12+ Christmas Traditions

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Christmas for many people is steeped in tradition – we do the same things, year in, year out. Whether they are Christmas traditions we’ve brought through from childhood to adulthood, or new ones we’ve made for our families; Christmas just wouldn’t be Christmas without them…

Christmas Traditions

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When I really think about it, my Christmas celebrations have remained largely unchanged since I was a child – and I’m now in my 40s! Back then, my mum would buy my siblings and me a new pair of pyjamas to wear on Christmas Eve; and we were all allowed to open one small present each too. This is something I still do with my family, even though my son is now 18!

The Christmas tree would go up on the 1st of December – usually, or the first weekend of December. And come down on the 6th January – otherwise it was bad luck! One year, mum forgot to take the decorations down from the ceiling and they stayed up all year because of the superstition! I do exactly the same (although, the tree has creeped into November some years!) One year I forgot to take the ceiling decorations down too. For friends it was hilarious as you could see them from the street (I lived in a first floor flat back then).

We didn’t have a fireplace so stockings would go at the end of our beds. Exactly the same for my son – no fireplace! It was sometimes hard for Santa to creep in and not wake him up! Stocking presents from Father Christmas, and I would always go into his bedroom on Christmas morning and watch him dive into his stockings and unwrap the presents inside.

Someone always plays “Santa” on Christmas Morning and hands out all the presents to everyone from under the tree, then we can all open them. There is always a bin bag very close by to throw all the discarded gift wrappings! There are always photos taken of us with our haul of pressies for that year. They’re fun photos to look back on!

Christmas dinner is always roast turkey, with all the trimmings. And always prawn cocktail or pâté for starter. Funny thing is, I don’t really remember dessert – we were probably too full by then! In the evenings there would always be a cheeseboard, and board games or cards.

We do exactly the same now – be it us having everyone to our house for Christmas, or us going to our parents. I always cover the turkey with bacon – which is the cook’s treat (mine, alllll mine!). And we still have cheese and biscuits in the evening while playing board games, or cards. It isn’t Christmas for us without a few rounds of Blackjack or Poker! Don’t forget the festive tipples either – Bailey’s over ice, or a snowball with a cherry on a stick!

Board games are a huge tradition for us, I think we buy a new game or two every year! Even when we were kids I remember there being at least one new game under the tree – we had stacks of them! I’ve bought a new game for this year – What Do you Meme? And I’ve been sent a few other games too – The Very Merry Christmas Game; Mr & Mrs Pocket Edition; Pass The Pigs, and Tumball. We cannot wait to play them all!

The Very Merry Christmas Game

The Very Merry Christmas Game (RRP £20 from Amazon and Debenhams) is the Family Game of Presents, Crackers, Christmas Songs… and Sprouts! You move around the board collecting presents (cards) valued from nice to naff (just like real life!!) You can give presents to other players, and take them from others too – decided on the pull of a cracker. Land on the singing space to sing a verse from a Christmas song or carol, and beware the dreaded sprout cards! It’s a game that screams Christmas!!

Mr & Mrs Pocket Edition

Mr & Mrs (RRP 9.99 from Amazon, John Lewis, and Debenhams) is based on the TV show of the same name, players are challenged to answer in-depth and entertaining questions about their partner, friends or family members. It has over 300 questions and is guaranteed to cause laughter, blushes, blank looks and a whole lot more! This game isn’t actually going to make it to Christmas! With it being a pocket sized edition, it’s going into my cabin bag for our flight to Orlando!

Pass The Pigs

Pass The Pigs now comes in giant inflatable form! (RRP £14.99 from Amazon) The family favourite game where you throw and roll piggies in order to score points! How the little porkers land will determine if you are a top hog! Will you be ‘Pigging Out’ or ‘Makin’ Bacon’? Only the pigs will tell! We have owned a set of the classic Pass The Pigs game (RRP 9.99 from Amazon) for years – it’s even been on holidays to Cyprus with us and we play it on the beach! The giant inflatable version changes everything! This is going to be so much fun to play with the family!

Tumball

Tumball by Megableu Games is a nerve-wracking, bead-stacking game. Observe the cluster of balls, suspended by nothing but thread. How many balls can you balance on them, before the cluster separates? Go ahead, make your move, but be careful, don’t tremble or the balls will tumble! Tumball (RRP £17.99 from Amazon) is the sort of game that will cause a riot in our house! Either through sheer hilarity as we try to balance the beans, or sheer frustration as one of us places a bead and it all comes tumbling down!

What Do You Meme?

Memes – you either love them or hate them. As a family we LOVE them! I’m known as the Queen of Memes because I have one for pretty much every situation – be they the old ones (like the Challenge Accepted stick drawing) that have lost favour, or the newer ones  (like Awkward Moment Seal) and everything in between! In fact, us siblings and partners have a WhatsApp group for meme silliness! It’s been a big help during a rather crappy 2017 for all of us.

My sister saw What Do You Meme (£27.99 on Amazon), tagged me in it, and it was bought approximately 0.2 seconds later! This is a game for adults only, and is best described as Cards Against Humanity, but with meme picture responses! You basically match the caption with the meme on display. A rotating judge picks the best one.  This game is going to be hil-arrrrr-ious!

And as I said, Christmas wouldn’t be Christmas without our traditions, which for us now are… Listening to Michael Bublé’s Christmas CD while putting up the Christmas tree; buying new ornaments from our annual holiday to Walt Disney World, having a white tree – covered mainly in Disney ornaments!; the tree also gets surrounded by a lot of festive plush toys that I’ve collected over the years. I always have to make sure we watch a selection of Christmas movies, including some of my favourites – National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation, Home Alone 2, and A Christmas Story.

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You’ve heard about my Christmas traditions, and  now I’m sharing some from some from my blogging friends – the wonderful ladies of the The Mamapreneur Revolution Inner Circle.

More Christmas Traditions…

As the children came home when they were 3 and 5, we haven’t had time to build Christmas traditions over the years as in a traditional family, but we’ve taken pieces from each of our childhoods and created an instant tradition! The children have mini Christmas trees which they decorate with felt decorations from a felt advent calendar in their bedrooms. We have a Christmas Eve box delivered on Christmas Eve with new PJ’s for everyone, hot chocolate, reindeer food and the Muppets Christmas Carol which we watch before bed. Instead of stockings we wrap their smallest presents up and they go beneath their trees for them to open first thing in the morning before we open the main ones under the big tree – Cherry, The Newby Tribe

We go ice skating on Christmas Eve, have lunch out. Come home have hot chocolate and mulled wine then watch The Snowman before bed! It’s not Christmas unless we do that! – Renee, Close Enough To Kiss

We go on the Audley End Miniature Railway, except last year – not quite sure how we missed that one. It is really awesome and really put the Christmas spirit up for the kids. But I think we are having a new tradition which is go Christmas Tree picking at the Church Farm, Ardeley. It was really fun! – Su, Ethan & Evelyn

We have a few things we do every year. We have our elves who visit from 1st December and they bring activities and challenges for the kids. They sometimes make a bit of a mess but nothing too bad. They bring the advent calendars and our advent books with them. Our Christmas tree usually goes up on 1st too. When my youngest two arrived I started the Christmas Eve box tradition and we all get new PJs as well as some treats to enjoy. Although not a true tradition we also spend time doing Christmas crafts which we use as gifts for grandparents – Debbie, My Chaotically Eclectic Life

I have to go away to a caravan park or Disney to celebrate Halloween so then I really feel it’s Christmas. We didn’t go this year and it still doesn’t REALLY feel like Christmas! (Until we go away next week, yay!) The light switch on in town makes all the difference too because I feel like I finally fit in for the next 4 weeks of the year! (Roll on Friday!) We have a Christmas Eve box and every year I read the girls a book that I managed to get them, it’s a replica of the one I had as a child and is a story about two mice called Judith and Jed. It’s the last thing we here before the main man comes! Last year we started doing breakfast with Santa and that means that hubby gets to start Christmas too – Jade, Mummies Waiting

I love to make Christmas tree decorations with the children each year so we are building up quite a collection of things that we made together. I think it’s a lovely way to personalise our tree and we try to pick something different each year. Sometimes it’s a handprint on a bauble, this year it’s a star that my toddler has painted. We have so much fun making them together! – Vicky, The Mummy Bubble

I started the Family Christmas Eve Hamper when my first two children were tiny, some 15 years ago – we all find it ridiculously exciting! Even my older children, aged 20 and 18 started talking about it in October this year! We have various games and puzzles, Christmas books along with The Christmas Eve movie of choice (This year is Paddington Bear 1) The last 6 years has been my favourite movie, The Polar Express! We also have Christmas mugs for hot chocolate and of course Christmas nibbles! – Nicky, Spinnin’ Plates

When I was younger we used to be left to our own devises to put the Christmas tree up, along with all the decs and baubles. Now with our 8 year old, we just sit back and let her do it all. Over the years as she’s grown, the baubles are balanced out more! – Carol, Virtually All Sorts

The grown-ups stay up until the early hours Christmas Eve wrapping what we meant to wrap weeks ago, getting steadily more tipsy as the sherry flows. When the children wake up in the morning, we all open our presents before I start to prepare lunch. The rest of the day is usually spent in a happy, feel-good haze. It really IS the most wonderful time of the year! – Lauren, Inspire Create Educate

Baking mince pies and watching Santa Claus The Movie on Christmas Eve. – Victoria, Starlight and Stories

Christmas Day has been the same since I was a child. It’s all about the Santa gifts for the children first. Then we all go to mums where we all take turns to open our gifts together at 12pm. We all sit down and eat at 3pm and then all napping by 5 ha it hasn’t changed in that time apart from the amount of children – Lynne, A Day In The Life Of A Mum Of 6

We go and pick out our Christmas tree from a lovely but slightly crazy old couple who run a farm with hundreds of Christmas trees on the land. You take your own saw and traipse around the fields until you spot your perfect tree then chop it down! It feels like going back in time and we wouldn’t miss ‘tree day’ for anything. – Claire, Wild Mama Tribe

On 1 December the Christmas music goes on, I put up all the decorations, and in the evening sit down and watch a Christmas film… I also have a new obsession with Christmas jumpers, I have been collecting them over the past 2 years, because I want to wear one every day leading up to Christmas Day – Sassy, Thinking Out Loud

New PJs on Christmas Eve with hot chocolate, cream , marshmallows and a Christmas film – Candace, Buckets of Tea

I would love to hear your Christmas traditions – leave me a comment, or have a chat with me over on Twitter!

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Create Christmas is a celebration of everything Christmas & Winter. Filled with free printables, crafts, recipes, and more – now in its 6th year! Read all about Create Christmas 2017.
You can check out Create Christmas from 2016, 2015, 2014,  2013 and 2012 for tons more Christmas ideas and inspiration!

If you try any of the ideas from the series, I would love to see! Share with me on social media: Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, Facebook, using the hashtag #ThePurplePumpkinBlog or #TPPB

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