Lets talk about the C word!!!

the C word being CHRISTMAS.

Do you have any "traditions" and what are they?

Ours are

The tree always goes up on the 21st December
We always have our Christmas dinner at 3pm
We always have turkey, pork and gammon
Every body has to wear the hat from the cracker and everyone must tell the joke/riddle

We don't have any traditions for the day itself. I love the run up to Christmas but I don't really like the day itself. I would love to spend the day at home just the two of us but the man always wants to go to see his mum and that's always going to remain the case and there's nothing I can do about it (yes, I know I sound selfish, that's because I am!).

However! Do not call me Dr Buzzkill. Our countdown to Christmas starts in November. We always watch Planes, Trains and Automobiles at the end on November and buy all the presents. Then in December we can spend the time relaxing and doing fun stuff. We always drive to the each in Crosby for breakfast one morning in December then go to Waitrose. Around the 10-15th December we have my work Christmas party (me, the man, the bunnies and Henry Hoover) and we put one of the trees and most of the decorations up. We put the other tree up a bit later, very late this year as the man wants a real one. We spend the evening watching Christmas or wintery films and drink lots of hot vimto.

As I said the day itself is generally boring, we never have any gifts to open as everyone gives us cash, we spend part of the day in the car and the rest of the time sat around watching people sleep. But then it's Boxing Day and we can all go to the football *hooray*

oooooh I lurve the run up to Christmas. I have lists coming out of my arm!

I love reading foodie magazines and planning what to make for visitors and home decorating mags with decoration ideas. I begin decorating my mantel piece with foliage out of the garden and add to it over the month with the tree going up after the 7th of December. (normally because the girls want it up or thats my excuse! )

It's a fun time for me the run up but I agree, apart from seeing the girls filled with delight opening their gifts the day is rather boring and feelill due to over eating.

Our tree goes up in the first weekend in dec that OH is home and everyone has their own things to put on it
we always have dinner at my folks at 3pm, they do starter and main (which always has to be the same...no tinkering with it)and I do pudding and after snacks
Every grown up has to have bought a bottle of alchol they havent tried before and everyone (not kids) has to try it, very informative and gross at times but a laugh
same with hats and jokes everyone has to get involved
santa gets left a glass of coke (for OH) and a cake (for me) and a carrot for rudolph that i have to bite
even tho kids are a lot bigger now we still have to do it, (20,16 +2 x 12)
oh and i have to go into the living room first incase santa is still there, (to put tree lights on really)

The tree/decs goes up the Sunday before or sometimes the sunday before that.

we usually have Cockerel or Turkey alternating.

we buy a special bottle of wine and pay abit more

we always work xmas eve as that is our busiest time and oh needs my help and i quite like it.

we dont bother with xmas hats and crackers
we usually buy a xmas pudding but dont have it on the day as too full.

its usually just the 2 of us

I hardly have any presents to buy these days.

Love the Royle family Xmas special and watch that in the evening if its on and anything else that takes our fancy or we put it on the planner.

Oooh Christmas is my FAVE time of year

We don't have any major traditions, tree and trimmings go up around the 1st December, for me Christmas starts at the beginning of December and then normally around New Years Day I take it all down again

We used to go and buy a real tree from local Christmas Tree farm but that fell out of favour when my eldest was little and I couldn't cope with all the needles. I would say we'll have a real tree again one year but considering this fake tree cost £80 to buy I suspect I want a few more years worth of Christmases from it

We have special decorations that go on the tree, out of the reach of small fingers of course and I love my wooden advent calendar from Costco (a steal for £20) it has lots of lovely minature decs to hang on a 2D wooded tree. I have pics on Flickr that I could paste if anyone wants to drool. I also bought Christmas stockings and embellished them with the kids names so they get pinned to the mantlepiece.

I also spend a lot of time cooing over Jackie Lawsons ecards, I don't subscribe I just like to watch them Gives me a warm glow just watching them, quintessentially English and basically a fantasy as it's so far removed from real life untrue but hey if I want reality I'll watch the news

This post has made me all excited about christmas

We put 2 trees up, one in the living room, one in the hallway, usually around the 10th December, although hubby would have it up a lot earlier if he could. We have a few decorations that we have bought from Disney in Florida that always have to go at the top of the tree and a beautiful massive musical snowglobe that my mum gave me before she passed away, sadly the glass has broken but hubby managed to remove it all safely, along with the water so it still plays a tune and the scene on the top of it is gorgeous.
Christmas eve, the boys get baths and new pyjamas and early to bed, DH and I stay up and have a glass of wine and open one present, then get Santa's beer ready along with the carrot for the reindeer and a mincepie.
Christmas day we get up as early as the boys decide, watch them open their presents then have a huge breakfast, usually a fry up! Watch a bit of tv and a quick tidy before my dad comes up with my sister and all their presents.
We have our dinner around 3 or 4 then my dad will dose off, then OH, sister will get drunk and I'll end up in the kitchen doing the dishes while stuffing my face with After Eights!!

Can't wait!!

Woke up in the middle of the night feeling bad about how selfish I was being about the Christmas thing, spoke to Dan about it and he said he's fine to stay at home from now on, he only wants to go to his mum's because he always has done! Problem solved. Now I can free myself up about the fun stuff!

What are your favourite chocolates or treats to have at this time of year?

I always buy a slab of stollen from the Manchester Christmas market and we love those Cadbury's decorations that go on the tree

alec eiffel wrote:

What are your favourite chocolates or treats to have at this time of year?

I always buy a slab of stollen from the Manchester Christmas market and we love those Cadbury's decorations that go on the tree

OMG that Market is soooo expensive!!! Stollen from Lidl is gorgious and tastes much better IMO.

I spent 9 years in Germany and Christmas over there is much more fun!! (probably because I knew people, here I know noone)

our tradition is biting our nails for the two weeks leading up to it to see if hubby has won the xmas shift lottery at work. triple time AND a day off in lieu? hell yes!
last year he was a runner up, so he got boxing day which was double time and a day off in lieu so boxing day paid for xmas lol.
I'm pagan, jim is atheist and sophie is being raised open minded so we celebrate Yule more than we do christmas. on christmas day we eat turkey, and give a present each but that's about the only tradition.

Yule however... we have roast pork or duck, exchange small (preferably home made) gifts, talk about midwinter and the survival of our ancestors, plans for the new season and then we have a fire in the garden and burn bits of paper with the last year's regrets/upsets written on them. if it's raining (or snowing like last year) we have candles indoors and don' do the burning until we can get outside again lol.

life_in_termoil wrote:

alec eiffel wrote:

What are your favourite chocolates or treats to have at this time of year?

I always buy a slab of stollen from the Manchester Christmas market and we love those Cadbury's decorations that go on the tree

OMG that Market is soooo expensive!!! Stollen from Lidl is gorgious and tastes much better IMO.

I spent 9 years in Germany and Christmas over there is much more fun!! (probably because I knew people, here I know noone)

Yeah but going to the Market is lovely, going to Lidl is depressing! Plus I'm always fortified with cherry wine when I'm at the market so the £1.20 a slice causes me no pain

Christmas markets = Gluhwein, bratty and stollen. Yum Yum Yum

We leave Reindeer food out on the front garden [oats and edible glitter mixed togther] Father Christmas has a glass of milk and some mince pies, on Christmas morning we all have to get dressed before we go downstairs and then the kiddies wait in the kitchen and I check that the big man has been [to put on the lights] then children can go in and take turns to open pressies - I want to see their faces as they get their gifts and it stops them going wild!!

On Christmas Eve Father christmas's helpers will leave a small hamper for each person in the house if they have been good throughout the year, new mug, pj's, cheap dvd and a litle bag of sweets, adults get a glass, small acoholic drink, choccy, all nicely wrapped up with a poem.

This year DH has to work [no overtime or day off to make up for it] Boo Hoo

Helen x

Oh I love the hamper idea.

Christmas eve in our house has santa's helpers leaving a treasure trail leading to a similar sort of idea. Love the idea of new PJ's too

thats become popular hasnt it new pyjamas.

Aw...

new pjs does seem popular.
I'll be doing hampers again this year. it's so easy to make nice, cheap but expensive looking gifts!

Boots' online Christmas shop is now live

http://www.boots.com/en/Offers/Seasonal-Events/Christmas/?cm_re=c9094_rot1-_-new-_-christmas_shop&cm_sp=homepage-_-c9094-_-c9094_rot1

argos are doing their 3 for 2 on toys. reserve online and the price comes off when you collect in store. they also have the 2 for £15, so I'm going to attempt getting 6 for 4..... dont know if it will work, but will update lol!

Christmas in our house............
tree & decorations go up beginning of December, kids get an advent calendar, we'll go and see father Christmas somewhere local, on Christmas Eve we leave a carrot for rudolph and mince pie & beer for Father Christmas, we'll have a takeaway for tea so no messing up the kitchen! then watch a Xmas film with the kids, then read the Night before Xmas and they go to bed, we usually track Santa through the day on Norad track Santa thing (google it, its brilliant) the kids love seeing where he is throughout the day and have a final check to see where he is before bed, when they're in bed we put their presents out and then watch whatever Xmas program is on tv, we go to my parents on Xmas Day and come back on the nighttime and boxing day is in laws house and come back on the night time. Love Christmas

TP wrote:The tree/decs goes up the Sunday before or sometimes the sunday before that.

we usually have Cockerel or Turkey alternating.

we buy a special bottle of wine and pay abit more

we always work xmas eve as that is our busiest time and oh needs my help and i quite like it.

we dont bother with xmas hats and crackers
we usually buy a xmas pudding but dont have it on the day as too full.

its usually just the 2 of us

I hardly have any presents to buy these days.

Love the Royle family Xmas special and watch that in the evening if its on and anything else that takes our fancy or we put it on the planner.

as an add on we usually have a walk round our Victorian Fayre and street market which we did last week. Then we come home and have a coffee and a mince pie.