your own christmas family traditions and new ones

doraexplorer

I was reading "batteries not included " a freebie from the childrens society about inspirational things to do with your children at christmas. there a few new ideas in here which i am going to try but got me thinking about the ones i do . and i was wondering what other people do to make it more special.
i have 2 children DS 8 and DD3

i do the following

* put talc on my Oh workboots and stamp them about the living room and out side in the garden and finsh it off with a sprinkle of glitter so i have santa foot prints.
* my children each have a little xmas tree in there bedroom
* DH reads the kids the night before xmas and i shake bells out side so they think its santas sleigh
* i give them new pjs to wear and they think its because santa will see them it so when i take the pics in the morning they are not wearing pjs half way up there leg in the photos:p :rotfl:

things i plan on doing this year

*putting wrapping paper on the living room door with a slit down the middle so the kids can burst in and i can take a photo.
* going to put a piece of cotton wool in the sherry i leave santa and tell thems it a bit of his beard
* i am going to put there xmas stockings on the ends of there beds instead of downstairs and let them open them up on mum and dads bed (who will have stocking too) and then go down stairs to open presents

there must be more things i can do to make it more special. so what do other peeps do ????????

thank you xx

corker

DD1 has only just turned 3 and so we are still working on our family traditions.

Was going to do the footprints with talc this year, but as we are not at our home christmas eve don't think we can do that.

We will be making some reindeer food and putting that in the garden (oats mixed with glitter)

Have to have christmassy PJ's for christmas eve, for both of my girls, dd2 even has spares in case of any nappy explosions in the night.

Stockings are from santa and are opened before breakfast

Not a christmas day one but at the end of the November dd1 wil help make christmas decorations. Cookies for the tree and we made paper plate angels and snowflakes, and paper chains last year.

And the tree decorating we try to make special. Little party nibbles, christmas music playing followed by a christmas films.

Sallys_Savings

Take a look at a recent thread that has lots of ideas on;

http://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/showthread.html?t=594476&highlight=christmas+traditions

Nenen

This one started by accident when I had three under fives and was exhausted wrapping stocking presents on Christmas Eve... never have been very well organised!

Anyway... I'd got to the final presents.. each child had a little Christmas soft toy... the first ones were cuddly snowmen .... and I just ran out of steam with wrapping such awkward shapes and decided to stuff them in the stockings unwrapped peeking out over the top.

In the morning, my children were delighted as they knew the rule was that they couldn't open their stockings until the alarm clock went off (set for 7.30 am so we didn't get woken at 3 a.m. like some of our friends, :eek: with children continually asking if they can open their stockings).

Seeing as these little toys weren't wrapped they decided it was OK to have them and played with them very happily until the alarm went off. Then they rushed into our room to jump on us and tell us Santa had left some snowmen especially for them to play with while they waited for the alarm!!!! :j :j :j

We all then sat on our king sized bed amid a mountain of wrapping paper whilst the little snowmen looked on! Each child has a plastic stacking box to put their new toys in (saves arguements later and helped with clearing up)!
The older two were so taken with their snowmen peeking over their stocking and littlest loved his too so the next year we did the same thing... this went on and on until ds1 got to 12 years old and I decided a 12 year old boy really wouldn't want a cuddly toy and so just bought them for younger dd and ds2.

It was a few weeks later when ds1 sheepishly admitted to me that he had really missed having his soft toy peeking out the top at him that year!!!!!! Ever since then the tradition has been reinstated for all of them and maintained without fail... DS1 is 22 now and this year it's a cuddly reindeer!

Lillibet_2

Oh, I do the soft toy thing too, and also by accident! Last year Spud got a snowman (along with the book, film & music to the Raymond Briggs Snowman!) and it was peeping over the top of his stocking. Not the best photos, but you get the gist!
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f352/Lillibet123/DSCN3907.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f352/Lillibet123/DSCN3908.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f352/Lillibet123/DSCN3913.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f352/Lillibet123/DSCN3919.jpg
http://i51.photobucket.com/albums/f352/Lillibet123/DSCN3916.jpg
This year it's going to be a small furry penguin rucksack, I know 'cos Father Christmas has told me!;)
We also always leave one (very well!) wrapped gift out of the stocking to keep him occupied, then he opens the rest on our bed with us.

haylibo

Aw what a cutey. The stocking looks great, did you make it? How happy he looks with his Daddy and Dizzy, perfect Christmas day smile.

Lillibet_2

Yep, a home knitted stocking!

pennypinchingmum

since we want the children to understand that mummy and daddy and there family give them there presents we dont tell them they are from father christmas, instead we sneak in there room and put one little present at the ends of there bed all wrapped up to each of them from father christmas.
That way they get a present to open and play with and gives us a few precious momments longer in bed before choas descends!
My mum and dad did this for me and my DS and still i get one pressie at my mum and dads from father christmas that was left on my old bed. But that one really is from father christmas!

Peter_Pan

My children are 16, 15 and 8 and we still have the same traditions that started when my first was born (have tried to stop with my older two but they say its lovely and they want to carry on:j ),

they have a stocking each hung at the end of their bed and every year there are a couple of small pressies and some sweets, a few nuts, satsuma and a cuddly toy poking out the top.
Last year my youngest was very restless so i left the stockings in my room instead, boy did i get a telling off (not by my youngest either but one of the older two;) ).

We always leave Santa a mince pie and a glass of milk and a carrot for Rudolph and in the morning they have always been eaten.

We also had to have a cat put to sleep about 9 Xmas eves ago and we told the children at the time that he had died that special day because he had gone to be with Santa. Every year there is a card left with the eaten mince pies from Santa and our cat.

Every year after they have opened their stockings in their rooms we all go downstairs and open the other pressies, each child takes it in turn opening one present and saying who its from (makes it last ages, gives us time to wake up properly and i hopefully remember who bought them what for when they write their thank you letters).

haylibo

One we are starting this year; taking the children out to buy a special decoration each to put on the tree. After christmas we will put each in the child's own box to collect. By the time they have their own trees they should have a nice little collection of momentos.
Hayles

05_cheeky_monkeys

haylibo wrote: »

One we are starting this year; taking the children out to buy a special decoration each to put on the tree. After christmas we will put each in the child's own box to collect. By the time they have their own trees they should have a nice little collection of momentos.
Hayles

Thats a really nice idea. I think i will start that with my children :T