Christnas (sorry) traditions

[Kafri]

DS us 1 just before Christmas but it will be his first at home as he was poorly and on neonatal last year.

I'm looking for a nice tradition I can keep each year for him so any ideas from you more experienced mums.

For example, I was a post about a mum who was buying a pandora like bracelet and adding a charm each Christmas up to 18.

Well, can't imagine a pandora would be much use to DS so any 'boy' ideas out there.

Thanks.

Well he's a bit young to participate or understand any of iit obviously but might as well start young!

We have 2 boys (age 6 and nearly 2), our Christmas traditions are pretty simple. We went online to gettingpersonal.co.uk and had personalised Christmas baubles with their names, date and time of birth, weight printed on them. Every year each of our boys puts their own bauble on the tree and we take a photo of them holding theirs to put in the album so you can see them changing and growing up each year.

We also take a trip to see Santa at a local garden centre and they get a mince pie and a crappy toy, which they love!

Go to the Pantomime at the theatre (though I appreciate your DS is too young for this but it's lovely tradition to start from about age 3, we won't risk taking our DS2 yet, he stays in bed with Nanna babysitting!).

Also something daft but fun, we go outside on Christmas Eve and sprinkle glitter all over the drive way to 'guide the Reindeer in to our house'. The boys love this, even though last year DS2 did try to eat his glitter!

I love Christmas! Not sure if this is helpful, we don't really do anything like the Pandora bracelet thingy but the little traditions we do have really build the excitement and they love it x

Stick I love your glitter tradition! I've also been wanting to take ds1 to a pantomine too, maybe this year I'll start that (with a babysittter for dd2).

Our dc's have personalised Christmas sacks - massive sturdyish ones that can hold a lot of presents. On Christmas Eve Santa comes round the village on his sleigh and we see him in his grotto in the village hall where there is a brass band and mince pies and mulled wine. The last couple of years there has been snow so it was magical. We leave out carrots and mince pies for Santa and the reindeer before ds1 goes to bed. We leave them in front of the fireplace and in the morning the fire guard is open and the bulging sacks are in front of the fire, and there are snowy Santa footprints on the door mat by the front door (icing sugar). And just the carrot tops are left as the reindeer have munched the carrots! christmas is utterly magical when you have small children! Choose your Christmas traditions that you want to follow and then stick to them every year.

Can't help on the present front though, sorry. Dd2 is only 1 and she most certainly isn't having a Pandora bracelet! Actually, I've lost my own...

Every year we go & pick out our tree as a big family thing & we each pick 1 new decoration to add to the tree every year as well. (It takes a surprisingly long time!)

Thanks guys,

I'm such a Christmas girl - I love it and really want to start building our own family traditions.
This year will be hard as it's the first without my mum - she had a stroke earlier in the year and passed away but I want to make it special for our little fella which I know is more for me than him at his age

We have little table presents after pudding at Christmas lunch and DC take turns to put on a special 'santa hat' to give them out. We spin this out one at a time and everyone watching the unwrapping and DC love it.

p.s. I must also confess that DC are both in their 30s :) so it is definitely a family tradition now :)

Love it, Chottie!

thanks mummyxtwo

I like to think this will give hope to all those whose teenagers are a bit too laid back about Christmas at the moment :)

DC still have Christmas stockings too. :)

We have a couple.
Our big do is on Xmas eve when my mum has around 25 people, turkey roast, games, the works. When we get home - 4 - 5 ish - the elves have visited to check everything's ok for Santa, and they've left a letter along with new pjs and a Xmas DVD. In the letter they ask that we leave food for Santa in the house and reindeer food on the lawn. They also ask me to check my email, which has a message from Santa to both dc (portablenorthpole.com -free videos from Santa, is lovely!)
After they see the video we put out food, watch DVD in new pjs and off to bed.
Xmas day is always at home, we have an open door policy and there's always food on the go but its all very relaxed.
In the lead up we visit Santa, go to carols by candlelight, go on tours of all the Xmas lights, make Xmas shaped cookies etc. It's lovely

Every year each child chooses a new tree decoration and we have a list of who each belongs to. When they leave home they will each have a box of random tree decorations and I will be able to use a coherent colour scheme on the tree again

Thanks for the suggestions - some lovely traditions going on around the country.

I'm going to start the letter from the elves this year so DS can read back when he's older. The film and pjs is good too though might have to wait til he can sit still long enough to watch anything.

We're going to go looking around the Christmas displays. There's plenty of them so might as well enjoy them and perhaps 'buy a bauble' each year to go with his my first Christmas one from last year.

Stick I love the idea of taking a photo with their bauble - Thank you!

I've just got some baubles that you can put your own photos in. ds is only 5 months so bought quite a few as they're pretty cheap but decent (3.99 for 4) and I'd like to put a new one on the tree each year. stuck the poor thing in a Santa suit and took photos for this year's one the other day!

a tradition a friend has (which I'm planning to steal) is getting new pjs wrapped up to open on Christmas eve. yay Christmas!

We let each of the children pick a new Christmas decoration each year, as they get older it will be lovely seeing all the old decorations come out and on the tree. We started last year, will continue this year, so not a tradition yet but getting the children to make their own Christmas sacks out of pillowcases and paint. Messy but fun.