so its only....

[RabidCarrot]

364 days till Christmas

I love Christmas traditions! I have stolen all of mine from mumsnet. They include elf on the shelf, Christmas Eve hamper, Christmas activity for every day in December and the candles in jam jars landing strip on drive for Santa - I think that may be one of yours 70!!

I have now ordered a Christmas mickey and Minnie fleece blanket for dcs which the elf will deliver on 1st December. I am also bidding on a copy of Arthur Christmas which is very cheap.

Well we are into 100s - I need to get organised !

I absolutely love Christmas traditions too. Not got a special Xmas blanket yet. Currently having a frugal minimalist year, aargh, it messes with my Christmas accumulation of traditions!

Ah Lentil Christmas Traditions can be as extravegant or as minimalist as you like.
We've 'shed' alot of ours (going to feed the reindeer, DC putting on Fancy Dress on Christmas Eve, Sleeping Elf in the Playhouse ) as they got older.

Each year we added a new one.
Last year we went to the cinema because DH was working. And it was really nice, I might do that again.

We don't go to the Panto (Ballet for DD and I instead)
London trip for the DC to see the lights and shops (Winter Wonderland a few times but it's way too busy now, spent half the time stuck in queues or crowds)

I fancy a trip to EuroDisney (I'd LOVE to go to Lapland UK but DC are too old. Lapland (proper) isn't an option - too £££)

We still have dinner eaten before Dr Who on Christmas Day. That's a permenant tradition

All of our traditions are from MN too! It is so much fun trying stuff out and seeing what sticks. MN has made my Xmases so much better.

We all love Arthur Christmas - hope you win it buzz! :)

We did a cinema trip last year too - it was actually DD's first ever trip, at the ripe old age of 5.6 - we saw Rise of the Guardians with my teenage DSDs, and then went to Pizza Hut and just ate and chatted for ages. DS is old enough to go too this year so he and DH could join us, although I did rather like it just being a girly trip actually :o

I've put a bid on a large key (to make a Santa Key)

I'll check back later, bid ends today.

Yay - I won Arthur Christmas! Now please someone remind before December that I bought it

I got outbid on the key.

BUM.
But they are still over 160 days until December.

Buzz where are you going to hide Arthur Christmas. So we can remind you.
You'll need to watch it first though,( make sure it's okay.)

Did you snipe? Were you eating kittens (other Ebay thread on Chat)

Nearer the time we'll do a What's Your Christmas Traditions Thread. And loads of people will post "Films with the DC". And you'll remember, ooh I've got that film. Now where did I put it???

What's the big key, 70?

Yeah, I know you can do minimalist traditions, and we do/will, but there is a certain amount of stuff that isn't minimal: the blanket, the stockings, the tree (if you get an artificial one, which is actually my preference), the decorations, the crockery, the tableware etc etc - it all adds up! We are all about experiences, and I'd like to do Disney, Lapland, Polar Express, theatre, ballet, walks round the neighbourhood, etc, but still, a few items that bring back, and make, memories, are nice. I need to find the right balance.

What's sleeping elf in the playhouse?

And what are your traditions? Tell me now please, so I have time to plan! :)

198

Ah Lentil,
the Big Key... my DC are too old now for alot of the Christmas shenanigans but I want to find a big brass key that I can decorate with ribbons and gems. Then I can hang it from the fireplace to decorate and on Christmas Eve it can be put in the porch for Father Christmas to use. He's getting a bit chubby to go down our chimney and DD insists on leaving out a breakfast tray of tea, ceral, toast and orange juice, so he won't fit after that.
They are old enough now not to pull at the more ornate decorations.

Sleeping Elf was when my DS was IIRC 4yo (he's 13 now). He'd had his bath and before he went to bed we put a candle in a jar and walked down the garden to the Playhouse . I'd made a little Elf from a bathtoy, covered with a muslin cloth and painted with make-up. A hat with a bell, tucked up in bed. It was in the Playhouse, DS had just a peep at it by candlelight.
I told him this was a tired Elf that was going back tonight.
This was in the days before we found Elf on a Shelf

We've had a little advent tree with a wooden cupboard ( with seperate doors to hold a sweet and a decoration.) for years. It comes out every year .

I'll start a Traditions Thread on the 25th July.
One of MY Traditions is I book a day off work to watch QVC Christmas in July

I love it when you ' Ah Lentil' me, 70: it makes me feel all mothered! :)

The key sounds lovely!
And wow, so you pretty much invented the elf in the playhouse on the shelf! How adorable! Right, I need a house playhouse now!

Ok, I guess I can wait til July 25th

You sound like one of the best Christmas mothers I've ever heard of! My child is only two, so early days for me. Hoping so hard to make his Christmases super magical and memorable.

Surely June 25th would make more sense than July 25th 70, what with it being halfway through the year? :o

197!!

Christmas is BIG in our house as DD was a Boxing Day baby.

One of her favourite traditions is the Christmas Eve hamper. It started with me getting new PJs for her, then I found a nice pair for me as well, and 2 years ago, we got some for DH as well. So now, we each get a new pair of PJs and some Christmas slipper socks on Christmas Eve - and DD gets a Snowman soup, while DH got a chocolate beer (not terribly impressed) and I had a lovely hot choc (the block of choc on a wooden spoon type) as well. And DD gets an Ickle Baby Bot or similar bath bomb (usually something Lush anyway) for her bedtime bath that night (helps soothe excitements). It all helps persuade her to do her stocking and then have a bath and go to bed - I usually produce the box I use just after we have laid out her stocking and she has put out the carrot for Rudolph, milk for Santa and the cookies she made earlier in the afternoon.

The cookies are a basic cookie recipe that I have (we do more adventurous cookies in the previous weeks) which we sometimes make from scratch on Christmas Eve (usually choc chip, but sometimes orange and lemon flavour) - but I always make sure I keep part of a previous batch in the freezer coming up to Christmas so that we can just cut and bake if time is against us.

I am trying to get myself set up to get notified when the Santa train tickets go on sale, as we missed them last year (not deliberately) - we had gone every 2nd year since DD was small and she LOVES that. So we have to go this year!

Well i've got £50 saved on my Asda saving's card up to now, so by the time it comes to my Christmas shop I should have about £150. It comes in soooo handy.

I've also started my saving's card with my local butcher for my Christmas day Turkey, sausage meat for my stuffing etc.. I should have about £60 to spend by Christmas.

We always spend about £50 in M&S at Christmas too, as you can probably tell, I put about 3 stone on over the Christmas period

Who do you all spend Christmas day with? Inlaws/your own family/friends/just you & kids?

We have spent the past 3 Christmases just us (DH, DD and I) at home. This year, we are travelling down "home" and renting a house near both our parents - so we will have 2 Christmas dinners on the day (late lunch in PILs, late dinner in my DPs - various family will be in both houses) and host everyone for a birthday celebration on 26th.

Last few years, it's just been us 4. My family are all very supportive of this. My parents visit my nan, who is not able to travel to us about an hour away, and we just have a quiet day with simple food, toys and DVDs.

Last year we also went to a friend's house in my home town (mate from college and his mum who was like a second mum to me before we moved away!) on Xmas eve for a full Xmas dinner/gift exchanging which was great, and they invited my parents and Nan for coffee and cake in the evening. My parents visited again on boxing day.

My nan is very ill now though, so without wishing to sound too morbid, I think plans may change this year :(

Actually Fuzzpig, that made me realise I wasn't quite right in what I said - when we are just 3 here, we do a lot of family visiting early in the day to both my parent's families (they both grew up in my city but moved many years ago and I moved here when I was grown) and also to DH's aunt.

Last year, I didn't see any of DM's family as DGran had died and DAunt went away for Christmas. I did see DF's family, where other DGran was bedbound, and I am glad I did as she is not around this coming Christmas. I think not having both of those visits (DAunt would probably be around this year, and DF's siblings will all gather as usual in their family home as his DSis still lives there - but it won't be the same) is making a difference and part of the reason I was hunting so hard for a house to rent this year (our own space to relax and unwind, and do a few things just as 3, is important and impossible when we stay in either DParent's house - but they are only 20 minutes apart, and 5 mins further to house we're renting).

And given how mad my boss is making me today (he's away and driving me daft even from a distance!!), and other things going on, I wouldn't be surprised if we are abroad by next Christmas (when we might come home or not as the mood takes us - we are already quite happy to do Christmas as the "core" family, but if the house works out, it gives us an option of a base here ).

I am just sorting out my iTunes and have started putting together an Xmas playlist! Listening to some Russell Watson, his versions of O Holy Night and Adeste Fideles (O come all ye faithful) are AMAZING

(I may love him a little bit...)

Last year I hosted the big meal with my family coming round. Still not sure what's happening this year, will spend it with IL's but not sure if it will be at home or there house - it is only over the road so not really a problem!!

I have been making plans for Christmas Eve! I want to go for a walk in the woods at the back of the house in the afternoon, where the elves dh will have left a little glitter trail to take dcs to a treat and then hamper when they get home. Am I getting completely carried away??? You can be honest, I can take it! Dh is giving me looks whenever I mention it.

Not OTT at all! Sounds lovely! :)

July 25th is the QVC Christmas in July Day and I've watched it since about 2001 when my DS was a tiny little toddler

June 25th is my DD Birthday so all thoughts are on her in this house.

buzz you need to take your DH looks at bowl them right back at him.
My DH sports a similar face but he knows better and I just ignore it

and bowl them