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.
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