Christmas Traditions

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Hi everyone,

I am a new mum and although I am a bit early, I am already looking forward to my little ones first Christmas this year.

It got me thinking about Christmas traditions, what Christmas traditions do you have with your children? Something you do every year without fail, Something that makes Christmas that extra spacial for your child / children? I would love to hear them for inspiration for starting my own.

Thank you!

Christmas Eve we go to the theatre with friends, there is normally a play on about Santa at local theatre. Then for lunch. We go home and food prep etc then go for a walk to see Christmas lights at a particularly nice street nearby. Come home about 5 and the elves have been and left a little something!! Normally Pjs, bath bomb, hot chocolate. Then we get bathed, settle down with dinner in front of a film. I have been trying to find the perfect Xmas eve meal for years, haven’t managed yet, last years Christmas ham, crusty bread, pickles etc was pretty good but it’s what I have always though of as Boxing Day food.

Dh and I grew up with different Christmas traditions so we decided to use some of these and make new ones for ourselves.

We like Christmas to be gradual so 1st December is the reusable Advent Calendar. When the children were very little the calendar was not filled all the way to 24th but we put a single chocolate santa/reindeer/ball in every night for the next morning. Also the Christmas table cloth (oilcloth) table runner and place mats. We have Christmas mugs for hot chocolate and acrylic tumblers when they were little.

The weekend around 7th is when the tree goes up. Everyone does the tree, Dh and Ds2 do outdoor lights, Ds1 and I do the stair banister.

We would make mince pies (shop bought mincemeat but grated the zest of an orange into it) and Christmas shaped gingerbread cookies.

Movies, Polar Express, Prep and Landing, and now Elf. We used to go to a Christmas concert and walk round the estate looking at all the lit up houses.

They do get new pyjamas on Christmas eve but not Christmas themed, just ones that are new. Every year we film them saying it is Christmas eve and we are swapping our advent calendar for stockings. They still do this, they are 18 and 15! Those stockings magically still get filled, if you ask them of course they believe in Father Christmas.

Stockings are downstairs in the lounge. Dh used to have his on the end of his bed and would wake at 3am and open it all. Hence why our stockings are in the lounge on the fireplace.

We also have a Christmas menu, Christmas eve is a mustard maple ham we make, crunchy roast potatoes and veg. Christmas day is at my sister's house for the full turkey dinner. Boxing day is that left over ham with part baked rolls, cheeses, chutney etc. Every year we have a post-Christmas look back at what we liked so we can amend anything for the next year. I write it all down.

As a kid I didn’t have a stocking just a plain white pillowcase put at the end of my bed. It’s what my mum used to get too so I suppose it’s a little tradition.
So I do the same for mine.
Every year I buy plain white ones and they decorate them Christmas Eve with pens/glitter/stickers and the likes.
We have them all saved up in the loft.
Just means I have to buy a couple of bigger things to fill it out (usually a bigger book and slippers)

My DC are 4 and 2 so still little but the traditions we've built up are:

A new decoration for the Christmas tree each year. Something that is special or meaningful to us in one way. The DC each have a bauble with their name on and I bought two of each so they'll have their own version for their own tree one day if they want it.

We always have a Christmas light safari. Children in PJs put in the car, hot chocolate in travel cups, Christmas music on the radio and we drive around town one evening looking at all the decorated houses. It's my favourite part of the run up to Christmas and I've told DH I still want us to keep this tradition even when we're old and grey .

We always read The Night Before Christmas after putting out the mince pie, carrot and whisky on Christmas Eve.

A tradition I want to start this year is making a Christmas cake each year and getting a photo of DC stirring the mix.

On Christmas Eve we usually go out to a café for posh hot chocolates with cream and marshmallows. Although last year we did this at home and watched Christmas films which was lovely too.

One night we have only party food for dinner. Big platters of spring rolls, pigs in blankets, mozzarella sticks etc. Not at all healthy but an easy, fun treat. We usually do it for either Christmas Eve or New Year's eve.

Always a big walk on New year's day to blow the cobwebs away. There's something lovely about it being a brand new year and looking ahead.

Saturday before Christmas.
We go ice skating, onto to see Father Christmas and then have a meal out.

Christmas Eve.
The rotary club’s Christmas sleigh is out in our neighbourhood so we stand outside with all our neighbours to watch it pass. Then we’ll go for a walk and look at all the lit up houses. We have hot chocolate when we come home. Get ready for bed, read ‘night before Christmas’, put mince pie out for FC and carrot for Rudolph then bed.

Between Christmas and New Year.
We’ve been to Hever Castle (Kent) a couple of times they have a funfair there which is great. Going to book the pantomime this year as well.

Our traditions have changed and evolved over the years, but we always have to make mince pies on Christmas Eve using an old family recipe, and leave one out for Father Christmas along with a bottle of beer and an ancient bottle opener with a handle made from a bit of antler (not sure what Rudolf thinks of it, but DH did the same as a child!)

The other is the sock advent calendar. Shared between the whole family, I buy 3 bright coloured pairs of socks for everyone, put a little wrapped chocolate or sweet in each one, and hang them up on the mantelpiece, and we take turns each day to choose a sock (there's more tension these days now DH and DS, and Dd and I are the same size, it used to be obvious whose were whose when we were all different sizes.) DS used to have football socks for his favourite team when he was otherwise too cool for colourful socks.

@CarolinaWeeper I love the idea of a Christmas light safari. Definitely stealing that this year. Thank you

So Ds will be 1 a few weeks before christmas, but have thought of a few traditions for us to start

On the evening of 30th November I'm going to decorate the house whilst DS is asleep. So when he comes down it will magically be xmas and lovely.
See the lights switched on
Santa grotto and the nativity at the farm. 23rd a nice meal with DP and DS, pick up hot chocs from Costa and drive and see the lights.
Breakfast with santa on xmas eve. then party tea for tea.

Walk on NY xx

@MrsPworkingmummy it was an idea I took from the Christmas boards a few years ago after DC1 was born but we've done it each year since and it's absolutely my favourite thing to do in the run up to Christmas..... it's free too!

Only 3 traditions so far, but DS1 is 4 and DS2 is 9 months, so time to make more! We take a picture in front of our tree every year, I love that I have 4 already. In years to come I will make a little book of them to show how our family has grown.

We buy them a decoration with their name on it each year. They will have a good collection when they leave home!

Finally, we do a festive afternoon tea with both sets of grandparents together which is so lovely. I pick a new place every year and we all wear festive jumpers!

My DS is only 2, but I made him his own stocking before he was born and am trying to make a fabric advent calendar for long term use.

We go to church throughout advent, Christingle (lovely for children), Carol services or a Carol concert in London before Christmas and we go to church on Christmas Day. We always book to see Father Christmas somewhere nice too.

If we can afford it when he’s older we’ll go to the panto and/or to see the nutcracker at the ballet. A local National Trust house that’s decorated for Christmas is always a good bet, plus country walks and hot chocolate, maybe ice skating when he’s older.

We always make our own Christmas pudding and I get him to help stir it and we all make a wish. When he’s older I’ll make a gingerbread house with him. We also have lots of Christmas books and read them throughout Advent, and hopefully he’ll be in school Nativity plays in due course.

Also yes, I forgot having an Advent candle, making a “thing” of Twelfth Night, choosing the tree as a family, putting up the tree and decorations together and taking it down together and making paper chains.

@OddBoots

From the 10th of December model robins like these start appearing around the house, one day until the 12th arrives on Christmas eve. They hang around until 12th night when they all go and leave a gift for the children to say thank you for hosting them.

My children are adults now, we have done this since they were tiny, before elf on the shelf was a thing people had heard of.

That is so lovely! I have a robin ornament like that, it belonged to my late parents, from before I was born, so it's probably over 60 years old. It's on my tree every year, and my now adult DC always look for it.

Christmas Day cinnamon buns

@OddBoots

From the 10th of December model robins like these start appearing around the house, one day until the 12th arrives on Christmas eve. They hang around until 12th night when they all go and leave a gift for the children to say thank you for hosting them.

My children are adults now, we have done this since they were tiny, before elf on the shelf was a thing people had heard of.

I love this tradition! I might start it in my house, although DC are a bit ancient