1st Sunday of Advent I roast a goose and save the fat (in sterilized jars) for roast potatoes.
Christmas decorations are hauled out of attic and I set up tree and lights and then the dc get to open their box of decorations and put them on the tree. These are things they’ve made in school or with me, and a decoration from each year of their lives. It’s lovely taking out each one and remembering the year he was obsessed with trains/lego/etc
Under the tree we set up a lego train to run among the presents (some boxes are fakes with holes for tunnels)
We have advent calendars but other advent traditions are reading a Christmas bedtime
story (we’ve collected lots of books though I need to get some chapter books now), and every night we put a gold star in a jar to represent some kindness we’ve done (because all those moments of kindness are what creates the Christmas magic that helps santa fly). I do this primarily because my eldest has asd and is often frustrated and angry and very entrenched in getting his own way and wouldn’t see himself as a good or nice child. It helps boost his self esteem and when he believed stopped him worrying about santa not coming. We leave out the gold stars on Christmas Eve so Santa can see that we’ve made lots of Christmas magic for him.
We send our letters up the chimney. There’s a bit of a knack to catching the draught just right so I do it while the dc run out to the garden. If you’re quick enough you might see the letters flying out of the chimney and off to the North Pole but you have to be very quick.
In the afternoons we make some gifts. We often do a craft or play activity when it’s too wet for the garden so this is just a chrissmassy continuation of that. As tots we made salt dough hand prints and apple and cinnamon dough decorations, and finger painted rolls of paper as wrapping paper. When ds1 went to preschool we started making paper snowflakes for the back windows of the house so we do that every year now.
We go for wintery walks to see Christmas lights, or collect pine cones or greenery.
Closer to Christmas we bake stained glass cookies and make a gingerbread house and make chocolate shapes drenched in sprinkles. They’ve helped with all of these in one way or another since they were old enough to hold a wooden spoon.
We set up the nativity scene the week before Christmas. Mary, Joseph and the donkey are outside the stable (in theory they’d get closer each day) and go into the stable on Christmas Eve to join the ox. I put baby Jesus in when I’m going to bed and light the Star. Over the next few days the shepherds join them, and the three wise men move closer. In reality it all gets well played with and I glue on baby jesus’ head a few times. We had a big wooden doll house that used to get decorated with cotton wool and filled with every small figure (a mix of lego mini figs/happy land/ bendy doll house people, etc) as the over crowded inn with the stable beside it. But that’s found a new home.
On Christmas Eve we leave out treats for santa (I always leave the choice of treats up to them so we’ve had funny ones over the years). We consider very carefully where to leave the carrots for the reindeer as every year they get up to mischief.
Before bed we light the Christmas candle and then we cuddle in my bed and read a nativity story. I always insist on this whether we’re hosting or visiting: the door is closed firmly on everyone else and this is my quiet time with them.
In the morning we get up at silly o’clock and dh goes down first to check if santa has been and switch on the camera and lights. Then we open the gifts from santa.
We leave the other gifts until just before dinner when we have the ceremonial passing of gifts around. I wasn’t keen on this when we got married first but now I think it’s a great way to do it. The dc eat their dinner and then rush off to play with new gifts, leaving the adults to sit peacefully for hours! And the gifts from grandparents don’t get lost among the excitement of santa.
Santa always leaves evidence of his visit (knocking things over, boot prints etc) but the best fun is finding out what awful thing the reindeer have done. (When we go to visit Santa I tell the dc that I’m going to give out to Santa about the mess, that he should control his reindeer better, and they beg me not to say anything. It passes a good bit of queuing time with me agreeing not to mention anything except... and them getting all worked up about me making a scene.
I set the table for breakfast the night before with santa cutlery holders, chair covers and decorate glasses as reindeer and snowman. It’s very much a children’s Christmas table.
Later, while dinner is cooking, they might help me set for dinner which is more formal. Every part of the table has significance - items that belonged to my grandparents, gifts, things from my wedding etc so we chat about these as we put them out and remember those who have died.
We go to mass which is always packed with people home to visit families and it’s lovely to catch up. All the dc bring a toy with them and santa always leaves chocolate coins with the priest to give to them all.
I’m going to have to have a good think now about some of these as the dc are outgrowing a lot of this. Neither believe anymore though they both will play along for the sake of their cousin, who spends a lot of time with us. Feeling a bit sad to be moving on