We had to sit down to breakfast then at 11am the adults had champagne and toasted ‘absent friends’. Then we were able to open gifts with the youngest of the family being the ‘elf’ and handing out the presents. At 3pm it was the Queen’s speech and for as long as I can remember we have watched that before sitting down to dinner.

When I met my husband, both his parents had passed on and he had no family at all.His upbringing had been very strict and he had never experienced our type of Christmas, so he embraced it totally.My two boys were brought up the same, and are both strong on the same traditions. This year we spent at my son’s house and waited until the evening to start everything as our daughter in law is a paramedic and was working until 7pm. So, we packed it all into a couple of hours, Queen’s speech and all.

And Debb - I applaud your views on recycling. We folded all paper for re-use this year, and didn’t send any cards - donating money saved instead.

Sorry Julie - I think I rambled a bit!

I hope you both are enjoying your holidays. I’m going to borrow one of your traditions and start buying ornaments for the kids too.

Cheers,
Julie

t always fascinates me to hear about the traditions of others. SO interesting! And even though tradition means ‘handing down from generation to generation’, there’s nothing wrong with starting new traditions. It took me 27 years of being a parent to come to the point where we are now in tradition. Maybe we’ll change again to suit our needs or when [if/hope] the grandchildren come!

When my girls were of Santa-believing age, we always wrapped their Santa gifts in paper with Santa on it! They only got ONE main gift from Santa and the gift tag was the same one used each year. I can’t remember how we explained to them that Santa used the same tag!! ha ha Actually, it was when my oldest daughter recognized the printing on the tag that she confronted me with, “that’s YOUR writing Mom”. I still use that same tag on their Santa gift - 27 years later!

We always told them that Santa was very special, almost magical. We never dwelt on whether or not he was ‘real’. I never felt right about the whole lying to your kids thing! We always told the girls that the Mall Santas were NOT real, but just helpers. When they asked me if Santa Claus was real, I would just say, “what do you think?”. When very little, they always said, ‘yes’ and that was the end of the conversation. Pretty soon, they stopped asking. I think it was a normal transition. It was still a special time for them though and I have wonderful memories, as do they.

Another tradition is to buy PJs for everyone and we open them on Christmas Eve!

My girls always had their own Christmas tree to decorate the way they wanted. I was way too anal about my own tree and had to have it JUST SO!!

I also buy a special ornament for each daughter each year. At first it was glass bells, but I had a hard time finding them year after year. Then I switched to an ornament that had meaning to an interest they had that year. Many years ago, probably about 10 now, I wrote a poem for each of my daughters. The poems were about them and how I felt about them. My eldest is called my Shining Star and my youngest is my Sunshine. Since then I have always bought a Star ornament and a Sun ornament. They LOVE this tradition a lot and look forward to seeing it each year. Last year I could NOT find a SUN anywhere, and ended up buying a heart. My daughter was not impressed!

For almost 50 years, our city hosts a Christmas Telethon. All proceeds go to providing a good Christmas for underpriviledged children. It’s an evening of music by local performers. On that night, we always gather at our house to decorate the tree while we watch the Telethon.

At first, we had specific wrapping paper for each person. For the last several years we have a ‘theme’. Everyone has the SAME paper and we use Photo Tags on them. This year’s theme is recycled paper. Either white, kraft paper or newspaper! It looks so pretty under the tree when everything is the same!

We always have at least one Advent Calendar on the go. When the girls were younger, I made Advent Candles. I would decorate two white tapered candles, very simply, but showing the numbers 1 through 25 all the way down the candle. Each night at dinner time, the girls would light their candle. It usually took the whole dinner time to burn to the next number and then they would blow them out until the next day.

On Christmas Eve we usually get together to watch National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation. We have h’ors deuvres and sometimes play games.

On Christmas morning we usually have the same brunch as always. The Christmas Morning Wife Saver. I do a variation of THIS recipe!

Recycling is VERY important to me. We never use foil type paper. We reuse bows and ribbons. I think I’ve still got bows and ribbons from 30 years ago! We recycle ALL paper, boxboard and cardboard. I am SO passionate about this that when I see something that is recyclable go into the trash I feel sick. Sounds weird to some of you maybe, but I am REALLY anal about the environment! I hope you will all think about the environment this Christmas. Visit my environmental blog for some more waste reducing tips!

Whew, that was long winded wasn’t it! Can you tell I LOVE Christmas? Our family celebration is on the 27th this year, so I can’t wait for it - tomorrow! Merry Christmas everyone!!