I bought my first few [name]Christmas[/name] items today, and I’m feeling very excited about the upcoming festive season
My OH and I just moved into a new place and I’m determined to make it a very special, magical holiday.
Today I bought some baubles for the tree, a garland for the staircase, and ingredients to make some [name]Christmas[/name] pudding. I also picked us up some new bed linen for [name]Christmas[/name] [name]Eve[/name], a Yankee Candle and a few classic [name]Christmas[/name] movies.
I’ll be starting my gift shopping this week - I have quite a few nephews and nieces and I think the sooner I buy their gifts the better, because toy stores are totally hectic from [name]November[/name] onward and I want to avoid that!
Having posted in the Momberries forum for a while now, I think its safe to say that the NB community are a very diverse group of people.
I’m in a festive mood so I was wondering if anyone would like to share any [name]Christmas[/name] traditions you and your family do? Or maybe share ideas for gifts? I think it’ll be really interesting hearing about how we all celebrate differently
My husband and I have been talking about this, now that we’re expecting our first -that is, mostly we’ve been talking about [name]Christmas[/name] traditions from when we were kids.
When he was little they always opened one present on [name]Christmas[/name] [name]Eve[/name] and it was always red pajamas or red sheets, or something special like that to wear for [name]Christmas[/name] night. When they woke up in the morning all the kids had to stay upstairs until Dad went down and checked to see if [name]Santa[/name] [name]Claus[/name] had come. Then they all got up and ate Birthday Cake for breakfast (it was [name]Jesus[/name]’ birthday!).
In my family we never opened presents on [name]Christmas[/name] [name]Eve[/name]. My dad read us “Twas the [name]Night[/name] Before [name]Christmas[/name]” before bed and up we’d go. In the morning we could get up as early as we wanted and open the gifts in our stockings (typically, toothbrushes, candy, fruit, chapstick and a few small toys like matchbox cars or something like that). Then we had to wait until 7am to wake my parents up and had to start the coffee maker before we did so. It cracks me up to think back on that rule. It was a good one! Once my parents were up then we would make breakfast (always different for us) and eventually open presents.
It will be interesting trying to combine the two different traditions. I loved that we could open our stockings right away, but he isn’t on board (yet). We’ll see!
Look at you go! It’ll be an exciting Xmas for you this year, enjoy it. I love Xmas but we’ll be out of town for the majority of the holidays do no tree for us. Im a Xmas fanatic and normally go all out I even swap the dishes haha. We’ll still put up lights and a lot of decor, cool Xmas food all month etc but just no reason for a tree is we’re gone almost 2 weeks.
Me and my boyfriend have been discussing this. I’m jewish on my father’s side and chose to convert when I was 18, but my mum and the rest of my family are christians so I’ve grown up in a home that celebrated both hanukkah and christmas. My mum is norwegian, so we celebrated it the norwegian way (christmas eve is the big day, not christmas day). My mum would decorate the whole house on the evening of the 23rd after we’d gone to bed. Then when we woke up in the morning, it was totally dark outside, and inside it was full of lights and bells and soft christmas music and angels. We’d go to church in the morning, then have hot chocolate while watching this 70’s german/check [name]Cinderella[/name] movie (so romantic!). In the evening, we’d walk and dance around the christmas tree singing carols, and then it was coffee and treats, and present opening (usually lasts four-five hours in my family).
It will be interesting starting new traditions with a baby. My boyfriend is catholic and has pretty strong traditions from his home. We have agreed on only white, glass, gold and silver decorations though, so that’s a start!
Very organised, strawberry shortcake! I need to get some gift ideas sorted- most of my relatives are males and they’re so hard to buy for!
It got me thinking about different [name]Christmas[/name] traditions recently when reading certain other NB posts. It’s interesting to read everyone’s different traditions! I love christmas and can’t wait for little kiddies to share it with. So magic
In our family we sometimes went to midnight mass on [name]Christmas[/name] [name]Eve[/name]. In the morning (our record was about 4.30am!) we’d all jump in our parents’ bed and open little presents from our stockings- these were surprises from ‘Father [name]Christmas[/name]’ Mum and dad had little pressies from FC too. After the agonising wait for all the boring adults to get dressed and have breakfast, we’d go downstairs and open the presents under the tree which were from parents & relatives. These are usually bigger and more expensive and if we’d been longing for a bike or whatever this is where we’d find it We’d chill for the rest of the day, call relatives, watch Dr Who etc then we’d have a big [name]Christmas[/name] dinner. I’d hope to carry this on with future children but it depends on future OH’s opinions! @ottilie- WOW 4-5 hours?! As kids we’d take an hour tops! We were just mega excited though and didn’t really appreciate everything
I do [name]Christmas[/name] gift shopping all year long too, makes for much less of a “bite” financially in [name]November[/name]/[name]December[/name].
We also will be in a new house in [name]December[/name], move in date is in [name]November[/name] so I am very excited as the house is over twice the size of this one and has plenty of room for holiday guests etc. We celebrate it as Christians so our traditions are…
Make a birthday cake for [name]Jesus[/name] the night before and eat it for breakfast the next morning. Kids get his presents though.
Make the pioneer woman’s cinnomon rolls for our neighbors and friends a week or so before as gifts. If you have never checked out this website, its aweomse! I make them vegan though just my personal preference, and use coconut oil.
Those are the only “house” traditions we have for now. I am looking forward to actually decorating this year, since we will have the room and the kids are all of ages where I am not constantly redirecting so they do not break/grab things if you kwim.
