When do you start celebrating Christmas?

[Andsoforth]

When I was growing up Christmas began just before bedtime on Christmas Eve by lighting the candle in the window, and limped on to the 6th January for the epiphany. Then the decorations were packed away and we went back to school.

Now we put up our decorations at the beginning of December and open our advent calendars. December feels busy and rushed and now the kids have exams as well. Christmas Eve is a bit of a mad prep day. It doesn’t feel like there’s a clear start anymore.

What happens in your house? When is the magic moment when it’s okay to break into the Christmas treats?

When the kids break up from school. That’s the start of the holidays. I’m currently munching my way through a tub of Quality Street.

Mine started today, it's been so icy out the roads and paths were impassable, so we stayed in, lit the fire, put the Xmas tree lights on, wrapped Xmas presents watched The Snowman, Home alone and ate cheese & biscuits and opened the tin of Roses. It felt very festive.

Usually it's 22/23rd December when we start the Christmas prep. I much prefer Christmas Eve to Christmas Day if I'm being honest, the build up is much more exciting than the day which usually passes by so fast and is a bit of a come down.

My Christmas runs in phases.

Phase 1 is from December 1st and involves having decorations up, the odd Christmas film, Christmas music in the car, wearing my Christmas jumper.

Phase 2 is when the kids break up from school and involves having a box of chocs on the go, baking for Christmas day a nice warm feeling of anticipation.

Phase 3 is from finishing work on Christmas Eve and involves being liberal with food and drink, keeping the stove lit during the day, sacking off any jobs that need doing at work or in the house, spending most of our time together as a family.

Advent candle and calendar from 1 Dec

But aside from that nothing until after family birthdays.

Decorations up about 21 Dec (after the birthdays and roughly the weekend after end of term)

No treat food before Christmas Day - and we have most of it in the Twelve Days.

(Decorations down for Twelfth Night)

Well when I'm doing prep on Christmas eve I will crack open the bottle of Sherry so that's a bit like a klaxon going off and the mince pies get opened as well . So whenever that happens .

We put the tree up around the beginning of December and we do other things like cinema trips, markets, days out etc. But I only start to feel Christmassy now the kids have broke up from school. Myself and OH are also term time which helps, but I'm working 3 days this week at a Youth Club where we've been asked by the council to run a HAF. We're taking them ice skating and to see Santa and having a big Xmas party. So should be fun and hoping it will get me in the spirit 🤷‍♀️

We've started.

It's normally a slow run up from the first week of December, slowly adding decorations and watching th odd Christmas thing, starting to drink hot chocolate or Gingerbread coffee etc.

Things like chocolates start to get opened from about the second week, starting with the cheapest first

If you turned up now, you'd find the bowl of Lindor half eaten, but a stack of fresh chocolate son their way and the biscuits yet untouched.

But I always prefer the run up to the aftermath. My decs will be down on Jan 3rd and I'll be longing for some fresh, plain foods. So I always aim for most of Xmas to be done by that point. Decs down, fresh flowers and indoor bulbs out to cheer me during the looooong wait for spring.

We have had stuff on every weekend in December and a few midweek festive activities too (light trails, school fairs, hot chocolates after school with friends etc). However it will be the 22nd for us this year when the festivities really take hold.

I am home today and plan to clean and bake - tomorrow I will finish all wrapping!

22nd Festive afternoon tea and a bit of city shopping with friends and all the DC’s.
23rd I am off for a massage and a manicure whilst DH cooks for PIL arriving. The festive spirits and chocolates are a free for all from then on in!
24th we are all out with friends too for late lunch then home to prepare for Santa.

School doesn't break up until Friday here so that's pushed it back a bit.

ive always worked over Christmas as I worked in hospitality . I’m now working in early years and our Christmas starts when we break up for Christmas holidays which this year is Friday coming. Roll on Friday 6pm.

Yep, this weekend the Quality Street came out, children have finished school and present wrapping has begun!

Always been start of advent for us. Growing up we would wake to find the elves had put up our tree and decorations and from then is when we started. It’s the same now. We spread the Christmas treats out over the month along with the different Christmas activities.