Christmas Traditions
Just thinking about my childhood Christmas traditions, after reading the comments thread about advent calendars on Nic’s blog. We did have advent calendars as kids but I don’t remember them all that much, they certainly aren’t an integral part of my Christmas memories.
I do remember having a real tree, and decorating it being a lovely family time. I can’t really remember having stockings when we were very young (did we – I know we did later on but really can’t remember earlier?), but I can remember my Dad’s endless Christmas day breakfasts, as we weren’t allowed to go into the lounge to open presents until he’d finished countless slowly consumed cups of coffee.
Some traditions revolved around food – for a few years Boxing day was the only day in the year that we cooked real chips in a deep fat fryer, to go with cold turkey and ham cooked with a crust, but I think my family have got too healthy for that now!
There is, however, one thing that stands out as the thing I loved about my early childhood Christmases. We used to go carol singing in the village where we lived – usually a large group of us from the church we were part of. My Dad would bring out his piano accordian for its yearly outing (the one and only thing it’s really good for), and I just remember loving the feeling of being out in the cold, with our friends, singing as loudly as possible, and usually ending up somewhere for mince pies at the end. I absolutely love carols, even the bad ones!
That tradition kind of changed when we moved into the city – I seem to remember we did carol singing a few times but it never had that lovely community ‘walk round the village’ feel to it. The piano accordian has been used less and less, unless I’m very much mistaken, although Dad does still bring it out at Christmas usually to torture us all – well, we say it’s torture but we love it really, you can tell by the look on my sister’s face in this photo 
My kids love it too, and happily for me (not so happily for Steve, who is very bah humbug about that sort of thing!), are also developing a love of Christmas music – carols and other music too.
Which is why I’ve been hankering after one of these (spotted slightly cheaper here) for the children ever since I saw it – I reckon Anna would love it, and she’d probably be able to do a jolly good job of playing it as well …
So, what’s your most memorable childhood Christmas tradition and why?
December 3rd, 2005 at 11:39
Our’s revolved around decorating the real tree with a mixture of handmade and bought decorations and choosing which stocking we were going to have (Mum crocheted them all) and having to get slug-in-bed Mum up Christmas morning to do presents. We always had a twelfth night gift under the tree too and I always mean to do that, but can never bear to leave the tree up that long.
Sim also had real tree and on Christmas day they danced round the tree singing a song “here we go round the Christmas tree, the Christmas tree, the Christmas tree, here we go round the Christmas tree to see what Santa’s brought for me”, my two LOVE doing this at in-laws at Christmas. It was a tradition brought into the family by Sim’s Granny picked up in Norway while Girl Guiding. Nobody actually thinks the gifts are from Santa but after the song an “elf” is choosen to give everyone a gift and then we all go round again. It’s quite a laugh if you’ve started on the mulled wine already (they don’t do presents first thing, they have to a wholesome walk and family lunch first, we always do presents still in PJ’s)
December 3rd, 2005 at 12:27
I love carols too
Used to really enjoy the school carol service, and couldn’t wait to get into the senior school choir to be able to do the walking round the church in the dark with the candles in oranges thing.
At home, I have always loved our present-opening sessions. We’d do our stockings (pillow cases!) as soon as we woke up (4am one year, I remember) as Kelvin and I were usually sharing a bedroom because some grandparents would be staying, but we had to wait for the tree presents. Until after lunch (i.e. Christmas dinner) and the washing-up too … it was always a long slow process – my dad picks up a present, reads out the label, then hands it to the youngest person to deliver to the recipient. We all have to watch and make suitable exclamations as it’s opened, and then eventually he moves on to the next one. One year when Poppy and Tilda were small it took about 5 hours.
We still do it like that here
Not a childhood thing, but something I’ve loved over the last few years is spending a few evenings before Christmas wrapping all the presents – Christmas tree lights on, Christmas music on – lovely
Can’t understand why some people want to get all theirs wrapped by November!
December 3rd, 2005 at 18:49
Our present opening is something like that, Alison – although after twenty minutes of watching and being involved it then speeds up, to avoid the 5 hour scenario!
December 3rd, 2005 at 21:51
Hmmm, not sure about this whole Christmas tradition stuff. I like to throw it all to the wind and have soup and bread on Dartmoor with the odd present at some stage in the day. If I don’t open them until Boxing Day it’s fine by me. It drives Roger potty. I think Christmas Day per se is so so so overrated. It’s only one day in the year for goodness sake.
December 3rd, 2005 at 23:21
Well, that’s what I like about the traditions, they aren’t just about the day itself, they’re about all the festivities leading up to, including the day, and then afterwards as well, the family time … I like them, and I want my children to look back and enjoy old memories and making new ones of their own too. So there
Soup and bread on Dartmoor is a fine one if that’s what rocks your boat!
December 4th, 2005 at 1:06
Roger has berated me for being such a non-traditionalist. Feel a tad guilty. But it won’t last. I get scared about ‘being in a rut’ I probably change things for the sake of it. Make of it what you will. No doubt pschycologists will have a field day on me. What rocks my boat is change. Hmmm, doesn’t fit with tradition much does it?
December 4th, 2005 at 18:18
we have a new tradition of adult [ressies opened to mulled wine and chestnuts xmas eve – means you can enjoy and chill. xmas day mad children!!
December 4th, 2005 at 21:10
We used to have pressies as soon as we got up, then “under the tree” pressies later and also a very small gift wrapped up inside our napkins for Christmas tea. It was always my job to hand stuff out, DAd’s job to clear up the paper and mum’s to insist every 5 minutes that she should make coffee adn breakfast…..
December 5th, 2005 at 0:31
Christmas in my family was never very hyped. We’re a pretty low-key family, and there was never more than me and Mum and Dad except one year Mum invited a lonely old lady she talked to sometimes, for dinner.
We never really did huge presents either. I remember being really chuffed one year: my Mum gave me her old tape recorder and my Dad gave me a little old radio he didn’t need any more (it was old, it said Empire-Made on the side) and I got two tapes that Dad had recorded from somewhere.
I love carols though. One of my best Christmas moments is the opening of Nine Lessons and Carols, with the soloist singing the first verse of Once in Royal David’s City – we did this in our school chapel each Christmas.