The Christmas traditions are what people often most love about Christmas. As you get older and start moving out to Uni and your own adult lives, you begin to develop your own Christmas traditions whilst still retaining your own family traditions when you go home for the big day itself.
Whilst this is my first Christmas where I am officially coming home for Christmas, I haven’t really gained any new Christmas traditions this year. I have however, become more aware of how people have special Christmas traditions. My family don’t have many Christmas traditions other than the relatively normal British traditions of Christmas dinner and a visit from Santa. Reading into Christmas traditions in the last few days (mainly as a procrastination from revision) I have really found some amazing traditions that I would love to adopt as a family in the future.
Below is the list of my favourite traditions, both ones I take part in and ones I found in my reading. Take them on and enjoy them all at one point or another. Comment on your favourite and let me know of your Christmas traditions! I would love to hear them…
Jolabokaflod
An Icelandic tradition known as the Christmas Book Flood. On Christmas eve a book is given, and the evening is spent reading together. I think is a beautiful tradition that both encourages reading and entertains children when they are too excited to sleep.
NORAD track Santa
We track Santa every year, my sisters love it. It’s a great way of keeping the magic of Santa alive in the house and as a family who don’t have a lot of Christmas traditions, Santa is a key one in our lives and so we do everything we can to keep the magic strong.
Christmas cake
Fruit cake is a common Christmas tradition, made in advance and left to stew in all that lovely alcohol. It’s not a popular tradition in our family, mainly as we don’t really like fruitcake. However, recently during my procrastination on Pinterest I have seen some lovely non-fruitcake Christmas cakes and I am hoping to resurrect the tradition in my house soon.
Santa’s Sack
Leave a sack from Santa under the Christmas tree. Encourage children (and adults) to place good quality toys and clothes they don’t wear anymore into the bag to make space for the new gifts. The gifts are then taken by Santa on Christmas Eve and given to people in need.
Christmas Hot Chocolate
Christmas hot chocolate in our family is a way of firmly telling my sisters its time for bed so Santa can come leave gifts. A lovely mug of creamy hot chocolate with marshmallows and sometimes a candy cane. Drunk whilst tucked up in bed as a way of (apparently) calming them down, it has been a tradition in my family for a long time; I even took part in this as a child.
Baking Parties
This is something I could totally get involved in. A Canadian tradition where families get together and spend some quality time together. Each family bakes a batch of their favourite family baking recipe before splitting the products with each family at the party. So everyone goes home with a little of each treat.
Christmas Dinner
Everyone has a different Christmas dinner treat, ham, beef wellington and the classic turkey. In my family, Christmas doesn’t always mean turkey. As a family who work in the catering industry, turkey season begins in mid-November. Leftovers from Christmas functions become family meals, everything from turkey roasts to turkey curry. This means by Christmas Day we are extremely sick of turkey. We sometimes have Beef Wellington or lamb. Recently we’ve made a conscious effort not to eat a lot of turkey before Christmas day and have tried to get back to the classic Christmas day turkey with all the sides.
Christmas Trees
The trip to get a Christmas tree in my family is very exciting, especially for the little ones! Originally a German tradition our tree is decorated with lights, bows, baubles and a classic star on top. Some people go all out with their Christmas trees and get tinsel, popcorn and a mirage of other edible decorations. With my massive issue with tinsel and a dog in our house, we stick to the classics – except for the candy canes… my sisters demand it.
So here is a list of amazing Christmas traditions, do you like them? Are there any you take part in? I am excited to try out the Jolabokaflod tradition with my sisters this year; i am intrigued to see how it will go down.
abigailgrows 