cuppa and open the rest of the presents.
Around noon we have fizz and canapés and then the main a couple of hours later.

We don’t:
Have matching pjs.
Do a Santa breakfast.
Have Christmas Eve boxes.
Usually have dessert on Christmas Day.

Love the decoration idea!

We give my son his own little Christmas tree for his room, with a box of decorations that are just ‘his’ (mostly gaudy shiny bulbous things that he absolutely loves) and he gets to do his little tree however he wants it. He loves doing it and is always so proud.

I also do
chocolate advent calendar
switch on Christmas lights in a couple of nearby towns
light trail then out to a pizza restaurant after
church carols
christingle (not religious, but these are just lovely festive things to me from childhood
pantomime (this will be the first year I think he’s old enough)

don’t do
Christmas Eve box
elf on the shelf
crackers

We do a drive around with cheesy Christmas music on, mince pies and a flask of hot chocolate to look at the lights.
We have paper advent calendars, always put the tree up as early as possible - when I was a child we weren’t allowed the tree up until really late so my sister and I both put our trees up very early. We watch the snowman on Christmas Eve. The thing is - this is all stuff we did do. They are adults now and this Christmas it will just be me and DH and I am dreading it.

We used to
Put the tree up the week before Christmas.
Have special Christmas eve meal..something like Beef Daube or Lamb Tagine
Have stockings
I would doctor all the Christmas crackers with extra little gifts
The dds partners and grandchildren come to exchange gifts in the morning.
Me and DH would have a quite lunch with all the gear.
In the late afternoon we would lay on the bed relaxing..watching a film and eating grown up chocs.
This year will be different..dh died in April.so it will all be very different.
My eldest dad is taking me out for Christmas lunch and I will stay at her house on Christmas night.
Other than that I can't really get my head around.

@pestowithwalnuts

So sorry for your loss, will be difficult for you but I hope you have a lovely day at your daughters ❤️

Do : Eat too much, drink too much, visit immediate family on Xmas day to exchange gifts, go to a big sporting event on Boxing Day, work on Christmas Eve and between Christmas & New year.

Don’t : Host, go to parties, put up lights, decorations or a tree, send cards, do anything religious, cook a turkey, give gifts to anyone other than immediate family, go to Boxing Day sales, take time off work other than BH’s. Basically we do the absolute minimum we can get away with, but I understand that this is easier when you don’t have young children.

Decs up 1 Dec at home and at work, staff Xmas party middle of December, no elf, Xmas eve cocktails ( we have a lot of guests ) and food, when everyone has gone to bed dh and I have a chilled hour to ourselves. Beach walk on Boxing Day. Xmas dinner is at 5pm allows dh to go to work for a while ( pub ) to see all regular customers and have a drink with them, I pop in for half hour then back to kitchen. No pj for us and the children that do visit will have new ones off their parents.

We visit a Christmas tree farm that has a herd of reindeer you can feed lichen for a few pounds. Always new pj's, but not matching or even christmassy themed.

We don't do elf on the shelf or xmas eve boxes.

We do most things, come to think of it.

Not the queen's/king's speech, because I'm Irish, so not my thing. I probably won't take the kids to see Santa this year as they're getting old and the past few times have been disappointing.

But most other things, including the elf, which everyone loves in my house.

There’s some really lovely personal traditions here!

We do the elf and Christmas Eve box.
We do a family gift of a game or such every year. Last year we got a pool table.
We do a huge dinner some cooked inside some on the smoker.
Christmas Eve is always a take away watching a Christmas movie.
We have advent calendars normally chocolate.
There is always Lego it’s not Christmas is there is not a Lego to build.
The animals get Christmas dinner and Christmas toys.

We decorate for the whole of December so it’s never actually finished till Christmas Eve. As the children have their own trees for their rooms as well as the two downstairs.

We don’t do the kings speech, we don’t go to church.

I hate everything to do with Christmas. I would cancel the whole bloody thing and just have the 24th, 25th and 26th December. However I make an effort for DS. We have a tree, cook a roast meal and open some presents.

I do early Xmas/bonus Xmas 1st weekend of December I have all of my DC and dgc over for a full Xmas dinner. We exchange gifts and DGC and DC have stockings to open. On the Friday evening I go ice skating with DGC and on th Saturday morning to paint a pot where we paint a Xmas bauble. It gets fired in a kiln and I collect 2 weeks later. No Xmas Eve boxes or Elves.