Christmas Family Tradition ?

OU812

Do you have an Xmas family tradition ?

We started one our first Xmas together in our first house when it was just the two of us. Using a timer, we take a photo in front of the tree, the following day (because of being busy) I print it, write the year on the back & frame it in a Newbridge frame decoration & it's hung on the tree around dinner time where it stays until the tree comes down & it joins the rest of them the following year when the tree is put up.

There's about a dozen of them now and as the kids have come along it's got more difficult to take the picture & to get it the right size to get in there.

It'll get to a point where these will be the only decorations on the tree, but that's exactly what I'm aiming for.

I also try to buy an "Heirloom" type decoration each year that the kids can take with them when they leave. Waterford Crystal were doing wonderful ones for a while but I don't know if they're going to continue as they've become increasingly hard to get following the factory closure.

Glitter

That's a gorgeous tradition! Utterly charming.

I've been having a big fancy dress cocktail party every Christmas for the last ten years or so that's a big deal with all my friends. I thought about leaving it for a year last year cos I'd just got married in November and was a bit burnt out with event planning but there was uproar so it had it go ahead.

OU812

I'd love to have a house big enough to have one of those Xmas parties you see in older movies

Moonbeam

Aww I wish I had thought of something like that,I would have pictures of all my christmas bumps then the next year the baba,
Might start this year:)

deelite

About a week before Christmas my children spend about 20 euro on one toy and bring it into Temple Street (not a lot but it's what we can afford).

I leave a lighting candle (safely) near a window for the lost souls (I got that from my mother)

Unwanted presents all go to the local church - (we're not religious) - but it just feels right.

Digs

That is such a lovely tradition, I love the photo idea!

I have four siblings (three of whom are married) and every Christmas eve for as long as I can remember ourselves and our partners have gone into town with our parents for some last minute shopping and always finish with a drink in Doheny and Nesbitts. The atmosphere in there on Christmas Eve is just so warm, festive and lovely.

We head back to our parents then for dinner and a few drinks and my Dad insists on putting on it's a wonderful life. Since my brothers got married they have gone to their wives families for Christmas day so Christmas Eve has become big in our house even though the girls and our partners pile into Mams on Christmas Day. This year is the first year my eldest brother can't come home from America so he will be sorely missed but there's plans for skype!

I had a bump with me last year in Doheny and Nesbitts and this year my daughter will be along to keep the tradition going

I also plan on buying my daughter a decoration each year. My mum got us all one for our first Christmases.

Toto Wolfcastle

Since I was young my parents would lock the sitting room door and hide the key so that on Christmas morning we would have to find it. It was always hidden in the same place, even when we moved and the hiding place moved with us. We always made a big deal of trying to find it though. This still happens even though I'm in my late 20s and married and my youngest sibling is 22. Last year was my first year missing the tradition because I was with my husband's family so I'm looking forward to it again this year.

Scarinae

In my family we’ve always opened our family presents after dinner on Christmas Eve, and then Santa presents on Christmas morning. Apparently this was because Christmas Day was so busy with going to see relatives etc, and my parents wanted some time that was just for our family.

After our Santa presents, we used to always go to my grandparents’ house along with the rest of that side of the family. We’d put all the presents on one side of the room, and when everyone had arrived my Grandpa would sit in his chair and give the presents to the grandkids to distribute to everyone. It’s nearly six years since he died though, so for the last few years the extended family have come to my parents’ house on Christmas morning instead.

My Mum gets really into decorating the house as well – inevitably there would be bickering as we tried to untangle the lights for the trees, and there would always be one bulb that would go and stop every single one from working (though this hasn’t happened for a few years, since Mum discovered LED lights). We’d play Christmas music and sing along as we decorated the tree, and Mum always gets a tin of Roses for us to dip into as we decorate. I love how ridiculously Christmassy our house is – garlands over doorways and on the banisters of the stairs, candles all over the house and in every window, and at least two trees.

weetiepie

My husband proposed to me a few years ago when we were putting up our Christmas tree..he handed me what was suppose to be the last decoration to go on the tree(he was on his knees at this stage because he "dropped" something) and when I took the string from his hand there was a little ring box at the end of it...he beemed up at me and asked me to marry him...

So every year now the last decoration to go on the tree is the ring box, and of course the tree goes up on the date he proposed..

That is very impressively romantic

cailinardthair

Our tradition is on Christmas Eve. After we have most of the food prepared and all the Christmas presents are wrapped. We always make an Indian curry from scratch (well its usually me who makes it). Its really the only time that its me, my parents and my brothers and sister are together. And after we have either mulled wine and hot port and watch a couple of Christmas films.

Its nice because we are with the extended family the next day and its probably going to be one of the last ones that it will be only six of us. The partners will be spending at least one Christmas with us in the near future and when ever I'm doing my own Christmas in the future I will keep it up.

Moonbeam

weetiepie wrote: »

My husband proposed to me a few years ago when we were putting up our Christmas tree..he handed me what was suppose to be the last decoration to go on the tree(he was on his knees at this stage because he "dropped" something) and when I took the string from his hand there was a little ring box at the end of it...he beemed up at me and asked me to marry him...

So every year now the last decoration to go on the tree is the ring box, and of course the tree goes up on the date he proposed..

I blame pregnancy but that may have brought a tear to my eye:)

Moonbeam

We go to the in-laws for christmas but this year we are having Christmas eve dinner here and inviting friends over and Santa is coming here and this is my 1st pregnancy that there is no danger of a christmas day baby so can relax:) last year I was due around Chrismas day.

weetiepie

Aww thanks moonbeam...what a glorious state you are in..pregnancy!!.. and the anticipation of a beautiful little soul coming into the world..the very best of luck to u...

SusieBlue

Our biggest tradition is probably our Christmas Eve packs. Every year, since I was born, I've been presented with a box on Christmas Eve. Inside it there would be new Christmas pj's, new bed linen, a Christmas mug, a movie, reindeer food (glitter), and bubble bath. This was our Christmas Eve "kit", and even now we're adults, my parents still give them to us every year. This is something I want to continue with my own kids.

We bake a cake as a family over Christmas week and on Christmas morning, after we open our presents, we sing happy birthday to baby Jesus and blow out the candles. My parents weren't overly religious, and I'm not very religious at all, but this is something my dad did with his mother, that he wanted to do with us, so even though the sentiment isn't the same (my grandparents were very religious), we do it because its a tradition. Another one I want to continue!

We go to the Children's mass (5pm) on Christmas Eve even though none of us are kids any more. My entire extended family go to the same church as us, so all my cousins, aunties and uncles are there with us. I love seeing the excitement on my nephews, nieces and cousins faces.

I started a new one last year, one that will hopefully become a tradition. I lost my daughter two years ago and Christmas is a particularly hard time for me, especially as we have no other children. One of the biggest things I was looking forward to about parenthood was being Santa. So last year, I bought a few toys I thought my daughter might have liked if she were still here. I had so much fun picking out little things that I knew any little girl would love. I ended up spending about €80 and I donated it all to a charity, that passed it on to a child who wouldn't be waking up to any presents on Christmas day. It made me happy, it made a child happy, and it was done in my daughters name so I thought it was a nice way to honour her memory over Christmas. Definitely something I want to continue with.

leahyl

weetiepie wrote: »

My husband proposed to me a few years ago when we were putting up our Christmas tree..he handed me what was suppose to be the last decoration to go on the tree(he was on his knees at this stage because he "dropped" something) and when I took the string from his hand there was a little ring box at the end of it...he beemed up at me and asked me to marry him...

So every year now the last decoration to go on the tree is the ring box, and of course the tree goes up on the date he proposed..

OMG #welljel :)

Broken Strings

In my family we all give each other one present on Christmas Eve and then we watch the Top Gear Christmas Special.

The meats all get cooked that evening in preparation for Christmas day and my step dad cuts off little bits of meat and puts them on a plate for us to sample. I love the smell of spiced beef in the house.

Then on Christmas Morning we get up early and the last two years myself and my mam have watched Gordon Ramsay's Christmas Cook along while preparing stuff for the dinner

Moonbeam

Sorry to hear about your daughter but that is a really beautiful idea.

lovelystuff

@whiteroses that is a lovely idea. And I'm very sorry for your loss. I would love to do something similar, do you remember what charity you gave it too?

SusieBlue

lovelystuff wrote: »

@whiteroses that is a lovely idea. And I'm very sorry for your loss. I would love to do something similar, do you remember what charity you gave it too?

Thank you. It was to The Giving Tree, I think its part of Saint Vincent de Paul but I'm not sure! You can choose the gender of the child you want to donate to, and the age. Your only supposed to give one gift but I ended up buying quite a few.

Sir Humphrey Appleby

We always set one place at the table for those we wish we here but who cannot be for whatever reason, including those who have passed away.
It's poignant but also nice.

Loughc

WhiteRoses wrote: »

I started a new one last year, one that will hopefully become a tradition. I lost my daughter two years ago and Christmas is a particularly hard time for me, especially as we have no other children. One of the biggest things I was looking forward to about parenthood was being Santa. So last year, I bought a few toys I thought my daughter might have liked if she were still here. I had so much fun picking out little things that I knew any little girl would love. I ended up spending about €80 and I donated it all to a charity, that passed it on to a child who wouldn't be waking up to any presents on Christmas day. It made me happy, it made a child happy, and it was done in my daughters name so I thought it was a nice way to honor her memory over Christmas. Definitely something I want to continue with.

What an unbelievable lovely thing to do! I'm not ashamed to admit I shed a few tears reading this, you are a credit to yourself and your family, thank you for sharing your tradition with us and making us remember the important things in life.

swine

Our family tradition is that myself and my brother write a quiz for the family for after Christmas dinner. It would probably be easier to just buy a quiz or whatever but the whole thing started from my father insisting that we all do a quiz, and from some very then outdated book (outdated for a bunch of 3 teenagers anyway!). At some point I said I'd do one instead and it has kept going since. I'm 30 now but I have copies of it going back 7 years.

Because it's our own you can play around with the questions and rounds a bit more and I now end up sending it to some friends of friends on request as they heard about it and loved it. We have little prizes for runners up and winners and used to swap the team pairings halfway to keep everyone happy. It's something that takes a surprising amount of work (probably not helped by the amount of planning everyone has to do at Christmas anyway) but it's worth it in the end and I enjoy doing it. I've had a friend who enjoys it so much he wants to do it when he starts his family.

razorblunt

Since I moved in with my missus (now fiancee) we've done the whole "buy a decoration with the year on it", but I like the idea of hanging a photo frame on the tree, so I think we'll have to start that!

mustlove everyone

OU812 wrote: »

Do you have an Xmas family tradition ?

We started one our first Xmas together in our first house when it was just the two of us. Using a timer, we take a photo in front of the tree, the following day (because of being busy) I print it, write the year on the back & frame it in a Newbridge frame decoration & it's hung on the tree around dinner time where it stays until the tree comes down & it joins the rest of them the following year when the tree is put up.

There's about a dozen of them now and as the kids have come along it's got more difficult to take the picture & to get it the right size to get in there.

It'll get to a point where these will be the only decorations on the tree, but that's exactly what I'm aiming for.

I also try to buy an "Heirloom" type decoration each year that the kids can take with them when they leave. Waterford Crystal were doing wonderful ones for a while but I don't know if they're going to continue as they've become increasingly hard to get following the factory closure.

That is just lovely. I think I'm going to start the photo and heirloom decoration one this year. It's our first Christmas as a married couple so what better time to start.

Glitter wrote: »

That's a gorgeous tradition! Utterly charming.

I've been having a big fancy dress cocktail party every Christmas for the last ten years or so that's a big deal with all my friends. I thought about leaving it for a year last year cos I'd just got married in November and was a bit burnt out with event planning but there was uproar so it had it go ahead.

I would love to do something like this, I love organising. Unfortunately none of our "friends" would really be bothered.

weetiepie wrote: »

My husband proposed to me a few years ago when we were putting up our Christmas tree..he handed me what was suppose to be the last decoration to go on the tree(he was on his knees at this stage because he "dropped" something) and when I took the string from his hand there was a little ring box at the end of it...he beemed up at me and asked me to marry him...

So every year now the last decoration to go on the tree is the ring box, and of course the tree goes up on the date he proposed..

That is so lovely

Our tradition is probably indicative of us being a young married childless couple from small families and my husband's parents having passed away.
The day before Christmas Eve we go for dinner in our favourite restaurant and then take a stroll through town taking in the atmosphere, the lights, the sounds, the people, pop into the shops and buy each other one small last minute gift, nothing fancy or expensive, just something small and meaningful, a keepsake for each Christmas, to open on Christmas Eve. We have kept all of the little gifts, some of them really really silly and take them out every year when opening the new gift and have a laugh over them.

We then spend Christmas on our own, nobody visits us and nobody would have their door open to us so we kind of hibernate for Christmas thereafter.

confusticated

The Christmas Swim. We used to do the Goal Mile as well, but it's not held in my hometown anymore so it's a slightly less active Christmas morning now. We head down to the swim around ten to twelve, always a teeny bit on the side of lateness, but just about get there in time to change and run into the water with the other madsers. Then out, get a glass of mulled wine, or hot whiskey if we're lucky, home for a hot shower and all of Mam's family go to my nan's house for presents and drinks. The hour or so in Nan's house is more Christmas than anything else for me, more than the dinner even!

Mars Bar

Ye've all got lovely traditions

I find it interesting how many people go to other peoples houses on Christmas Day. It's the one day of the year where I am most definitely not going outside the door and if you want to see me, you have to come to me!

We don't really have a tradition because my Dad works shifts so his hours can be weird. This year, my sister will only be home for a few days so I'm getting the parents to bunk the Christmas Eve mass (which they only do for show anyway and me and my sister don't bother with it) and getting them to go for Christmas Eve dinner.

amen

Christmas Eve my daughters and I get up early around 7am ( my wife gets a lie in) and go to the local butchers to get the Turkey and Ham (if you go around 10:00am you could be queueing for up to 90 minutes) and get an Irish Times on the way home.

Christmas Music on the radio! (all day if possible)

Once home around 07:30 the Christmas Simplex crossword is opened and my youngest daughter calls out some clues while the Turkey is stuffed with home made stuffing.

All the meat is prepared and placed in the fridge.

After that we normally bake 2 dozen mince pies (pastry made the night before).

We wake my wife up around 09:30am ish and we all head into town for a brunch around 11:00am. Might have a wander around the shops and as we have nothing to purchase its very relaxing.

We take it easy during the afternoon, watch some films, maybe some friends over just a general chill out.

Watch Santa leaving from the North Pole on RTE 1. Bath/Shower time,
leave out some food for Santa/Rudolph, read "Twas the Night before Christmas", Light a candle in the window and bed for all children.

My wife and I normally have a little Christmas drink before Santa arrives and normally off to bed around 11:30pm.

Christmas morning starts around 07:00am with the kids awake but as we all have to go downstairs as a family to see if Santa arrived can normally stretch getting up out to 07:30am.

Once we have checked if Santa has arrived looked at gifts etc its breakfast time, turkey on and phone parents at home ( We live several hours away).

While the turkey is cooking we normally play a game that Santa delivered.

After dinner a recent tradition has been to watch the Dr Who Christmas special even though 50% of the family don't like Dr Who.

That it really.

cailinardthair

amen wrote: »

Christmas Eve my daughters and I get up early around 7am ( my wife gets a lie in) and go to the local butchers to get the Turkey and Ham (if you go around 10:00am you could be queueing for up to 90 minutes) and get an Irish Times on the way home.

Christmas Music on the radio! (all day if possible)

Once home around 07:30 the Christmas Simplex crossword is opened and my youngest daughter calls out some clues while the Turkey is stuffed with home made stuffing.

All the meat is prepared and placed in the fridge.

After that we normally bake 2 dozen mince pies (pastry made the night before).

We wake my wife up around 09:30am ish and we all head into town for a brunch around 11:00am. Might have a wander around the shops and as we have nothing to purchase its very relaxing.

We take it easy during the afternoon, watch some films, maybe some friends over just a general chill out.

Watch Santa leaving from the North Pole on RTE 1. Bath/Shower time,
leave out some food for Santa/Rudolph, read "Twas the Night before Christmas", Light a candle in the window and bed for all children.

My wife and I normally have a little Christmas drink before Santa arrives and normally off to bed around 11:30pm.

Christmas morning starts around 07:00am with the kids awake but as we all have to go downstairs as a family to see if Santa arrived can normally stretch getting up out to 07:30am.

Once we have checked if Santa has arrived looked at gifts etc its breakfast time, turkey on and phone parents at home ( We live several hours away).

While the turkey is cooking we normally play a game that Santa delivered.

After dinner a recent tradition has been to watch the Dr Who Christmas special even though 50% of the family don't like Dr Who.

That it really.

That reminds me so much of christmas at my house. Especially when I was a kid.

We would go to Galway on the 23rd really early, we live in a rural area so its easier to get the shopping done the day before...but we are in Tesco at 7am because at 8 the queue is very long. That hasn't changed!

On Christmas Eve, we be cooking all morning and have Christmas tunes on all day.

My dad would tell us when santa would take off and using the atlas would say he was in this country (you can tell this was before google) and then watch the rte news for santa.

We be watching Christmas movies in the afternoon. Drinks in the evening while watching anything on tv.
Sockings would go up and then bed.