What traditions have you kept from your childhood and what have you changed?

[UndertheCedartree]

Inspired by the 'stockings for teens' thread where lots said they had kept the location of the stocking the same as when they were a child.

I used to have my stocking on my bed but I remember always seeing the image of stockings hung on the fireplace so that was what I wanted to do with my DC. My DB and I used to open our stockings in our rooms before going through to my parent's room. I take my DC downstairs when they wake to open their stockings. I have kept the tradition that the stockings are from Father Christmas and the presents under the tree are from friends and family.

When I was a child after opening our stockings we would go downstairs and open the presents under the tree. It was a bit of a frenzy of everyone opening their presents at once. I changed that with my DC as I like to see their faces when they open each of their presents. So after stockings we have breakfast and then we take it in turns to open a present from under the tree.

@mam0918 - that all sounds lovely - not heard of a lot of what you mention. My friends from Russia have told me how pointless they think wrapping is and how magical it was to just see the toys under the tree when they were children.

@mam0918 - I was also going to say I started doing the Elf a couple of years ago as my DD (9) was given an Elf for Christmas the year before and talked excitedly about it moving around as they had one at school that would move about. Luckily she knows it is a toy that I move about so doesn't matter if I forget and also she is happy with it just moving about climbing the tree and sliding down the bannisters rather than doing anything fancy!

Growing up Santa always left a very realistic and shocking mess. I still do this, even though no one believes anymore. We still debate the best place to leave carrots for the reindeer and whatever we decide it always results in a calamity (sleigh tracks in the lawn/ ornaments knocked over/ a stray present on the roof/ plants eaten by hungry reindeer/ muddy hoof prints on the clean car)

We had a lovely Christmas dinner - mine is even yummier.

At Stephen’s Day was don’t-bother-mum day, and I continue this. The dc can eat chocolate for breakfast and graze on left overs and play minecraft all day, but I get to sit with a book and chill.

We had no traditions around opening gifts, and our dps weren’t up. I used to get up with my much younger sibling to make it more exciting. I’ve always got up with my own dc, regardless of how early that has been. We only open Santa’s gifts in the morning. The rest are opened before dinner with a bit of ceremony. We took that from dh’s traditions.

We always had Christmas at home with no other relatives. As a grown up I love to host.

Growing up we had a crib and baby Jesus was put in on Christmas Day. Same now. The 3 wise men were put in on the 6th, and the decorations taken down the same day. Now ours come down gradually, to ease the transition for autistic ds.

New traditions
On 1st dec we pull in Christmas jumpers for breakfast, have a mince pie and open our advent calendars.

We have a pair of elves that move into the doll house in December and each morning we look to see what they’ve been up to (they decorate the house for Christmas).

We decorate our own house slowly over December. Each dc has a box of decorations representing each year, and we have mementoes from holidays so decorating the tree is a trip down memory lane. We bake, make a gingerbread house, dry orange slices, cut paper snowflakes.

Christmas tree
Christmas candy canes

[quote UndertheCedartree]@WowIlikereallyhateyou - we used to have the snowballs too!! I'd completely forgotten! Yes, I think they were quite posh! [/quote]
Oh good, i thought it was in my imagination!
Funny how you never see them now?!

Big extended family at home during the Christmas holidays; always 12-18 around the table so my mother ran things like a well oiled machine, but this depended on a fairly strict timetable.

So it was stockings at 8am opened on beds with parents present.

Up dressed, quick basic breakfast then us children allowed to open their main presents from parents from Christmas (always unwrapped in the bags from shop but we each had a chair).

Then Mass at 11.30 and back home when everyone helped get lunch (elements of which had been prepared in advance) including putting turkey in oven around 5.30 am! Stock, stuffing, mince pies amd trifle had been lovingly prepared the day before. Children always set table and served pre-lunch drinks.

Then lunch followed by The Queen.

Then presents under the tree from us children to parents and between siblings and Aunts and various parcels.

Then turkey sandwiches and cake and mince pies!

Suffice to say, our Christmas is a bit less onerous! We go to Mass on Christmas eve if we go. And lunch happens when we are ready. But we have stuck to the tradition of presents being spread out through the day , much to the initial disgust of the dc, but now they are more in to preserving the traditions than we are!

That's the funny things with teens, we are fairly old parents, and just as we want to loosen up a bit and take Christmas a bit easier, the teens are insistent that every detail of the season's festivities are preserved

from.Father Christmas that should have said

We were only allowed one present in the morning (we didnt do stockings) and the rest had to wait until after dinner. We were a family of ten and presents had to be done one by one whilst my dad filmed. It took HOURS.

Ive definitely abandoned that tradition. I do a stocking for DS and hes allowed to open his presents once hes done his stocking

When I was a kid we opened our stockings before getting up to give parents more time in bed, then got up, got dressed, breakfast and went to Mass before we were allowed to open the presents downstairs. Christmas dinner was at lunchtime and we were allowed fizzy pop with it, which we didn’t get at other times of the year. We had all the traditional food and there was alcohol in the house for visitors. (My parents aren’t drinkers and didn’t bother to buy it at any other time of year). Evening was turkey sandwiches. After my parents split we didn’t decorate the house or have a tree as my mum just thought it was a faff, which I found absolutely gutting and has probably contributed to how much I love doing Christmas properly for my family.

My kids open their stockings with us in our room. We then go straight downstairs for breakfast before opening the rest of the presents. We don’t go to Mass on Christmas Day and stay in PJs all day. I’ve kept Christmas dinner at lunchtime and my kids are allowed fizzy pop with it if they want. I no longer buy Christmas pudding, Christmas cake or mince pies as no one likes them here but I do lay in a big selection of Christmas snacks and foods. And alcohol, but for us. No family near us so we do a big family FaceTime call later in the day to see each other before eating “Christmas picnic” (leftovers and picnic food) at teatime.

We’ve avoided Elf on the Shelf as I hate those creepy little elves but we do a Christmas Eve lights safari (walk round the neighbourhood to see everyone’s outside lights), followed by Christmas Eve box which contains new PJs, hot chocolate ingredients for special hot chocolate, bath bomb for special Christmas Eve bath, and a Christmas dvd to watch together.

Christmas in our house is THE BEST.

We didn't do stockings. As a very young kid I remember getting one special present (like a doll) and maybe something practical but that was it. Our tree was always beautiful and I took over decorating the tree in my teens.
As children and a bit more money we would gather near the tree and one would hand out the presents and we'd open them up in turns so we could all see what we each got. Eventually I did all the wrapping too - even inadvertently wrapping up my own presents as I'd be handed a box and my sister would do the tags!
Then mass, back for brunch and Christmas dinner about 5ish, always with 'strays', people who didn't have family nearby.
I have decorations from when I was a kid, some from some friends of my parents who moved away decades ago, and others who are too elderly to bother with trees. My parents used to go away on their own and pick up decorations on their travels so we have straw angles from Mexico, knitted angels from Peru etc. That is a tradition I have kept, so have collected a glass chilli from New Mexico, porcelain ornaments from Amsterdam and so on.

As a child we always got new pjs/nightie on Christmas Eve and I continued this for my dcs.
I don’t remember getting a stocking but I do these for my dcs and plan on continuing this forever. Now they are older I plan on keeping the contents the similar each year.

FC drinks ginger wine which is insane as neither DH or I like it (curiously my mum is partial) but it feels so Christmassy to me!

Presents from FC must be brought into parental room and opened together. When we were older we were allowed to open one present before taking it in.

Bedrooms must be tidy on Christmas Eve of course.

We always had sticks of celery standing in a jug on the table for Christmas night buffet. All our family photos have a jug of celery on the table.