Christmas traditions are some of my favourite things, I often get the mum guilt of not spending a fortune at the Christmas markets and having a whole December filled with events. That passes quickly as the season gets into full swing and we start our list…
We have some family Christmas traditions we love and I wanted to share those with you, if you have one, let me know. We love adding new ones in too!
GRAB A NEW BOOK:
I spend the year picking up festive books here and there in charity shops. I choose 24 from the pile and wrap them up, giving us a book advent for the whole of December. It’s a really lovely way to spend time as a family in the evenings and slow down. But also get into the festive spirit with the kids. Some times we plan books for certain days, if we are ice skating and have a book to match for that day, it’s always fun to do. Grab a blanket, a book and have a magical story night with the family.
ADD A NEW ORNAMENT :
One thing we love to do each year is choose a new ornament for the tree, the idea was that when the kids left home they had a ready made pile of ornaments to take with them from their childhood.
Every ornament on our tree is specially picked each year or handmade at school and nursery, our tree has become filled with memories over the years and is always fun to watch the kids decorate it and remember which ones they picked the years before.
We have an abundance of ballerina’s and shoes hanging on ours, along with a shark, a candy floss machine and a space unicorn. Sometimes there 3 decorations and a chunk of the tree is bare, but half the fun is their faces as they pick up each special ornament.
CHRISTMAS MOVIE NIGHT:
We try and wind down the closer it gets to Christmas. It can get a little wild, so cosy nights in with movies is always a winner. Sometimes we will all choose a movie each and our entire day will just be filled with snacks and blankets. We love a cinema trip to see a classic, like Home Alone or Elf, it’s another great way to slow down with the holiday rush.
TAKE A STROLL ROUND THE NEIGHBOURHOOD:
We pack our flask of hot chocolate & marshmallows in a bag and off we go. We take a wander around the local houses and see all the gorgeous displays. We choose our favourites and try and count the doors that have festive wreaths on them or how many tree’s we can spot in the windows.
Edinburgh has some really excellent Christmas decorations and it’s always fun to wander around them!
BE BORED:
We like to match our pjs for putting up the tree, they are usually from the year before and are a little snug and short in the legs and sometimes we can only find one half of them, but we try. So on Christmas Eve we have a box that has new matching jammies, hot chocolate and a board game. We have a while cupboard full of games and have some firm favourites. Which include Uno & The Sock Game, which are excellent fun and hard to beat!
Share your favourite tradition with me?