Starting traditions

rebl43

We do the new pjs thing, to be opened on christmas eve.

Mince pie, carrot and a glass of post are left for santa and his reindeer.

The children have stockings which they take upstairs which get filled with small presents so when they wake up super early they can open and play with these before waking us up (in theory).

Before we go to bed we bite the carrot, drink the port, make a few crumbs from the mp and put talcum powder foot prints by them so it looks like santa has come in from the snow outside!

We have a "silly" table present each.

Oh and getting up at 4:00 for the Next sale on boxing day is a bit of a tradition for me at least!

comping_cat

rebl43 - i also do the Next xmas sale!!!!

Forgot to say earlier, we also do a treasure hunt halfway through the morning. If i know there is a particular pressie that they really want, i drop hints that i couldnt get it/ couldnt afford it and then that is the treasure hunt pressie. BIL writes the clues (i just have to tell him where to start and finish) and its lovely seeing them run around the house looking for that 'special' gift.

piglet6

More nice "pocket style" advent calendars here...a bit pricey again, but in the same range as the big wooden one from Lakeland.

http://www.aspenandbrown.com/products/default.asp

(Not sure why things other than advent calendars came up because I searched for "advent calendar", but think the wooden one with drawers is very pretty!:D).

Piglet

P.S. Have never personally used this company - just treated myself to the Ideal Home's Christmas Magazine today for a weekend treat and saw the wooden calendar on page 15 so looked up the website - so can't vouch for quality/reliability of company... but they look to have some quite nice bits and pieces - if not terribly money saving!!:rotfl:

highland

Aldi are doing an advent calendar thing that look's quite good but also easy to copy, it looks like a wooden santa with 25 hooks underneath with pretty red pouch/purse type things they come with a choccy in but are reusable. It goes on sale on Sunday for £4.99 and there are a few designs Santa Claus, Snowman, Reindeer, Locomotive & Santa, Angel. hth

ikkleosu

I'm 31 and my two brothers are 36 and 40 (all unmarried, no-one loves us LOL) but we all still DEMAND the tradtions we had as kids.

Tree and decorations go up the first Sunday in December (ususally close to Dad's birthday too, last year Sunday 4th was Dad's birthday and first year we'd been without him since he died so was very nice to do something family).

We all write Christmas Lists of things we'd like. They are usually BIG lists so people have lots to chose form and you don't KNOW what you get. We need to do this so we can buy each other DVDs and CDs and not duplicate things peopel already have.

Christmas Eve - the house gets cleaned top to bottom, gets it's annual hoovering. Then we all go to Christmas eve family service (7pm) at church. It's finished by 8, then teh boys go off into town dirnking with friends. Mum and I come home to wrap presents and prepare all the food for Christmas day so very little time is spent in kitchen Christmas day.

Christmas Day - we get up about 10. My job was always to wake the boys up and wish them Merry Christmas. Everyone washes/dresses and no-one is allowed to go into the living room till we're all together.

Then it's PRESENT TIME - when we were young we all had a pile of presents we ripped into but once we got older we decided to make it last longer. So now we all have our positions, mum is next to the tree where ALL the presents are. She randomly picks them up and hands them out to everyone, one at a time.

Once all are open (biggest are kept till last) it's time for a binbag to clear up paper, calling aunts etc and "playing" with presents (trying on clothes, putting together electrical goods, taking apart gift packs).

If the aunts or any others are coming for Christmas lunch this is when they get picked up, and we set up the table in the living room. Christmas Dinner must include - Royal Game Soup, Turkey and trimmings, christmas pud and cream, After Eights and Shloer). Lunch is usualy oVEr by 3pm! (we like to eat early)

Then everyone split up to go have a nap, and we reconvience about 5.30 for CHRISTMAS TREE TIME! When we were young we would go to gran's mid afternoon and in the early evening she'd give out presents from under the tree. Now gran is long since died, we do it ourselves and we all put 2 or 3 small presents under the tree which get handed out. It's so nice to realise it's not all over and you have that thrill again in the early evening.

Then it's time for mince pies, coffee and turkey sandwhiches for the boys with a massive appetite. And then the evening is spent watching a film, playing games or just fighting off indigestion.

Boxing Day we have the aunts over if they weren't here on Christmas Day, and we have a repeat of Christmas Dinner.

Then 27th is my brother's birthday so we have almost a full week of festivities!

Loula_B

Hello everyone, I am so grateful for this thread - I woke up and got up at 4.30am and I wondered what to do with myself as husband and son still sleeping so I logged on to this site and have been sitting here glued to it ever since I've laughed with you and cried for you. I'm very emotional right now as this christmas will be so much better than last christmas, I love christmas and buy my presents all year through but last christmas was my worse - may I share my story with you? I got pregnant on boxing day 2004 during a break in festitivaties and in September of 2005 I went on to have my baby son - all along we planned on me going back to work (4 days a week) and we had a place held at the local nursery for January 2006 - now I will never ever forget how overcome with love I felt the minute I was shown and handed my son (c-section) and that evening up on the ward I talked all night to the girl in the opposite bed - we couldn't see each other as we were lying flat but we talked until the sun came up at 4am - we then had a few hours sleep until 6am - anyway I'm getting off the beaten track - what I should have said is that I loved this little tiny thing so much I just wanted to protect him from everything and be there for him always ............... so the months passed and it was December - our tradition is the first Saturday in December to put up the outside lights and then on the Sunday its to decorate inside of the house - we did this but all the time there was a real pain in my heart - I didn't want to go back to work - I couldn't tell husband this because I had gone over finances and knew that we needed my money too. Cue another tradition - our neighbour always invites all the neghbours in over Christmas and it was there that I struggled - we took the little one with us and I was asked how I felt about leaving him in the nursery 2 days a week and my mum having him 2 days a week - I couldn't speak - I didn't know how to answer that - its the first time where I really didn't know what to say ....... again I was asked this by my aunt on christmas day - I finally confessed to husband that I didn't want to go back to work again we looked at our finances (he brought me Martins book for christmas - it was the only thing on my christmas list) but I had to go back .............. January the 3rd - I cried and cried and cried and was actually sick when we left him in that nursery ...... fast forward to Mid March - I was still crying leaving him there - had witnessed awful things by turning up unannounced (let me stress not all nurseries are bad - I was unlucky) he was left in the cot to scream with a nappy that filled the air with something awful - his 3pm milk was left on the side boiling hot (no they didn't put it in water to cool it down) he was in his little bouncer chair looking at it screaming - thats how I found him at 4.15pm - 1.15 hours later - again I was so shocked and upset that I couldn't even speak - when I did I let rip and asked why they didn't use the spare milk that I gave them every single day or why they didn't try and cool it down ....... also while at the nursery he got about 6 colds in 10 short weeks ........... finally his 6 month old little body could take it no more and he got Pneumonia (I saw the doctor on Thursday - he said just a cold - gave antibiotics - over the weekend he went downhill rapidly) I asked for a doctor to come out and visit on the Monday - he did - he listened to his chest told me to pack a bag while he was on the phone to the nearest hospital telling them that a 6 month old baby was on his way in and that he should get top priority - the doctor told me that his heart was racing and I then had to drive to the hospital where the doctors were waiting for him - he was given whatever medicine (injection) it was (my memory of it is a bit of a blur) and hooked up to drips - he was then taken to be x-rayed and I was told his left lung had collasped and we had just caught it in - if it had spread over to his right lung it would have been a totally different story - anyway the outcome of it is - the doctors and nurses at Oldchurch Hospital in Romford Essex - were fantastic - they nursed him back to health and he was allowed out - I then gave up work and had a breakdown - oh yes I'm still taking happy pills and I'm out the other side - and you know what - we have managed finacially - we made cutbacks wherever we can and I am about to get a little bar job a couple of evenings a week (husband will look after son) to help out with Christmas. I am so looking forward to this christmas - that I plan to dress up as Mrs Santa when we decorate the house and husband doesn't know this yet (they have just got up) but he will be expected to dress up as Mr Father Christmas himself when we do this ........... I have ways of making sure this happens - 2 words Chastity and Belt.

Bring Christmas On ..........................

I've picked up some wonderful tips like the new pj's - although this year it will be a new christmassy babygro - my little man will only be 15 months old and he still needs his feet to be covered but that will duly be put away in a keepsake box.

We always go for a walk over the woods on Christmas eve in the afternoon and then we go to my mums for a chinese takeaway and in response to wrapping presents at 2am on the morning of - yes my mum will be doing that too - she even manages to lose presents .......

I've more to post but I am needed elsewhere right now.

Keep posting people - I can't wait to borrow some more of your wonderful idea's

Louise

tru

Louise, I'm glad your story has a happy ending :T I was holding my breath about halfway through thinking "oh no, this is awful, I'm going to stop reading, the poor little thing........."

Loula_B wrote:

........... I have ways of making sure this happens - 2 words Chastity and Belt

:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

ashli_2

Hello everyone...this is my very first post!!

I have been enjoying this board for a week or two now so I thought I'd better say hi

The only Christmas tradition we have so far is to have homemade mulled wine and panetone on Christmas eve. Actually mulled wine tends to feature quite heavily in our house for the whole festive season :rotfl:

This year however ds is two years old so it's time to start introducing a few traditions for him I think. I will definately be doing the pajamas on Christmas eve, I think that's a lovely idea.

It's also our first Christmas as a family in our own house :T (and the first time I've cooked dinner on Christmas day :eek: ) so I have my eyes peeled for more ideas! :beer:

julybride

I'm 18 weeks pregnant and a new tradition i plan on adopting for baby is one that a friend of the family has and the kids (even the slightly older ones) are still buying into :-)

In an attempt to stop their toddlers grabbing and pulling off decorations... the fairies visit two weeks before Christmas and put up the decorations allover the house so the children wake up one morning to fairy glitter foot prints all over the house and dec's every where...

the children have to be carefull so that the faries will visit the following year. :j

shykins

i started reading this thinking we dont have many traditions but the more i read the more i reaslied oh yes we do that and that .. and that and ..ooops how many traditions do i have exactly lol

lots of them are the same as when i was a child and i carry them on but i have also added quite a few too, so here are just a few of them

i put ornaments on the tree that i made as a kid which are falling apart bt on the they tree they go lol... things little un made are added to the tree .. it doesnt matter how ugly they are lol.. i even have the tinsel he wore for his first ever nativity when he was an angel

my little uns birthday is jus before xmas, when he goes to bed on his birthday there is a present from santa for his birthday with a note see u next week...he is SOOO impressed santa takes time out to send him a birthday present

he opens his presents from santa when he wakes up and those from other people are under the tree, we open these around 11 when we always have shortbread and sausage rolls

i hide small piles of presents all round the house and always tell him there are none left,, a few hours later i say oooh do u feel cold .. this is code that he has to go look for more presents where i shout out warmer and colder lol... this goes on every few hours all day and helps split up the present opening to last all day

when he goes to bed xmas night there is a present on the stairs or hidden in his bedroom,, he cant work out how it gets there lol

thats just a few of the things we do but the sad thing is that for the first timie he wont be with me this xmas as he is with his dad who never has had traditions for xmas and hates it... all i can hope is he makes the effort for little un

xx