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Christmas

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

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What are your Christmas traditions?

92 replies

SeaSeeker · 29/08/2017 07:22

First Christmas with baby this year and I want to start establishing lovely traditions so that he will have fond memories when he grows up. But I'm so unimaginative. What little traditions do you have at Christmas that make it extra special for your kids?

OP posts:
Chillywhippet · 16/09/2017 08:56

muddling your Christmas sounds fab.
Can I be the first to wish you and yours the very Happy Christmas you all deserve Star

IggyAce · 16/09/2017 09:09

On the run up to Christmas we have a couple of afternoons/evenings watching Christmas movies with popcorn and hot chocolate.
Christmas eve we get new Pj's, this tradition has carried on from my childhood.
We also have a beautiful red & white wooden advent house with little draws that I fill with sweets and perhaps a small toy.

MuddlingThroughLife · 16/09/2017 09:34

Thank you chillywhippet that's very kind of you. Merry Christmas to you too! X 🎗

LadyTsunade · 16/09/2017 15:49

I love these threads, they always give me great ideas to plagiarize 😁 we usually go to Starbucks on Christmas Eve then have a wander around the shops/mock ppl last minute panic buying. We also have a 'party' in the evening (just buffet food) that my dds love.

WinnerWinnerChickenDinner0 · 16/09/2017 16:05

I've been making salt dough ornaments like this since our first Christmas. Lovely gifts for grandparents.
They are more like plate sized this year so maybe a plate for santas treats, but lovely way to see them grow every year

What are your Christmas traditions?
BizzyFizzy · 16/09/2017 16:12

Ours are all around church, basically.

We have a tree, turkey dinner, modest presents too.

Paperdove87 · 16/09/2017 16:41

Everyone in my family has a (quite frankly terrible) hand painted Christmas tshirt which we all wear on xmas day. I have worn the same one since I was 8 and the fact it still 'fits' is my own mini Christmas miracle. (It must've been huge the first few years) I have no kids and I'm nearly 30 but we are all big kids. My mum, brother, grandma, husband and in laws all wear theirs too. It's getting embarrassing but can't stop!

Gizlotsmum · 16/09/2017 17:28

New pyjamas. They each get a new bauble for the tree. We also go for a New Years walk

TelephoneTree · 17/09/2017 22:03

I love the pressies round the fireplace idea! I also love the shutting the kids out of the pressie room until it's time to go in - mainly to keep my cat from unwrapping them all. Shock. Then there's the annual battle between cat and Christmas tree Grin

This came through on my email tonight -
I'm def doing the candlit bath on Christmas Eve and the Christmas tree sleepover ideas ... 20 christmas traditions

TelephoneTree · 17/09/2017 22:04

@WinnerWinnerChickenDinner0 that's gorgeous!

Bluntness100 · 17/09/2017 22:24

When our. daughter was little I'd put Xmas carols and songs on on Xmas eve, I'd stand her on the coffee table and dance with her. She'd kill herself laughing, twirl round and round and get out of breath. When she was too big for the coffee table, I'd still dance her round the room. Still one of her besr xmas memories she says.

She's now twenty and she doesn't dance on Xmas eve any more,, but I still put her stocking outside her door, and she opens it first. Now the Xmas songs are on Xmas morning, Michael bubble as we open our gifts, and we have a glass or two of champagne as we do so.

we put the Xmas tree up together and she got arsey last year as she was worried I would put it up before she got back from uni, which I didn't do.

My husband and I go upstairs and wrap her presents in our bedroom with a glass of wine on Xmas eve, then lay them out when she is in bed.

The rest is fairly traditional I think.😃

delilahbucket · 18/09/2017 08:27

Christmas Eve advent is always a treasure hunt resulting in a little gift. We always bake gingerbread stars/reindeer/snowmen and decorate them. We see the local panto on Christmas Eve and go out for a nice tea before going home and getting ready for santa (who always has milk and a gingerbread or cookie).
Christmas day is just the three of us and we cook and play games and watch TV and that just about sums up the day.

delilahbucket · 18/09/2017 08:29

Ooh and the Christmas Tree fairies put the tree up and bring the advent calendars. DS puts the star on the top of the tree. We also watch Polar Express with proper hot chocolate to drink. DS is 9 now so I suspect this will be the last year he believes but we will still do all the things we always have.

elQuintoConyo · 18/09/2017 12:19

Our advent calendar is 25 stockings tied around the balustrade on the stairs, ds has mostly choccy coins in it.

Christmas tree goes up around 8th/9th December, after ds' birthday. He'll be 6yo this year. I need space to put on the lighrs, then he helps me decorate the tree. When he was 1yo the tree was decorated in fisher price cars and biscuits Grin we have very cute photos.

At some point in December he'll make a new decoration with me for tree and other decorative things at school - cork reindeers and loo roll Christmas trees and the like! He has decorations in his room that he has made previous years and things i have made - giant 2D foam baubles that hang from the ceiling for example.

We'll go and see the town Christmas tree lights go on and have hot chocolate and churros.

We'll go see one FC in our local department store, they don't give a gift but they do really good quality free photos and the FC himself is top notch, very patient with the children. DS goes with his same-age cousin and we'll get a pic of him with FC and a pic of him and cousin and FC, it is nice to see how they grow up!

Christmas eve evening we have a Caga Tio = a log that shits gifts Grin we go for a walk in the woods on the first Saturday in December and "find" him (DH takes him from the house in a big rucksack). It is a large-ish log with two front feet, a cheerful face and little red hat. You cover him with a blanket to keep him warm, feed and water him, then on Christmas eve sing a little song and hit him with a stick and he poos presents (that you hid under his blanket while child isn't looking!). Christmas dvd, chocolate, small toy.

Christmas Day: open stockings on our bed. Go down for breakfast - porridge, panettone and coffee. Take the dog for a walk. Home for showers and get dressed. Open presents. Have a light lunch - gifted chocolates, pancakes, sandwich - what anyone fancies. Continue opening presents and play afternoon. I'll be busy whatsapping pics/videos to various family members as a thank you, goes down very well. 6pm DH and DS walk the dog again while i make dinner. Dinner is non-traditional. Eat, xmas film, go to bed.

We live near Barcelona and the log is a Catalan tradition.
DH has lunch with his dad and bil/sil Christmas eve, just the four of them. Relations are a little strained and DH has refused to entertain them this Christmas (they usually come for CD lunch).
My family are in UK/Australia.

Boxing day is fairly normal: play with new stuff, eat nice food, walk the dog. The day after boxing day we'll be meeting our friends, or catching up with DS' friends.

However, in Spain FC doesn't bring the gifts - the 3 kings do on the night of 5th January. They arrive on boats at the port, go through the streets on floats throwing boiled sweets into the crowds of kids BOILED SWEETS! Some of them can sting! We go home gor a big family meal and DS has just one present from them.

We try not to overload DS with too much Christmas stuff - shopping, markets, making gingerbread house/biscuits (tried that, he wasn't interested). But he does enough to keep him happy. He'll still talk about Christmases padt in the middle of July Grin he is his mother's son!

elQuintoConyo · 18/09/2017 12:31

Caga Tio

What are your Christmas traditions?
wanderings · 18/09/2017 12:42

Because I always feel a bit jealous of the excitement and suspense that children feel before Christmas, my DH and I enjoy a silly little tradition just for us: he wraps my presents in front of me. I love hearing him do it, but I have to wear a Santa hat over my eyes so I can't see it!

DeadDoorpost · 18/09/2017 15:37

DH and I are still trying to work out our own traditions but one that we've borrowed from my parents is ordering a takeaway and then watching a film/playing a game in the evening and attending a carol concert if we feel like venturing out (when it's raining).

Traditions I had growing up included making and baking all sorts of treats, meeting santa, Christmas films on constantly for the whole of november/December (sometimes from July as my family love christmas) amd decorating the tree was an evening thing with cookies and hot chocolate after.

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