What are your 'small at home christmas' traditions?

[Putmynewshoeson]

Seeing as it looks like normal Christmas isn't going to be on the cards this year, how do you make Christmas special if you stay at home with your immediate family and don't go far?
Trying to look on the bright side and thinking about how it will be less stressful and more chilled but also want to make it special as it will be DS'S first Christmas (not technically but he was born on Christmas eve last year so last one doesn't count as we were barely home for most of it)

There is a Christmas board where someone has already asked this but I think the best thing about traditions is that they slowly evolve.

New PJs for Santa coming, McDs for Xmas Eve dinner for the kids (started as it was where they'd meet their dad to get gifts and has continued on since he's out the picture). Bed by 9pm for the kids. They are pre-teens now so some of the old magic has somewhat gone with the "magic key" etc, although we still leave a glass of milk out .

Once they are settled, I watch It's a Wonderful Life with a glass of wine and a cheese board. Surrounded by all my twinkly lights and generally just soak in the festive vibe. Around midnight I bring down all the pressies and lay them on the sofas (each kid chooses "their" sofa before bed), make up the stockings and I head to bed ready for an early rise.

Xmas Day, I find very stressful. Xmas Eve, I love.

Ah sorry! I didn't realise! Feel free to ignore my post in that case and I'll see if I can find it
My bloody search function never works on MN so I'm often that annoying poster duplicating threads

Your Xmas Eve sounds wonderful @FatBottomedGurl

@Putmynewshoeson

Ah sorry! I didn't realise! Feel free to ignore my post in that case and I'll see if I can find it My bloody search function never works on MN so I'm often that annoying poster duplicating threads

Honestly, don't worry about it, threads are duplicated all the time. If you report your own post, MN will move it over time the Christmas Topic if you'd like them too! It'll save you getting a ton of arsey responses

I'm ok these days, but the year after my Dad died i positive took off the heads if anyone ousting about Christmas in 'fucking September'. I was in a bad way. But lots of people get upset by Christmas (with far more reason than I had!) so it's just kind to keep it in the topic for a few months yet.

I'm normally a real minimalist, but Christmas here looks like Santa's Grotto!!

We have had a small Xmas at our own house for the last 2 years. I was expecting it to be a bit dull because until then, for me, it'd always been a noisy, busy affair which sounds fun but was in some ways a bit much. Xmas by ourselves is actually lovely. We have presents, music, good food, visitors throughout the day (though that might not be allowed this year) and then a quiet, chilled evening.

Really valid point, I'll do that now thank you

We visit a local village which goes crazy with decorations and lights. It is one street and almost all the houses go OTT. It is an essential visit every year. We make sure we take plenty of change to roll down the chutes for all the charity buckets which are out.

This isn’t small at home but it only requires us wrapping up and heading out so there is no real effort.

Have reported to be moved as would hate to offend or upset anyone who really doesn't want to even contemplate christmas yet!
A quiet one sounds really nice actually @twotwozero

We always make mince pies on Christmas Eve so we can leave one out for Santa with a carrot for Rudolph (and a drink for Santa). We still do this even now DD is in her teens.

New pyjamas for everyone wrapped under the tree to open on Christmas Eve. We have the same stockings which we set out each year which I fill when DD has gone to bed.

You might pick a favourite breakfast or snack to have first thing. It's a great time to start your own traditions with your DS, OP - enjoy!

Probably won’t work if your kids are older but every year our kids (4&6) come though to us first, do their stockings in our bed then DH goes down the stairs to check Rudolph hasn’t pooped on the carpet 😂 He makes a big show of it so the kids can hear (lots is overly dramatic ‘not again’ etc) and they think it’s hilarious. It’s such a stupid little thing but my dad did it when my brother and I were kids so it truly is a family tradition.

Other than that our only tradition is a bottle of Buck’s Fizz with breakfast.

@Putmynewshoeson

Ah sorry! I didn't realise! Feel free to ignore my post in that case and I'll see if I can find it My bloody search function never works on MN so I'm often that annoying poster duplicating threads

Not a problem. I just thought you might get more ideas on the Christmas board. 🎄

We let each child choose a new tree decoration each year. For the first year you can do a hand printer bauble. We also have Christmas fairy instead of an elf she hangs out in our house and takes letters to and from Father Christmas every few days or so.

This will be DD's first Christmas (she'll be 10 months) so it will be special even if we can't have our normal big family Christmas as long as we are all alive and healthy. However, I will be gutted if we can't spend it with my parents, sister and BIL as we do every year. I'll be getting her a First Christmas bauble and have already started on her presents, even got a personalised stocking and personalised presents sack that she can use for years to come.

Fingers crossed that restrictions are lifted by Christmas so we can see loved ones as usual on Christmas day.

We always do

Xmas "gathering" with a few friends on Xmas Eve. Few drinks, cheese etc. Normally done by kids bedtime of 7pm.

New jimjams, hot chocolate and Muppet Christmas carol now they're older before bed.

On Xmas day we have bucks fizz, and smoked salmon with scrambled eggs for breakfast.

DH goes down the stairs to check Rudolph hasn’t pooped on the carpet 😂 He makes a big show of it so the kids can hear (lots is overly dramatic ‘not again’ etc) and they think it’s hilarious.
I love this! May steal it.

My LO will be 18 months so it feels like the first proper one, certainly the first one to start creating some traditions. We have a huge immediate family (both DH and I have five siblings) so Christmas could potentially be very different, but I’m keen to embrace it whatever it is.

I hope the church services are still on 🤞🏻

We always leave carrots out for the reindeer and sometimes we’ve got to the early afternoon before the dc have thought to check if it’s been eaten. It just adds another little layer of magic.
There’s always been some evidence - sleigh marks in the lawn, a hedge that a hungry reindeer has been nibbling on, a sleigh bell that has fallen off the reins....
Last year, we left the carrot at the front of the house, and the reindeer left hoof prints on the roof of dh’s car.
Another year, there was a stray present on the edge of the roof of the house that must have fallen out.

We always just have Christmas by itself, and actually the reason that I like it so much is that the run up is so busy. And this year it won't be, so that's really upset me (not getting at you OP, just reflecting on the reasons why I love our wee quiet day so much...)

Anyway. Essentials are a big walk with the dog down to the seafront near us, which has the added bonus of lots of little ones out on their new bikes/scooters (DS is a teen now).

Food is very relaxed and spread over the day. We eat our main course at 6 then have puds or cheese through the evening. DS not a big eater so this has always suited us but also means no stress for the cook. I always make a huge effort with the table setting though. But essentially it's about taking it easy.

We were saying, once you have celebrations, a tin of biscuits, crisps, fizzy drinks, board games and Christmas tv, you're sorted!!! Also the last 3 years we haven't done Christmas crackers for environmental reasons, but this year theyll be back for one year only.

We put our real tree up Christmas Eve after we have been to Christingle at church. Whilst we are doing the decorating we watch The Snowman, It’s a Wonderful Life and a version of a Christmas Carol, usually black and white. Then midnight mass. Done the same every year since we got married 34 years ago.

Kids (now teens!) still come into our bed to open their stockings on Christmas morning and I pretend to be surprised at what is in them 😁

Then we stand on the stairs until DH announces it's safe to come down to the living room. He usually does the "ey up Santa, get a shift on, kids are on their way" spiel or some other nonsense like "nope, nothing here, go back to bed, we must have the wrong day".

Then it's into the living room where the kids have a paper sack each for presents, which they empty and open, and then I take a photo of them standing in the sacks, which I do every year. Then we have breakfast with Bucks Fizz.

Its not much really, but I'm determined to keep reusing those paper sacks until they literally crumble to dust 😁

Some lovely traditions on this thread, I love reading about them. We haven't really got any of our own yet as this will be DS' second Christmas and up until now, DH really wasn't a Christmas fan so I did all that with my side of the family. He's totally changed his tune now we have DS so I think this year we'll do more in our house.

When we were little, putting up the tree and decorations was a big deal. We all had our own jobs. I remember being almost painfully excited about being allowed up into the attic with dad to find the tree etc. I'd would stand halfway up the ladder and he passed everything down to me, I'd hand it to my sister at the bottom of the ladder who took it to my mum halfway down the stairs. It sounds silly probably but we loved it.

Then dad would do the tinsel over the doors and the stairs, and the lights on the tree. My sister and I put the decorations on the tree. I liked things ordered and she didn't so we did half each and then I would sneak in later and turn the tree so my neat half was showing.

We always watched Carols from Kings with a mince pie. That's still one of my favourite parts and I never miss it.

I have my own tradition of buying myself a really nice bottle of wine and getting tipsy wrapping the presents. Probably not the most wholesome tradition but hey ho. While I do it, I always watch those crap 'countdown' type shows that you get on Channel 5 at Christmas, 'top 10 ABBA songs of all time', 'top 100 Christmas toys' etc. I bloody love them.

Just thought of another one. My sister, my cousins and I always put on a Christmas panto for the adults every year. I was the oldest so I always wrote the script, a task I took very seriously. The idea originated with my Grandma who gave putting on a Christmas show for after lunch to the children as a job to keep us out from under their feet while they did the meal prep. She was the only adult allowed to feature in it and always played the pantomime dame. She had a bad hip so the 'stage' always had an armchair in the middle from which she gave her performance. My boy cousin was always the villain (at his request), his sister was always the princess, I was the prince and my sister was my comedic sidekick.

Our children didn't have sugary cereals on a daily basis, so they loved it when Santa left a box of coco pops next to the plate we'd left his mince pie on, or sometimes a variety pack.

Muppet Christmas Carol is the best Christmas film IMO GuyFawkesDay - heatwave!

Carols from King’s on Christmas Eve, with mulled wine and mince pies.
I dare say it’ll be a repeat this year, but that won’t bother me.

Usually a late night walk with dh on Christmas Eve, armed with secateurs, to find some holly to stick in the Christmas pudding.