Christmas Traditions

Every family has Christmas traditions, whether it’s putting up your Christmas tree on the 12th December, hanging stockings by the fire or taking part in the Elf on a Shelf in the run up to Christmas. Since becoming a family we have developed our own traditions and each year we find something else to add to our seasonal festivities. Those traditions are important, it’s about the time you spend together, they help shape the memories for years to come.

First off the Mr and I always take a day out to visit the Christmas Markets every year, it’s overpriced and extremely busy but we love it. The atmosphere is amazing, the smells of food are mouth-watering and it’s oh so festive. It certainly gets me in the mood for Christmas.

We create our own Christmas Wish Lists at the start of December, no extremely large items and we pick a couple off each list. I kept mine rather small this year

1. New diary for 2014
2. A Onesie
3. Satchel
4. Darth Vader Lego Alarm Clock
5. A Planetarium 

Every year we buy a new hat scarf and mitten set at the start of December to keep us warm on our winter walks for cold months ahead. On this day we also hunt out the silliest festive jumpers possible and wear them as a family on Christmas day.

We used to stick to the 12 days of Christmas rule when putting up our Christmas tree but since little legs made an appearance we’ve become those excitable parents that want to show their little ones the magic of Christmas and cannot wait….so on the 3rd December we go to pick our tree and up it goes, the day after little legs birthday. We make Christmas cards and decorations with little legs and also she gets to pick one decoration to buy each year and hang on our tree.

This year we started a new family tradition, the book advent where we have a new book to read for every day during advent. This has become a huge hit and we enjoy sitting down together in the evenings to have cuddle on the sofa with some belly warming hot chocolate, a fleece blanket and our new book to read.

Christmas eve is a day packed full of traditions for us, we start off the day with baking and constructing our ginger bread house followed by Christmas DVDs and pinning our stockings to the fireplace whilst eating copious amounts of snacks. We buy new pyjamas every year to wear on Christmas eve, this year we have even splashed out on new slippers to which we pop on just after 6pm to wind down for the evening. For dinner on Christmas eve we always order a takeaway to share before leaving out the drinks and snacks for Santa, his little helpers and his reindeer.  When it’s time to pop little legs in bed, we read to her ‘Twas the Night Before Christmas’ and this is possibly my favourite part, to see the excitement on her face, the pure innocence and curiosity of this magical time of the year.

After popping little legs to bed, it has become kind of a tradition for the Mr and I to wrap all the presents. I have no idea why we leave it so late, its not intentional but it’s become a pleasant thing to do whilst watching TV in our cosy nightwear and sharing a bottle of wine by the fire.

Non of these are extravagant but they are what makes this season special to us, no doubt they will change over they years as we develop new traditions.

This post was written in collaboration with Figleaves