Your family traditions...

[Dragonfly Fi]

So... we have come to this point and me and Liam are basically on our own here, we dont have family local so there is no 'visiting granny on boxing day' or 'having aunties and uncles round on christmas eve' its just us... So we want to make Christmas REALLY special and exciting in other ways.

Also, we are very agnostic, we believe in God and the seasons and what not but not enough to define anything as 'right' or 'wrong' I believe the mid-winter festival is very very important though and should be long and educational.

here are my plans for family Yule

1st December, First opening of the Advent Calendar, this will contain small gifts usually connected to a crafty thing we are going to do in the preparation to christmas... So maybe some cookie cutters or salt dough paints or card and paint and pencils and stuff... just every day behind the advent door, will be a new 'christmas-y' thing to do that day.

In the evening we will burn the Advent candle down its first go and have hot choccy together as a family, 1st December - Explain the advent with focus on the 12 and the significance in that with the seasons, the moon and also clocks etc. Talk about the preparations done and why its important to prepare for the sun's fall and then return.


Periodically make Salt Dough decorations and other crafty decorations including cardboard decorations and pompoms etc. For the rest of the Advent, these will be kept in a special box which will gradually fill with things as we make decorations for the tree and house. Each year each child will also pick one special decoration that either we make or buy (Liam will probably carve these out of wood for us to decorate) And those will be theirs forever, they can take them with them for their families and start the traditions again.

12th - Put up Christmas tree, decorate with existing decorations, fairy lights, visit the forest to collect makings of the holly wreath. Talk about the winter season, how important it is in the forest and again have hot choccy and a good film to snuggle up with in the evening

Make a nativity scene, with a shoe box and hay and little wooden figures, we will probably buy/make one wooden figure each year and simply craft the rest.

21st - Visit Stonehenge, long walk (morning)
Make gifts for family members (afternoon)
Lovely dinner with explanation of Winter Solstice, gathering of 'things' found on morning walk and spiced apple juice and hot choccy with a good film and duvets (evening)
Find a Yule Log, decorate it

22nd - 23rd make crafty gifts for friends and family and send, prepare the house for Yule celebrations - Also make edible ginger biscuits and decorate for the tree

24th - Make Christmas cookies for santa. Make eggnog. Open one gift per person (probably special PJs to sleep in )

25th - Stockings from santa, breakfast, main presents (santa will leave a pen and a notepad for the children to note who bought them what so that we can do special thank you cards on Boxing day

Things we will be making;

popcorn tinsel
cotton wool snow men
christmas scenes with cardboard boxes and cotton wool, glitter, branches for trees etc
pine cone painting and stringing
star making
snow shapes out of card
salt dough decorations
fake christmas trees out of card and loo roll
ginger biscuits
santa cookies
fudge
honeycomb
Christmas cards
thank you cards
labels for presents
wrapping paper (just get medium thickness paper and then splatter it with paint etc)
pompoms
oranges on string

 

[Mamafy]

I love your traditions Feels very family related without a great deal of family We only have my mum and brother and extended family but they'll do their own things

I really need to start making more things

 

[WILMAFLINSTONE]

Ahaaa BB im so excited reading your post and its giving me goosebumps....OMGoodness its not long is it!

Ok so heres my family traditions....some of these have come from when I was a child and some are what weve have started with our own little family....


Oh where do I start!! (sorry in advance your all getting the low down in full) lol xxx

Our christmas traditions start on the 1st Sunday in Dec.

I make a big pot of mulled wine and stick the mince pies in the oven then me David and Kate get our Santa hats on, the Christmas carols CDs get put on and all the house is decorated with lots of lights, hand painted ceramic christmas figures Ive made at craft club, lots of candles and 4 huge Xmas trees! We also choose a new ornament for the tree every year and this year we will have a babies first christmas ornament for Matilda so thats exciting and we will also make some more too! Then thats the house looking fine for the man arriving himself lol!

Throughout Decemebr we attend lots of Carol services and nativity scenes...I cant get enough!

Then on the last Sat before Christmas we always have a mulled wine and mince pies night and all our friends and family come over for a pre christmas get together! Its great and I love it!

Then Christmas Eve I always buy Kate new Pjs, slippers and dressing gown, colouring books and pens, I know even at aged 16 I get her them, but my parents always did it for us so its a tradition thats carried on! Even better this year as we also now have our lovely little lady Matilda to start these traditions with! Excitied!!!


Then we all sit and prepare the veg and whatever else needs to be done on Christmas Eve for christmas lunch, and I always set the table then! Theres candles and all, again something I absolutely love doing and we change the colour theme every year so the table is different each time! Love it and going with Lime green gold and black this year!!

Then we set the living room table up with the fruit and goodies in the afternoon, hang the stockings on the fireplace and then we are all ready to do whatever we decide to do on Christmas eve!

Bath time for everyone then its either out for a meal and midnight mass, or stay in and have a buffet then off to midnight mass!
Usually alternate what we do each year and as last year was a buffet on Christmas eve we might do a meal out this year then Mass although now we have Matilda this year we are going to stay in and have our buffet at home and watch MMass instead of dragging her out that late!

Then kate and now Matilda, will sprinkle their magic dust so Santa knows they are here and then its off to bed for Santa coming!!! OMG Im wetting myself just thinking about it all!! Ha!!

So Kates usually still as excited as when she was really little and wakes us up about 7ish! She comes into our room, then we will all go downstairs, put the lights and carols on and then the presents are opened with the carols on in the background! Then we have breakfast, glass of something naughty then chill out for a bit!

Then lunch is usually seeing to itself in the background and we just mull around too!

Then lunch is anywhere from 12 - 4......sometimes we have family over, sometimes have lunch just us so then we just go with the flow with a few naughties too! This year being Matilda's first we have decided that we would like to spend it at home alone just the four of us!

Then we usually chill out again for a while until about 6pm when we head to the inlaws and do it all over again with the food, exchanging gifts and spend some quality time together or they come to us and do the same again depending on whos turn it is but again this year having lady M we will stay at home and as yet Im not sure if the inlaws are coming over or not!

Ahhhhhh I just reallly am a big kid and I still feel that magical feeling on the run up to Christmas.

Christmas day is just the best day ever.

For us its not about presents, for us its about bringing Christmas back to basics and celebrating it for what its really all about.

Spending time with those we love and not about how much money we can spend!

My freinds and family always get a home made calendar from me, some form of home made 'edible' and hand made cards, jewellery, sugar scrubs, cooking oils etc but theres always something handmade! And my nieces and nephjews all get hand made crackers with a hand made gift it them!

I refuse to spend a fortune on presents as thats not what its all about to us........I think some folk just get far too carried away with spending and loose sight of a good old fashioned christmas lol!!

So thats basically a run down of Christmas in the lives of the me and my little lovelys!

How excited!!! xxx


Eeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeee I cant wait!!! xxxx

 

[Mamafy]

Aww I love your traditions as well hun

I start on 1st December by decorating the house and putting up 3 trees I was gutted last year as I missed it all

I buy the kids Advent calenders and each day we open a window Might buy a wooden one this year

All the presents are wrapped at end November so once the trees are up there are presents under the trees They're only little pressies like socks, hats sets, vests, little stocking filler gifts but the kids love them they spend the next 24 days trying to work out what they are

I always do a huge Xmas shop on 23rd december and get all fresh veg from the veg shop.

On Xmas eve we do a big tidy up and then the cook off begins
My oh goes to town with my brother to do their Xmas shopping (they've done this now for 20 years so its their little tradition)

I cook a roast beef, a ham and the turkey and prep all the veg and make the trifles and the homemade stuffing. Even with being ill last year I still done a lot of this so I was proud of myself

On Xmas eve night I leave a pile of gifts for each of the bigger kids and Santa visits the lo's

Xmas morning starts early with the kids jumping on our bed Always! The kids check out their pressies and then we open the tree pressies after breakfast

Lunch will be about 1-1.30

I love it

 

[WILMAFLINSTONE]

Ahaaaa Mamafy I wish I could be in your house for a sneak peek on Christmas morning its sounds likes its truly magical xxx

 

[titch]

IM getting butterflies reading everyones traditions Im excited now, its official!


1st december the christmas tree goes up, I try and make the house as christmassy as possible,
we have an advent sleigh made out of wood which we will actually use this year with LO

halfway through december there are reindeer parading through a local village and santa comes out of the toy shop, its a really traditional setting, like a charles dickens novel and they light the tree in the cobbled square and everyone sings carols. Oh its so lovely. Last year I wore Mrogan there tucked inside my coat and he wore his bear hat cos it goes over his ears too, and he slept for most of it but woke when I sang "away in a manger" and just looked up at me as I sang to him, it was the most special moment ever!

For the big day, we stay at my parents place, they have an old house with 2 living rooms and both have fires in, they put a wood burner in one, which just happens to be perfect for chestnuts and the other is a coal fire with a proper chimney which is obviously where father christmas gets in. We dont have a chimney in our house so my stocking wouldnt get filled here.

We all get up and have breakfast, my mum usually buys a load of croissants and pain au chocolat, and open out presents in our stockings, then we go to church, leaving the turkey in the oven, which my dad has weighed and done some kind of mathamatical equation to work out the perfect temperature and cooking time and we exchange gifts and drink alcohol all morning (when there are 12 people, there are a LOT of gifts to be opened! Then the epic lunch, which lasts about 2 hours somehow! Then we all watch dr who, cos we're sad like that, all snooze on sofas, beanbags etc squished up and the dog sleeps by the fire. then we all revive by about 5pm and start sniffing out the left over pigs in blanket, and play on the wii in the other living room while boring people (*ahem* the grandparents) watch a DVD which one of them has been given. My dad got an xbox kinekt for christmas last year so thats pretty much all we did all evening, that and drink a lot more booze!

 

[titch]

oh I forgot to say, everyone in our house gets a stocking, including LOs great grandma, which is pretty amazing as she doesnt even sleep there. But father christmas just knows!! whats even more amazing is that even though my mother helps santa to coordinate the stockings, she ends up with one too, and noone will confess to helping santa with hers. (*ahem* me *ahem* )