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Christmas

From present ideas to party food, find all your Christmas inspiration here.

Have we got a Christmas traditions thread yet?

52 replies

storminabuttercup · 21/09/2014 19:09

I know I could read previous years ones but I want a shiny new one!

Christmas traditions here are elf on a shelf, started last year but DS didn't really 'get it'

He's 4 now so looking for new traditions.

What are yours?

OP posts:
AcheyJakey · 26/09/2014 23:20

My new tradition is to wrap stocking presents up early!! This means that I can then enjoy Christmas Eve night properly!

70isaLimitNotaTarget · 27/09/2014 00:29

Ooh yes I've done the Christmas Eve wrapping when the DC were little and too excited to go to bed, and I'm sitting on the kitchen floor, out of sight.
Now I wrap a week or so beforehand.

I need a new Christmas jumper (DD is going to poach DS jumper , so he'll need one too)

I've ordered some bedding for DS, need to buy DDs (she wants the Primark grey woodland animals and a fleece lined blanket)

We introduce a new Tradition every year, not thought of this years one yet.

MyMummyRuns · 27/09/2014 00:32

Ours are still evolving but here's some that I'd like to keep going:

  1. Santa does a trial run on 30th November and leaves a letter and their advent calendars (cheap, choc ones I'm afraid, as much as I love the idea of an activity based advent calendar, I haven't got the time or the energy!) The letter basically just reminds them to be good blah blah blah and the advent calendars come in a huge wrapped cardboard box filled with balloons which they have to dig through to find the calendars.
  1. The first weekend in December we make the decorations for the tree (painted salt dough, stained glass window biscuits etc)
  1. I have to decorate the tree myself. DC are allowed to hang a couple of decs before bed but then once they're asleep, I pour a big glass of mulled wine, put on Its A Wonderful Life and titivate to my hearts content.

4 About 2 weeks before Christmas we do the free portable North Pole video message from Santa which is amazing and then a week before we visit Santa

  1. On Christmas Eve we make cookies for Santa in the morning, go out for lunch followed by a long walk. Before we set off we leave a magic key for Santa, which when we return we find has been taken and Santa has left a treasure hunt for the DC which leads to the Christmas Eve hamper (containing new pjs, hot chocolate, reindeer dust, box of chocs, DVD and Christmas bath bomb). Tea is a carpet picnic whilst watching the DVD. We also track santa using NORAD.
  1. As well as leaving out the cookies etc for Santa this year we'll also leave a special ornament (I really want a pickle like the Americans have!). Santa will then hang this on the tree when he delivers the presents and the first person to find it in the morning gets to go first opening their presents.
  1. Christmas Day - stockings and presents from us are off Santa everything else they know who it comes from so they can do thank you letters. Stockings are opened in our room and then we go downstairs for the main ones, although these can't be opened til after breakfast. Dinner is served about 4/5 as my DC won't eat a big meal at lunchtime and I don't want to miss the present opening as I'm too busy faffing in the kitchen.
Monroe · 27/09/2014 10:50

I love these threads too. And most of ours have been nicked from here over the years Grin

We do our own version of elf on the shelf. DS and DD have an elf each. (Cuddly toy version) They get up to daft things like turning all the pictures in the house upside down or dying the water in the toilet green. The dc's love looking for them in the morning to see what they've been up to.

They arrive on the first with the christmas hamper. We like to do it on the first so they get a full months use of the things inside! Last year it contained new fleece onesie, dvds, Christmas book each, Christmas activity books, letters to santa packs, bubble baths, choc coins and of course the advent calendars.

We also do pnp at some point in the month.

DH and I both work full time so we try and make the most of the weekends. One will be visiting a Santa's grotto, one going to a panto and we usually do a trip to the cinema and shopping for the dc's to choose a gift for their gp's.

This time for the first time ever we will not be hosting the in laws for Christmas eve so I am thinking of something we can do then. Possibly ice skating but not decided yet. The dc's always help prepare the veg and then we bake cookies for santa. In the evening we do norad and leave out the cookie and carrot.

Christmas morning is spent with the dc's opening stocking presents on our bed while DH and I wake up with a coffee.

This year we are going to do the present lottery stolen from here. I'm going to number their gifts 1 to whatever and give them a jam jar each with the corresponding numbers inside. They then have to take turns to pick a number out of the jar and find that gift under the tree.

dustybinlydia · 02/10/2014 19:17

Oh, some lovely traditions here. I am going to borrow a few Smile

katienana · 02/10/2014 22:40

we go to see the fenwicks window display late nov, walk around the xmas market and look at the lights then have a nice tea in town. in Newcastle, it is lovely at Christmas time. this year we are doing santa express. so excited as ds is 2 and knows about santa. we will also have a nice afternoon putting decs up with xmas music, mulled wine and perhaps mince pies. new pjs on xmas eve. will write to santa and he will write back.

o0 · 03/10/2014 00:00

We have a couple of traditions.

On the 1st the advent calendars arrive. They get a chocolate one from my parents (who also still buy me and my siblings one!) and I give them a book advent calendar. It's 24 winter/Christmas themed books, all wrapped in a mix of Christmas paper and put in a lined wicker basket that's set by the fire. Each day they choose 1 book and we read it that night at bedtime.

On the 7th letters to Santa are written.

On the 15th Santa sends them a reply letter and a Christmas DVD.

On the 24th their brother (stillborn) leaves them a Christmas Eve hamper. He borrows some Santa magic to let him do this.

AcheyJakey · 03/11/2014 22:48

Right. I'm wavering. Do I need an elf to go with my elf letters or will it be overkill?

AcheyJakey · 03/11/2014 22:49

I don't want the kids to guess because I've gone over the top.

BiddyPop · 04/11/2014 09:29

We have a few.

We bring out the Advent Calendar that DMum made for DD on 1st Dec. It has little pockets sewn on, so I put a choc figure (buy a couple of nets of these from Aldi, or M&S) in each day. And either a free seasonal colouring picture or puzzle printed from the net, or a note about today's activity (clean your room, shopping with Mummy and having hot choc after the Live Crib, Santa visit etc), or a small gift (or maybe, now she's a good reader, a clue for a treasure hunt around the house for that small gift). She gets maybe 3-4 gifts, like a Lego figure, or equally small sized, and often re-used stocking things from last year, throughout the 24 days. Christmas Eve will be a larger chocolate figure than the rest. Some years, I get a shop one with chocs in it already and just do activities in DM's one, last year I got one with seasonal pictures behind the doors which DD actually liked a lot (from local Bible Society shop).

This year, DD will also get a fleece blanket for snuggling up in on 1st December - she helped buy the printed panel in Canada and I have to hem it yet. But she snuggles up under massive fleeces all the time, so this will be nice, and small enough, for about 6 weeks use!! (Rather than having to struggle everyday to fold up something that could easily cover a superking bed and drape down the sides - I must get a smaller fleece for everyday in the sitting room).

We write a letter to Santa at some stage. If we are early enough, we post it. If not, it gets left beside stocking on Christmas Eve.

We start reading Christmas stories at bedtime from 1st December also. I have a decent collection of Christmas books, including one which is the daily adventures (in French) of the mouse family from 1-24th December as they prepare - DD wants me to read that day's page in French and then English before a "proper" story most nights.

Christmas Eve's story is always "Twas the night before Christmas". That doesn't get read earlier in December (might be repeated again before the end of Christmas, but not before). We also have a Moshi Monsters version ("Twas the night before Twistmas") and a Mr Men version that are in the earlier Dec pile.

I also allow the Christmassy dvds out from maybe the last week of November. DD watches "Home Alone" all year round (saved on the equivalent of the Sky+ box) but I have about 10 or more dvds that I put away most of the year (Polar Express, Miracle on 34th Street, Muppets, all 4 The Santa Clauses, etc).

I always bring DD for an afternoon in the city centre in mid to late December, for her "Christmas shopping". We should have most of hers done by then (for various aunts and uncles, GPs etc), or made (she usually makes something for her DCousins). But we might have to get something for DH (and he usually leaves it to Christmas Eve to get for me with her). I try to only have 1 thing we want to buy that day though, and I am not buying at all. It's about seeing the lights as it gets dark, going to see the Live Crib outside the Lord Mayor's house (various farm animals, raises money for a children's charity, organized by the Farmer's Association) and get a hot chocolate and mince pie/cookie together to watch people scurrying around.

I like to try and get to some musical performance during the season. A carol service in a church, or a concert somewhere. This year, we are going to "Carols by Candlelight" in the National Concert Hall on 23rd Dec, at night. We'll have dinner in town that late afternoon, and DD is old enough to stay up late for that now. We've been to see "The Snowman" with the music played by a live orchestra, and various other shows, in the past.

If we are staying at home for Christmas itself, (slightly more than half the time), I have to go to work (if a weekday) on Christmas Eve for a couple of hours, in the city centre. So we all go in early, grab a parking space, DD comes with me while DH gets a nice coffee, and we meet up mid-morning once I escape the office. We pop into M&S (usually the first rush is gone so it's not mad and we get DD's birthday cake, some nice nibbly things and anything else we need). We get a naice lunch somewhere before going home.

(If we are travelling to family, we tend to go a day or 2 before Christmas and stay on for a couple of days afterwards).

In the afternoon, DD and I make cookies for Santa. If we are calm and have loads of time, we do it from scratch. But if there is any stress around, I grab the half a roll of dough from the freezer (that I put in there in early December, from another baking session) and just slice and bake that. (DD is also getting better, at almost 9, at helping prep the veggies etc for the following day, or fill coal buckets, or send her off to hoover upstairs, as I tend to do a lot of preps on 24th and hovering keeps her out of my way for a half hour!!). We track Santa periodically throughout the afternoon once we get home from town until bedtime.

After dinner, we go into the sitting room to light the Christmas candle. We take some time to reflect on the year that is ending, the good and bad things about it, remember family and friends who have died or are ill, and new babies or weddings during the year, and talk about our hopes for the year to come, and remember the reason for Christmas. We follow that with a "Hail Mary" (my family used to do a decade of the rosary - but we are not that religious).

Then we get out the Christmas Box - it holds decorations most of the year, but on Christmas Eve holds new PJs for all 3 of us, bath bombs for DD and I, DD's stocking, "Twas the night before Christmas" book, and naice hot choc mixes for us all. Then DD puts out her stocking, milk, a carrot and the cookies. And runs upstairs to have her Christmassy bath and put on new PJs, before having her hot choc and getting a story in bed.

And our other own family tradition is to have a birthday party on Boxing Day, as DD arrived at 6am that morning!!

BiddyPop · 04/11/2014 09:31

Oh, and we all have a Christmas jumper too, which appears periodically. DH wears his roughly once under protest, DD wears hers as often as she can get it back from the laundry, and I wear mine a reasonable amount in the 10 days right around Christmas.

BiddyPop · 04/11/2014 09:32

And sorry I can't help about Elves as we don't do those.

saiyme09 · 04/11/2014 09:43

We leave a carrot and a bowl of water for rudolf and a mince pie and. A glass of milk for Father Christmas I have evidence that father Christmas is real as bewilderingly bites vanish from each item! Grin...

AcheyJakey · 04/11/2014 23:00

Biddy-your Christmas jumper trad sounds hilarious!

BiddyPop · 05/11/2014 14:26

DH's face was a picture Shock when he was given his last year (not the worst - an Elf, they are still selling it this year in Primark).

I bought a new one last year, as my old ski scene had disappeared (the Next Christmas pudding). I also wear plain red jumpers with Euroshop (Poundland) type, or a couple of older M&S (slightly more sophisticated versions) seasonal earrings and brooches adorning them!!

DD has to get something new every year as she grows - she has a primark (boys) ski scene long sleeved top which she is crossing her fingers still fits (3rd Christmas this year) and an M&S jumper with Rudolph in sequins from last year (definitely fits), and another Primark jumper (navy with Santa face - another boys section find - girls Christmas jumpers are not nearly as nice!!) has had to be retired to a cousin due to size issues (it also got 3 seasons!).

BiddyPop · 05/11/2014 14:31

I also forgot one yesterday. (Forgot, despite that mammoth post?? I think I have a few too many traditions.....Grin ) (Will this work yet? Xmas Grin)

We transform the car to a reindeer early enough in December, if we have the kit. I had one that broke, there were 2 years we couldn't get replacements, 2 years ago we got 2 (1 for each car then) but I think we lost 2 antlers and 2 noses over the past 2 years, so I need a new set this year (despite downsizing to 1 car).

Last night, getting diesel, the petrol station was selling them in aid of LauraLynn (the children's hospice). Not just reindeer - there was a Christmas tree one, and an Elf one as well. DD and I bought an Elf, and hid it away until later in December as a surprise for DH!! (And she reckons it will go great with his Elf jumper - I had no reminding to do at all Grin Grin)

BiddyPop · 05/11/2014 14:31

Festive smilies!!! Xmas Grin Xmas Grin!!!

bootygirl · 05/11/2014 14:43

Biddy pop

Our primary have jumpers that light up and in men's they have pudding beanie hats!!

BiddyPop · 05/11/2014 14:47

OOOhh, Bootygirl, you are a temptress!! Xmas Wink

bootygirl · 05/11/2014 20:02

I know biddy pop I have to stay out of primark cos I 'need' their Xmas stuff! I may just up grade my jumper from last year!

LumionaMoonsplash · 05/11/2014 20:15

We're having an elf this year, he'll bring the advent calendars on the 1st and leave a hamper (bag really) on Xmas Eve. We made paper chains and bunting last year (we were skint) DD loved it. The tree is going up earlier this year as I do an Xmas photo of the DC to go in photo cards to the relatives. I just about got the photos developed to send the cards in time for Xmas day last year. I'd love to do more but work gets busy this time of year (retail).

AcheyJakey · 06/11/2014 14:39

So what's the verdict? Do I need an elf to go with my elf letters, or just a Christmas jumper Grin

fuzzpig · 08/11/2014 10:06

Primark also had Xmas men's pants this year Shock (the ones with just elastic at the sides, can't say I know what they're called!) something about 'jingle my bells' Hmm I don't think we will be adding that to our Xmas traditions somehow :o

Not actually sure what we will be doing this year as for the first time EVER DH and I will not be having it at ours! Staying at my mum's flat, so will probably do presents there, but they don't really 'do' Xmas so we will be going to see friends for the day. Can't wait!

fuzzpig · 08/11/2014 10:07

No idea about the elf though I'm afraid Achey - it's all far too high maintenance for me (lazy bugger that I am)

af2000 · 08/11/2014 10:15

One possibly for when your LO is a bit bigger and writing a letter to Santa.. we used to write ours in Nov and my dad would send it up on a rocket to Santa on bonfire night. We absolutely loved it, they used to make a big deal out of attaching it to the firework and sending it up (in reality I think the letter went in Dad's pocket). I now realise this was a genius ploy on my parents' part to get all our xmas present requests done and dusted.. once the letter was sent we couldn't ask for anything else.. leading to a lovely peaceful December!