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

Standard Insight Terms and Conditions apply

Very small family, Christmas day is just the 3 of us, DS9 still believes... so we do the carrot for the reindeer (which DH leaves teethmarks in for added effect!) Mince pie and milk for Santa... we do santa footprints, and stocking at the end of the bed to buy us an extra 15 mins of sleep!!

One of my favourite things about this time of year though, is lebkuchen! Stock up in Lidl, then enjoy with mulled wine. They remind me of my mum, who sadly is no longer with us.

trying to get Father Christmas sacks/stockings on the end of the bed without being caught!!! Putting the tree up and deciding on the colour scheme (Yes I have several), buying this years ornament addition, Getting the chocolate baubles and a Santa from Lidl!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Lidl stollen and fizz :)

When i was a child instead of the usual selection box my brothers and I all had a red bag with a black drawstring. My parents would fill them with sweets and chocolate. It was so much fun to fopen and find out what was in there. I know do this for my son's with 2 of the original bags.

I find a different way each year for the elves to drop of the boys pyjamas and dressing gown each Christmas eve. They love it and the we all snuggle down to watch a film and play games.

Christmas Eve is my favourite day of the year, and we have a few bits we have started doing with DS1 like baking mince pies, watching the Father Christmas, reading the night before Christmas etc.

However, my favourite tradition is how me and DH do wrapping! We always wait until December, we get Christmas music on, all the pressies out and get down on the floor to have a marathon wrapping session, complete with mulled cider and cheese to nibble on! I just love it! He builds a wall out of cushions so I can’t see what he’s wrapping for me!

My family all meet up on Christmas eve and have secret santa and party food, very relaxed and sets you in the mood for Christmas. Christmas day we have just oh and kids, big breakfast, presents and more relaxing. Lovely time

We have a buffet on Christmas Day of every kind of thing you would like to eat and drink - and you can eat anything at all you want, at any time. Chocolate for breakfast, wine for lunch etc! No cooking, no stress and everyone has what they fancy.

No one goes down stairs until everyone is up.

Each year we go to a local Christmassy shop and each of my children choose a bauble to add to the tree - so they get a new one each year!

We decorate our tree and put our decorations up together on the Sunday closest to Dec 1st!

We have a walk Christmas Day afternoon to help work off our turkey Christmas dinner! Where we live as the trees are full of fairy lights and they look beautiful during our walk!

On Christmas Eve, after we light the Christmas candle (and say a few prayers for those who need them and those no longer with us) before we put out treats for Santa and the reindeer.

At bedtime on Christmas eve I always read 'Twas the night before Christmas' to my children.

We always watch the Muppets Christmas Carol - we used to have it on VHS but we have now progressed to DVD.

our tradition is that we have a real tree and all of us go to pick it teenagers littlys everyone then we decorate together...and i redecorate when they have all gone out ha ha!

New pyjamas on Christmas eve

We always sit down and make pomanders. Get an orange, poke holes all over it with a skewer, and stick cloves into the holes. Then you tie it up with red ribbon and hang wherever you like. They make the most gorgeous Christmassy smell and get everyone sitting down chatting as you make them!

Going to shopping centre on Christmas Eve to mooch around and look at lights
Going to mass of course on Christmas Day
Not wrapping Santa presents
Eating chocolate until we never want to see it again!

Opening one present each on Christmas Eve, drinking eggnog and hot chocolate, and leaving out cookies and milk for Santa, and carrots for the reindeer!

Last -minute shopping is not a problem for us (although we are well-organised). We always avoid turkey, as it's too dry, and we believe Christmas is a time for indulging yourself in real luxuries (not an oversized chicken) that you can rarely justify buying.

we do a trail of sweets from the kids bed, all the way down the stairs to the christmas tree, they still think he needs anew back as there is a hole in his and he drops all his sweets!

I love that idea @georgedawes. Is it all cold?

We love choosing our Christmas tree at the forest shop on the first weekend of December. The kids have hot chocolate and mince pies and the adults have a venison burger!!

We also go to a 5pm panto on Christmas Eve, with some friends. We've done this since having our youngest 5 years ago and try and book the front row! It's considered the "cheap" panto in our city but we love it as it's not a huge production and is shorter than the main one for the younger children- much more interactive and really great fun! As it's the last showing the cast and Santa always come out at the end to shake hands and give out sweeties!!

Christmas stockings. Hanging them up, kids opening them in bed with us first thing.

We always have stockings first thing before breakfast. A walk in the morning then a big xmas lunch. Tree pressies after lunch then games, always including charades and cheesy films for the rest of the day.

I always get my daughters new pjs for Christmas Eve so they can snuggle up in them. Stocking presenst are opened on waking but we open our presents round the tree after Christmas dinner which works really well as then the excitment lasts through the day and the present opening is spaced out :)

Our family have many traditions! some of them are:

• put up the decorations first weekend in December

- watch a Christmas movie every day in December

• visit the Christmas market in town and see all the Christmas lights
• sample a different pudding from (a certain supermarket) every Sunday from about mid-November and do a vote on which one we get to have with our Christmas dinner
• go for a meal with extended family (my siblings & their families) on 23rd December (AKA Christmas Eve Eve!)
• Christmas Eve hamper for the children even though the eldest is now nearly an adult! They get new PJs, loads of sweets and a Christmas DVD
• we all watch It's A Wonderful Life sometime in the week leading up to Christmas, and the children and my husband take bets on how soon into the movie I will start crying. Last year it was at the opening credits!

christmas eve watching great film with new cosy pjs

I like to have my welcome lights on a timer in my kitchen window from 1 Dec. Coming home to see a welcoming glow from afar, always gives me a warming Christmassy feel.