whats your family tradition?

[JanenEvie]

Hi all
Well here to the ever fast approaching first christmas with my DD who's 20 weeks!
We have just been discussing what traditions we should start for our new family, sadly neither of us really had any
So I'm asking what your's are to steal ideas and use them as my own

Cheers all

Ours are ham and eggs for supper christmas eve, then relaxed present wrapping with some port and a mince pie,and some christmas carols. Christmas morning is stockings and crossiants & coffee, then we haven't quite devised OUR day - DP family tradition is open all presents with smoked salmon & tasty nibbles with a glass (or 3) of bubbly, then eat main meal around 4ish, whereas we ALWAYS had to wait until after lunch for the present opening...and just as we were all sitting down, the oldies would suddenly decide that nothing could occur until a cup of tea was made .
This year our ds is almost 3 and dd will be 5ths and I'm soooo excited. Lovely thread

From being old enough to stay awake that long my mum would let me stay up till midnight on christmas eve and then have a christmas eve present.
My husband and I now do this every year - and I still buy my mum a christmas eve present to open also!
Christmas morning - more pressies wearing pj's.
Big breakfast with a glas of bucks fizz then more pressies.
Morning spent visiting in laws then round to aunts house for big traditional christmas dinner.
Evening spent playing very silly games - usually charades. Last year got Millionaire on DVD and split into teams to play. Could only complete the junior version!
First year with DS this year. He will be 18 weeks so won't really know whats going on but when he is older we will definately be leaving out the mince pie and shot of whiskey for Santa (to keep him warm!) and the carrot for rudolph and there will be presents from Santa under the tree. Can't wait

Christmas Eve is Snowman Night in our house. The boys have new snowman pyjamas. We make snowmen out of card/cotton wool/glitter/buttons etc and decorate them and put them up around the dining room. Then we decorate homemade snowman biscuits with icing/sweets and eat them. Then we all watch "The Snowman" and drink cocoa with "snow" white marshmallows in it, then the boys put out their mince pie/sherry/carrot and go to bed.

Christmas morning we have croissants and buck's fizz for breakfast. Stockings first (adults as well as children) then we take our time opening all the pressies and playing with the contents, nipping in and out to the kitchen - dinner usually about 2pm.

Christmas morning, once dh is in from work, open stockings with daft presents like silly string etc. Breakfast of bacon and egg sandwiches or similar. Off to pil for early afternoon (my parents usually stay with us) so dd can open presents from that side of the family. Home to get dinner ready (dh back to work - he's a dairyman and the cows don't know it's xmas). Once dh in, dinner and presents. Bed late and usually p*ed! Presents spread through the day but mostly after dinner in the evening.

Greeny, I made a thread speshally for your 'Snowman Night' tis more exciting than Christmas day!!!

oh thats a lovely thing to do greensleaves
wonder if my 14 and 16yr old lads would want to do it this year!

Apart from the ritual Mummy Spends 4 Hours Attempting to Build Whichever Lego/playmobil/Hotwheels etc Monstrosity Has been Given to The Dear Boys WHile Attempting Not To Swear Too Much In Front Of the dear Boys While Daddy Scratches Head Ineffectually And Says Encouraging Things, most of our traditions have been mentioned.

But on Boxing Day there is a mass pilgrimage to a beautiful Ruined Abbey nearby which thousands of pwople do and there is mulled wine, mince pies and a carol service at the end. We've done that for a couple of years (weather has been lovely, crisp etc) and now - apart from when we are at other people's houses, that's Our nice tradition now.

Also, DS1's b'day is the day before xmas eve so we always have a bit of a party which is a nice kick start to the festivities.

We always do carol services, there is a great candlelit one near us where the children can bring torches, and it occupies ds waving the torch around during the boring bits.

We go to a big department store where they have beautiful posh baubles and ds is allowed to choose one new one each year.

We always do the Pass the Parcel appeal at Superdrug and ds chooses the toy to be given away.

On Christmas Eve we get into pjs, then come downstairs, sprinkle reindeer food in the garden, then light candles everywhere and sit quietly for 5 mins listening to a cd of medieval carols. It makes me feel very spiritual / magical, and that 5 mins is one of the main things ds remembers about Christmas each year!

First weekend in December -

go and buy tree. Put it up and decorate it. We're not always at home on Xmas day so we want it up early to have lots of time to enjoy it.

Buy one new decoration each year.

Open one drawer from the Father Christmas advent calendar each day and put the minature decoration found inside on a little twig tree we made last year and sprayed silver. These decorations tend to be handmade and include an acorn sprayed gold, a sixpence given to dh in change instead of 5p once etc. When children are old enough, the drawer will open to reveal a clue on where to find the decoration to hang on the tree..

Christmas eve - go to parent's house; put decorations on their wildly garish artificial tree - much loved and the same moulting tree that we had as children.

Read The Night Before Christmas as the children's bedtime story. Put on new pjs.

Would like to find a midnight service somewhere close enough to go to.

Christmas day - stockings opened on parent's bed as early as possible. Bath and then new clothes for the children. May introduce reindeer food etc this year - depends on children's attitude.

No big presents until after lunch - groan. This is mainly because house is old and small and has only one bathroom. By the time everyone has had a bath and dressed it is at least midday anyway!

Smoked salmon, champagne and 1 pressie.

lunch (turkey cooked the day before since there are often power cuts and don't want to risk not being able to cook on Xmas day - happened once and was not much fun since no food and everywhere closed. Queen's speech.

long walk

presents finally opened

food, drink, card playing, present playing fill rest of the time. Would like to find a Christmas service if can't find one for Xmas eve.

This is unchanged from our childhood, apart from in one respect: I always make sure I have bought the batteries for the children's presents when they are not included in the present itself. No more trudging round petrol stations on Christmas day .

ooops -sorry, got carried away. didn't mean to have such a long post but got excited just writing about it!

Every year has been different dependant on DH's shifts, tbh, and we also went on holiday one Christmas.

We always go to the Christingle Service. It has poignant memories for me, because the first one I attended was on Christmas Eve, where we'd held my mother's funeral in the morning, and then attended Christingle in the afternoon.

The boys have their stockings in our bedroom, and open them on our bed.

We have croissants and bucks fizz for breakfast, and the boys open their presents. Family members call to visit, and sil drops off fil for an hour or so.

If DH is at work, we graze on turkey rolls and chocolates, and I prepare a festive buffet for when he's home, and we graze, laze and play for the rest of the day. He tries to pop home for a short while during the morning.

We then have a lovely dinner with all the trimmings on Boxing Day, which DH cooks, and we have a small table present.

If DH not at work, we go to church on Christmas morning and have dinner mid-afternoon, then graze, laze and play.

Last year we took the boys to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve (the first one at our local church in living memory), and we went for a lovely walk and ice-skating on Boxing Day. These I think may be our new traditions, now that the boys are older, as the boys preferred going to Midnight Mass rather than to the morning service on Christmas Day, and we can do them whether or not DH is working.

Wow! I am so excited reading this thread!

The tree and the decorations go up on the 6th of Dec which is my birthday. Even though I don't live with my parents anymore, this is still part of their tradition, which I think is sweet!

We spend a couple of weeks wrapping the presents and making sure we have everything we are going to need.

Christmas Eve, we have an early dinner, get dressed and go out with parents. DD goes to bed no later than 11.

Christmas Day, I get up and am jumping up and down on the bed trying to wake DH, clapping my hands excitedly like the big kid I am. He refuses to get up, so I go and try DD, who also rolls over and ignores me. All this around 6 in the morning...

Eventually, by about 8, DD and DH are fed up with me banging and crashing and dancing to really loud christmas songs, that they grudgingly get up, get fed then everyone is marched to the tree. We sit on the floor, tkae it in turns to open presents, making sure we read out the tags. I sit and write the names of the people who gave DD a present so I can write her thank you notes back.

Get dressed, go to the pub with family, come back, stuff our faces with dinner and then we sit around watching DD with her new stuff, or whatever crap is on the telly before heading off to bed.

The joys of Christmas!

Oooooooh I love the Christmas build up!

Advent Calendars always homemade, the same ones come out each year and get filled with 24 little foil wrapped packets containing 4 or 5 smarties or a fizzy fish or a jelly baby.

The advent wreath with 4 candles, lighting one each Sunday and in the centre a countdown candle, burning one number off each day.

the tree never arrives until a few days before, always a real one! Around the same time the wreath goes on the front door and bits of holly are put around the house, usually above all the picture frames. And of course the creche comes out!

Christmas eve we have a buffet with a home cooked ham, sausages, garlic bread, baked potatoes and salads, best eaten with as much family as possible on the living room floor with a roaring fire. Don't forget to leave a sherry and mince pie out for santa and something for rudolph!

When I was a kid stockings would be left at the end of our beds and I would wake up (usually in the same room at Grans as my sister and cousin) and the room would be full of balloons, almost more magical than the stocking itself! Stocking contents must include a satsuma, a handful of nuts, a pair of disney socks, a chocolate santa and lots of books (well ok at 20 weeks maybe a little young!.....)Stockings opened together then taken into parents room to show (yup even now!)

Breakfast must include exciting cereals, often a variety pack rather than plain old cornflakes. Then there is the usual debate about present opening, before or after Christmas dinner? Before always wins so presents are opened and the cat gets really excited about all the crinkly paper. Then there is the 'shall we go for a walk?' debate although after my dad ended up in hospital on one such walk that one did take a few years break, back now though! Then christmas dinner, turkey, roast potatoes, broculi (as gran calls it) sprouts (where even if you hate them you have to eat 3) pigs in blankets, bread sauce and gravy followed by a choice of mums chocolate log, my Aunts summer pudding and christmas pudding. All rounded off with crackers and party poppers and an evening by the fire where the traditional family arguments come out but nobody cares much becasue they have all eaten too much to be too rowdy!

Wonder how much I'll manage this year hosting Christmas in my 2 bedroom 1 reception room flat while 39.5 weeks pregnant!

i like the variety pack and balloons ideas...

If you're a Christian then a lot of the tradition is there simply by going to church/mass as usual. We're Catholics.
Other things - advent calendars, cards, Christmas tree, lots and lots of singing, visiting relatives, food, all the usual.

Christmas Day
At home - Midnight service. Delivering meals on wheels. Then skiing / canoeing / walking depending on the presents and weather. Finally an evening meal.

Abroad - Coming off the ski slopes and going straight to the church (still in ski gear and with skiis!)

These traditions are great!
Its getting me all excited already!

At Mums house we always:
Christmas Eve - get house decorated (It was always my job to go outside and pick holly!?) listening to carol CD. Always gammon with cumberland sauce for tea.
Xmas Day - Stockings at the end of the bed (My bro and I used to open them when we woke up then take everything into parents 'to show them what santa brought'). When we were a bit older this tradition morphed into meeting in the kitchen to drink bubbly before breakfast....! I like to consume a bottle of Baileys on Christmas Day but this 'tradition' is frowned on by everyone else. I can't wait for dd to be a bit older and our family to begin its own traditions

Greensleeves, love your Snowman theme.
Thought you might like to hear what my Mum used to do for us years ago!

She made this giant 2' foot high Mr Snowman big and fat and covered in cotton wool. He would sit on the sideboard next to the dining table.
After the big xmas dinner when you thought there were no more presents to open, Mum would take us over to Mr Snowman and out of the top of his big top hat you pulled the red bit of wool that had your name on it and pulled it until your last little present popped out of his hat!
We used to think it was the most fantastic thing ever! She still does it now and we get little luxuries like lots of perfume samples etc etc!

arrr mrs noah thats lovely! what a lovely mum you have!

Lots of lovely traditions here.
In our house, the day the last mindee finishes for the holidays, we put all presents from Garnparents, aunts, uncles etc under the tree. Then Christmas eve, we cook the turkey. I always have my bit of "me" time. DH takes the ds out for a walk to becah and i have a nice bath and glass of wine, or sit with my feet up and a cuppa!. Then we usually watch a Christmas film, but this year MIl and step PIL are here, so we may end up having to watch Emmerdale, Corrie, Home and Away and neighbours. Then read a night beofr eChristmas, mince pies out for santa and bed. Then we have a few glasses of wine and watch a film.
Christmas morning the obys come in our room (alkong with bloody MIL) to open thier stockings. Then we go downstairs, they see what santa has left them, then we hav ebreakfast. Because MIL is here this year i will probably start on the bucks fizz really early. Then after breakfast we open presents form others, they are all under the tree, MIl and PIl put theirs there as well. The boys hand them out and it takes for ever as we are constantly interuppted by the phone - every year we tell family we open our presents after breakfast, and every year they phone and ask the boys if they liked so and so, before the boys have had a chance to open it.
We usually eat about 1/2 pm, the men do the dishes, then sometimes DH motivates his mum and stepdad and boys to go for a walk and again i sit in peace and have a glass(or 3) of wine). Evening, we may have light snack, crackers and cheese etc. And chill out watching tv