Share your favourite Christmas family moments and traditions with Lidl: chance to win £100 NOW CLOSED

[AnnMumsnet]

Christmas is coming (FAST!) - and the team at Lidl would love to hear all about your family Christmas moments - perhaps from your own childhood or memories you are creating with and for your own children?

Are you a super-organised shopper, a festive fashionista in your Christmas jumper, or more of a last-minute panicker? Do you do ‘stir-up Sunday’ to create your perfect Christmas pudding or cake? Is there a tradition of choosing your tree that the whole family look forward to? What about when you were a child - are there older family traditions you recreate or look back on fondly which help get you in the community spirit?

Whatever your Christmas traditions are, Lidl would love to hear them!

Please post them on this thread and you will be entered into a prize draw where one winner will get £100 worth of Lidl vouchers (note the winner will be sent 4 x £25 vouchers, one voucher can be redeemed per transaction).

Thanks and good luck
MNHQ

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On Christmas eve, about 7pm we always go to the cinema to see a family movie then home for the big day. :)

We have a tradition of putting out a mince pie, carrot and Large Baileys for Santa. Santa doesn't like milk in our house, he much prefers Baileys! He never leaves a drop either, Rudolph only has a nibble of his carrot and the mince pie gets half eaten. Santa leaves snowy footprints from the backdoor to the Christmas tree that smell suspiciously like talcum powder too :)

we always every year take our children to the shops to buy a small present for a child in need. Then we wrap it up and take it to our local church . This way the children also recognise xmas is about giving as well not just reciving

we like to go to church for xmas carols on christmas eve :)

We always go together to choose our Christmas tree on the first Saturday in December, and then go for hot chocolates after.

Wrapping presents with the kids while watching Elf

A tradition we have is to open one present from under the tree on Christmas eve! We did it when we were kids so have carried it on, however I have started to put together a Christmas eve box for my son with new pyjamas etc inside for him to wear to bed on Christmas eve :)

We always have Chinese on Christmas eve, sometimes takeaway, sometimes homemade. Then while we are tidying up Father Christmas usually sneaks in and leaves a little gift under the tree.

Letting the children decorate the tree. I put the lights and tinsel on, so they don't get tangled up, but they add all the hanging ornaments. They're getting pretty good at it!

Watching my mum tell off my dad in a very over the top way when we walked in on him eating the biscuits and gulping the milk we left out for Father Christmas. His faux guilty expression made a lot more sense to me when I was older!

I grew up in the US, near a town that was famous for its Christmas lights display. So every Christmas Eve we would like in the car and ride through the town no matter what the weather was. Then we would go to the Christmas Eve service at our church. It is such a lovely memory even though I remember complaining as a teen.

These days life is much simpler. We have been pet sitting for the last 3 years, this will be our first Christmas in years where it is with family. We have always made an effort to make cookies, no matter where we were. I imagine this year they will taste just a little more lovely.

I start my Christmas shopping whenever I see things and then I walk around in a smug haze knowing I'm ahead of schedule and I have it all under control . Then reality kicks in when I realise I've missed the last post and the only Christmas card I've written out was the one I gave to my osteopath who looked at me in awe that I'd written my cards out so early, and I accepted her praise because it gave me a fuzzy feeling. I wrap the presents so last minute that I'm late to all functions/gatherings and run out of wrapping paper or sellotape or worse still, both. This year, they're all getting money instead. I can never find the Christmas cards I bought my OH and DD because I put them in a 'special place' but that was months ago and I can't even remember what the rest of my sentence was. I then find the Easter eggs I'd hidden when I'm trying to remember where I hid the Christmas presents. I always leave deciding what we're doing at Christmas in the hope we get invited to my OH's brother's house, God forbid I have to cook everyone dinner, it would be a complete disaster, I'm hopelessly disorganised!

I'm always super organised and have all the pressies bought and wrapped by the end of Nov, I also start buying tins and extra bits in the weekly shop (non perishables) from Sept onwards - it means there isn't any panic of financial worries for us over the xmas period of having to rush about like idiots getting everything last minute when we could be at home instead.

Our fave xmas tradition is deffo new pjs on christmas eve, fresh bedding on the bed, a christmas movie and hot chocolate and marshmallows - t helps us all chill out and relax and get excited for the big day

When we put up our tree and decorate it we always listen to xmas songs and have a glass of mulled wine!

The Christmas stocking is a must every year, my 12 year old says it's her favourite bit of Christmas. The trifle is also a must every year

We like to have a real Christmas tree with outdoor lights on it in the front garden. We started off doing this so that the kids and the cat didn't meddle with all the decorations, plus it looks really pretty at night. The kids get the job of decorating the tree and the front garden, which usually looks pretty crazy by the time they have finished, but it keeps them busy and happy!
I start buying one or two gifts during the year, but now some of the kids are older (some are teens), it gets harder and they change their minds a lot, so it's better to buy their gifts nearer the time. I usually start to panic a little when Christmas gets close worrying that I will get everything done in time or if I have forgotten anything! One year we left the Christmas shopping until Christmas eve (due to illness) and we checked the stores website for the closing time...only to find that they had it wrong on the website!!! Cue a mad panic in Tesco Metro trying to find enough ingredients to get a Christmas lunch together and somehow we actually pulled it off!!!

next weekend we write our letters to santa with christmas music on, we cut pics out of catalogues so santa knows exactly what we would like then watch our first christmas film

We always have a big family christmas dinner on christmas eve so on the day we can be relaxed and enjoy playing with the children and eating cold turkey and not spending all day in the kitchen cooking and cleaning.

We make annual trip on the Santa steam train! Its amazing!

We love our Christmas morning tradition - fresh percolator coffee with cream and brown sugar, with warm croissants and pain au chocolate from the local bakery for breakfast while we open out presents. Heaven!

our favourite part is going to choose our christmas tree's we go to the farm we get up early wrap up warm and don our wellies we then set off we sing along to christmas music wander though the christmas display have hot chocolate and mince pies and choose our tree's its a real fun day

Family all help put the tree and other decorations up. Everyone who can comes for Christmas lunch

I am a last minute shopper so it always a bit hectic. Every year I tell myself I am going to be more organised but it never seems to happen. OH is in charge of decorating the tree and the children have always helped.

Every year we always wear silly hats and jumpers

We wander around the village and sing carols, local pub for one drink..kiddies allowed on that day only. Walk after lunch to the local woods.