We need your Christmas customs and family traditions

[CatherineMumsnet]

We're after all your customs and traditions - stockings, leaving stuff out for santa, dressing the tree, when you open presents, what you eat, carol singing and anything else that makes Christmas in your home.
Thanks everyone

oooooooooooooooh where is cod
someone needs to say

'we dn't gvie afl ying FARK about yer CHritmas trditionas

stokgings and biucks fizz and borad gamesm and all that shjt'

so I've dopne it

12 days of christmas....

You get a small gift (approx £1 each max) for the 12 days following Christmas. It keeps the magic going longer and stops that deflated "well is that it?" feeling.

My family is quite relaxed, children open presents first thing, quite manic, dinner and leftovers later.

PIL is more organised, they demand sherry and the Queens speech, presents after lunch and you have to open one at a time and everyone watches you. I tell you, I'm fed up of the whole present thing after about an hour or two of it, says nothing for the kids.

Oh I LOVE this thread. I'm going to read it every day

I LOVE CHRISTMAS (will put in my traditions when I'm not...ahem....supposed to be taking dc to school/nursery)

The traditional three hour discussion between parents and MIL on Boxing Day about 'what did you call muffins when you were growing up in the 1950s?' 'Oh really, we called them crumpets,' 'What about bread rolls?' etc.

LOL@Kathy

Xmas Eve afternoon - mulled wine / port / sherry & mince pies while listening to Carols from Kings and wrapping presents. DS has 'Xmas pyjamas' and leaves out the obligatory carrots for Rudolph and mince pies for Santa, and hangs his stocking.

Also, I always cook the ham on Xmas Eve so the house is filled with the smell (then have some of it with eggs for Xmas Day breakfast)

Xmas Day - nothing that different from anyone else really!

A generalised sense of horror and panic starting some time around mid-Novemeber and growing to an inevitable crescendo around the Very Special Day.

This year I may well take Mandelbrot's approach.

On the good side I always remember I am not enduring the absolute horror of Family Christmas inflicted on me every year by my insane parents.

Christmas eve, long walk in the afternoon no matter the weather (nearly) come back for dinner for the boys early bath for the boys then they get to come downstairs to put their stockings on the hearth and we sit with milk and hot chocolate and look at the Gratitude Journal - (this years scrapbook) of all the great things we have done this year tickets for train journeys and photos etc.
Kids in Bed DH and I have a supper of cheese, apples crackers and port whilst we put the hidden pressies under the tree and fill the stockings, early bed for us.
Christmas morning, DH makes tea or milk and we sit in our bed with the children and we all open our stockings. Croissant with bacon for breakfast 1 pressie from under the tree then church after church coffee and mincepies and more pressies and chat until lunch (about 2pm)after lunch walk or film depending on mood of house.. few more pressies.

I love the fact that the pressies last all day seems to make the magic last longer..

I LOVE Christmas getting over excited now...

Xmas Eve ham cooking followed by ham'n'eggs breakfast - fab idea MrsMattie, am going to adopt that one!

Whe the dc were little we used to put the dec's up after they had gone to bed, they thought the christmas fairy's had done it, their face's were a picture, they do the same for their lo's now.

oh yes we have the 12 days of xmas presents too. we put them on the table and eat them at breakfast. they are called table presents - don't ask my mum came up with that one.

we normally pick the tree up xmas eve morning and decorate it in the afternoon before going to church. am going to do the lights on thing to show santa has been this year.

our xmas traditions are set to change this year, as this will be the first year without great grandma, and so, as she used to stay with the PIL's everyyear (since they got married), and MIL is not looking forward to xmas at their house now without her mum being there, we will now take on them staying with us, and probably FIL and DH going to golf first thing......meaning presents will be opened later than we are currently used to.

It will be sad this year, but I am looking forward to the change in a strange way. It will be nice to adjust our traditions.....especially while the children ara all still young enough to really adapt and enjoy.

we will be keeping our xmas eve the same tho, so I will post about that.

Xmas Eve is always the day we take the children to visit Father Christmas. We have done that since DD1's first Xmas, and it is something that seems to have stuck. I book it for about lunchtime, and we then always let the children choose what they eat for their lunch that day.......normally McDonalds truth be told.

We then go to Mudeford........we eat there as McDonalds is close by, and then we also take lots of bread and feed the ducks/swans/geese. And then we go for a walk along the beach if the weather is ok for it.

After that we go out and (with that weeks childbenefit), we choose the 'family present'. Most years it is a big board game.....something we can all play over xmas. Last year was a 'Buzz' game for the PS2............and the children LOVED it!

We also by 'picky' bits for tea that night......we normally have a 'carpet picnic'.

We always buy the children new PJ's and bedsocks and wrpa them up, for them to open on xmas eve after tea and bath.......it gets them ready for bed in a fun easy way.

After that are all ready for bed, we then hand out a new DVD, they write their 'thankyou' letter to Father Xmas (they have already told them their wish at the visit that day, so they say thankyou for the vist and also in advance for whatever he gives them as they all know that they will love what he has chosen), and also leave wine/dairy-free choc (as who is to say that FC does not have allergies like thier mum), and carrots and water for EVERY SINGLE reindeer.

Off the trot to bed, while DH and I watch a dvd of our choice and then sort out their pressies and stockings (FC only ever brings stocking pressies in our house!).

Finally, DH and I fall into bed, and give each other our own pressies. Xmas day is about the children, so DH and I have our time early hours of the morning, before the place turns into a grotto

the best thing is having an amalgamation of my families traditions and DH's traditions.

having a job with stupid hours this does tebd to bugger up the traditions a bit but this is what should happen.

christmas eve.

last minute veg shopping
smoked salmon and bagles for lunch.
church for crib service.
all my family come round to us for champagne and nibbles
the DDs usually do some showing off wuith some music
get v drunk

christmas day

i wake the DDs up by crashing around deliberately at about 7. they've never done the waking up at an ungodly hour.
open stocking presents in our bed
have chocolate for breakfast
open presents from us and other ones under the tree.
discuss who is going to be driver
go to my mothers where my other sisters will be to open more presents.
have more chocolate and wine.
pick up MIL and bring home for lunch (that is we eat lunch not eat MIL)
have more wine
deliver MIL home and go to see In laws for more presents and more chocolate and more wine
come home and have more wine. and usually a nice walk

this is buggered up by either the cat being ill like last year and having to take her to the vets (v expensive and worrying)
or me working like this years (all the above has to be squeezed into evening)

we don't have any, unless you count a general sense that starting on the booze as soon as you wake up is acceptable.

Tree goes up on 6th Dec (my birthday and a family tradition. I do it by myself, usually with lots of swearing as I try to unravel the lights I stuffed in a carrier bag last year when I took the damn thing down , DD hiding in her bedroom whilst I have a mini tantrum over lights.

Christmas Eve, we get dolled up and go out with my parents and the DC's.

Christmas Day, I get up first, and start bouncing on the bed in excitement . Run in and wake DD up, declaring loudly that FC has been and she should see the massive pile of stuff in the living room.

DD crawls out of bed bleary eyed and then starts screaming with excitement when she sees said pile of stuff. She then spends most of the morning rattling boxes and begging me to let her open it. I stand firm and insist not until DH gets up which could be another 2-3 hours . Send DD into him to jump up and down and get him out of bed.

DH gets up, we sit in a circle and open one thing at a time. When that is done, I'm left to clear up, DD trashes the place (it's the one day in the year I can handle it) and DH goes back to bed.

He gets up again, does dinner, DD and I go to the pub with my dad, come home and sit in front of the telly all day.

I lurve Christmas!

last couple of years I have tried so damn hard to have the perfect sodding Christmas. House immaculate, perfect pressies wrapped perfectly, idyllic stockings full of exciting mix of retro/kitsch/cute/cool gifts, incredible family lunch cooked to perfection, freshly laundered clothes all laid out, movies carefully selected, board games chosen, invitations and family visits co-ordinated and running like clockwork with prearranged drivers etc etc etc
2 years ago both kids and DH were ill and ate nothing at all. I spend the evening on my own downstairs while they all were asleep by 6pm. It was crap. They just opened gifts and then wanted to go back to bed. Last year they were up, all went fairly well but was so OTT control-freakish me that I was promptly really ill with a migraine from Boxing Day to New Year. A whole week of purging the stress I reckon!

So.. this year is gonna be different. Not sure how yet. Got to think about tactics to let go, be relaxed, not plan too much and just enjoy it all. I love Christmas, I love thinking about it and planning it so why oh why oh why do I put myself through the "perfect Christmas" hell?? Aaaaaagh

tree goes up for Dh's birthday (10th)
cards go up xmas eve after ds1's birthday
Christmas eve is usually a quiet day after ds's birthday shenanigans...

This year we are at home and I am so happy! Get up with boys, open stockings on bed. DH crawls down to make bacon sarnies. Pressie opening at around 10, dinner at around 2/3pm, in between, lounging, reading, eating chocs, playing games, perhaps a movie.
This year my best friend and neighbour and her partner arecoming over in the faternoon as her kids are at their dads. So we will bribe the children with chocolate to play upstairs and we will collpase into champagny giggles and play music and silly games and sing and sit round the firepit and eat more stuff.

We usually spend xmas eve listening to xmas songs, watching xmas films on tv, re-doing the decorations, sorting the house out ready for the present aftermath. Then before bed we leave a Carrot out for Rudolph and a drink of dd's choice for FC with a biscuit

Xmas day usually starts very early, we all go downstairs into the front room to open presents, kids eat chocolate for breakfast and then the madness begins with all the presents.

I'm sure it will change as the kids are all very young atm. When the ds's are older I think things will be different.

My dp will be 40 this year and he still insists on having a stocking!

I always wear satin pyjamas on Xmas eve.

At tea time on Xmas day my whole family goes to visit my Granda.
Also as a whole family (aunties, uncles, cousins etc) we go out for a Xmas meal sometime in December.

Oh and the Christmas tree goes up on the 1st

oh and on xmas eve, dh and I like t drink port while warpping the stockings...

wrapping not warping..Warped stockings

ruby, sounds lovely. you'll hardly notice an extra 4 popping round then...