Is it that they don’t want to have organised fun?
Some family’s traditions develop from necessity.
My mother’s 2 sisters and her parents lived within a couple of miles of us. We also had a lot of cousins from my father’s side boarding in this country, and he was their guardian when they did. Often we would then have families from my father’s side for Christmas as well.
We would therefore regularly have between 30-40 people for Christmas, which required a lot of prep.
So one tradition was that everyone would be peeling and chopping veg on Christmas Eve whilst listening to Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings. After that, the cousins who were old enough would go out, and the little ones and my mum would take our overseas relatives to experience midnight mass in a cold and winters country.
For Christmas Dinner, we would have 2 tables in the dining room for the adults, one in the sitting room for the teens, and the children ate at the kitchen table. It was a big deal to graduate to the next table (my sister and I never did!)
After Christmas Dinner, it was down to the young people to clear up, and we had a veritable production line of cousins washing and drying dishes and pans. It sounds terribly boring, but there was lots of chatting and joking in that kitchen.
The noise and business of those years is what makes Christmas for me. We still invite friends and family to pile round, but it will be nothing like those crazy days.
However, the tradition that stuck is doing the kitchen prep on Christmas Eve listening to Nine Lessons and Carols. For me, that’s when I know Christmas has arrived.
It doesn’t have to be a big thing.