What pre-Christmas traditions do you and your family have to get yourselves in the mood for Christmas? Tell Cadbury and you could win a £200 Love2Shop voucher NOW CLOSED

[AngelieMumsnet]

In honour of Cadbury launching their biggest ever advent calendar, Cadbury would like to know what gets you and your family into the Christmas spirit in the countdown to Christmas.

Here's what they say "This year we’re launching Cadbury’s biggest ever advent calendar and setting out to bring even more joy to the countdown this Christmas. 24 trucks, 24 doors, opening daily in 24 different locations, we’reringing joyful festive surprises to the nation on the countdown to Christmas. While we’re counting down, we’re also keen to hear from Mumsnetters about what you and your families do in the countdown before Christmas"

Find out about the Cadbury advent calendar by watching the video below:

So, what traditions do you and your family have to get that Christmas feeling? Do you spend an evening putting up a Christmas tree? Maybe decorating Christmas cookies is your favourite family activity? Or perhaps you all gather around the TV to watch a particular Christmas movie?

Whatever your pre-Christmas traditions are, Cadbury would love to know.

Everyone who posts a comment will be entered into a prize draw where one lucky MNer will win a £200 Love2Shop voucher.

Thanks and good luck,
MNHQ

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I love to visit a German Christmas market, when we can we go to Germany for a weekend but there are markets in the UK now that we visit, the Leeds one is lovely.
Gluhwein and a German sausage shout Christmas to me .

We have a christmas jigsaw on the go, decorate the outside of the house with lots of lights at the beginning of December and do christmas baking. DD and I made the christmas cake this evening, it's still in the oven and smelling gorgeous!

We have lots. Christmas tree goes up around 10th December. Small tree goes in hall window. Lots of tinsel and pinecones around the hall/stairs. Festival of Nine Lessons and Carols in the run up to Christmas. Baking of the allergen free liebkuchen and stollen which is then frozen as glutenfree/milkfree/eggfree baking goes stale quickly! We have our first main Christmas meal on Christmas Eve by candlelight - we started this when the children were very small so I could enjoy Christmas morning without worrying about the turkey but we have kept on doing it because we love it so much. There is still such an air of anticipation!

We used to go to see pantos at one of the big theatres but they got so expensive. Now we go to a small local one and to be honest they are better.

Our Christmas tree comes out of the loft in mid December and is put up to a backing track of Christmas Songs from Nat King Cole, Bing Crosby, Dean Martin & Frank Sinatra, which was just how my late Dad used to do it in the 70's and so it brings back lovely memories. Our tree decorations come out year on year, and have special memories too. They include things the DC have made and baubles we have bought back from holidays, so even when past their best are an important part of Christmas.

On Christmas Eve (and this will probably out me) packages for our DC have an awful habit of falling off the back of the sleigh just after our evening meal...

Strangely every year the packages have the same contents. Brand new pyjamas to help with getting ready for bed. DS is now 20, and will still expect this tradition to continue.

The of course there is the drunken shushing, trying to fill the stockings really quietly, only to set off a musical toy when trying to make a stealth exit. And waking up in a panic at 3am to remember to remove the mince pie and half the carrot from the fire-place.

I am hoping to add to our traditions this year - I have bought some star biscuit cutters and am going to try making a Gingerbread tree with them. I am already excited about the smell!

We put the Christmas tree & all the decorations up about a fortnight before the big day - Christmas musicgoes on , some sort of alcoholic beverage is opened, and the Santa hats go on!

And it wouldn't be Christmas without a tin of chocs to share round, The Snowman on TV, and the reading of 'Twas the night before Christmas' to the DC's.

We put up our tree the first weekend in December and decorate it as a family. Also on Christmas Eve, the children get a Christmas Eve box with new pyjamas, a festive DVD and some treats to eat.

We put up the Christmas tree together, with the Christmas songs CD on, we bake mince pies and we watch The Polar Express together.

We do lots of Christmassy things!

We spend time together watching festive films. (with a hot chocolate and a mince pie natch)
We make mince pies and a gingerbread house.
We make popcorn garlands and paper-chains.
We use our hand and footprints and fingerprints to make Christmas cards for relatives.
We have big wrapping sessions.
We decorate the house together.
We go and see the lights in town being switched on.
We wait for the Santa that comes on the sleigh around the roads every year.

We generally just spend more time as a family doing things, even mundane things like peeling the veg on Christmas Eve or glazing the ham, it's always more fun when accompanied by family and friends with some Christmas music.

There are lots of things we do together in the run up to Christmas. Some decorations go up on the 1st of December, but we wait till we have a free weekend day to put the tree up and decorate it. It's lovely getting the same decorations out every year. Most years we make biscuit decorations to hang on the tree.
For the past 3 years we've had a holiday trip to the cinema to see the Hobbit films. Have to replace this with Star Wars this year.
On Christmas eve we go to a Christingle service, then home to watch the Polar Express. DS2 insists on this.

Ooh, we like the Polar Express too mrsron
We also like watching A Christmas Carol and reading The night before Christmas. The Snowman is also beautiful and Elf is fun, also the one where they have to get the sleigh to take off in New York by singing loud enough!
Bring it on - I love my Christmas stories and films

We bring out Christmas Playmobil at the start of December. We build a new Christmas Lego set as a family and we always have a trip to London in December to visit Santa! We also do some Christmas bakes, lots of Christmas movies too.

We have a wooden advent calendar with little drawers in it. I spend all year looking for 48 little toys to go inside, and if they are too big I have to do a mini treasure hunt and hide it elsewhere. Last year the eldest started muttering that he was too old for this and wanted a chocolate calendar so I was delighted to only need to have 24 presents, except he was then shopping with me when I bought something and decided actually maybe he wasn't too cool for the tradition after all, so am back to 48 presents! I get huge pleasure out of searching for silly little bits all year that will make them smile.

We go to a Christmas market the first weekend in December and then to choose our Christmas tree and decorate it.
We also go to the crib service at church on Christmas Eve and that signals to us that all of the preparation for Christmas is finished.

On Christmas eve we prepare for santa's visit by making & baking mince pies, mini gingerbread men & stars to hang on the tree, followed by a festive movie before bed time.

We light an advent candle, the children open our advent house each day, we make cards, paper chains, cook Christmas food together. We buy our tree from our village christmas tree market and spend the day decorating it. We play lots of games and spend quality family time together.

This is our first Christmas as a threesome, we have a 10 month old. I'm keen to start Christmas traditions for us to enjoy. We will be attending the SANDS Christmas service to honour our stillborn daughter. We are also planning to shop for a new bauble for the tree, a visit to see Santa, putting up decorations and tree whilst watching Elf- (we already do this one!)

We always go to the Christmas shop in liberty's to buy a new decoration. We look at the lights, go for lunch and make a real event out of it. It's something that I look forward to every year

i like to take the children to the local garden centre to see the real reindeer and we like to go iceskating somewhere in London out doors to add to the excitement of christmas .
They also like to choose a real christmas tree from the garden centre or local farm shop and decorate it.

A newish tradition for us....we go to watch Father Christmas be rescued by the lifeboat and then parade through the town to his grotto!

We've been going to the same garden centre for the last seven years to buy our Christmas tree. We spend a couple of hours there. The children take their time comparing the trees - it is a serious decision! - and once we have decided on the tree, we turn to the amazing Christmas shop. We look at all the decorations, the carefully set up little Christmas scenes, we even go into the dark room where all the Christmas lights are set up. The garden centre is like Ali baba's cave! Once our eyes are filled with beautiful things, the children can pick a decoration each and we go home to decorate our tree, have some mince pies and a coffee.
It is all very exciting! Our children are 7, 5 and 3 and I hope they will stay that excited about Christmas for many years to come!

Attending Christchurch Cathedral Carol service in the afternoonon Christmas Eve. Everything is done and it's time to take a breathe and relax as a family. The children have to be a bit older for this one though.

We watch " the Box of Delights" on DVD each year in the weeks leading up to Chrismas. And make lots of home-made decorations. Lots and lots!

We have a family night in putting all the decorations up, we decorate the tree, make paper chains, etc. It always gets us in the mood for Christmas!

on our last day at work, my husband and I ring each other as we are leaving and play "Driving home for Christmas" by Chris Rea down the phone to each other lol. We also always watch It's a Wonderful Life

The first weekend in December is our family time for putting up the tree and decorating the house. DD1 has her own tree for her bedroom and she loves adding her decorations!

The other things we do to build up the excitement during December, is to book a 'breakfast with santa' visit for both DDs, and of course a family visit to a local pantomime!