Christmas Traditions

in General chat
Hi, there is a really nice post about Christmas traditions that I have loved reading, and it's making me feel so lovely and festive . Thought it would be nice to start a thread on toddler too
)
We have all the usual traditions, we hang up stockings on the fireplace and the these are filled with sweets and chocs, and santa sacks in the childrens' rooms. We leave a glass of port and a carrot out for santa and reindeer, and we always have pancakes on Christmas morning.
Loved the idea of putting a trail of oatmeal/glitter up the path to lead santa to your house (on the other thread!) I may well start that this year.....
We also (and this really shows how sad I am!!) watch Home Alone (embarrassing I know) and the Night before Christmas and the Snowman on Christmas eve - they always get me feeling so Christmassy!
Mx

We have all the usual traditions, we hang up stockings on the fireplace and the these are filled with sweets and chocs, and santa sacks in the childrens' rooms. We leave a glass of port and a carrot out for santa and reindeer, and we always have pancakes on Christmas morning.
Loved the idea of putting a trail of oatmeal/glitter up the path to lead santa to your house (on the other thread!) I may well start that this year.....
We also (and this really shows how sad I am!!) watch Home Alone (embarrassing I know) and the Night before Christmas and the Snowman on Christmas eve - they always get me feeling so Christmassy!
Mx
0
Replies
We buy new pj's too..love it.
We put out a letter to santa, mince pie, glass of milk and some carrots and then we read the night before Xmas...love that book! Kids off to bed and then OH and I wrap all their pressies with a festive drink or 2 and watch something festive. My fav is while you were sleeping or love actually.
We leave crumbs and drink the milk and we also leave a bit of carrot with bite marks on. We sprinkle icing sugar outside mixed with glitter. We have this stick thing that leave a hoof mark (bought it years ago at a craft fair). Also, we leave nesquick cereal (those brown ones ) and say it is reindeer poo!! The kids love it!!!
We set the table the night before for brekkie and the kids make name place cards. We have pots of tea and coffed, criossants, bacon sarnies, bucks fizz etc.. We usually go out for dinner as I dont want to spend the morning sorting a dinner.
The best tradition that I have brought from my childhood is to remember it is a day for the kids. Their happiness and enjoyment comes before ours. Thats why I NEVER go out xmas eve or xmas night and OH never goes for a Xmas drink!!! Boxing day is a day that we have a drink, have people round etc..but Xmas day is for the kids
Happy Xmas all
dxxxx
My Christmas is always hectic as we go to my dad on Christmas Eve, one of our parents on Christmas Day and the the other parents on Boxing Day. On the plus side I have never made a Christmas Dinner yet
I love it being a special day for the kids. The girls were a bit young to understand last year, but this time I really want to start some traditions...like hanging stockings and leaving out a drink and note for Santa. But I will have to do them on my own with the girls as hubby will be working Christmas Eve night and getting home about 9am Christmas morning
Any more tradition ideas? I'm pretty much starting from scratch as we didn't have any traditions when I lived at home.
xxx
Going to do the new pj's on Christmas eve this year - like that one! Sometimes I like Christmas eve more than christmas day lol! The children are soooo excited!
Dee dee, I agree that it's all for the children....we had a real tree for the very first time last year because ds1 wanted it. Then he had the old fake (v small) tree in his bedroom which he loved! So then we had to get another fake tree for ds to put in his room lol (??1.50 from asda!)
We now have Christmas white twinkly lights on the outside of our house each year too - never would've dreamt of that before having kids!
Can't wait now!
Mx
Mims...its soooo true. i used to think lights, trees etc outside houses looked tacky but now I love it. We live in the Middle East and wind those lights in plastic tubing around the palm trees. This year tho we are coming home to UK so won't bother as we leave on the 14th Dec.
I LOVE xmas
oohhh..one more...advent calenedars. EVERYONE gets on in our house and an advent candle is lit too.. Each week of advent we light a new one and then burn them all Xmas Day... and we always have a nativity scence. I have one in a wooden shed that (dolls house size) that we let them play with and I teach them what it is all about. I am christian but dont go to church much but I do try to teach them the true meaning of xmas. Another one I have remembered is that when i lived in UK i always put a toy in the boots toy appeal. I let lauren and chris pick it. wrap it and put a note in. It made them realise not all are as lucky as them. I always try to take them to santa, carol singers, and start playing Xmas dvds, cd's and read xmas books from 1st Dec. I put them away each year so they dont get bored of them. God, I am on a roll. Another friend (actually the same arty one who make the handprints) has a measure chart that she painted and she measures the kids in Dec and hangs it up for the whole of Dec to see how much they have grown.
Just thought would give you ideas
d xxx
When we were little mum made the xmas cake about mid Nov. We used to all come to the table and have a mix and make a wish..... not sure why. Also, the placing the fairy on the top of the tree was always an honour (no idea why) and we always had to pull straws to decide who did it. We had her as long as I cud remember. She fell one year and her face smashed... we were gutted! Dad bought a even more beautiful one and the old one was soon forgotton....lol
d xxx
We have kind of established our own xmas traditions as not many we had as kids ourselves, or the ones we did have we didn't want to continue (that stupid after lunch walk!!).
We used to have a tradition of going to the pub for one festive drink with neighbours before lunch, but think that may have to stop now we have a small person who wants to play with his new toys!
We decided last year that we would buy a new xmas dec (a special one) each year for logan (so far we've bought 3 this year - couldn't decide! hehe)
We might start the new PJs one you all seem to do too!
hubby starts preparing food xmas eve morn (HE DOES ALL COOKING YEAH!!)
head to local with family for xmas drink after lunch (shea comes with us too)
home around late afternoon for a big bowl of homemade pumpkin soup and crusty bread.
then we xmas film (we used to go to pics and will start again when lo is old enough)
put lo to bed after leaving milk, carrot, mince pie and whisky for santa
then the presents come out and stockings go, hubby finishes off prep for xmas dinner
have a glass of wine and off to bed after hubby has dusted his shoes with flour and made foot prints outside to show that santa has been!!
I'm the skintest i've ever been this year and will not recieve one pressie but I don't care just to see my little boys face!!
can't wait!! xxx
d xxx
Do you come home much?
I like the idea of having new jammies for everyone on Christmas Eve - hubby doesn't wear them but I've told him he has to
My husband's family always save a couple of presents to open on Boxing day and I'm not sure whether to keep that one up, although it's a good way to cope with the post Christmas blues I suppose.
I love the idea of the pictures and the decorations but I'm not sure if OH will go for it as he's not overly sentimental
We have loads of Christmas traditions as we spend it in Ireland with my familiy. Next year we will have our son to enjoy it with so there will be loads more!!!! I LOVE the idea of the annual photo by the tree and will definitely be doin that.
What I've been doing for years is buying a Christmas decoration, or something I can make into a Christmas tree decoration, whenever I'm away on holiday. We now have loads of decs on our tree which have a particular story, e.g. from our wedding in Edinburgh, our honeymoon in Rome, various holidays and then some that my hubby brought back from various locations when he was working on the Grand Prix circuit.
Also along with new pjs, I buy new toothbrushes and some nice bubble bath. The children then have a bath with their new bath stuff, brush their teeth with new brushes, and have new pjs to go to bed.
xx
I always wrap my christmas presents watching breakfast at tiffany's with a glass of wine (will have to be lemonade this year though). I can always rely on my lovely husband to give me a new Jo Malone bath oil every year to use on Christmas Eve so I smell lovely on the big day!
Now that Neve is nearly two I would like to start leaving a carrot and mince pie by the chimney before bed.
xxx
Oooh, we've just found this lovely thread, lurking in our archive.
And it's so nice, we thought we'd give it a 'bump' and resurface it – to see if anyone else has got some great family Christmas traditions to share...
Please come and tell us here!
Oh i love reading about everyone's different traditions! Ours started 4 years ago when we started taking our girls to 'meet' santa - we'd go and visit Santa and have a photo of my husband and our two girls sat with him - we then get those pics made into Christmas baubles and hang them on our tree - so we have 4 of these special baubles now - it's so lovely seeing them every year, how much the kids have grown (and sadly how much me and the husband are ageing!!!)
So that's our tradition!
We go to a carols by candlelight service every christmas. We don't really go to church normally but this service is so magical – and everyone has mince pies afterwards.
Also, my other half always organises a mass footie session in the park with all our son's friends on Christmas Eve. It's always very muddy and cold but the kids love it – and it tires them out nicely, so they don't stay up all night waiting for Santa!
This may sounds ridiculous, but we love doing joke gifts, and every year, my brother and my dad pass on to each other some comedy bright green pants (think like the Borat style ones). Nobody really remembers who had them last so it's always funny when the pants come out and are unwrapped!