Christmas Traditions

[Dottywot]

Hey Ladies

I'm looking to steal some of your ideas to make Christmas special!

DD will be 3 by the time christmas comes, and this is the first year that she has already talked about santa and presents, baby jesus etc

I want to make more of an effort for christmas this year, and start making the things we do as a family really memorable for her and hope that they become our family traditions at christmas!

So far on previous christmas we have left a stocking at the end of her bed/cot, spent the morning together before going to church, and then had a meal with family before coming home and spending the rest of the day together (depending on what shift DH is working!)

What else could we do before hand? What do you leave out for Santa? xx

[Hols969]

We do snowy footprints in the living room as well which Noah loves!!

We leave out the normal sort of thing like a carrot and a mince pie and whiskey normally as that is what our 'Santa' likes!!

It does start to get more fun when they are 3+ (whereas before they are just happy with the wrapping paper). Noah loves it now (he is 5).

[Sammi]

My presents under the tree were from mum and dad and the presents in my pillow case (obviously too cheap for real stockings!) that I used to leave outside my bedroom door were from Father Christmas. I think we had some presents from parents and some from Santa so we didn't ask questions when buying presents for family or making presents for grandparents etc.

On Christmas eve we would all get one 'mum and dad' present to open, and it was always new PJs so we looked nice on Christmas morning! This tradition was still going until I left home properly after Uni!

We always had a posh breakfast that we would never have at other times of year like homemade croissants or salmon and eggs. We would try and save our presents til the grandparents arrived at about 10-11.

I also used to like to sing happy birthday to Jesus (blushes). I did grow out of this one before I was 21!

When Andy and I have children, we would like to buy them a tree decoration each year so they (almost) have enough for their own tree when they are all grown up. I wish someone had done that for us as it's really expensive buying your first lot of decorations!!

[Sammi]

Oh and I used to leave biscuits/penguin bars and milk out for Father Christmas. One year I found all my carrots I had lovingly chopped up for the reindeers in the bin. Instead of realising my parents had thrown them out as they gone all dry overnight, I thought reindeers didn't like carrots!

Needless to say my parents would actually eat the biscuits from then on so I never found any evidence again. So although carrots and mince pies are traditional, I say leave something you are willing to eat yourselves! Eating a plate of carrots gets boring! Plus if I were a reindeer, I'd be bored of carrots too by the 6 billionth house.

[Hols969]

How old are you Sammi

Yes Noah has bought tree decorations each year as well, I had forgotten about that.

[TigerLily]

We don't have a chimney so we have a special key we hang on the tree so Santa can get in the back door. Of course it doesn't actually work, but Santa's magic makes it work

We also buy tree decorations that have their names on them every year. We've collected loads, even ones from Disney Paris.

We have an special advent calendar we bought many years ago. It's Santa going down a chimney and he falls slowly down by taking pegs out that have the date on them. On the 24th he falls into the fireplace. The children take it in turns to do odd & even days.

We leave a carrot, milk, mince pie and a baileys out for Santa & Rudolph.

They leave a little mini named sack at the bottom of their bed and get a proper sack in the night from Santa.

They always open their sacks on our bed in the morning.

They both help me make the Christmas cake, I've never bought one. They get to share licking out the bowl and spoons.

I should add at this point that my 'little ones' will be 17 & 14 this Christmas and they love our family traditions, to them it's just Christmas!!

[EmptyInside]

I think, i got very lucky with my family, christmas was just... the most amazing time in my childhood, not for the presents but the feeling of... i cant explain it, tbh my chronic depression coincides with 'growing up'... *ponders*... i miss christmas! it isnt the same any more

We used to write letters to father christmas saying thank you for the presents last year (and as we got older 5+ starting to include what good deeds we did this year and what we planned to do) and writing a list of a few things we would really love to have and why.

The letters would take weeks to compose, usually with lots of sparkly pens, glitter and pictures!

Then on christmas eve we would all bundle up and drive to a friends house (with our faces pressed against the window looking for father christmas!) and we would carefully fold our letters into 'aeroplanes' and (with a lot of help) we would fly our planes up the chimney with a fire going... always a few practises with plain paper first then our parents would make sure the real ones went right the way up... it was magic!!

We always left out a Mince Pie for father christmas (and one for him to take home to his wife), a few carrots for the reindeer and a small glass of wine or shot of whiskey in a special little christmas cup and a cup of milk to make sure father christmas didnt get too tipsy!

We always checked to find a few crumbs on the plate and a few carrot crumbs on the floor and the drinks gone... it was proof!

Then it was early to bed with no complaints and we would hang our stockings at the end of the bed.

5 am and we (my two brothers and i) would be rushing in and out our rooms sharing our new stocking gifts (they gradually became more complex gifts meaning we had to sit down, be quiet and concentrate on them LOL).

Then we would all gather in the living room round the tree oggling at the presents, the smell of th real tree we had decorated... the room decorated (was a huge part of the excitement!) and we werent allowed to be dressed and we had probably already eaten a weeks worth of chocolate... and once my parents had got the camcorder set up, we got to start opening presents...

It was seriously the best time in my life and some of the memories are what keep me going when im in the "my whole life is pointless and bad, nothing good ever happens to me" mood, i think back to times like these and remember how good it felt... the memories alone are worth living for!

Its all a bit different now, younger brothers keep it alive a bit but its much more adult now and I find christmas really hard, we all do because we all knows its just not the same any more (we really need a kid in the house!!).

I envy those of you with kids because you have the power to create the mst amazing memories for your kids....

[thebuzz]

We dont have huge traditions but things we like to do. On Christmas Eve we always spend the day at my Mum and Dad's house and we bring all the presents downstairs and put them under the tree and do other Christmas things (sing songs, play games, help lay the table for the big Christmas lunch etc etc). Once we get home, we get the special Christmas plate and mug out, get a carrot, a mince pie, a mug of milk and some special chocolates for Rudolph (choc covered raisins!) and lay it in front of the fire. Then we set up Norad Tracks Santa on the computer and see where he is! The boys always go to bed no problems as on the Norad map, Africa looks quite close to the UK so Louie always panics and demands they go to bed as Father Christmas is getting close!

Once the boys are asleep we put their stocking on their door and bring down the presents from Santa and put them under the tree. When the kids wake up (4am last year - yawn!) we open our stockings on our bed then run down and the kids tear open gifts. We have a full English breakfast, the kids play with their toys and we go to the in-laws early afternoon for lunch and come home early evening.

On Boxing Day we go to my Mum's late morning, open more presents and all my brothers, their wives and kids are there (so 30 people in total) and we have another 'Christmas Day'.

Usually the weekend before Christmas my best friend comes over to give the boys their gifts and we have a Christmas lunch together, then we do an activity. Usually we get a gingerbread related thing, either make a gingerbread house, train, tree or whatever else we can find.

We always get a real tree and either get it 2 or 3 weeks before Christmas, depending on what day Christmas falls as we have to do it on a weekend. The kids always help decorate it (which I have to re-do when they go to bed!) and my husband always get stressed by the mess and hassle of it all. I demand we put on Christmas music whilst we do it and we all wear Santa hats etc.

This year it's all a bit different, my best friend has had a baby so we'll have another one with us before Xmas and my parents are going away for Christmas so we are going to spend Christmas Day here, just us four and then go to the in-laws for Boxing Day.

I adore Christmas, I get so excited that I count down from 100 sleeps. I drive my husband (and kids!) mad by being so hyper but I love it, the magic of it is fantastic and having kids makes it so much better. We always take the kids to see Santa too, usually the weekend we do the tree and I get more excited by the kids in the line!