What are your favourite Christmas traditions?

[Underthehills]

DS is 5 this Christmas. We also have DD who will be one in January. For the first time this year we are free to create our own joyful and happy traditions, after Covid and several years of an incredibly difficult relative dominating proceedings. So - what makes you happy at Christmas? Where do you go? What do you do? What are your Christmas Eve traditions? Stay at home joys? Games? Big things and small things - just whatever makes your Christmas glow 🎅 🎄

Most of ours are food or movie based! Lots of lights too.

Our favourite tradition is eating our Christmas dinner on Christmas Eve. Before we swapped to Christmas Eve we found that we ended up missing gift opening to prepare lunch. Much more chilled now, DC can use the dining table without having to clear up and there's plenty of leftovers to graze on. Plus we can stay in pjs as late as we want lol

After dinner & baths on Christmas Eve, the DC always track Santa on NORAD and read Night Before Christmas before bed without fail. Then DH & I watch Die Hard with a drink & festive treat while we wait for Santa time. I wrap presents before school hols so no last minute rush.

On Christmas morning, DC bring stockings into our room to open together. Then we have a lazy morning eating homemade cinnamon rolls while the DC open & play with presents. Followed by a lazy day grazing on leftovers & cheese 😂 and watching TV or listening to music while family drop in. There's usually a board game or something in the evening.

All our Christmas books, dvds, bedding, pjs, etc come out on 1st December when the advent calendar is brought out. When DC were little we had an activity advent which we loved, don't have time these days with all the clubs so just chocolate in a reusable one now and I write a Christmas 'bucket list' that the DC can use for ideas, tick off as many as things as they want & take at their own pace.

We also buy a new bauble each year. It's lovely to look back on years of mismatched baubles, each with a story or just something that DD or DS liked at the time.

The Muppets Christmas Carol MUST be watched whilst decorating the tree.

Whilst not religious, we nonetheless go to one of the Carol services at our local cathedral.

DH and I go to see It's a Wonderful Life at our gorgeous local Art Deco cinema which serves wine and a cheese board whilst we watch.

We have the Santa tracker on Christmas Eve, to check his progress.

Christmas morning DH and I have smoked salmon bagels and Bucks Fizz for breakfast. The DC mostly have chocolate! 😆

Our local has a lovely brunch with Santa on Christmas Eve so I’ve booked again this year as it’s really so lovely and there’s Christmas carolling to boot.

We’ll then work off the brunch by going for a leisurely bike ride (2 hours tops) and then we light the Christmas candles, open the chocolates and prep the veg and Turkey for Christmas Day before settling down to a Christmas movie with the DC snuggled up to us.

Christmas Day we host our families, the more the merrier in my book and have a lovely breakfast of eggs Benedict followed by a 2 course Christmas dinner, loads of Christmas games, wine and cocktails. It’s a food fuelled day for us with a one hours walk in between stuffing our faces.

Homemade mince pies for the week before Christmas, shop bought before then. Walking around the area to look at Christmas lights.

Me putting the Christmas decorations on the tree, then DH changing them all.

This year will be a change though. Due to issues we will need to be at MiL's and will need to do a few decorations a day as to not overwhelm her. She and FiL used to take the kids to a road that really does the whole charity street lighting display when they were small so that can be passed on to GDS.

Whyyy oh why did I read this thread. Now I want to have hot chocolate and decorate Christmas tree.

We go for breakfast with Santa at a local department store on the first Sunday in December. Afterwards we put the Christmas tree up whilst watching a Christmas film. DH always used to lift DD up to put the star on top but now she's 16 that's a bit tricky so DD lifts her brother (5) up to do it instead.

Same!!! Need to start thinking about Halloween to distract myself...

Mine are adults now but we always had Xmas Day at home, the 4 of us.
Into London to see the lights Xmas Eve, a walk Xmas morning and drinks with friends, then a leisurely lunch about 3...never turkey or traditional.

What a great idea! My family and I love Christmas and we love our annual traditions.

The first weekend of December we decorate the house and the Christmas tree while listening to Christmas songs. We also go to our DC’s Christmas market at school. We also take the kids to visit Santa’s Grotto.

The following weekend, we go to London to have afternoon tea (We try check out a different place each year.) and go ice skating at Somerset House or the Museum of Natural History. Or we go tobogganing and snow tubing.

We go to our local area for the Christmas lights switch on and we love looking at houses that are elaborately decorated in the neighbourhood. The crazier the better!

The week of Christmas, we bake Christmas cookies and decorate a gingerbread house. On Christmas day of we open gifts/stockings, watch Christmas films, play games and go for a Christmas woodland walk with the family.

It’s definitely a food heavy day. We have smoked salmon and cream cheese bagels for breakfast then we have a big Christmas dinner from M&S.

We have a January baby who will be almost 3 this Christmas, so we’re a bit like you OP in that we’re just getting started on Christmases post Covid. We’ll also have DC2 by this Christmas hopefully who is due in mid December.
each year so far (only 2 of them 😂) we have:

Been to a Christmas tree farm to tag and then return a few weeks later to cut down our tree.

Opened the homemade advent calendar from my mum each day

Bought a new reindeer decoration from braybrook & Britton (we’ve got a new one each year for the last 2 years and will build up the collection until we have them all)

Visited Father Christmas somewhere

Visited the local church’s Christmas tree festival

We’ve had Christmas at home for the past 2 years and I think we’d like to continue that as much as we can, whilst being fair to others too. So for the past 2 years we’ve met family for a walk or something to exchange gifts a day or 2 before Christmas.

We’d like to start seeing a panto when the DC are older too.

mainly due to lockdown etc, we had a lot of walks to see other people’s Christmas lights in our town - we do the same at Halloween too.

Obvious and not imaginative, but we read the night before Christmas on Christmas Eve before bed and leave a drink and mince pie and carrot for FC and reindeer.

I’m planning to get a little tree for DS’s room this year that he can decorate with his own collection of decs as he gets older. He seems to get a couple each year from various people.

that’s all that’s developed so far I think, but looking forward to seeing what the future brings!

On Christmas Eve, We put out a mince pie and sherry for Santa and a carrot for the reindeer. Then cuddle up to read The Night Before Christmas. We’ve been doing it for years and my children are teenagers now and still love it!