Christmas Traditions..

[FairyDust92]

So! We're nearly there and I'm a lover of Christmas! 😂
What's everyone's Christmas traditions or just little things they like to do?

I'll start with mine.
We go for breakfast on Christmas Eve and then get a take away for dinner round my mums with everyone 😋.

I have to have my Christmas play list sorted by at least late October/Early November (it's a rule!) 😂

My tree and decorations go up in November!

We always have a family quiz made up by my BIL they're very good and very entertaining!

Oh and of course we can't forget an argument on Christmas Day! Usually the kids though! 😂

Oh and of course we can't forget an argument on Christmas Day

Growing up we traditionally had our argument on the first Saturday in December while trying to get the bloody tree to stand up straight!

Christmas Eve, after dinner, the youngest lights the Christmas candle (to show that there is "room in our Inn for any weary travellers" - Irish tradition) and accompany that with a few minutes quiet reflection as a family on the year just finishing, the good and bad, and remembering family no longer with us.

We used to all o to town on Christmas Eve, as I would have to go to work for an hour or 2, and DD would come with me (no real work is done), then we'd meet DH after his coffee and get the last minute bits (including DD's birthday cake from M&S - it gets quiet around lunchtime), go for a nice lunch and then go home to do the veggies and prep for 25th (all work together in the kitchen and start to slow down as a family - it's nice). Now DH also has to go to work (all day) and teenage DD doesn't think it's "cool" to go to my office, so we're going to do it differently - we've started doing the charity swim at the yacht club instead, but I need to think about this year as it will be a work day (I need either to take a full day of leave, or turn up for an hour).

DD always bakes cookies for Santa on Christmas Eve (even last year). Some years, we have time and energy and space to do them from scratch, but I always have a half a batch frozen from earlier in December to just slice and bake - just in case!

There is an obligatory argument, but that is usually when we go to visit extended family...

On Christmas Eve we get up and after breakfast we strip and wash all the bedding, clean and tidy the house to make space. Then we go and visit my sil

When we get back, the ‘elves’ have been. Each child has a bag in with new pjs, bath bomb or bubble bath. A book. An activity, hot chocolate and marshmallows. And then a single small wrapped present each in the same wrapping paper as they will have the next day. (Each child has their own paper to make it easier)

Then we have pizza for tea. All of us have baths and put on new pjs. Then we make hot chocolate and watch the snowman

After that babyschips has his story and goes to bed.

Then the older two watch polar express with us. Then middle chips goes to bed with her new book to read

Eldest chips helps us put some presents under the tree then she goes to bed.

On the run up to Christmas one Saturday we all go to town and the girls split up. One with me one with dh (baby chips always with me atm) and they pick out presents for each other. And a lot of thought goes into it

Christmas starts on Dec1st. I get all the carol and Christmas music albums out and start playing them. I put up all the Christmas lights. The rest of the decs wait until nearer the day as we like to have a fresh tree.

Buy the tree from out local farm.

Stockings hung up by the fire on Christmas Eve. DC still put a brandy and mince pie out for Santa, even though they're in late teens. Everyone in the house or staying over gets a stocking.

I always make my own Christmas cake, trad puddings, yule chocolate log and sticky toffee alternative pudding.

Christmas Day starts with stockings. Then smoked salmon and scrambled egg bagels and buck's fizz. Then we open presents and play with them. We have a light lunch of home made soup and chocolate log. Then a walk around a nearby lake where a flock of white doves will eat from your hand in winter, so we take plenty of birdseed. Home to have Christmas Dinner in the early evening by candlelight. Then slob in front of tv and watch whatever we want.

Boxing Day is always out and about as our village has its own folk customs so we join in with those.

I get Christ the King over and then fire up the laptop with christmasfm.com/ and drive my family mental. Love it.

Once the children are in bed on the 30th of November, up go the trees. I seem to acquire more every year so this year we will have one in the hall, one in the sitting room, one in the playroom and a weird Dr Suess type one I found in Ikea in the kitchen.

Underneath the main tree, I put the boxes of decorations and a new decoration each for them to find when they get up.

We read the Enid Blyton Christmas book across december just like my mum did with me. We also read a new (as in out of the storage box) Christmas book every night at bed time.

Christmas Eve we make cookies for Santa and decorate the Gingerbread house. Our guests usually arrive about 3 o clock and then we have our Christmas picnic by the Christmas tree with cold meats, olives, crusty bread etc before going to the Christingle service. I do a Christmas Eve box in memory of a christmas obsessed friend who died in a car crash a few years ago. I put new pyjamas in it, some sort of christmas related bath toy, bath bomb, a new board game, hot chocolate and christmas mugs to drink it out of and a few other bits.

When the children are in bed, we usually play a board game and then sit down with drinks and I read my Christmas murder mystery which I sneak in the christmas eve box whilst dh entertains.

Christmas morning we open stockings and then have bacon sandwiches before opening the rest of the presents.

DD demands her Winter Bedding (grey fleecy with stags ) is put on for Nov 1st . The Christmas fleece goes later .

They have their Christmas Eve Hamper on Dec 1st to get more use .
DD has a Beauty Advent that I make for her

Advent Tree that we've had for years gets set up on Nov 30th
No decorations till after DS Birthday , I put a wreath up on Dec 1st and the Christmas oilcloth goes on the table but the tree waits till two weeks before .

DH and I book a Friday off in late Nov for shopping without DC

DD and I watch 'Lost Christmas' (Eddie Izzard film)

We go to London a couple of days before Christmas for a nosey

I buy The Thing which sets the theme for the table
I have a healthy collection of cutlery and spoons , I'm always looking for new ones .

When we had the guinea-pigs we did an Annual Piggie Photo with them wearing Christmas hats (in exchange for the veg trimmings) . I cannot see the cats rejoicing at this but I'll win them round with tuna.

I wrire my Lists and put them on the fridge ( and re-write them over again )

All the soaps - see their rubbish Christmases , they aren't allowed a Happy Christmas
DS will be 20 , DD will be 17.6 so we get a lie in at least

Love all your traditions!

Oh of course there are arguments when the tree goes up! I will always have someoen to blame for the effing lights not looking right 😌. Once it's up it's like nothing happened!!

Love the memory box for your friend 💗

Some of your traditions sound beautiful!

It's like running to a schedule on Christmas Eve isn't it!

Agree with bedding on when Nov 1st hits!

@DinosauratemydaffodilsDinosaur - when you say Christmas murder mystery - do you mean one set at Christmas time? I'd love some recommendations. Absolutely not choosy about when they were written or how trashy they are, I just really fancy a seasonal mystery.

@milliefiori Yes ones set at Christmas. I have most of these:

www.deadgoodbooks.co.uk/classic-christmas-crime/

There is also PD James's "The Mistletoe Murders and Other Stories". I get a new one every year on Christmas Eve and put the old ones in a basket at the start of December for guests/me to read/reread.

Tree usually goes up around the second week of December.
Everyone will take a turn stirring the Christmas cake when I make it in October.
We make Christingles with oranges, spices, greenery from the garden etc
Carols from Kings on Christmas Eve and then a quiz or a game.
Stocking opened with the dcs sitting on our bed (they are in their mid 20s!)

Tree goes up the weekend before Christmas.
We go to church on Christmas morning
We have champagne and smoked salmon after church
"Lunch is at about 3pm"
Boxing day is big, usually about 12: cold ham, cold turkey, anti-pasti, stuffing, crunchy roasties, yummy salads, Christmas cake, cheeseboard.
27th: turkey and ham pie with mash and green veg - this is the family's favourite meal.

Oh and just in case I forget after christmas lunch we have birthday cake and birthday presents for DS!

I usually cook and clean all xmas eve. I bang on some xmas tunes, the kids do activities, watch movies all day. We visit family and in the evening we walk through town to see the lights and pick up a take away and the elf have left an xmas eve box while we've been out. We'll watch the polar Express whine eat food.

@70isaLimitNotaTarget
I buy The Thing which sets the theme for the table I have a healthy collection of cutlery and spoons , I'm always looking for new ones
This sounds really interesting & right up my street. Can you tell us more? 😊

ooh a christmas thread! I love it... I cant wait for decorations to go up and will make any excuse to put them up at the end of august. Tree is always around the 15th December which involves the usual argument with the OH who screeches about the tree not being straight. I like to pop satsumas with cloves stuffed in around the house as it smells like xmas. I start my first batch of mince pies the same day we put the tree up as it smells festive! Ice Skating with the DC is booked in for the week before Xmas and a panto a few days before xmas. We make cinnamon biscuits in various festive shapes. Obviously the cake has been getting fed since October and that is finished off and iced on xmas eve. We always have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on muffins for xmas breakfast along with some bubbly for the adults! I love xmas and could go on and on

end of november for decorations...not sure where august came from

christmas pudding is already done as is the christmas chutneys...but i still have the chutneys from last year which taste amazing after a year

Talking

The Thing is just something random that I like and I want on my Christmas Table .
One year it was JL crackers , blue with grey stags .
My crockery is white , I have different table covers , so I got some navy chiffon to layer over a white cover and some Bacci sweets (blue wrappers) in a large glass bowl .
IIRC blue napkins .

Couple of years ago I bought a red/dark green paisley cover and found a pack of napkins that were a traditional Victorian Father Christmas , the colours just went together .

DD always asks when I'll find The Thing

I try and work round what I have already .
Cutlery draw has loads of serving spoons , cake forks, butter knives ,

I really miss our HomeSense , it was an Aladdins Cave

Tree up at the beginning of December always with a new bauble with the year on.
Hyde Park winter wonderland one Saturday in December.
I always cook a huge ham on Christmas Eve which we have for tea with warm baked rolls and make a start on the Christmas chocolates.
My now 16yo has new pyjamas on Christmas Eve (alas no longer matching with me) and will be allowed one present to open, the rest won’t be out under the tree until she promises she won’t come down the stairs again until the morning.
Christmas Day starts with her shouting ‘he’s been’ (even at her age) and then opening her stocking in my bed with me.
She then waits for me to go downstairs to turn on Christmas lights, feed pets and make a cup of tea before she comes down to open her presents.
Buck’s Fizz will always be opened by 9am.

Some great ideas here that i may steal, my son will be 11 months at christmas so time to start our own family traditions :)

The only tradition I seem to get stuck with is wrapping presents during the night on Christmas Eve! I must get more organised this year lol.

Can anyone please link in the Christmas bargains thread please as it's disappeared from my watch list!
Thank you

We’ve recently started an advent calendar where there is a box which is a certain size and you have to buy 4 or 5 gifts which have to fit in box and you have to buy for the other 4 people of the family. I’ve already started buying little bits for i when I see something that will fit the box

Wherever we go on our travels we buy a decoration for the tree. We have more momentos on the tree now than standard baubles and it’s a nice way to remind us where we have been

The same table linen always comes out . And ww3 broke out when someone suggested we needed to get a new tree

Love these! We’re still building our traditions but the main ones are...

Decs go up on the first Saturday of December

All Xmas shopping will be finished by then (that’s my deadline) so that December can be enjoyed without worry!

The elves collect our empty Xmas eve hamper and letters for FC 2 weeks before Xmas and leave a letter from him in return. (This started the year dd1 was old enough to realise that the hamper doubles up as bauble storage!! Had to do some quick thinking that day!)

Last year I took dd1 out of school during the last week of term and we had a day in the nearest city going round the Xmas markets just the 2 of us. I think that may become an annual thing which is lovely but also means that I’ll have to think of something to do with dd2 too as she starts school this time.

Mum likes to take the girls to the carol service on Xmas eve which gives me a chance to sort some last bits.

If we’re eating elsewhere on Xmas day I’ll cook the majority of an Xmas dinner on Xmas eve to wrap up as ‘left overs’ for Boxing Day as that is the best bit IMHO and I won’t miss out on those!

The day itself starts with stockings in our bed followed by pork pie and Buck’s Fizz under the tree (no idea why, we just always have, even my mum can’t fathom how it started when I was little!)

Then the day is just allowed to flow naturally! As long as there’s leftovers for Boxing Day...

Christmas tree goes up on first Sunday in December.
Myself, DH and youngest DD always go to the same garden centre to get it and we always buy at least one new decoration.

On Christmas Eve we go to mass, it's a beautiful service with lots of carols and candlelight.

Dinner after mass is our "Christmas Eve" smorgasbord which is lots of lovely party food from Tesco or M&S and we have a carpet picnic while watching a film.
We have all changed into our new Christmas jimjams by this point.

Before bed, even though our youngest is nearly 14 we put out the Santa plate with milk and cookies and a wee drop of whiskey (my Dh still insists on that lol)

Christmas Day is just us as we live abroad from all our family and hate travelling that time of year. It's a totally relaxed, chocolate for breakfast and games after dinner kind of day.

Can't wait xx

I find that the night DH is at his work "do" is a good night to feed DD and send her off to watch a movie on her ipad in bed (treat), while I get stuck into a movie on the tv (or just listening to good Christmas music - choral music or similar, not the "Christmas classics" party hits) behind the ironing board (an ideal height to stand up and not get back ache) with my wrapping paper, ribbons, tape and a glass of wine. I usually have to do more than 1 session, but that one often does the bulk of what's needed and takes the pressure off getting the rest done.