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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A tradition i have made with my daughter is every Christmas day when toys and everything has been tidied up at 8pm we get snuggled on the sofa get 'party food' and watch 'the polar express' she is 8 years old and this will be our 7th year 😍 same time same film different party food lol

On the first weekend in December, we always make up some holly wreaths for mine and DH's granddads who both died in the second world war. We always weave a few poppies through.

The kids have grown up helping us and we are really proud that DS1 has decided to join the military as soon as he has finished his A Levels.

We’ve started a few new traditions of our own, now that we have young children. Christmas Eve is spent ice-skating in the outdoor rink. We throw reindeer dust in to the back garden to guide Santa, and leave out a carrot for Rudolph plus whisky for Santa.

Christmas morning breakfast (after the present frenzy) is frozen pastries from the local farm shop, which we bung in the oven then have with a glass of Buck’s Fizz.

We have soup at lunchtime & “picky foods” then our main meal & pudding late afternoon. Everyone contributes something towards the food on the day, so we all share the load.

All very relaxed & casual. With a young family & elderly parents, I want to enjoy time with them on Christmas Day, rather than spending it stuck in the kitchen.

We all go out to a garden centre to potter round the Christmas bits, and then the DC pick a new decoration each for the tree. It's lovely to see them each year although I smashed DDs first one and was practically inconsolable

We always go out for dinner on Christmas Eve. It’s so lovely not to have to think about cooking a meal (especially knowing I’ll have all the stress of the big meal on Christmas Day). On the way home we take a long detour and drive round looking at all the houses that have nice Christmas light displays, my elderly parents enjoy this probably more than anything else

We love the run up to Christmas.

Love getting the Christmas tree down at th end of November and decorating it together.

We also do a Santa train experience in early December and breakfast with Santa on Christmas Eve...can’t wai.

My favourite tradition that we do with my DS now 7 years old on Christmas Eve is choosing the drink & treat for Father Christmas & the reindeer carrot then read 'The Night Before Christmas' We get the special Christmas mug & plate out, pour some milk, choose a biscuit (because he gets lots of mince pies - last year was chocolate gingerbread which was from Lidl), select a carrot (normally the biggest one we have), put it all on the windowsill in the bay window then settle down with the book. Perfect!

My favourite Christmas moment is when children wake you up with twinkly eyes in the morning after seeing the pile of present downstairs.

My favourite tradition is the stick with some bottle tops nailed to it.
Every Christmas when we were young, we'd actually hear Santa's sleigh bells approaching! Turns out my mum had crafted said stick and would get a neighbour to hide in the garden, shaking it. She'd then sneakily cross the road and return the favour for the neighbour's children to hear.
I have the stick now, and it is so special as it is soooo unlike my mum to do anything so crafty/magical.

Christmas music, mince pies and hot chocolate while we decorate the tree. I always have high hopes of a colour scheme but the kids just throw everything at it and we make do with a rainbow tree!! Love Christmas!!

As a child I loved going round and delivering the presents to extended family - it felt magical to me as Christmas was almost upon us.

I would also love opening that first stocking present with my sister at about 4 am when we were too excited to sleep! We were each allowed to open just one before our parents got up.

We go out for dinner with friends on christmas eve then come home and bake cookies for santa

There will always be one present under the Christmas tree labelled 'To be opened on Christmas Eve' and it will always be a new pair of pyjamas to wear for Christmas.
Presents for the family will always include a few chocolate oranges and Toblerones - can't remember when or why that tradition started, but we still carry it on.

We have a karaoke Christmas tape, and we sing carols, they melt my heart, oh little town of Bethlehem, and little Donkey always bring a tear. we make home made sweets from icing sugar and peppermint cream and egg white, and I dip them in melted chocolate, or my DC's decorate them with flavoured icing and put them it little boxes for aunties uncles and grand parents. They go down a treat.

our favourite tradition is going to christingle on Christmas eve. We all walk through the village together, past all its beautiful Christmas lights. The church is full of faces both new and familiar. we sing all the favourite carols and make our way home again to a warm supper by the fire and then its time to get stockings ready! It feels timeless and magical.

A few years back we had a German friend staying with us over Christmas. I know Christmas is a big deal in Germany and I wanted to help her feel at home so I googled 'German Christmas traditions' to try and get a bit of inspiration. Lots of sites mentioned this thing called a 'Christmas Pickle' - a gherkin shaped ornament you hide on the tree on Xmas Eve, then the first person who finds it gets to open the first present. I thought that would be a nice idea so I hunted everywhere for one of these things, including all the German markets, but to no avail. Eventually I managed to get hold of one through some obscure American website. Christmas Eve arrived and I proudly got out the traditional pickle ornament and asked her if shed like to hang it on the tree. "She'll love this," I thought. She just looked at me blankly and clearly didn't have a clue what I was on about. "It's a German tradition!" I spluttered. "I read about it on the internet!" Turns out it's a made-up thing from America that cropped up a few years back, rather like EOTS. She thought it was hilarious and still teases me about it now. We still do the pickle thing to this day. It's tradition.

Christmas Eve is our favourite day and it's a really special day for me and my dc now.

We always find somewhere to go ice skating, preferably outdoors, just as it's getting dark. Lots of Christmas lights and there's so much magic and excitement.

Then on the way home, grab a take away and eat it watching a Christmas film. After that, it's bath time and new pj's and although too old for it now, time to track Santa on NORAD.

Mine are 19 and 12 and despite 'not believing' any more, it's still our special magical day. For many years, we were a family of just three and they are our traditions, things that we have done as a three for a long time. Dp is now involved in our special day and gets into the spirit by laughing at anyone who falls over ice skating. He can't skate so gets nominated to take photos.

I had a text message a few years ago from oldest sister saying - In mum and dads, you need to get here, NOW! - I was out shopping and rushed over wondering what was wrong, when I got there it went something like this (OS is oldest sister)

Me: what's wrong?!? I got your text
OS: mum and dad have put the decorations up
Me: and? Is that it? You had me worried!!
OS: LOOK AT THEM!?!?!?
Me: -slowly looking around- But, But, where's x?! Where's y?! MUUUUUM, DAAAAAAD
OS: -nodding triumphantly- exactly!

X and Y were decorations that had always been up during my childhood and beyond, mum and dad came in rolling their eyes "not you as well! They were falling apart we thought we could finally get rid of them" I not so kindly explained that this is what tape is for and they shook their heads and dad went and retrieved them.

I think that they are now more tape than decoration, but it's not Christmas if they aren't up! Parents now understand that They have 3 crazy daughters these decorations are non-negotiable

Our favourite tradition is we each get a present at end of our beds( me, brother, Mum and Dad) this open first thing Christmas morning, this is normally pjs, slippers or a dressing gown, the brother and Dad then cook us a full English with Buck’s Fizz, we then all prepare Christmas dinner and have that with a glass of wine, we then play monopoly and watch crappy tv lol

We leave Father Christmas a beer and Christmas treat. He leaves a thankyou letter and in the letter talks about what a great year our daughter has had.

Our favourite tradition is on Christmas Day after dinner/visiting family or friends, myself and DC curl up in our pj's, watch the big Christmas film and have party food.
It's very cosy with just the three of us after the chaotic run up to the festivities.

Having the kids in our bed on Christmas morning to open stockings and eat sausage rolls and mince pies for breakfast!

The Black Nose Elf

This dates from when DS was two and wouldn’t spend a whole night in his own bed. We told him that the night before Christmas Eve, Father Christmas sent out elves to check that children in their beds. The elf would touch each child on the nose, to count them. If you looked very closely on Christmas Eve morning you might see a tiny black mark as the elf had grubby fingers from coming down the chimney ... but only if you were in your own bed. Then you’d know that Father Christmas would visit the next night.
It worked a treat (still does, he’s teenage now). We creep in armed with black mascara, trying not to get the giggles.

That and Midnight Mass, singing heartily. Amazing atmosphere.

We always go for a Christmas Eve walk through the woods. It's magic and quiet.

We come back for orange hot chocolates with cream and marshmallows and eat some of the Christmas baking.

Then we watch a movie, have tea and go to bed nice and early. It usually goes to plan, although the going to bed early never seems to work....

Decorating the christmas tree with festive music (and mulled wine for the adults..) Going to a ‘nine lessons and carol service’ at a local church.