I had intended to write this post of Christmas Day but my energy levels and brain power had other ideas.
Christmas is a time of year that is based on more traditions than at any other time of the year for many families including mine. We are not religious at all or have a strong cultural background so it is at Christmas that a lot of our traditions exist. Even though Mr A and I come from similar family backgrounds it is at Christmas that I see our differences.
Some of the Wray family traditions:
- Christmas t-shirts.
- Gift of earrings for the daughter and granddaughters from Gran.
- Complete Christmas meal on Christmas Eve with 3 different roast meats, roast vegies, brussel sprouts, and plum pudding and summer pudding for dessert.
- Opening of presents from each other on Christmas Eve.
- Cooked breakfast on Christmas morning and the receiving of Santa sacks (even though the kids are grown up).
- A photo of the children and now grandchildren in front of the Christmas tree.
Some of the Crowe family traditions:
- Not opening presents until everyone is up, had breakfast and the dishes are done on Christmas morning.
- Cold Christmas lunch of ham and salad.
Traditions I have developed myself:
- Making all of my Christmas cards.
- Buying a new ornament for the Christmas tree every year since Miss A was born.
- Having panettone for breakfast over the Christmas season.
- A handmade advent calendar.
And now as our little family has become three with Miss A getting older and beginning to understand Christmas I am trying to develop Christmas traditions of our own.
Christmas eve dinner
Christmas day lunch
It’s interesting how every family has their own traditions at Christmas. I love that you’ve developed your own. That’s what I’m enjoying about this year for us. You’ve got some good ones there. Well done! 🙂
It is interesting when you get married and learn your partner’s family traditions regarding Christmas and Easter. At Christmas time in our family the gifts went under the tree when the tree was up and we would open them as soon as we were all up on Christmas Day. When we stayed at our nan’s house we each had a pillow case at the end of the bed that the gifts were put in and we would open them Christmas Day.
At Easter time we would have hats with shredded newspaper that the Easter bunny would put the eggs in and we would find them Easter morning.
My partner’s family would not put presents under the tree until midnight Christmas Eve when everyone would still be up and all the kids would be taken into the backyard and the adults would put the gifts out under the tree. Someone would then yell Ho Ho Ho from the front yard and all the kids would run inside to see that Santa had been and left the gifts. It really was very tiring for me to have to stay awake until midnight and then the kids would be so hyped up they would not go to bed till even later/earlier. We tried this once Miss A was old enough and she was like half asleep when we woke her at midnight. She then didn’t want to go back to bed and we spent Christmas day like zombies. This tradition is no longer practiced in our household. We just don’t put presents out till Christmas day and Santa has come the night before.
For Easter we now have Easter egg hunts in the yard – unless it’s raining and we do it in the house. This was my partner’s tradition.
I wonder what traditions Miss A will bring with her when she gets married and has children.
My mother in law buys the family a new decoration every year and my sister buys one each for the kids. That way the kids will have their own set of decorations to take when they set up their first homes. We have many decorations with stories attached which we tell every year as the tree is decorated. I had never had a Christmas lunch with hot food until I met my husband. Growing up I was used to my family having cold meat and salad. His family used to do the whole hot meal. Now the family is more casual and we usually have a BBQ (plus ham) but it always includes chocolate pav and raspberries in raspberry jelly. As we are all geographically dispersed the Dewis Christmas occurs sometime between mid December and early January. I love how the date isn’t important as long as we have a day together. It usually means my family still gets together on Christmas Day which is fabulous.
I really wish my family had traditions that went beyond just Christmas lunch being held at an alternate family members house each year, and whoever wants to show up does so. I miss the ritual and sentiment of Christmas that seemed to exist when I was a child and
all the extended family of aunts , uncles and cousins descended on the grandparents, who really got into the swing of things. Maybe things will rev up as my little one gets older, or not, since the core group is one mum, one dad, one grandma, and one toddler and not much momentum.