christmas traditions and ideas for age 11 and 15

Person_one

ciderwithrosie wrote: »

As a wife and mother of those that work in retail and the cinema, I find it really selfish of people to expect these places to be open until late on Christmas Eve and open again on Boxing Day as they are incapable of organising their shopping earlier or entertaining themselves. I'd quite like my family home with me, able to relax and enjoy the holiday too.

That's life these days, more and more people have jobs that aren't traditional hours and holidays.

Its not so bad, at least you know you have Christmas Day together, and you can always juggle things about and come up with a timetable that works for your family.

There are a few shift workers in the family so we have to be a bit flexible and often have several Christmas Dinners and some random present opening occasions! There aren't actually any rules about when you're allowed to celebrate or have quality time with your family. I'm on nights again this year, but the 27th will be my Christmas.

FatVonD

I wish I could have Christmas on a different day. We are going to a restaurant again and, even though we aren't the ones paying, I'm still horrified at the amount it's costing per head (£56) when we could have almost exactly the same meal in the same restaurant the following day for just £20 :mad:

lika_86

Making and decorating a chocolate house is a new tradition for me - Lakeland do a fantastic mould (http://www.lakeland.co.uk/16789/Fairy-Tale-Cottage-Mould - don't buy the sleigh mould it's rubbish) which can be used for gingerbread or chocolate. If your daughters are into GBBO then it might appeal.

maman

ciderwithrosie wrote: »

As a wife and mother of those that work in retail and the cinema, I find it really selfish of people to expect these places to be open until late on Christmas Eve and open again on Boxing Day as they are incapable of organising their shopping earlier or entertaining themselves. I'd quite like my family home with me, able to relax and enjoy the holiday too.

Georgiegirl256 wrote: »

I
If anyone's selfish, then really it's the shops, not the consumers.

Exactly! rosie, I think you're being naïve if you think it's the general public at fault here. Businesses are aware that people are out for something to do when they have time off at Christmas (hence the thread) so if they can tempt them to spend some of their Christmas money with them then they'll open. As this thread is about older children: one thing I've noticed is that they're often given money and vouchers as gifts which they want to go out and spend on Boxing Day. And the later you leave it the better value in the sales.

lostinrates

ciderwithrosie wrote: »

As a wife and mother of those that work in retail and the cinema, I find it really selfish of people to expect these places to be open until late on Christmas Eve and open again on Boxing Day as they are incapable of organising their shopping earlier or entertaining themselves. I'd quite like my family home with me, able to relax and enjoy the holiday too.

I can see why you feel that way, but increasingly we live in a multicultural society where Christianity is a minority and these are not days of religious observance. Even the two (?) days that are mandatory public holidays for retail like 25th and Easter Sunday some people work......medical staff, police, fire service, so e media providers, and many other professions. Their families quite probably miss them too.

An option might be to choose a date your family can all take annual leave and celebrate a day/weekend together then.

Idiophreak

FatVonD wrote: »

I wish I could have Christmas on a different day. We are going to a restaurant again and, even though we aren't the ones paying, I'm still horrified at the amount it's costing per head (£56) when we could have almost exactly the same meal in the same restaurant the following day for just £20 :mad:

To be fair, if my employer wanted me to work Christmas day, they'd have to pay me a whole lot more than triple time....so you can kinda understand why the price is so high?

System

I'm 28

And we still have the tradition of watching The Muppets Christmas Carol on xmas eve :rotfl:

I will never tires of that film Makes me feel all christmassy

karren

well here we go again....
I know im working a late shift this year so starting early this year


ive saved all year for Christmas so shall start looking on ebay etc and plan my spends wisely

Person_one

karren wrote: »

well here we go again....
I know im working a late shift this year so starting early this year

Its September!

Its still sunny outside!

LilElvis

Person_one wrote: »

Its September!

Its still sunny outside!

Sadly it's raining here

I received an email on 4 September saying that tickets for our local Santa's Grotto were on sale. I didn't read it til a couple of days later and then found that the closest date I could get to Christmas was December 17th - every half hour slot (each for 20+ kids) after that was sold out.

At this rate I will be buying Easter eggs next month, instead of the traditional time ........ Boxing Day :rotfl:

Yep, it's totally daft.