How do you make Christmas magical?

[funbagsandgubbins18]

Hello!

I know it is a while off yet but I have a fussy 7 month old so I have ruled out the summer. He HATES heat, the sun and the beach and he still has awful reflux so weaning is tricky. So I plan on making winter absolutely splendid and magical.

Errrrr. How do I do that then? What makes your Christmas wonderful?
What makes you feel Christmassy?
What are your favourite childhood memories of Christmas?

I know he won't remember it for a while yet but I still need something to look forward to!

Here is to a happy winter.

Ta

Delayed gratification.
Ie: everything waits til December

Omfg, I have seen it all now.

I don't really understand the previous two posters issue. This is the Christmas board, not Chat or AIBU.

If you dont want to talk about Christmas in June dont come in here.

As for Christmassy its generally about smells to me, and colours, so dark reds, dark greens, silvers and golds and then the smell of cinammon and spiced orange etc

How miserable some people are!!

I agree with the keeping it to December thing- but planning for December has to begin now

This year dd's will be 2 and 4 so perfect for magic making!!

I have a little felt tree I made so they can decorate it as they wish. I'm doing A sort of elf in the shelf thing. Find a really good Santa to visit. Last year we went to one in a cave and it was really brilliant.

Also I think some really special decorations that will last every christmas. As kids we had a little mouse house thing and I adored it. For dd's I have a little fireplace with stockings with our names they can hang and play with, but in the look out for something else.

I'm starting to plan Christmas as well. Just in my head floating but it's there

Well.... we do some stuff that DS loves..

The Elves send him a very tiny sized typed note that arrives through the letterbox on Christmas Eve (along with a small toy!).
He loves the personalised Father Christmas Message - checkout www.portablenorthpole.com
He loves picking 2-3 new Christmas decorations for the tree each year
He loves the fact that Father Christmas delivers presents to our house on Boxing day as well (we buy too much probably and like to spread it out!) though this will change as gets older and gifts more expensive.

Well, our Elf on a Shelf (Adam) arrives on 1st December.

We use portable north pole and a Christmas eve hamper

We go to the panto on the sunday before Christmas

DS picks a decoration from the Disney store each year - my tree is all Disney.

Book a good santa.

Buy a stocking that he can keep for ever. I was given mine aged 1 apparently and now I'm over 50. Father Christmas still fills it every single year.

Start building some traditions. We go to the same Christmas tree farm year on year and pick our tree and I always take photos of the DC and the tree.

I would love to but a stocking the would last a lifetime but they are all so crap these days. They rip and would never last.

I was answering the question about Christmas on the Christmas board!
That's allowed isn't it??

I believe in general in delayed gratification, more specifically I think it v important with regards to Christmas. Nothing kills fun and spontaneity more than over saturation.

Btw this cropped up on my active threads, I didn't go look to grinch bomb you all in JUNE

Don't try too hard or invent lots of new traditions. It overloads already excited DCs.

Go with the flow.

We make a special advent calendar that has a special christmas activity for each day in December. This can be as simple as watching a christmas film, writing christmas cards, collecting holly from the woods, making christmas biscuits and then more special things such as going to the panto, decorating the tree. We've done this for a few years now and it makes the entire month special.

Fairy lights. Lots of them!

Traditions - same year on year.

Making it about Jesus rather than Father Christmas.

Make it short - after Advent is celebrated not all of Dec.

Really good food - local Farmers' Market turkey, etc.

Lots of planned family time.

DD is 2.5, so our Christmas 'traditions' only really started last year, but the ones I thought worked quite well were:

Elf arrived on 1st December (a nice one from The Ruby Range ) - didn't do anything wacky, but each day we'd do 'Shall we see if we can find the elf today?'.

We had a fabric advent calendar and each day the Elf put a new little wooden tree decoration into it, which DD could get out and put on her little wooden Christmas tree (somthing like this

Went to a good father christmas

Went to the local outdoor carol concert (and had friends with children round for drinks beforehand)

Went to visit reindeer at local garden centre

DD got to chose one new christmas tree decoration

Bought some Christmas books (which the elf delivered occasionally), which have been put away until next Christmas.

Our traditions are:

Make it as much about Father Christmas /Family time and as little about religion as possible.

Spend the WHOLE of December building up - craft activities, baking, days out at weekend, Christmas music in the car, Christmas book box comes down from the loft, snuggling up after school and watching Christmas films ...

On Christmas Eve the elves bring a Christmas eve hamper which has new pj's in it, new toothbrushes, magic flannels, snowman soup, 'Twas the night before Christmas' book, the key Father Christmas needs to get in and a little Christmas sweetie of some kind. Last year it also had a Snowdog gift set in it and the snowdog DVD so the chocolate treat was a snowdog.

There isn't as much time for Christmas days out as you might think - esp once the dc start school.

So I've limited ours to:

Switching on of local town lights with free mince pies, chestnuts, mulled wine and carols.

Local Christmas fayre - DC meet Father Christmas, see his reindeers, sing more carols and I get to buy yummy locally made food for xmas.

Panto.

Whatever activities the school organise (and dd1s beavers and rainbow groups)

We also always do a walk after Christmas dinner with new bikes/scooters

Maybe you could get me one for Christmas noqualms

Making it a Jesus free zone works best for me.l

Thursdaylast

Christmas Carols and presents on Christmas eve by candlelight. It is magical. Decorations handmade and done with care / not garish or loud= more magic.

Seriously. Don't start celebrating too early. So many posters complaining they're sick of their Christmas tree and decorations by Christmas day, having had the tree up since end of November, and they whip it down on boxing day.

Plan Christmas crafts, outings, music etc in the run up to the day. Also winter solstice is nice to celebrate just a few days before Christmas, with exchange of home made gifts, simple meal, yule log etc

Christmas Eve is my favourite. Nice candles, glass of sherry. We do the old tradition of Christmas Eve ghost stories, as we've always done since childhood (the BBC sometimes put something on around Christmas Eve, though not as regularly as they used to )

I might steal the candlelight Christmas eve handmade present exchange idea.