CHRISTMAS No-not about presents!

brokenwings

my christmas traditions are very different to most who have posted here as i am kind of single and like being so : ) ( actually have a man but he is in the usa with his mom at the festive times - we do our own christmas at a later date - usually jan 3rd my bday! )

my christmases used to be me, my mom and dad and my sister - but mom died 8 years ago and sis got married and has kids . my mom was always the organiser at christmas but now i suddenly find its me - and i LOVE it.

i traditionally leave my main pressie shopping till Christmas eve - i adore the hustle and bustle and the crowds - i stand and cry at the sounds of the salvation army carols and gobble ridiculously priced roast chestnuts : )

then on christmas eve evening i prep the veg for the day itself - around 6pm neighbours call in for a quick sherry and mince pie. ( usually at least five sherries and the mince pies just get burnt )

its late christmas eve that i love. i am usually alone - and once midnight mass comes on tv i sit in front of my wood burner with a nice bottle of merlot and wrap gifts.

on christmas morning i walk the dog nice and early - see my dad off to church ( he is in the choir ) then i have the house to myself and again i LOVE it. i only wish that they still had rolf harris or a dj going to the kids hospitals to give the sick kids gifts on tv! that used to make me really value everything i had.

lunch is either just me and dad or the whole family - crackers pulled and hats on of course!!

then after lunch we fill the house with torn wrapping paper and empty wine bottles : ) i traditionally do a sack of gifts for each person now - usually lots of small things each - some HM and one bigger gift.

theres always a stocking for the dog - and i always walk him again - alone - in peace - no matter how cold and how dark - before bed.
traditionally i get given a lot of books for Chrstmas and my favourite end to the day is to be left alone in front of a crackling fire to read! ( it used to be by candle light but now my eyes wont permit that romaticism lol )


ohh i cant wait!!

brokenwings

oh i should have mentioned that virtually all of our decorations are hm - ranging from paper chains to clove stuck oranges to acorns with pins stuck in them and yarn woven over to look like sparkly spiders webs.

our christmas pudding still has greaseproof paper wrapped sixpences in it - they may not have any shopping value now but we say theyre for luck.

Lillibet_2

MATH wrote:

Tradition 6

It is unknown for me to serve Christmas dinner sober

This is a tradition I can get on board with.

Note to self : Must finish breast feeding B 4 Xmas day in order to fully participate.
Further note to self : Raise glass to MSE'rs B 4 getting too blotto to spell MSE.

summerday

Wow what a lovely thread, hope more people add to it as it's giving me loads of ideas!

We put our tree up usually first weekend in December (I love the fairy lights and love to get the most out of them that I can!). I like to go over and help Mum put hers up too, as there are loads of things in her Christmas decorations box that my sisters and I made when we were little (now in our 20s) and it brings back lots of memories and causes much laughter for us all.

We always go to the Xmas panto at the local theatre, it is always brilliant and really humourous even for adults. That's OH and me, my Mum, and sisters.

I must confess that even at 25 I still have an advent calendar. Partly cos I am a chocoholic and partly cos it's so nice to count the days down.

I love walking past houses that are brightly lit and sometimes seeing lovely trees inside them (yes I am nosey!).

I love playing card games and board games with the family, with bowls of nuts and snacks to nibble.

Christmas I love it, bring it on!

HOLsale

bluep wrote:

LOL> our family tradition is to stay in jimjams ALL day!! That's me, my fiancee, my parents....everyone! all day!

that's brilliant, i love it!

wouldn't work for me though, i sleep nude :rotfl:

HOLsale

coolbreezes wrote:

ah so much Nostalgia here . I love Christmas whether I have cash or not actually the best ones are when you are broke. Making simple but special presents are so much Fun and a joy to open.


.

actually, i have the most hilarious memory of probably my poorest (financially) christmas ever. we were sooo poor we couldn't afford even a £5 plastic tree, let alone ornaments and lights. a friend felt bad about this but being skint herself couldn't do much financially but she offered me a few old ornaments and a set of lights.

we had an old coat rack and i got the idea to throw over this heavy knitted quilt like thing (White, quite appropriately) i draped it so it looked like a tree shape (ish!) then wrapped the lights around it. i hung up the ornaments she gave me with hooks and made some of my own by cutting up old christmas cards and wrapping them around empty plastic film canisters. i also used some old bottling jar rings and filled the circle with nice pictures from the old christmas cards. we even made a silly star out of styrofoam peanuts glued to a 3d star shape made from cardboard. we had gold spray paint so that's what we used to make it shine like a star :rotfl:

it had to be the silliest most pathetic thing you've ever seen but it meant so much to me... now i can laugh at it but then it brought tears to my eyes, but tears of joy not bitterness or desperation

HOLsale

I'll appologise for the length of this one right away. i've been reading through 4 pages of repsonse and writing what comes to mind as i go along...


one inexpensive tradition we have is that every year dd gets a new ornament from us and she gets to pick one out for herself. when she's old enough to move out on her own she'll have an entire collection of interesting and well loved ornaments for her own tree

i'm also hoping to be able to make a stocking patchwork style for everyone in the family but that will have to be for next year, i'm too busy right now ;-(


i have a tradition of eating chocolate cherries and listening/singing to christmas music whilst decorating the tree. dh is a bit of a humbug about the music, can't sing and doesn't like the cherries but i enjoy it at least and so does dd

we only buy a few good quality but inexpensive stocking stuffers (everyone in the family gets a stocking!) easy to do if you shop the whole year through as we do

to fill up the stocking more we put a large orange and some nuts in the bottom then the fillers then a new pair of socks or pj's to be worn for christmas day. by that time of year we need these anyways but they fill the stockings out nicely. i probably spend about £3 to fill each stocking other than the socks/pj's. the orange and nuts in the stockings are also a long held tradition that came down from my great grandmother, it was a huge deal for them to get oranges.

dh will sneak out to get dd her stocking. then she looks through her stocking while daddy goes to make sure santa has left. (really he's sprinkling talcum powder to walk through in his boots and clearing away the biscuits and whisky left for santa LOL) then we make a big deal of dd seeing the footprints and seeing the crumbs on the plate... he loves doing this and it's great to see her face. she's 4 this year so i'm extra excited about this christmas

this year i'm making an advent quilt patchwork style for wee edible homemade treats. i'm hoping that by next year i'll be able to make an advent calendar like the one my grandmother had made for me as a child. it was a hanging made of felt with a christmas tree on it. each pocket had a wee felt ornament that you pinned to the tree the star always went on the first of december and santa went on on christmas eve but we'd jumble the rest of them up each year... i think this would be a lovely addition that doesn't involve stuffing the wee one full of junk!

we also make sure that we have a distinctly different wrapping paper (usually with santas or elves or reindeer on it) to be the paper for the gifts that are from santa! DD is NOT allowed to see that paper at all or it ruins the illusion. I make sure that MIL either has me wrap the santa gifts she buys or that we get the same santa paper just to be 100% sure it's all the same!

we try not to watch any tv on christmas unless it's a dvd or video that one of the family has gotten as a pressie and that's usually later in the evening. we tend to play games etc and really have a lot of fun. i'm an only child and never really had anyone to play board games with me so i really enjoy this part of it and could care less about the tv!

now that we live in edinburgh i think we'll have to make a day out at the christmas market a definate tradition. I'm receiving updates about the entire christmas programme run by the city of edinburgh and i have to say it's excellent. hopefully they'll do the reindeer in princes street gardens again. the ferris wheel and the german village are really fun. i've been setting aside a few pounds every week so we can go and eat and play and buy with abandon (well more than usual LOL)
this year we managed to nab some hogmany street party tickets as well and i hope we can make it a tradition to do that every year, the fireworks last year were spectacular over the castle, all i can say is WOW!

also, we are pagan and we celebrate YULE on the 21st (winter solstice) so we actually get to celebrate TWICE! we have a very nice meal, usually some sort of wild fowl or game. we have a few drinks and talk about what has happened in the year and what we want to achieve over the next year. we thank the divine (whatever name you want to give him/her) and give each other a small gift or two, always the very thoughtful kind that took some doing to manage and we save that night just for our core family, me dh and our dd. we do the big christmas thing at mil's house and that's when we do the santa thing... it's really great doing both. as dd gets older we'll probably include more ceremony but she's a bit too young to understand it just yet.



one tradition we had when i was growing up was that my mom would let me open one present on christmas eve. i'm trying to do this but dh keeps grumbling about it. so we've agreed it has to be the most boring non clothing christmas gift LOL

we've started making mulled wine and i fill the house with wonderful smells as december is my biggest baking month. since i buy and wrap 99% of presents by mid november it's nice to have the baking throughout dec...otherwise i'd feel like i was missing out on some of the holiday fun. i certainly don't mind missing out on the holiday hassle though so that's why it's my own personal tradition to always get as much as possible out of the way by november... it also means we get MORE presents because i buy what's on sale when i see it and spread the cost

we always do the presents first thing but dd is so young it doesn't seem fair to make her wait. we *try* to sneak in and grab a bite to eat but usually we open presents then go and have a nice breakfast... the family is only me, dh, dd, mil and sil so there's really no point in NOT doing the presents first thing, we're all there and right now christmas is about us all being together and spoiling dd LOL

another tradition i have always had since i was a kid and dh has adopted is to take the tree down on january 9th, that's my birthday ;-)

being an american ex pat i have also brought along some of my traditional christmas foods. we do a scrumptious and rich sort of pudding made with mashed sweet potatoes (ORANGE variety the white ones are gross!) you mash them up add butter, lightly toasted chopped walnuts, a bit of brown sugar and top with marshmallows. pop them under the grill until the marshmallows are browned. it probably sounds weird to folks over here to eat sweet potatoes as a sweet but it's what suits them best and it's scrumptious...so much so that it's the very dish that made me like them in the first place! now i eat them year long, though we only do butter and touch of sugar for everyday eating

we also do 'greenbean casserole' which is french beans mixed with cream of mushroom soup and those little dried fried onion rings you can get in ethnic shops. you mix those in as well as put some on top, mmmmm tastes much better than it sounds LOL

i also make my famous cornbread stuffing. the slightly sweet variety of homemade cornbread loaded with sage and very finely minced onion and celery with chopped chestnuts, then stock and a bit of drippings to moisten it, make it all stick together. dh loves this so much we've done away completely with bread stuffing and bread sauce. the years we go to mil's house for christmas i still have to bring this, dh won't have it any other way ;-)

one thing i miss a lot is my grandmothers chocolate mirengue pie and her pecan pie, we'd all fight over them they were so good but she never shared her recipe. i however am considered a fine maker of pumpkin pies so i buy up all the reduced pumpkins i can find after halloween and make plenty of pumpkin goodies including pie for christmas...wouldn't be the same without it

in the states we always drove past the best decorated neighbourhoods to look at the lights. you don't get so many people doing their houses up around here but last year we went to the grassmarket for luxury hot chocolates on christmas eve. we'll be at mil's house this year so i think we'll do the hot chocolates thing again this year but on Yule eve (20th) instead. the grassmarket is very well decorated and is positively magical!


i really love christmas when i've planned well for it throughout the year.

just today i bought our crackers and our labels for the gifts, i've already got the wrapping paper and 90% of our gifts tucked away. I've got 2 rumpots on the go and i will be making a lot of delicious nibbles to take to mil's. dd is working herself towards feverpitch with excitement so i'm planning to get her involved in christmas baking, perhaps making christmas cookie decorations for the tree this year as well as getting her to help wrap presents and teaching her the words to the christmas songs. i'm also desperate to find people to go carolling with this year and i'm sure she'd enjoy that as well... my mom was a scrooge about christmas so i'm really doing everything i can to make it fun and magical for dd... it doesn't have to be perfect but it does have to be memorable ;-)

Loadsabob

Wow - gorgeous thread!

I really love Christmas, and am a little sad at being with my brother's family this year and not at home. BUT, also over the moon at being with him, and my two year old nephew - really will get the feel of Christmas!

When we were little, my brother and I allowed ourselves to open our smallest stocking present early, before Mum and Dad woke up. So this meant rummaging through, looking at all the shapes, trying to find the smallest one each. We imposed that upon ourselves (what a regimented child I was!), and I really enjoyed that tradition. Then would open the rest a few hours later with Mum and Dad.

When we were older, we were allowed to open the stocking presents in the morning and the family ones after lunch. Mum brought in a tradition from another branch of the family at this point - "tree" and "table" presents, so keep the adults going until the main unwrapping after lunch. Each person buys a different person a small gift, one to have by the tree in the morning and another to unwrap at the dinner table when starting lunch.

These days, when it's just my boyfriend and I, we have tended to get up, breakfast, lounge around listening to some (usually French) music. Then out for a lovely walk around the lake, laugh at the cute ducks, look at the sea (oh I will miss that so much this year!), and back to open the pressies with a stiff drink. Then I clear all the paper away while my boyfriend cooks lunch (roast is his "thing").

Going back a bit, we decorate the tree to the sounds of Perry Como's Christmas - that was my childhood Christmas soundtrack, fabulous!

I love the whole thing. I love making the cards with Christmas music on, singing away, and the wrapping. This year I had hoped to start some more culinary traditions, but not being at home, some of those may have to wait until next year!

Thank you all for sharing!