To ask you to tell me your family Christmas traditions?

[elm26]

First Christmas for my DD who will be 7 months and of course, she won't understand anything about it but I am so excited.

I was raised by my grandparents, every Christmas Eve, all of us cousins (about 14 of us) would get into our Christmas pjs and into bed with some on the floor on blow up beds etc and we'd watch a christmas film and drink hot chocolate and my Grandad would put his big work boots on and walk around the house sprinkling talc around the boots all the way from the fire in the little room at the back of the house through to the front. We would wake up so excited.

I cherish these lovely memories but my love for Christmas died when my Gramps died when I was 21, it was never the same.

Now I'm 30 with DD and DH and can't wait to start our own traditions.

I've ordered a Christmas Eve box for DD with her name on it and plan to put a toy, a book and some Christmas pjs in there every year. I've also ordered a bauble with her hand print on and a lovely tartan dress from M&S for her first Christmas Day.

What traditions do your family follow at Christmas to make it special?

Our Christmas traditions basically from my childhood, some of them have just been tweaked a bit over the years. DP didn’t have a great childhood so was quite happy to go along with out traditions.
Christmas Eve we always have Chinese, when I was younger it would be McDonald’s or Pizza Hut but for the last 20 it’s has been Chinese. We prepare the food in the afternoon, cook the gammon and yorkies. Kids get Christmas Eve box, they usually have a bath, we watch a nightmare before Christmas ( I’ve been doing this since I was 8 years old, kids love doing it aswell) DP takes them out Christmas light watching (. Usually gets a cheeky McFlurry on the way home ) whilst I shift the presents to an easy to reach location. We watch more Tv, listen to Christmas songs ( after Christmas Eve it’s a no to Christmas songs in our house )
kids go to bed about 9/10 on the wishful thinking they won’t get up early.. we wait for them to finally fall asleep and then fill the stockings and put the other presents out.
Christmas Day we usually try to hold them off, finally at around 7… we make them open one stocking present at a time just so we can fully regain conciseness after having less sleep. Rest of the family usually wake up about 8.. we open all presents. Bacon sandwiches for breakfast as they are quick and easy. My uncles usually pop around for a bit. We cook everything else, play with the kids, set up the table. Dinner is usually around 3. After dinner everyone mulls around, sleeps etc… then we play cards and games whilst watching whatever Christmas Day Tv is on.
Boxing Day we have a Buffet, it’s just a chill day, movies, food, games, etc. we held these and the kids now love the traditions so I’m hopeful some of them will be kept when they have kids of thier own. But I don’t want them to make thier own aswell 🙂

I buy each of my nephews a bauble every year,

Instead of a Christmas Eve box I like a "Start of Christmas box". They get much more wear out of the items! A Christmas Eve box always seems a bit silly to me as they'd only wear the PJ's for one night and then Christmas is over. So on the first of December the kids get a box with a few Christmas books (The Works do 3 books for £5), their personalised Christmas mugs which we get out every year, a new pair of festive PJ's and the little decorations for the mini tree in their room. It's a nice start to Christmas! We buy a little real tree for their room and they decorate it themselves, and we also have a cloth advent calendar which we fill with quality streets. Christmas is fun with little ones but also exhausting!

Traditions that we have that I love:

I make a Christmas cake every year and everyone in the house has to stir the cake mixture and make a wish. I take a photo of DDs stirring the cake every year.

One evening in December we pile into the car for a Christmas Light Safari. Basically we have a thermos of hot chocolate, blast Christmas music and drive round our town to look at all of the Christmas lights on people's houses.

Every Saturday in December we watch a Christmas film and have popcorn.

I buy a new decoration for the tree every year that has some sort of meaning e.g. from a holiday we've been on or something else with some significance. It means our tree is a real mish-mash with nothing matching but I adore it.

We always read the Night Before Christmas to DDs every Christmas Eve before bed.

Father Christmas brings the stockings in our house and I put in an unusual snack or drink that DDs will not have seen before (normally from the World Food Aisle or the Polish deli). I tell them it must be from Father Christmas's travels round the world and he picked it up for them.

Small thing that DSS and I started together one year – we each have a little glass bottle with a cork in the top to go on the tree.

Every year when we put up the tree, we write down a wish for the year to come, roll it up like a scroll and put it in our bottle.

It's a nice little thing to take the decorations out each year and look back at what we each wrote as wishes for the year we've just had.

Thanks so much for all of your replies some lovely ideas.

I've added few to my list

Shoebox filled with gifts and decorate the shoebox also, for charities that accept these, I would like her to know it's important to give to those less fortunate than us and for her to really appreciate her toys.

May do one for the local dog rescue too

Collecting a new meaningful bauble every year

A visit to a garden centre trip for Santa

I'm going to try and get a material advent calendar so I can put what I want into it

Pantomimes when she's older

Picking out our own tree

Omg I love this thread so much.

Each year we get into the car, go and get hot chocolates from McDonalds and drive around for a good hour looking at everyone's Christmas lights.

We are also going to do a light trail this year.

Another thing we do is watch old Christmas day videos I've taken on my phone from previous years.

We spend Christmas eve cooking homemade sausage rolls, party food nibbles etc. We then have a mini buffet on Christmas Eve. There will be Christmas music on and we'll watch a festive movie in the evening. Before the boys go to bed, they'll have a bath with a Christmas bath bomb and get into their Christmas Pjs.
Stockings hug on beds, then we'll read Twas The Night Before Christmas. And pray they sleep lol.

Then once asleep, hubby and I will have a baileys and get the presents out and ready, more party nibbles. Christmas movie. Then before you know it, boys will be up.

Christmas day we tend to go around family's (next year and year after we are hosting, so making most of it this year!)
Then back to a slouchy late afternoon.

@elm26 - I can’t quote your earlier post for some reason but just wanted to say that I bought my 2 DC personalised stockings when they were babies. They are 19 and 17 now and they still enjoy them every year.

This doesn’t work until they’re a little older, think I started with younger sibling when he was about 5. Lots of siblings and big age gap, we all used to buy each other gifts (these days it’s secret Santa)

Around the start of Dec I’d get them to write a list of who they wanted to buy presents for. Siblings, parents, best pal. They would have a maximum budget to spend. Then they had to think of ideas of what they would like, and another day we would go into town for their Christmas shopping. They got to choose lunch.

They got so much out of it. They could take part in the giving and they learned all about prices and budgeting. ‘You can buy that but then someone else won’t get a present, how will they feel?’ They were only little things, not much money. But it meant so much to them to take part properly and they learnt the value of money.

@persisted - that’s a lovely idea.

Christmas eve - we have a cooked fry-up breakfast, then go for a really long day out/walk at a country park (or sometimes go to the swimming pool instead of its pouring rain) and let the kids run until they are utterly exhausted. Then home where we have craft activities/colouring set up, and pop a Christmas movie on whilst me and dh prep some of the dinner for Xmas day. Then whilst dc have a bath and get into Xmas pjs, dh does the McDonald's drive through to pick up our dinner and we watch an Xmas film together. Then out out reindeer good outside and mince pie etc inside for santa and kids off to bed, read them Xmas books and me and dh have a drink and relax.

Xmas day - kids open stockings in our bed with us, then we get up, get dressed, have a breakfast (usually bacon sandwiches) and a bucks fizz for me. Kids play with their stocking toys

After a leisurely breakfast we do the tree presents (taking turns one at a time not all opening at once) and then we just relax really for the whole day, play with the toys. We have dinner at about 4pm and apart from that just go.with the flow of what we fancy. Usually we play board games and have our Christmas desert in the evening because we're too full after dinner.

Boxing day - go for a walk, relax, watch films, and then in the afternoon/evening we have a buffet and a little disco n the living room to Christmas music which the kids absolutely adore.

@Inastatus They’re a big toughy grown up now, and remember some of those trips. It meant they were part of creating Christmas and not just recipients of it.

It also meant I could insist on the no crap presents rule that I continue to benefit from 🤣 (this isn’t about cost, but it being something you think that person would genuinely like/use, not any old random nonsense)

Also I take dc to see a panto matinee on the 23rd just me and them, and we have lunch in town (their choice so last year it was m&s cafe😂) and look at the Christmas lights in town, they can choose a special present they think daddy would like. This year we're also going to Butlins the week before Christmas as the kids absolutely adore it there with all the activties.

Following, as I'd love ideas myself. Christmas as a child was pretty chaotic after we got home from church with lots of shouting and tears (the adults) - without alcohol! I want to make it special for my little family.

One tradition we have is borrowed from Iceland, Jolabokoflod. On Christmas Eve, give each person a new book. Then curl up in a quiet corner with blankets, hot chocolate, and naice biscuits. I currently choose ours, but hope DC will have more input in future. I can see us ending up with numerous books (one from me, plus each DC), as we all love books 😊.

When I was small I remember helping my mum make the Christmas cake and my gran the Christmas pudding.

We also made homemade sweets, fudge , marzipan dates, peppermint creams and glace cherries wrapped in marzipan.

We knew Christmas was coming when we had marzipan wrapped in puff pastry with pink glacé icing. A bit like a sweet sausage roll.

Since I've had my children the sweet making has disappeared but I think I'll do peppermint creams with my grandson.

Currently we have mince pies with either coffee or Darjeeling tea first thing. Then breakfast of a variation of either smoked salmon or bacon and eggs and cava, bucks fizz or orange juice.

Lunch is mid afternoon and then we put Christmas films on. I usually fall asleep then.

No more food for the day but probably some Christmas beers.

This is such a lovely thread!
I still have and use every year the stocking my Mum made for my first Christmas - I've just turned 44!
The kids who are 15 & 16 still insist on their beautiful wooden advent train being filled every year with sweets. Mum bought it for them for Dd's first Christmas.
Christmas Eve I have to watch Carol's from Kings with a G & T and am happy knowing that every single member of my family is doing the same, a tradition started by my grandparents.
As of last year I now also have the job of making the mincemeat cheesecake - a tradition started by my mum just a few years ago but she died very suddenly in January 22 so it's now down to me. I cried all through making last years so hoping for a more peaceful make this year.

Thanks everyone, loved reading these and will definitely be adding a few more bits to the list!