So its under 100 days until xmas and it got me thinking, this will be our first xmas with Georgia, I havent been into xmas much in the past due to family stuff but I am really excited about this year.
I am going to take Georgia to target or whoever has a wishing tree and we are going to buy a child a present who otherwise may miss out. I know Georgia will not understand but I would like this to be a tradition. I want my children to understand that xmas is not all about receiving but giving as well and that sometimes people miss out. I dont want them to think it is all about the presents.
So what other traditions do you and your family have or what traditions are you hoping to start this year?
My family is not very family orientated or big on traditions, so I am trying to make sure I make my own for us.
Things like really getting into the spirit of things like christmas pj's & always have carols play leading up to Christmas.
I too am going to do the "shoebox" gift thing with DS this year & each year to come to show him it's about giving also.
We have a Christmas book with the traditional story also that gets read every year so he know's what it means to us (we have one for Easter also).
That's such a good idea Salad - I think I will copy!
The only tradition we have so far is DP saying we are going to such and such a family member's for Xmas Day and me saying "noooooooooooo, don't do that to me!" so I think we need a more positive one
I read Jingle Bells (A golden book) to DD every Christmas Eve. This year I plan to introduce singing carols at home because she LOVES to sing... other than that, none really. Need to come up with some good ones for us. Maybe visiting the lights... I've always done the wishing tree gifts but considered it good karma instead of tradition... but it is a tradition really isn't it?
every year my mother buys are really good quality and beautiful xmas tree decoration for her 3 kids - we are aged 30, 28 and 26 - and she's done this since we were very small.. so i have a whole box full of gorgeous decorations for my own tree.
when we were little, we'd set up and decorate the tree together on the first weekend in december. we would then take it turns putting the angel on top of the tree. dad would pick us up or put us on his shoulders and the designated person would do the honours. it was a very big thing - we'd even fight over who would do it lol and had to record whose turn it was on the angel's storage box.
each child had a pillow case with our names etc on it that santa filled. we were allowed to open these if we woke up before mum and dad - they were full of lots of goodies like hair ties and jocks.
We have a designated "present hander-outerer'' each year and everyone has an OJ and champers during the opening ceremony. We have one person open a present at a time while everyone watches. it takes a long time to get through the pressies but is lots of fun and gives full weight and ceremony to every gift
after presents we all help get ready for the biggest lunch ever. even as kids - I always do the ****tail sauce (have done since i was abo 8), My sister does the devilled eggs and my brother and dad 'cook' the prawns - note this takes them about 2 hrs and several beers and is done in the shed lol.
and after we've gorged ourselves on yummy food, the whole family settles down in the lounge room (doesn't matter how many of us are there or that all the kids are grown up now. there's no floor space thesedays heeehee) and we'll watch a DVD - usually someone got one for chrissy. usually half of us are asleep by the end of the film lol.
Dinner is then a self-serve ( you can even have cake if you wish) of all the left overs (which usually feed us for the next few days).
sorry if that's really long. once i thought about it, i realised we are pretty set in your chrissy ways... and love it!
now i'm expecting my first, DH and I have to also work out our own path
Christmas at Casa Glamourcide (or the rellies') MUST involve a full roast lunch with all the trimmings, or it's not Christmas. My mother was getting far too slack (I've told her numerous times that if the whole hot-oven-in-December thing is too much, to install an air-conditioner) and serving awful oven-baked fish fillets and some chilled prawns (what, no salad? Gahhhh you lazy cow - it's CHRISTMAS!!), so I took up the reins last year and did stuffed chicken, vegies, even those cute little bread rolls you toast in the oven
I think I'm going to be an evil mother and start dressing the girls in ridiculous Christmas-themed outfits on Christmas Day. Tried it with Munchkin last year (green shirt with Santa on it and some red shorts) but she was stripped down to her nappy before I even got the camera out.
As my parents are seperated and live 1 & 2hrs from me we usually do x-mas as follows:
* Mums family party (her WHOLE family) the Sunday before x-mas
* We would then stay at my dads x-mas eve (he has the youngest siblings) and open pressies with them, have breakfast then head off to mums on our way home.
* after mums we would head straight to DP's mums house for a MASSIVE traditional feast
* 5am boxing day DP and i would head off to our caravan for a few days just us.
Now as we have DD last yr we just saw dad after mums family thing then stayed home x-mas morning to have it with our little girl then headed to DP's mums and didn't go anywhere on boxing day.
As #2 is due early Jan am not sure if we will do any travelling this yr and might just get mum and dad to come see us before x-mas and maybe do DP's family on x-mas day!
I love watching Carols on x-mas eve, we will do a drive around with DD to look at x-mas lights in the week before x-mas and we will have x-mas morning just to ourselves with our girls from now on!
We have a few. Here are some, I'm sure I;ll forget some!
I am cheif tree decorator and do the tree and mums with my neice, nephew, DS and DD on the first weekend of Dec. Then come home and do our little unit and tree up here.
Get out the chrissy DVD's, CD's and books for the kids. Watch and re watch, and re read and re read the books and DVD's and sing the songs at the top of our lungs for a month or so!!
Have our close family dinner on chrissy eve with just my mum and brothers and our families on chrissy eve. Open our pressies to each other now. Sleep at mums.
Have extended family over for lunch on chrissy day.
Make chrissy paper with DD adn DS. Some painting and drawing for this purpose has already begun!! Using chrissy colours of course!
Have santa pics, though DD is petrified of santa, so I don't know how we'll go this year!
I'd like to start a few more like making hand made gifts (food hampers...) for people like my aunties and nan with my kids. And making my own chrissy cards with the kids pics on them, dressed up in chrissy attire of course! I love christmas!
Each year I buy the girls a special decoration, and I write the year on it. They each have a bauble with their name on for their first christmas.
We also set the tree up on the 1st of December, and Dh picks all three girls up and they place the star on the tree. (we all wear our santa hats while we decorate.
We have an advent calendar - and the 'christmas fairy' leaves a small treat for them each day on the lead up to christmas.
There is a Carols in the Park nearby, so we usually try to go to that each year as well.
Instead of buying christmas cards, each year since dd1 was born, I have taken a photo of them, dressed in a red outfit and wearing a santa hat (most of the time anyway lol ) and send them out to everyone. Everybody always looks forward to receiving their card , and if i'm a little late, people start to get worried lol.
I love Christmas
Last edited by Patooties; September 21st, 2009 at 07:39 PM.
: i before e except after c
Hey Sal,
A family tradition i have had in my family the last few years are:
-On xmas eve we go for a drive around our town and look at all the beautiful houses with christmas lights there are alot of streets that get quite competitive and are so beautiful
- we watch the carols by candle light
theres more coming but gtace has just woken up lol
My own tradition is to put the Christmas tree up on December 1. We have carols playing and the girls have a ball.
Last year we took DD1 to KMart to put a pressie under the tree for the kids that don't get pressies. I will continue this until the kids are adults.
Since I have been with my DH we celebrate Polish Christmas on Christmas Eve and Aussie Christmas on Christmas Day. Our Polish Christmas consists of heaps of food!!! It usually takes us 3 days to prepare it all.
DH and I always make a point of taking the kids to look at Christmas lights. We have an awesome street up the road that takes lights to the full extent.
i start decorating mid November (cos it takes weeks to get it all up) - tree gets decorated Dec 1 (will be interesting this year - we're going to a concert that night!)
ummm, we have a Christmas bbq with half our town (well, not that many, but it feels like it) the weekend before Christmas - we all get together on the one day, rather than trying to catch up with 15 different families over a couple of weeks.
Christmas eve we usually spend with my brother/SIL playing board games - yup, sounds boring, but we tuck the kids into bed, sit my aunt (with intellectual disability) in front of the carols to sing REALLY badly, then we duck off to the other room and play games and just catch up. we do the last minute wrapping of presents and everything, then wait for midnight to hit
at midnight, we wish each other Merry Christmas, go and put the presents under the tree that need to be put out (we don't do a lot of Santa stuff - so mostly it's there well before Christmas day), then off to bed.
we get up about 6 in the morning, and put the roasts on to cook. lamb in the oven, pork and beef on the bbq outside. the boys crack the first beer for the day! the kids (my bro's three) usually get up about 8, brekki, the first presents, then the waiting for the grandparents starts. when they arrive, more presents and, once it's all done, we rearrange the furninture and set up the tables for lunch. everything goes out at once, and everyone digs in. after lunch we all chill til my we are ready to go our seperate ways.
Christmas rotates between our place, mum's and my bro's. if it's at mums, we leave the parents and go to my bro's for a while to just catch up a bit without grandparents hassling the kiddies (they buy them noisy toys but won't let them play with them - wt??), then we come home. if it's here or at my bro's, my folks leave earlier than the rest of us
Christmas night we head up to DH's best friends place just to catch up with them for a while. not a lot happens, just a few drinks on the deck...
this year Christmas is here and it's the first one where we've had a kidlet, so will be interesting....
ooh, decoration wise - we always add something new each year - we put a decoration for DH and I that is relevant to us for that year - and we'll get "my first Christmas" deco for E for this year, and something spesh for her each year from now on. mum said something about seeing some 2009 deco's out already, so we'll head into town and have a squiz later in the week
I took my ds to leave a present under a wishing tree last year, he was 7 months old but I thought it was important to start these things with him. We also went to our local Carols by Candlelight and the Christmas Parade that goes through the city streets. I made his Christmas stocking by appliquing his name and a Santa and a Christmas tree onto a pillow case. I was very proud of the end product and my Mum suggested that I sew something new onto it each year. We hope to continue all of these things with him this year although I don't know how long we will be able to stay at the carols because all he wants to do is runaround these days!!
I read about a few that we are going to start doing.
The kids get to open a pressie on Christmas Eve and it's always a new pair of pyjamas. That way they always look nice on Christmas morning for photos!
Kids get a letter from Santa (made by mummy) that contains a little packet of magic Reindeer Dust (glitter!) so they can sprinkle it outside the door on Christmas Eve before bed so that the reindeer see the sparkle and know where to stop.
Make a Christmas book that everyone writes in on christmas day. You have your age, fav pressie, fav bit of the day. Lots of memories .
On Christmas Eve read the story of Jesus's Birth together.
Wow, some great ideas there girls! I share many of them (I am a Christmas tragic LOL) but one thing I can add is my scrapbook album. I only scrap Christmas photos ad do about 2-6 pages a year, depending on the number and qaulity of photos. Because the whole album is chrissy-only, I tend to stay away from the traditional red and green and mix it up a little. The idea will be that the album only comes out when the tree does and is a way for the kids to remember each Christmas and see how must they have changed over the years.
Do you have any xmas traditions?
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