Christmas Traditions

[Treezan82]

What are your Christmas traditions? I have a 3 and 5 year old. We visit santa and between Christmas and New Year we go ice skating and go to a pantomime. The first thing we do is let the kids choose a new bauble from a specific shop. Last year was such a washout, want loads of fun and build-up this year. What are yours?

@DaisyDozyDee you make a really good point, it’s very easy to put too much pressure on ourselves at Christmas, not to mention our children, who can end up in a frenzy by 24th December.

Since DS started school I have really scaled back on what we do. At school he has an epic Christmas fair, a Christmas production, a theatre trip and Christmas jumper day, all within a couple of weeks. If I add too much to that then he’s in a state of hyperactive exhaustion.

Our traditions are really simple- decorating the tree together, Christmas songs on the school run and having a travel mug of hot chocolate waiting for him in the car, hanging the same stocking every year and leaving a mince pie and carrot out on Christmas Eve.

The one thing we do always try to do (and only missed last year due to COVID) is attend the wonderful Christmas party run by the oncology team who specialise in the cancer DS had as a baby. He’s been going since he was tiny and it’s been the same wonderful Santa every year. I always cry when Santa arrives, I can’t help it .

My three are 11 now and our traditions have evolved over the years. The traditions that have remained the same are

• tree up last weekend in November (my daughter is not willing to negotiate on this one!)
• Christmas cake (made by my son in October and fed until the 23rd when it is decorated by the whole family)
• gingerbread stars made and decorated to hang on the tree as well as dried orange slices
• mince pies made by daughter
• make and decorate a gingerbread house
• Carols from Kings played via Alexa while we make homemade gifts for neighbours (found a wonderful book full of boxes to colour which my daughter loves - www.amazon.co.uk/dp/0857638033/ref=cm_sw_r_cp_awdb_imm_5X4MM0MMAH11W2JBQ9ZQ?tag=mumsnetforu03-21
• Christmas bedding (same sets year after year)
• picture advent calendars
• walks/drives around the city to look at lights
• hot chocolate bar
• movie nights
• new pjs for Christmas Eve
• read Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve
• take away Christmas Eve

There’s probably plenty I’ve missed but they are so ingrained in our Christmas it’s hard to think of them separately!

@NorthernDramaLlama

I am overly invested in Elf on the shelf! As the years have passed we have 'props'. DC ask, I wonder if Elf will do this again X year...? The elf door is active all year. If DC get a good school report (or similar), a little treat from Elf appears at the door. Ashamed to say, once or twice some Bbq coal has been found. Santa is always watching!

I’m with you, i love the elves, I’m already planning things. We now have a family of them that visit us.

My oldest dd gets angry and frustrated each year that her elf keeps besting her and it dosnt matter where she hides him or how much she restrains him, he gets free 😂 We even built an Elf jail last year 😂

There are so so many fun and exciting things to do with them.

Our traditions have evolved as the children have grown

1st Dec elves arrive with advent calendars.
The closest Sunday we put up the tree, decorate the house and change to Christmas bedding.

We have a reusable advent calendar for activities such as hot chocolate and a book, Christmas movie nights, drive to see the lights, kitchen disco, Christmas market, afternoon tea with Father Christmas (prob last year as youngest 10 by Christmas) but will replace with festive afternoon tea at lovely hotel, baking gingerbread reindeer’s, baking cookies for Santa etc.

I alway make my Christmas cake the Sunday before Halloween.

Around 10th Dec I attend a charity wreath making class - last year it was over zoom.

The Sunday before Christmas is open house at ours for food, drinks and catch ups - really missed it last year.

Christmas Eve we go for a meal and drinks with three other families then home for hot chocolate and a film.

Much port is consumed throughout December!

I'm Hungarian so we have a traditional Hungarian lunch on Christmas Eve.
we go to crib service, then kids can open their gifts from my mum and I call her.
We have pizza for dinner and watch Die Hard. Obviously we quote as many lines as we can and remark on all the outdated stuff.
It's not Christmas until we see Hans Gruber fall from Nakatomi tower, so when that scene comes up we all say "And now it's Christmas!"🤣

On Christmas day we have a special breakfast, kids open stockings then we go to church. Then DH makes lunch.
We watch the Queen's speech at 3pm the open gifts.
Then we play lots of games.

On Boxing day we go for a walk & watch Die Hard 2.

Also we watch Die Hard with a vengeance on NYE & on NYD I watch the concert from Vienna with whoever is up, wrapped up in a blanket & sipping hot chocolate.

oh and there used to be at least one trip to A&E during the holiday so now when people ask "How was Christmas" the best I can reply with is "great, no A&E!"

1st December- advent calendars come out. DC have a chocolate one they choose as soon as we see them in supermarkets. They also have a toy one (lego, schleich
etc) which they love!

First weekend of December the tree goes up. We also build the Christmas lego sets (gingerbread house, nutcracker & tree). DC have a 3' tree each for their rooms & we give them a new decoration each year that relates to their interests that year (minecraft, dinosaurs, piano, ballet, puzzle cube etc)

My birthday (mid December) we go out when it's dark to look at Christmas lights then come home for a takeaway.

C.Eve we make the gingerbread house & a present mysteriously appears under the tree for each DC which has their Christmas pjs (matching! this is now followed by eye rolls & laughter as they pose for a photo ).

Christmas tree always up by 14th December as my late sisters birthday and she adored Christmas, a mini photo of her in a frame at the top as she is our Christmas fairy now!

Also 2 of our kids are December born so we usually decorate the tree on the Sunday that falls between their birthdays.

DH does all the shopping (gifts & food), gets the tree with the kids, put up outside lights, write cards.
I have 2 jobs: help him wrap gifts and put lights on tree - once the lights are on he decorates it with the kids while we listen to Christmas music.

We watch The Snowman (and various other Christmassy films but The Snowman is a must), Christmas sauna, and we hire a Santa to hand out the presents on Christmas Eve (except last year because covid, hopefully this year we will be able to)

We start by decorating a bauble at a local pottery painting place (tradition started by accident when someone arranged a NCT meet up when he was a baby for the last weekend of November at pottery painting place to decorate mugs for relatives and we did a bauble).

When dc2 came along we have hand prints as a baby on one then they get more complex. We are a decade on our tree is now mainly decorated with these.

We also do new pjs on Christmas eve. We have a chippy tea on Christmas eve. We go to the Christingle service on Christmas eve.

This might be the first year we don't do father Christmas visit. Im a bit sad about it, but will do a winter lights trail at a local forestry commission place.

One more we have a game where we shout CHRISTMAS LIGHTS when we spot lights and we're in the car. You can also shout HALLOWEEN or ITS COMING HOME when you spot decor throughout the year!

That's really made me laugh

We have no DC so no two Christmases are ever the same. Sometimes we're home with a houseful, sometimes just the two of us, sometimes we're away but there are one or two things that have stuck.

We always buy a bag of White Company Christmas pot pourri which I put in our fire grate and it gets lit at some point and smells lovely and festive.

A friend and I usually go to the Christmas fair in my home town.

If we're catering, thanks to a failsafe timetable created by DH we sit down to eat at 2pm and I will have had 10 minutes while the peas are coming to the boil to have a quick fag and glass of fizz on the seingseat (weather permitting).

• swingseat

We have lots! The elf’s arrival on Dec 1st along with a festive-themed breakfast, advent calendars, Christmas games and books etc. Putting the wreath on the door and the lights outside.

Going to choose the best Christmas tree, bringing it home in the car to decorate together. Christmas music on, then all watch the same Christmas film every year together.

Writing a letter to Santa and walking to the postbox together.

Visiting Santa in the same old barn every year. It’s in the evening and all the lights are on, very magical. We all dress up and have dinner out nearby.

Walking down to the local Christmas fayre for a glass of mulled wine and bumping into all our neighbours/ school friends.

Panto with the cousins.

Walking around our area finding the best lights.

Christmas Eve walk in the same place with all our family, hot chocolate when we’re back and then baking for Santa. Put the baked item out with glass of milk and carrot on the same tray. Open our boxes to find our new pjs, all climb on the sofa together to eat cheese & biscuit board and watch the same Christmas film every year. Bringing the Christmas wreath in on Christmas Eve to use as the centrepiece of the table the next day (with a candle in the middle).

Christmas Day everyone in on our bed opening stocking and drinking coffee/ juice. Dad checking downstairs to see if Santa has been then the kids running down as fast as they can.

We have a few but one very special one to me is a book I've read every Christmas since I was 4.

It's about a bear celebrating his first Christmas. My Mum got it out of the library when I was 4 and I loved it so much she bought it for me the next Christmas. Every 1st and 24th December ever since my Mum has read this story to me (and probably a few times in between when I was little). I know it by heart now and recite it along with her!

Now I have my own children she reads it to me and my children. (Last year it was over Zoom on Xmas Eve, because of Covid restrictions)

It's out of print now but a few years ago we found a second-hand copy online so at least we have one in each household!

Make a Christmas cake and everyone stirs it and makes a wish.
Make Christingles with oranges, cloves, greenery etc
An advent calendar with no tacky gifts or chocolate inside, just doors to open with pictures behind
Put fresh holly in the house
Have a day baking Christmas cookies and crafty things
Carols from Kings on Christmas Eve

@WhittersE

We have a few but one very special one to me is a book I've read every Christmas since I was 4.

It's about a bear celebrating his first Christmas. My Mum got it out of the library when I was 4 and I loved it so much she bought it for me the next Christmas. Every 1st and 24th December ever since my Mum has read this story to me (and probably a few times in between when I was little). I know it by heart now and recite it along with her!

Now I have my own children she reads it to me and my children. (Last year it was over Zoom on Xmas Eve, because of Covid restrictions)

It's out of print now but a few years ago we found a second-hand copy online so at least we have one in each household!

That is a beautiful tradition 💗

I love the teddy bear book tradition. What is it out of interest? I collect Christmas children's books. On Christmas Eve, we read The Night Before Christmas, The Tomtes Christmas Porridge by Sven Norqvidst, Christmas on Exeter Street by Diana Henry and The Christmas Eve Ghost by Shirley Hughes. All about Christmas Eve and all beautifully illustrated. Oh and Sproutzilla as ds flipping loves it.

If you want nice keepsake books, the Robert Ingpen illustrated classics (Night Before Christmas, The Nutcracker, Christmas Carol), are sublime.

1st Dec the elves bring the advent calenders and things to make Xmas cards and crackers.
We then make the cards the 1st weekend of Dec and the crackers on the 23rd
We always go for a drive to see lights.
On Christmas eve we have a lazy tea while we watch muppet christmas Carol and then we read the night before Christmas at bedtime before leaving a plate out for santa.
This year we are also going to a reindeer farm which should be fun.

Christmas eve box even tho MN hates them.

@lollipoprainbow

Christmas tree always up by 14th December as my late sisters birthday and she adored Christmas, a mini photo of her in a frame at the top as she is our Christmas fairy now!

That is lovely ❤️

DC are 21 and 19 now so a load of ours have been changed but the ones that remain:

Gorgeous little Advent tree with a decoration in each door of the handpainted cupboard . Its as old as DS and still makes an appearance .

Dec 1st Hampers instead of Christmas Eve . Underwear , socks , new pyjamas (Winter not Christmas ) a robe if they need one .
Chocolte advent calendar
Some toiletires for DS

DD has a Beauty Advent Calendar I make for her . Day 1 and Day 24 are the Big Ones

Shopping Day for DD and I usually London (not last year though)

We go to the theatre (London , something like The Play That Goes Wrong / Christmas Carol )

DH and I book a day off end November to go shopping together and have lunch .

Christmas Dinner is late , after dark . Candles on the table ( LED ones now with the cats )

DS likes money so we don;t buy him much (he gets his Dec 1st Hamper) his birthday is December too . No point spending for the sake of it . I put money in a Christmas book one year

Watch "Lost Christmas" (Eddie Izzard film and now also "Last Christmas" (really cheesey rom-com written by Emma Thompson )

Decorations don't go up till after DS Birthday

Christmas towels , Christmas Toilet Paper, spicey handsoap in the bathroom/toilet
Christmas teatowels and Christmas straws in the kitchen on Dec 1st .

TV Times and 4 highlighter pens

Used to do a Christmas Eve photo when we had guinea-pigs .(with hats on a Christmas fleece , they had vegetable trimmings for supper . Brussel tree and windy little GP 2

Every Saturday evening in December before DC’s tea, we wrap up warm and walk out to see everyone’s Christmas lights; dog gets an extra walk & both DC’s (3&5) get to carry a torch each which they take great delight in

Christmas bedding on, dog has his Christmas jumpers (a variety, usually add a new one each year) and he goes into his red checked tartan coat for walks.

We have a Santa cam as not keen on elf on the shelf.

There’s a great app where you can film inside your house, the mince pie, carrot, milk etc that DC’s have left for Santa and the app adds in a reindeer eating the carrot, so Xmas morning they kids get to watch an actual reindeer in their house. That went down a treat last year!

Ooh Christmas Bedding - I forgot that on my list

DS has red/snowflake
DD has grey/stag
DH and I have Nordic grey/beige/white

DD has hers put on Hallowe'en night , the rest of us wait till Dec 1st
Its not overly Christmas more winter . DS can turn his over so it's plain red till the week before Christmas .

i turn father christmas into a whole day out like mead open farm is fantastic.We like to to go to christmas markets,we decorate the tree together.I let the kids choose 3 snacks of what ever they want to eat over christmas. I also like doing the sock swap with my other half.Anything small we wish to give each other we put in each others stocking and christmas we swap them back