Christmas Traditions

It had to happen eventually, didn't it? I am starting to feel a little bit festive. Just a small, tiny bit festive. As you will know if you read an earlier post I wrote about Christmas, you will see that I struggle to get into the spirit of things, well at least in November anyway. Part of the problem is the birthdays. Mine, my daughters and my husbands are all within four days and that is quite stressful in itself, so once they are all out of the way, I can start to focus on the big C!

So as I've heaved the decoration bags out of the cupboard and started to rearrange the house to make room for the Christmas tree, I am starting to feel quite festive and have even been singing Christmas songs today.

So I decided that my Christmas post would be about our little Christmas traditions! The one thing I love about getting the Christmas bags out is that it is lovely digging all the decorations out; bought and made. Reacquainting ourselves with all the beautiful things to put around the house is lovely.

Our first tradition is toys. Yes, we all have ridiculous amounts of them I know, but when my eldest son was little, we started going to the Disney Store and buying a Christmas Disney beanie toy. This has carried on and every year, we buy at least one and now we've got quite a collection.

Secondly, the Christmas tree itself is an interesting sight. As you will see from the photo, we don't have a theme, more a bizarre mix of old and new, bought and handmade. We pick up a couple of new tree decorations every year and the children usually pick them, which can be a bit of a tongue-biting moment as one of my sons has been responsible for some horrible giant orange baubles, which I hate and always discretely move to the back of the tree! We live quite near the Cotswold village of Broadway and there is a fabulous shop called Cotswold Trading where you can buy the most amazing tree decorations.

Thirdly, we always get out the homemade decorations out, however old they are and we find a place for them. Some of them are looking a bit tired and worn, but I think it's important for the children to see that their work is valued, even if it is slightly hidden behind the Christmas tree!



My 7 year old son made this two years ago

Some Lego decorations which have a few bits missing, but we remake them every year!

My sixteen year old son made this about ten years ago

 Finally, we have a family Christmas party. Once everyone has broken up for the festive holidays, we choose a day where we have a family party with Christmas music and games. It's a silly tradition, but I suppose it marks the start of the festivities for real and gets everyone in the mood. We do some Christmas cooking and prepare a feast of festive party food and then play silly games like 'pin the beard on the santa' and musical statues. We finish it off with a treasure hunt, where everyone gets a little bag of goodies (chocolate coins, bubbles and a very small toy!)

Then we prepare for the big day itself which we all love spending together as a family.

Baby's first Christmas decorations