Christmas traditions!! Tell me yours 🎄

[mango0101]

We’re a young family and we love Christmas! Wanting to make sure we make the most lovely traditions as a family that our children will cherish and maybe even continue with their own future families.. send yours x

We were talking about this the other day in our house. Ours are still little so not many yet. We’ve done Christmas at Kew every year so far which is lovely. We buy a special new decoration for the tree. Considering watching home alone this year whilst eating a cheese pizza when that scene comes on.
Interested to see everyone else’s responses!

We buy a new decoration (or two) every year that reminds us of a hobby/.something we've done. Decorating the tree has become very special as a result. Gradually over time it's a story of our family life together.

Christmas eve we always go for a walk with a flask of hot chocolate and back to the house for home made sausage rolls which we include as treats out for Santa

Once DH and I have put the presents out we have a brandy and listen to some music before desperately hoping that we aren't up too early!

We go to a Christingle church service at tea time on Christmas Eve (SIL is a Vicar so it’s a fully family occasion). The kids love the carols and making the Christingle oranges.
We always read “The night before Christmas” once the kids have had their bath, all in our pjs on our bed.

Because Christmas morning is a bit chaotic with our kids (6 and 3 this year) DH and I have started leaving our gifts to be opened once the kids have gone to bed on Christmas Day

As a kid we always got new pjs for Christmas Eve, I’ve carried this on for my dcs.

We always read twas the night before Christmas on Christmas Eve, I’ve got a beautiful illustrated copy that I’ve had since dc1 was little, they are now 18. It started with me reading it and it developed that we now take turns reading a page.

Each year we went to Beamish to see Santa, The dcs loved it and we continued for several years after they stopped believing, we just skipped the Santa visit.

Chinese take out on Christmas Eve.

Christmas stockings are hung on dcs bedroom doors, they open them when they wake up.

I can’t imagine our traditions are much different to any other households, but we love them just the same.

We always do new PJs for Christmas (which then serve as regular PJs throughout the new year). The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve, stockings hung downstairs over the fireplace, carrot for the reindeer and a mince pie for the big man.

On D-day we watch The Muppets Christmas Carol, have a chicken dinner with all the trimmings (including pigs in blankets, Yorkshire puddings, stuffing and the rest), and catch whatever Julia Donaldson there is out there.

Boxing Day we go for a long walk, taking sausage rolls and hot chocolate for the journey.

One tradition that’s happened by accident and that I still do is that once, I bought a slightly too-big tree for the living room. We couldn’t put an angel on top because the top of the tree was curled over. So now, every year, I buy a tree that’s slightly too big for the space. Don’t ask me why, but I love it.

We're having a family photo shoot every year around Christmas. The whole process is fun on its own, we plan the outfits, the joint family looks and separate looks for everyone, make decorations (we're doing it at home), look for the references and posing ideas etc. Here are some of my favorites, if you need inspiration as well:
https://www.katebackdrop.com/blogs/creative-ideas/christmas-family-photos?srsltid=AfmBOorsqwQ7iWdreA29QYqvMLfzJdR6wxQvmN3NGfLcJFDXwevePtTe

https://www.blesserhouse.com/how-to-take-diy-christmas-photos/

Some of these photos are even printed and framed now, some are made into christmas-themed slideshows (here is a guide on making one if you want to), we also send these pictures to grandparents if we aren't seeing them during the holidays. I don't remember how exactly we started doing this, but it's certainly a tradition now and has been one for about 6 years or so.

My kids are all adults now so many of our traditions have mutated over the years, but the ones that have stuck are:

big buffet tea on Christmas Eve (now carried on mostly because people are travelling and turning up at different time), but there MUST be baked Camembert with fresh bread as one element.

Muppets' Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve before bed.

Buffet breakfast on Christmas Day. I put presents under the tree in a different container every year instead of stockings and that container is also a present - so last year it was garden pots, year before was Seasalt bags (they had stockings when younger but moved to 'useful' as they became teenage).

Presents are opened throughout the day rather than in one massive ripping off of paper, again initiated once they were teenagers because they complained that 'Christmas was an anti climax once the presents were open). So we started rationing them out once all the kids passed the over excited tearing off the paper stage.

Long walk before sitting down to eat dinner in the evening. Started this because they never wanted food earlier because of all the sweets, so they needed to be removed from chocolate sources and given an appetite, now continued because we all have dogs.

Christmas evening is games. New games they've been given or old favourites (now Cards Against Humanity!).

DC are 6 and 4.

• 1st of December the Christmas elf's arrive, they bring advent calendars, christmas books, bedding, pj's and a christmas jumper for each dc and put up some little decorations in dc bedrooms.
• We have a santa visit at local soft play as close to christmas as we can (a lot of places don't seem to do xmas eve anymore so usually 22nd/23rd.
• Christmas eve, in the morning dc decorate a ginger bread house then we visit family, delivering gifts. Early bath and pj's then fancy hot chocolate and xmas movie then set out santas snacks and stocking at the fire place before bed
• Christmas Day - xmas shaped crumpets and nutella for breakfast, a tradition dc already get excited about, I don't buy chocolate spread the rest of the year to keep it special. We're home just DH, DC and I. Stockings and santas stuff is next to the fireplace so they open all of it as soon as we are all up in the morning. Presents under the tree are from friends and family, (they get put there as they get given/wrapped) we open them usually late morning, once we've had and tidied away breakfast and everyone's dressed. Not because we're mean just because it prolongs the present excitement and I need to clear my feet a bit so I'm ready with my notepad and pen to write down what everyone got from who for thanking people.
• Boxing day we go to my parents with all extended family, it's manic but lots of fun and the kids love the day with their cousins.

Just to add, I know a lot of people say don't start the elf but I use mine to my advantage. They bring things or initiating an activity, like they'll bring a "special ticket" to see santa. They put up the xmas tree (which is far easier done while dc are in bed then we decorate it the next day). They bring popcorn/snacks for movie night. they bring xmas playing cards. They bring the gingerbread house for doing on xmas eve. They weigh out ingredients and bring a recipe for baking etc.
Also as DC get older I plan to swap our santa/soft play visit for going to the panto and a meal out before/after.
And we always go the the christmas light's switch on in our village

https://www.mumsnet.com/talk/christmas/5413187-christmas-traditions?page=3&reply=147441937

We drive round and see the Christmas lights in our area, we pack the kids a hot chocolate to drink and blankets in the back to make it cosy!
we always have a Christmas get together at ours with the family, and put on nibbles and play Christmas games!
We do a secret Santa between all the cousins, this works well because our family is so big!
I like to choose a new Christmas story each year to read to the kids at bedtime through out December, this year it’s the grumpus!
Decorating the tree all together with Christmas music and then we watch home alone!

For the last couple of years we have gone on a Christmas family trip away early December, city break or to visit a Christmas market etc. Third Sunday of December our church holds a carol concert, so we go to that and bake a cake earlier in the day so it is waiting for us when we get back. Christmas eve we stay at home and do a long lazy breakfast, then later go to the crib service. Christmas day we have tea and posh biscuits for breakfast whilst opening presents. Lunch usually visiting family.

Boxing day - nothing. We really need to think of something we can do as a boxing day tradition. I love the idea of pp to go out for a long walk. Might adopt that this year!

A few things. My kids have a very small fake tree in their rooms each so they get a new personalised item for it each year. Not necesarily a named thing but something they love. We decorate the house altogether and they alternate putting the star on top. Eldest is 8 now and I have a picture of his dad holding him aloft every year! Am looking forward to the teenage pics!

We also do a festive afternoon tea with my parents and in laws. We pick a new place every year and my boys love spending time with both their grandparents together. It is usually early in the season but we first did it the year I was pregnant with DS1 and I love it and look forward to it every year :)

DC just about to turn 5.

• Local lovely restaurant hosts “Breakfast with Santa” and “Supper with Santa” events the weekend before Christmas which are always lovely. We first took DC at 2 and have continued each year - we’re doing breakfast this year on 21st.
• sitting down to write DCs Christmas letter to Santa then the walk to the postbox with it - DC makes us walk miles, passing multiple postboxes on the way 🫠😂😂 There is a “proper postbox” in town rather than one on a wall/small one on a post and that’s the one the letter has to go in apparently 😂
• Wrap up cosy and go for a walk around town looking for the best decorations - anytime in the week leading up to Christmas depending on work schedules for DH and I.
• I buy a plain ceramic tree decoration from Hobbycraft each year and DC paints it 😊 I write the year on the back and varnish it and it it gets added to our decorations that come out each year 😊
• Early in Dec (whenever DH is home - he works away) we spend an afternoon putting up the tree. Xmas record goes on the record player and we all get involved. I love my annual photo of DC being held up by DH to reach the top of the tree to add the star 😊
• Xmas Eve is an early night - late afternoon bath for DC, then we have a “buffet tea” (homemade sausage rolls, a couple of ‘party food’ bits from M&S, some crudités and dips) while we all watch a Christmas movie. DC sticks the “Santa Stop Here” sign in the garden and goes to bed.

This year we are also doing a local theatre show in town with a few families from DCs class which I’m really looking forward to. We don’t have much in the way of extended family so it’s nice to have some festive plans that involve other people too 😊 hopefully it’ll be a nice day for the kids!

I think it’s easy to overthink these things but often the small parts are what they remember most 😊