I'm loving the Christmas traditions! Mum keeps on telling us that now we have a family (3.5 year old and number 2 due late Nov) we need to start our own traditions but PIL don't want us to. Sigh.
My family gathers at my aunts- some arrive Christmas eve, and others trickle to hers throughout Christmas morning. You're then given a peeler, or an orange and bag of cloves, or napkins and that's your job! Breakfast is nibbles and 'testing' the turkey! Around 2pm we all sit down to eat a proper Christmas dinner, with fish for the veggies. My aunts IL's are Indian (we're Guyanese so of Indian descent) so they bring homemade pakoras or samosas. Dinner is a lively affair as there is in excess of 20 of us, from my LO to my grandad who is 87.
Then we'll open pressies (kids and grandparents only though- otherwise we'd all be broke!). Other relatives turn up (my aunt usually has a foreign student from her church with her) and we do Secret Santa. £10 limit, some take it serious and put thought into it, others are just comical. If I've already had my gift from an aunt or my brother or mum or husband or female cousin then it's fine and hilarious. But if I haven't and all that's left are my uncles and cousins then it's very nerve wracking!
Christmas at IL's is a different matter. MIL usually gives us loads of little bits from Boots where she used to work but she's now retired so that will change. She also gets LO loads of stuff. LOADS. Some of it is good quality stuff, but other bits are cheap tat. I'd rather she didn't buy this stuff as it just causes clutter (she likes to see him play with the stuff she gets him when they visit) and it breaks easily. They have a budget for each grandchild and like to get the same stuff so it's like they are getting stuff for the sake of it. Anyway, so we open the pressies which is long and drawn out then she'll go and make dinner whilst the kids play. We eat dinner (traditional) then we'll all gather round the digital photo frame to watch a billion pictures. Yawn. Then the kids go to bed (that's how long the photo watching is) and we are forced to watch Corrie/Emerdale/Strictly Come Dancing blah blah.
This year we'll be having a quiet Christmas eve (as quiet as the newborn and 3.5 year old will allow), then Christmas day we'll go to my family! Yay! As it's the other side of London it's usually a pain to get to but Christmas day driving is heaven! We've booked a Travelodge there for the night for £20 so we can both drink and 'relax'. Then we're having Boxing day with the Outlaws at our house. If the TV comes on, it's to have the footie on in the background, and there will be no photo albums in sight!