Your Family Traditions.

[suespud]

We have a few... I like this one in particular.
Whenever we go on holiday, a weekend away or a day out to somewhere new, be it home or abroad, we always find a flat stone, big enough to write on the date, place..and who we were with. Then varnish them and put in the garden.
Our kids are starting their own stone collection for their families.
Of course Christmas brings its own traditions...lots of them.

Has your family lots of traditions??

[Silver_Shiney]

Whenever we moved house, we'd either go out to a restaurant or get a takeaway for our first night's dinner.

Following her family's tradition, the Lady C and I wouldn't put the Christmas tree up until after the children had gone to bed on Christmas Eve. It intensifies the magic for them.

When we go on holiday, we try to get a local artist's picture of the place. When going on a cruise, although we don't normally drink at lunchtime, we do have a drink in the buffet as soon as we've boarded on the first day.

The Lady C now stitches a sampler to commemorate important family events like births and marriages.

[Meg 50]

always bring back a pack of cards from places visited - it means we can reminisce whilst playing

[Meg 50]

We have a few... I like this one in particular.
Whenever we go on holiday, a weekend away or a day out to somewhere new, be it home or abroad, we always find a flat stone, big enough to write on the date, place..and who we were with. Then varnish them and put in the garden.
Our kids are starting their own stone collection for their families.
Of course Christmas brings its own traditions...lots of them.

Has your family lots of traditions??

must have been one heck of a size stone you brought back form Menorca this summer?

[suespud]

We have a few... I like this one in particular.
Whenever we go on holiday, a weekend away or a day out to somewhere new, be it home or abroad, we always find a flat stone, big enough to write on the date, place..and who we were with. Then varnish them and put in the garden.
Our kids are starting their own stone collection for their families.
Of course Christmas brings its own traditions...lots of them.

Has your family lots of traditions??

must have been one heck of a size stone you brought back form Menorca this summer?

Lolol meg, we brought four..one for each family. Xxx

[Quizzical Bob]

We have a few... I like this one in particular.
Whenever we go on holiday, a weekend away or a day out to somewhere new, be it home or abroad, we always find a flat stone, big enough to write on the date, place..and who we were with. Then varnish them and put in the garden.
Our kids are starting their own stone collection for their families.
Of course Christmas brings its own traditions...lots of them.

Has your family lots of traditions??

This, of course, is how the Tower of Pisa got its lean...

[suespud]

We have a few... I like this one in particular.
Whenever we go on holiday, a weekend away or a day out to somewhere new, be it home or abroad, we always find a flat stone, big enough to write on the date, place..and who we were with. Then varnish them and put in the garden.
Our kids are starting their own stone collection for their families.
Of course Christmas brings its own traditions...lots of them.

Has your family lots of traditions??

This, of course, is how the Tower of Pisa got its lean...

Ohhh my word we only took one from there.....

[Quizzical Bob]

We have a few... I like this one in particular.
Whenever we go on holiday, a weekend away or a day out to somewhere new, be it home or abroad, we always find a flat stone, big enough to write on the date, place..and who we were with. Then varnish them and put in the garden.
Our kids are starting their own stone collection for their families.
Of course Christmas brings its own traditions...lots of them.

Has your family lots of traditions??

This, of course, is how the Tower of Pisa got its lean...

Ohhh my word we only took one from there.....

That's what they all say.

[Boris+]

Starting at the end of the year, the decorations go up on 01 December (and come down on 12th night in January); we don't do xmas crackers - we have porcelain boules (one for each person at the table), and there is a different surprise inside for each special meal. Xmas gifts are opened as soon as the recipient wakes up.

Whenever we are on a ship, we always go and have lunch before we do anything else.

Our traditions seem to have become lost in the mist of the years - and those who purposefully remembered or 'kept' them are long gone.

Time to make some new traditions then!

Em

[Meg 50]

sometimes you don't realise it's a tradition until you try to change something - on Christmas Eve JD usually prepares tea - cos OH and I were collecting SD from work.

SD no longer has this job, but JD still makes tea ("I always do that....")
She also helps me out with the afternoon children's service and when I checked if she'd be home from work, packed and at our house in time to help last year, she retorted - "But I always come and help...." And she even persuaded SD to come too. SD has volunteered to sort out the headdresses ready for this year's service - another tradition is being born with a bit of luck!).


In 1999 we bought an advent/millennium candle which we burnt down each day at dinner time...
We now HAVE to have an advent candle to light at dinner time each day - "But Mother, we ALWAYS have one"

[GillD46]

Christmas traditions mainly.
I always dress the house and put up the trees on December 1st, but they come down on Jauary 2nd.
I always colour coordinate my gift wrapping paper with the colour of the tree decorations - this chages every few years, but is currently purple and gold.
I ALWAYS spring clean a few days before Christmas and change all the bed linen on Christmas Eve. Then I prepare all the vegetables ready for "the day"
We always open presents on Christmas Day after lunch has been eaten and cleared away.
We always play charades.
Since he has lived abroad, we always skype our son and his partner who are usually somewhere exotic
We always have a few nice M&S canapes in the evening.
We always have family round on Boxing Day evening and I make a huge hot and cold buffet.

[Andrea S]

My Birthday has never been a 'Christmas ' one so the tree doesn't go up until the second Saturday in December. I have loads of red lights which give a nice soft glow to the rooms and it starts to feel Christmassy.

On that Sunday we have family and friends for a pre Christmas get together when I always go over the top with a huge hot and cold Buffett and desserts galore.

Having always worked on Christmas Day and Boxing Day our family get together is on New Years Day when I do a traditional dinner with a variety of joints.

Santa always seems to leave presents under the tree as extra surprises which is a nice start to the year.


I was a pre war baby and things were very different to now.

After the war our Christmas tradition was to spend the day with Grandparents.

We arrived in the morning to a breakfast of pork pie and ham. Lunch was pork and at tea time we had sandwiches followed by trifle, gateaux and pastries.

We always ended the evening having a sing song with Mum playing the piano. The grown ups would play crib.

It was many years later that I found out that the pig in Grandmas yard was fed up for Christmas.

[CaroleF]

I have a December birthday too, so our tree goes up around the 16th-18th and usually comes down on 12th Night unless we are going off on a cruise, our first one was January 2nd so tree came down early that year.

When our two girls were young and in bed early, full of excitement, I did the stockings downstairs. I bought four stockings - two went at the bottom of their beds and I filled the other two so I only had to tiptoe in once and exchange an empty stocking for a full one! This is what our elder daughter does now for her two children.

Another ritual was that once the stockings were filled on Christmas Eve, I made prawn sandwiches and my husband and I had them with a bottle of Champagne - Veuve Cliquot if I was feeling flush! This first started as some lovely friends of ours always invited us to lunch on Christmas Eve - dating back years to before we had children. It was always Steak and Kidney pie and for years our girls thought that was what everyone did on Christmas Eve. Eventually this event grew - our friends were so hospitable - until it got to silly proportions of about 20 people. Now our dear friend Jerry has gone and his wife sometimes comes to us on Christmas Eve unless she has family there. So we had eaten at lunch time, I wasn't going to cook supper on Christmas Eve - too busy peeling potatoes and vegetables for the next day, so Prawn Sandwiches were ideal. We still do that now so must remember to buy the Veuve Cliquot!

One other thing, don't know if it's a ritual but back in 1966 when I was nursing at St. Bartholomews in London, I bought a lovely angel for the top of my parents' Christmas tree, I think it was from Selfridges as our nurses' home was near there - can't remember how much it was but it is till lovely and so she still goes on top of the tree each year - she's not looking too old either - she's worn much better than I have!

Carole

[suespud]

Im loving reading these posts.
Thank you for sharing.

[Meg 50]

re stockings - my girls were frightened of Santa, so refused to let him in their rooms.... (even when bearing pressies and they were asleep).

So always hung their stockings on the outside of the door which they still do despite being 32 and 35!
Sometimes Santa has visited before JD returns from the post Midnight Mass party!

[Andrea S]

Re stockings. Our presents have always been left under the Christmas tree. Santa would take small stockings to put at the end of the bed but I think he was too tired to carry bigger things upstairs.

That was a disaster one year. My son woke me up to say Santa had been and his reindeer had made a big mess downstairs. On going down I was greeted with a pile of wrapping paper and all the presents scattered around. My Daughter who was 4 was sat in the middle of the mess playing with a doll and a big smile on her face.

[Marie Lloyd]

Our longest lasting Christmas tradition is giblet pie.

On Christmas Eve the turkey/goose giblets would be stewed in a large pan with onions and a good portion of braising steak to make the stock for the gravy on Christmas day. What to do with the meat?

When I was a small child my father used to go to his mother's for giblet pie on Christmas Eve whilst my mother looked after me and put me to bed. As my grandmother got older, she stopped cooking Christmas lunch (so no giblets) and my mother took over. For many years she made two enormous giblet pies, eaten in shifts as various family members arrived to stay for Christmas. The first year I was married, traditions changed and from then on both our sets of parents came to us for Christmas and I made the giblet pie on Christmas Eve. When my sons got married I had to start making a steak pie as well because my daughters-in-law were not keen to eat giblets.

For the last few years, we have spent Christmas with one or other of our sons and they have taken over the task of making the giblet pie on Christmas Eve.

[Capt Black]

We always sit on a piece of luggage before leaving the house to go away on holiday.

[Gill W]

My parents would always have a glass of sherry whilst cooking the Christmas dinner, and my dad always liked to recite 'Twas Christmas Day in the Workhouse.

So in their memory at noon on Christmas Day, we have a sherry and I declaim 'Twas Christmas Day in the Workhouse'

It's even more apt, as, since working on my family tree, my paternal great grand parents met in a workhouse. He was a Relieving Officer, she was a Teacher.

This year, the noon ceremony will take place on Arcadia - I'm thinking the Crows Nest will be suitable!

[Frank Manning]

We always sing 'Costa del dorset for me' by the Yetties when we cross the border into Dorset on our way home from holidays.

We relish the line;
She promised to meet me by moonlight,
down by the old harbour wall.
She came with her Mother, her sister, her brother, old uncle Tom Cobbley an' all.

[Onelife]

The only family tradition that is still going strong is that l'll be washing up on Christmas day

[Boris+]

I suppose we have a tradition (but it's a relatively 'new' one) that I don't cook during the festivities.

Em

[Silver_Shiney]

I suppose we have a tradition (but it's a relatively 'new' one) that I don't cook during the festivities.

Em

doubtless started by your good self

[Silver_Shiney]

The only family tradition that is still going strong is that l'll be washing up on Christmas day

you too, eh?

[Boris+]

Hi Alan,

No, it wasn't my idea, but I'm very grateful.

Em