Xmas traditions in your house....

madoldbat

Oh I have enjoyed reading this thread:T
We adore Christmas I like to make them relaxed and special (most of my childhood Christmass I had lots of pressies but no real intresrt from parents and lots of rows going on:rolleyes: )
We start 1st Sunday in advent with a Jesse tree,this is a daily count down towards Christmas ,a biblical family tree from Adam to Christ.Short Bible readings ,pictures to colour in ina leaf shape cut out and stick on a poster each day.As this starts in November kids love it.As they get older the colouring gets better.We also light our 1st candle on our Christmas wreath.
Second week 2nd candle,now Christmas cake is iced,sticky toffee puddings made,Xmas bickkies made and iced we do this together.Christmas tree is put up ,house looks like Santas Grotto.Each year we buy a new bauble for each of us idea being when smalls leave they will take theirs with them.
Beg of Dec advent calender is put up its a fabric one ,each pocket contains a sweet but 2 will have a 1.00 coin.
Christmas eve put childrens stockings up, evening meal cold cuts,cheese & pickles,OH reads Night before Christmas by candle light.Carrot and mince pie and a glass of milk for Santa & Rudolph placed by chimmney breast.
Christmas morning children open stockings (these are not very big ,gifts are traditonal wooden or hand made gifts not wraped as Santa has got to get round so many children.)and 1 gift from under the tree.Stocking is filled by Santa but gifts under tree are from us Gran,Aunty ect.That way children dont expect Santa to bring a new bike or play station;) mum and dad need to save for those .Off to church ,back for cold lunch cheese,ham ect.Open rest of gifts.Play ,read relax. Christmas dinner about 6 o'çlock .Roast duck with trimmings.Relax go to bed after a bit of telly.
Boxing day we chill I make a nice roast lamb dinner and we chill again but play board games.
Not exciting you may think but DS is now 15 DD 12 and both love the same routine.Think it may have to carry on for a good many years yet:T

rosieben

madoldbat wrote: »

...
We start 1st Sunday in advent with a Jesse tree,this is a daily count down towards Christmas ,a biblical family tree from Adam to Christ.Short Bible readings ,pictures to colour in ina leaf shape cut out and stick on a poster each day.As this starts in November kids love it.As they get older the colouring gets better.

First time I've heard of Jesse trees, did you save them all from previous years? You have some lovely traditions.

madoldbat

rosieben wrote: »

First time I've heard of Jesse trees, did you save them all from previous years? You have some lovely traditions.

Hi Rosie.
Glad you like the idea.We began doing this when children were pre school.We bought a copy of the Jesse tree from our local Christian book shop,we had gone in to find an advent calander that didnt have Barbie or Thomas on:rolleyes: There in a corner all by itself was one lonly copy of the Jesse Tree.Even the girl behind the counter knew nothing of it:o Well it came home with us.
It is about a4 size,pull out poster in middle is about a2 size and very dull just a grey outline of a tree and grey leaf shapes showing were the coloured leaves go.This we stuck to the living room door.
Each day in Advent you have a Bible reading a prayer and a leaf to colour in ,cut out and stick on the tree.
As you can imagin when children are very small the colouring is a bit random but to be the first to stick a leaf on is very important ,even now:rotfl: we glue ours but you could blue tack.
after a week you can see how bright and beautiful your tree will be.
We do keep ours but do not reuse,we buy a new one each year.
This year we will make our own as children are 12 & 15 we think we can make it a bit more grown up and make the Bible studys a bit more challanging.
Its a very nice way to remember why we celibrate Christmas.
Sorry that was a long waffle:o
You can get book from local Christian book shop (you might have to order it) or Amazon.Dont worry if it says used it should just mean someone has a spare.No dates so fits every year.Just starts 1st Sunday in Advent
Jesse Tree Devotions,Family Activity for Advent by Marilyn S.Breckenridge
publisher Augsburg Fortress.
Hope this helps.
We love Christmas this weekend is christmas cake baking 4 big ones and about 6 baked bean tin size the house will smell wonderful,I will have sticky teenagers fighting over who licks out the bowl and Christmas music on:o :rotfl: :rotfl:

Dollytrollop

PJ elves in our house too!!

I have peeled all the day afters veggies, with a very loud christmas cd in the background.

Hubby goes out for a pint :j while I cook a rather large piece of pork, its timed to be ready for when he gets home. Kids have been strategically placed in bed. We then tuck into some hot pork butties.

Pressies then start to appear from any nook and cranny, if I can remember where they are!!. Oh and hubby always says " How much stuff have you bought them?" :rotfl:

I then bring out a tangerine and a bottle of pop, so they can eat them whilst opening their gifts.

My sister has an open fire in he home and one year her hubby had saved a spare piece of carpet, he got some really muddy boots and marked the piece, put it in front of the open fire and absolutely blew the kids away with the idea that Santa had done this!!


Love love love love christmas :j

rosieben

Thanks for that madoldbat, sounds lovely.

My sis used to make (beautiful!) cakes for mum and the family each year. She also used to do small ones in baked bean tins for neighbours of mother who lived in a sheltered flat. They used to love their little cakes and she was great at decorating them too, so they looked very professional. Nice inexpensive gift idea for an elderly neighbour.

suzukibabe

Our tree and decs always go up on the 14th too.
I love decorating the tree with DS while DH is up a ladder pinning the rest to the ceiling
Christmas eve, i get the veg ready, usually while enjoying a little christmas drink though not this year.
DS has a bath, puts pj's on, we then leave some milk, mince pies and a carrot out for santa and rudolph, DS goes up to bed and has his story.
When we know he is asleep, i get his stocking ready and put the presents under the tree.

Christmas day we get up, and no-one is allowed to open anything till we have had a cup of tea.
Then it's phone MIL&FIL, my sister etc to say thankyous and wish merry christmas.
Put the meat in the oven on low, nip to MIL's for an hour or so.

the only thing i cook on boxing day is mashed potatoes- normally have already cooked a couple of small joints of meat and will havesome of those with the mash and some pickles, a tradition of my mum's which i have carried on.

Oh and it's not christmas without snowballs and babycham
I will have to write everything down step by step for DH, just incase 'bun' decides to arrive early

poppycracker

One of my family's traditions that I broke for the first time ever last year was to have sausages and mash and roast carrots for Christmas dinner. It started because we used to have another big dinner at my gran's on boxing day and my mum wasn't very fond of cooking anyway!

Luckily OH isn't too fond of turkey either, but last year he insisted we were having a chicken. I rather missed my bangers!

Another was sitting round the table hollowing out bloomer loaves to make bread sauce. It used to take a good 8 or 10 loaves to fill the big saucepan, with Dad cutting the ends off, my brother and me scooping out the crumbs and Mum putting the crusts in the oven so we could have them slathered in butter.... yum.

We used to go to Midnight Mass, then we'd be put to bed while Mum and Dad finished present wrapping. For some reason, we never left anything out for Santa.

Christmas morning, my brother and I used to take turns in whos room we were going to open our stockings in, then we'd hear Mum going downstairs and a Carols from Kings tape would go on. It had a funny sound at the beginning of the tape that I can still hear and always makes me think of Christmas. That tape has been played (almost) every christmas morning for over 20 years and it still works!

Now, since it's just me and OH, we're trying to start our own traditions, but if/when we have kids I'm sure we'll think of some new ones.

debbie_lotus

We have two christmas traditions - the first one is for the children - on xmas eve they have a little stocking to open - this has about 5 little presents costing a couple of pound each - when my children were younger it was things like little toy cars, pens, hair clips etc - as they are all teenagers now its is getting harder to find silly little gifts but its usually lip gloss, pound coins wrapped up, badges etc (have to admit it is my mum that sorts this tradition out and as the hard work in finding little gifts)

The second one is after dinner we all buy each other a present costing around £2 each - eg soap, diary, lottery ticket, shower gel - these presents often bring a laugh and they are a complete surprise - its like having an extra cracker with a better pressie in

Debbie

nopot2pin

There are some lovely thoughts in this thread.... gives you a lovely warm fuzzy glow:T


Years ago, when all us "children" were all still living at home, my mum asked my brother and I to take down the xmas decorations, as it was time for them to come down.

Our decorations used to go into a cardboard box.
I am not sure why or how... but both my brother and I "wrote to the box".
Sort of a "Dear Diary" thing..... only "Dear Box".
It contained an account of what had happened to each of us, briefly for that year. Sometimes funny stories were included... and other time some sad news. But all family news regardless.
It just continued on from then. Who ever took down the decorations wrote a little to the "box."

When we all left home, my mum still wrote to the "box" and the original "box" is still going .... with bits of paper attached... with many stories of past years.

My own "box" has been going for about 8 years now, and it always makes me smile when its time to get the decorations out.

cat4772

I've been reliving the 32 or 33 Christmases that I can remember - how wonderful. They are split into three, Christmas with DH, Christmas at home with the parents and Christmas at the grandparent's house.

Christmas in our family are actually started in November:eek:; we *had* to have a big clean and start the making the Christmas cakes the day before the last Sunday in November (this wasn't always the last Saturday in November)!

Last Sunday in November, we would wake to the smell of Christmas cakes cooking (loved the smell, detest the taste)

On December 1st, we'd put up the tree. Instead of an advent calendar, we'd add an ornament each day until Christmas Eve (often home made, what we'd done at school, nursery or made at home but we do have some that were bought for us and wrapped in our christmas stocking). We'd also put up the wreath (new one, but we'd collect some holly the previous Christmas and dry / store it and this would be added to the bought wreath).

On Christmas Eve we'd have new pyjamas or nighties, dressing gowns and slippers. We'd decorate the rest of the house. Watch the films on TV, go to midnight mass, home to a cup of cocoa/hot chocolate (with a teaspoon of Irish Whisky or Baileys) and a ginger biscuit. We'd put out a saucer of milk for Rudolf, glass of Sherry / Whisky or Baileys (usually Dad's current favourite tipple) for Santa and some carrots for the rest of the reindeer.

Christmas day we'd find a stocking on the end of the bed with a satsuma, an apple, chocolate buttons or minstrels and some little jokey present. We could open these immediately, but we couldn't go downstairs until 7am :eek::eek::eek:. We'd open presents after a full English breakfast, start Lunch at 2pm. Everything would stop at 2.55 to fill our glass with a little sherry to toast the Queen at her speech, then carry on eating afterwards.

Boxing day we'd go visit friends or have friends over (family lived to far away to visit - without a car!!!) and eat leftovers.

Amazing really. If we were staying at grandparents, we'd have smoked salmon and scrambled eggs on toast for Christmas day breakfast (I didn't like ham for Eggs benedict, so grandpa would buy smoked salmon instead - that tradition continued for the 10 years after he died until grandma died).

Because it's just me and DH, we don't make our own Christmas cake (cant stand the taste) but we'll put the tree up on 1st December and add one ornament each day usually whilst sipping a glass (or two) of Baileys and listening to carols. By 3rd December declare the living room a CAT free zone as they do like to climb the tree:rolleyes:. We tend to have Christmas dinner with the family and keep Boxing day to ourselves, but that really depends on what everyone else is doing at Christmas!

It really is the memories, rather than the presents - though I do remember getting the Bike one Christmas and my dad then spending Boxing Day morning teaching me how to ride it and Boxing Day afternoon in A&E whilst I had stitches and a plastercast. Didn't stop me from riding the bike as soon as we got home!!

Cat.x