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!

Don't really have any set traditions. I don't like the idea of getting into something that I feel then has to happen every year.

I go to Midnight Mass on my own. Always just been me as DH doesn't believe and DC are still too young. I get to swan out of the house about 10 on Christmas Eve and leave him and any other family around to do all the stocking stuff.

Do:

Christmas eve boxes including pjs (just for the kids)
Stocking
Advent calenders (just cheap chocolate ones)

Don't

Elf on the shelf
Queens/kings speech

Amazing! Thanks.

Adults and older kids.

We do:

• pantomime early December
• decorating the tree and house together
• an RHS garden with Christmas illuminations
• advent calendars - not very expensive ones, usually just an ordinary chocolate one each.
• An evening walk on Christmas eve to look at the Christmas lights on people's houses.
• Christmas stockings
• reading the night before Christmas on Christmas Eve
• full Christmas lunch with all the trimmings.
• After that a lot of eating, drinking, tv and generally enjoying ourselves.

This year I'm also going to set up a Christmas jigsaw in the lounge for people to do over December. It was planned for last year but flu caused a bit of a disruption to things and it never got set up.

We don't do:

• Elves
• Pyjamas
• Christmas Eve boxes
• Ridiculously expensive advent calendars
• Church (although I might try and go to carol singing this year)

Do:
My kids are starting to get a bit old for visiting Santa now so we do a trip somewhere instead.
I read the same story to my kids every Christmas Eve. My mum read it to me every Christmas Eve since I was 3.
Elf on the Shelf - I resisted for years, but then I did it one year and I loved it! Wish I’d started it sooner.
Tree and decorations up in November. I used to do them in December but one year I did them early and it was a game changer. We’re so busy in December so freeing up a weekend was fantastic.
Have a walk round the village to look at the lights.
New Year’s Day gifts. Everyone gets one gift on NYD. We call it the ‘last gift of Christmas’.

Don't:
Open all gifts on Christmas Day. The kids open Santa gifts and gifts from the family they see on Christmas Day. The others get spread out over the next few days.
Carol service/midnight mass etc. We’re not religious.
Christmas Eve box. The kids are allowed to open one present on a Christmas Eve though.
Christmas markets.
Christmas pudding or mince pies 🤢
King’s Speech.

Don’t do Elf on the shelf or Christmas Eve boxes.
I usually have a shopping day out with lunch with DM the last Saturday in November and then me DS, DH and DM watch home alone with nice snacks one Saturday afternoon.
I also bake lots of various Christmas treats
Christmas Eve is Children’s 2pm church service, 4pm Christingle, 8pm service and midnight mass ( but I’m training to be a priest!) DS like to have pizza and ice cream for evening meal.
Christmas day is the 8am and 10am service then I flop and DH cooks

Are you even aware that there is a Christmas topic?

That the whole of Mumsnet is not AIBU?

Never heard of this. It sounds lovely.

I play the organ at my church for the Crib and Christingle service: it's always fun choosing something to play at the end. This year, I might play the song "thankful heart" from The Muppets Christmas Carol.

We have the wooden Advent calendars where small gifts can be hidden inside. Sometimes it's a slip of paper with a nice thing for the day.

Walking to spot Christmas lights is great in the evenings.

And an utterly silly tradition between my DH and myself: he teases me by wrapping my presents with me there in the room, keeping him company. I can listen to him at work, chat to him, hum to the Christmas songs, try to persuade him to tell me what he is going to give me, and have a little pout while he gloats that he can see what the presents are, and I can't, because I'm blindfolded. Actually, I love this ritual - almost as much as opening the presents.

Adult only household.
Do: Go out for dinner on Xmas eve (booked it in May!)
Tree up last week in November
Presents
Mini holiday between Christmas and New Year
Probably too much alcohol
A household job while waiting for turkey to cook (last year was lawn mowing- and was the funniest thing I have ever done)
Name the turkey after someone in the news- last year we ate Nigel. Suspect this year we may eat Donald.The reason is that if we name it, we tend not to waste it.
Tree down before we go back to work

Dont: we are adults
Advent calendars
Stockings
Elf
Pudding
Sobriety

This all sounds lovely!!!

Fellow elf avoider here too 😅😅

You are not unreasonable to start talking about Christmas but you should have posted on the Christmas board - there are active year round threads there.

Never did (and mostly they weren’t done then):
Xmas Eve or Dec 1 boxes
Elf on the Shelf
Stockings (we did til they were about 10 years old, but I never had them when I was younger)
Watch Queen’s/king’s speech

Did on occasion :
Panto
visit to Santa
Until two years ago presents didn’t go under the tree until Christmas Eve

Always:
Tree bought and decorated first weekend in December
Advent calendar (never chocolate)
Christmas movie every night in December
Takeaway Xmas Eve
Open presents before breakfast by the tree
Christmas dinner about 4pm
Roast dinner on Boxing Day

Just DD and I so we play by ear now she is a bit older - used to go all out for the weeks beforehand but she'd rather stay in her room than go to town for the lights being switched on, visit Santa's grotto, do the Christmas Market.

Main things are, real tree (much smaller now) decorated, stairs and living room decorated, gifts under tree, open fire and marshmallow toasting at some/several points, stocking opening in bed, presents spread throughout day but all open by 3pm, lunch of a roast of whatever meat we like with all the trimmings, Boxing Day walk and a lot of chocolates to be eaten. Relaxed is the way we do things now - I don't even invite family over any more. We see them in the weeks around but those 2 days are for us to relax and shut everyone else out!

@Honkwiching Do you know that there’s a Christmas board? It’s very active this time of year and you’ll find loads of us happy to chat all things Christmas if you want to pop over.

It’s worth bearing in mind that Christmas can be a very hard time of year for all sorts of different reasons and it’s kind to keep it off the main discussion groups so those who don’t want to see these threads can hide them.

We get our tree up last weekend in November
I listen to Magic 100% Christmas allllll December. DH loses his mind.
We do matching Christmas pjs, but I bought some a few years ago and future proofed by buying a few kids sizes, so we have the same ones for a few years. I think we'll need new ones next year but they do get a good amount of use before we replace (also I wear mine all year round just because I like them).
This will be the first year we take the kids (3 & 1) to see Father Christmas.
I really like the idea of getting each child their own bauble each year. We have got baubles for years when something big happened - when we got married, when we had DS1 and then DS2 etc. And we have some from our travels. Would be nice to build the collection out more now.
We watch the Christmas Tractor Parade that goes through our town, one of my absolute favourite things about Christmas.
DH is a Christmas Day baby, so I usually bake him a cake on Christmas Eve, last year DS1 helped for the first time so I hope that will continue as a tradition!

I grew up in a religious household and even though my family now aren't religious, I can't shake off the feeling that Christmas without church is weird for me, so I like to attend a carol service or something if I can.

A jigsaw that gets done bit by bit by everyone who pops over. It's a good excuse to leave the chat / chaos for a moment and we all need that over Christmas

Stop worrying about "Christmas" at the point on Christmas Eve when "Carols From Kings" starts - sit down open a decent bottle of red and nibbles - then relax.
Ecclefechan Tarts not mince pies.
Bucks Fizz and croissants with Parma Ham and cheese on Christmas morning.
Something "posh" for Christmas dinner - beef Wellington, venison, etc. absolutely never turkey.

Surely this year it has to be a swan named Nigel ? 😀

Mince pie and sherry left out Xmas Eve for Santa. I take a bite out.
Stockings hanging up all December.
Tree up 1st weekend december with Xmas carols playing all family involved. But I do most of work.
New decoration every year... special meaning
Pantomime or light festival at 5.00pm Xmas Eve followed by meal out or latterly Thai takeaway.
Bucks Fizz and smoked salmon and scrambled egg breakfast Xmas morning. Opening pressies in PJs.
Friends round for Xmas dinner mid December because my house is very Christmassy.
Listen to King's Speech live.
Play same silly annual games every year in afternoon.
Xmas day with all adult kids is alternatively either at mine or sister's house... for now.
Xmas dinner at 2.00pm with heaving plates.
Love it all.
Can't wait.

Christmas Eve buffet and a couple of drinks.
Watch Christmas films throughout December.
Christmas morning ride out on the horses to watch the sunrise.

No pjs, no elf, no Christmas Eve box.

Turkey dinner.

We both have small families and DH is no contact with his.

Tree up mid December but it’s not a “thing” with music and drinks.

F&M fancy advent calendar (it’s a refillable one).

Takeaway on Christmas Eve.

We don't do Christmas eve boxes but we do get new pyjamas each for every Christmas eve, so we can wake up in new pj's Christmas morning. Mince pies and wine for santa in our house too.

I've refused the elf.

In December 1992 as we had finishing decorating our Christmas Tree and my Dad placed the 1970's flocked Angel atop and stepped back for us all to admire, its head fell off and rolled behind the couch. No Christmas Tree Angel for us that year! Until next morning when we discovered that Dad had found a head-on to camera photo of John Smith the late Labour Party Leader and mounted it on cardboard, attached a toilet roll middle and stuck that on the tree place of the flocked Angel. And so an instant tradition was born.

John Smith was not picked because we was like or admired by my Dad, just that it was the best photo in that mornings Independent. The year after we had Hull City Football Club. The traditional carried on. The Spice Girls when the met Margaret Thatcher. Frank Bruno. Hugh Grant. The bust from the Queen Vic. The man who invented Tesco. It still depends on the photographer from the Independent. Dad can't be bothered with Christmas any more so the tradition has moved to my house. It just needs a good 5 inch or so photo of something interesting, and they get to be Christmas Tree Angel that year. Sometimes if I'm feeling particularly enthusiastic there will be added glitter or a string of tinsel round the edges of the cardboard. Its a random tradition admittedly, but one I love because each year we never know what it'll be until we open that mornings paper.

Oh....just remembered another tradition. The tree only goes up when I've seen the Trio of Christmas Ads. M&S, John Lewis and the Coca Cola Truck one. In recent years I've added Aldi to the list, and any 3 out of the 4 will suffice. Coca Cola Truck tends to be the last one, the split second that's on I'm up the attic ladders. Even if it does mean missing the second half of I'm a Celeb.

We have a few German traditions alongside UK ones.

We always put out our boots for St Nikolaus on 5th December. Everyone in the household gets a little something in their boots - fruit, nuts, chocolate and a little extra surprise- whereas the stockings on Christmas Eve are just for kids.

We have a special meal on Christmas Eve, and go to either a Carol service or midnight mass, depending on who we are hosting/where we are staying.
We all open one present when we get back.

We always have a real tree and put it up on the first day of the school holidays, and it stays up until Epiphany.

The cat and dog always buy and wrap (terribly) presents for everyone -this is a favourite tradition.

We’ve never done elf on the shelf, Christmas Eve boxes or 1st December celebrations - and some of the things we used to do, like pantomime and a visit to FC have fallen by the wayside, so it’s the favourites that still remain.

Mine have all grown up now (youngest 17) but i’m with you OP in never done elf on the shelf, a christmas eve box, or expensive advent calendars. The Christmas eve box I find mad, when the kids have a sack full of gifts the next day. All the expensive excursions too, breakfast with santa, meet the reindeers etc. As if Christmas isn’t
expensive enough already without the pressure to do this kind of stuff with your kids.