What family Christmas traditions do you do each year?

[MarineBlue33]

We have dc aged 4 and 9 and I want to add some traditions that are done each year.
So we do putting carrots and mince pies out still for Santa and his reindeer as one I can think of.
Would love to add more so hoping to get ideas here.

Driving around to look at the lights at night.
Tracking santa on norad on christmas eve.
Decorating the tree with christmas songs.
Spending a Saturday in December making cards for family and teachers.
Making bird food christmas decorations to hang in the garden.
Baking cookie and peppermint creams.

On Boxing Day we always go for a walk, and we go to the same place every year.

My children are now 12 and nearly 7 and for the past few years after dinner on Christmas Eve we go for a walk around the local streets to see the houses lit up, then home for hot chocolate, bath and bed (after putting out mince pie etc for the big guy).

We like to have “party” food on Xmas eve whilst watching a film together

We buy a new decoration for the tree every year. This year we will be having a "Christmas breakfast" on 1st Dec with Christmas plates and all open our advent calendars together

@Stompythedinosaur what are these bird food decs? They sound fab!!!

We are very outdoorsy hence the username 🤣

We mark the solstice with a fire pit and stargazing night

Christmas Eve is an outdoor carol service

We also make bird feeders. Can do Cheerios on garden wire or a lovely one we do is get a shallow dish add leaves berries and some bird seed, add water and a loop of string then freeze (outside or in freezer) in morning hang up in garden and it looks lovely with the sunlight bouncing off it then as it melts the birds can eat the seeds and berries

Also lots of walks around nature reserve / woods
Wrap up warm we all have thermal base layers and full waterproofs..we take a large thermos of hot chocolate to share back at the car

We also like to walk into town to look at the Christmas lights one late afternoon in December and get takeaway fish and chips and eat them outside by the Christmas tree..love steaming hot chips on an icy dark night!

We walk to our local church for their Christmas Eve carol service (then walk to the pub afterwards, but that’s more for us grown ups )
We make mince pies, to then be put out for Father Christmas
At some point in the Christmas run-up, we drive around to see all the good Christmas lights in town

We always have Christmas tea by candlelight.

Does losing the sellotape count?

Does losing the sellotape count?

When the DC finish for Christmas we make decorations for the fitting room- paper chains, baked orange strings etc. We make and ice biscuits, they each pick a new bauble each year. We don’t do the Santa thing anymore but it used to be port, mince pie and a carrot.

If you use a real tree then go out to pick it as a family, or if not then perhaps go out and choose a decoration or two for the tree? If you don't mind ending up with a rather eclectic and mismatched set of decorations after a few years
You could see if there's some sort of charity drive to take part in? We used to do a shoebox appeal type of thing when I was younger, which was very fun as a kid getting to pick out things to go in the box.
We always go to a carol service. And of course driving around to look at the decorations and listening to Christmas songs in the car!

We used to go to the pantomime every Christmas Eve and then go to the local cathedral to light candles for everyone we knew.

One of our favourites, and I did get if from here a few years back, is Christmas shopping with the DC. I take one dd and my husband takes the other, same shop at the same time and the mission is find and purchase a gift without being spotted by the other dd. Great fun, often we get a few funny looks but we have had shop assistants help before and the girls talk about it as one of their favourite traditions

New pyjamas every Christmas Eve, not matching or fancy or anything but we always got new pyjamas wrapped up. I loved it, I’m 30 and still so it now!

My DS is only a baby but we plan to:

Go walk around and look at the lights like we do every year.

Give a book every Christmas Eve which we can enjoy and snuggle with. This is an Icelandic tradition I believe.

New jim jams for everyone.

Book advent. I wrap up the same 24 books every year and put the in a box. The DCs take turns to pick one to unwrap and read every bedtime with hot choc. Some of them are now wildly too young for them but they are already starting to talk about their favourites now (‘the Smelly Sprout’ is particularly gleefully anticipated!). We don’t do xmas eve boxes but we usually have a takeaway.

Every year we go to our church crib service on Christmas Eve, then come home for hot chocolate with cream and marshmallows, put out reindeer food, watch something Christmassy in our new PJ’s and have a Christmas Eve buffet tea.

New pjs on Christmas Eve, this is a tradition I’ve carried on from my childhood.

We make Santa cookies (cranberry & white chocolate) in December and I freeze some of the dough and bake them Christmas Eve so Santa can enjoy a freshly baked cookie.

Every Christmas Eve we read ‘twas the night before Christmas, now dcs are older (15 & 11) we take turns reading a page each.

Last year we walked round the local area to see all the Christmas lights and we plan on doing that again this year.

Some amazing ideas. I will definitely be pinching some.
Twas the Night Before Christmas is the best Christmas book without a doubt

We walk around our area on christmas eve/night before to see the lights. Same for the christmas windows in town. When we first had dd we were so skint and couldn't drive so we just thought of the cheapest thing we could do. It's turned into a bit of a tradition and we have moved house this year so new lights to see!
This year is the first one that we will have our own garden so I want to sit out on christmas eve and toast marshmallows but I think that one will be weather permitting.
I love hearing other peoples traditions.

We cut down our own tree. It's so popular now we have to prebook and pay a deposit! I also make my own wreath at a workshop (I know how to do it but they have all the greenery and do the cleaning up), and my daughter joins in to make one too. I also do a personalised photo card. I know these are controversial, but we haven't been able to see so many family and friends, especially the last couple years, and it's fun for me to do. Not many pics this year through so the kids may have to pose!
We also watch those stop motion animation programs from the 60s - Rudolf the Red Nosed Reindeer and Santa Clause is Comjng to Town, Little Drummer Boy and Charlie Brown Christmas of course! And the usual
movies.
After dinner we play a few board games - it may be the one time a year we do it! The key is not to do something too long lasting (monopoly is out), Cluedo is a good one.

New pyjamas for everyone, on Christmas Eve
Go out for a meal on Christmas Eve,
Cook my ham in Guinness, cloves and brown sugar on Christmas Eve (Grandad’s recipe and a family tradition since before I was born. The smell of it cooking is Christmas to me 💗)
We leave out a mince pie and brandy for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer.
Christmas Day starts ridiculously early! Present opening is usually done by 7am! Dh and I sneak back to bed for an hours top up sleep while ds (14) and dd (9) play with their presents, then the eating marathon starts and family arrive.

[quote PeeAche]@Stompythedinosaur what are these bird food decs? They sound fab!!! [/quote]
Here is the recipe I used last year!

www.thespruce.com/how-to-make-birdseed-ornaments-385631