Christmas Traditions

Things have been super busy in the Edmonds household lately. Remember all those rennos that I've been complaining about not getting done? Well, they're finally done! And they all happened at once. It was total chaos. But more on those in an upcoming post. 

Today I thought that I would talk about our Christmas traditions since Christmas has yet again crept upon us. I know, I know, most people think it sacrilege to do anything Christmassy before December 1st but hear me out...

Growing up in my family we always woke early on that mid November Saturday morning to attend the John Martins Christmas Pageant (now the Credit Union Christmas Pageant) where people line the streets to welcome Father Christmas to Adelaide. Once he is here, Father Christmas goes to the Magic Cave (now at David Jones) where he remains until Christmas so all the children can visit him and tell them what they would like for Christmas and have a photo opportunity. Later in the day when the pageant is re-played on TV we would watch it as we decorated our Christmas Tree. When it was finally done my dad would turn on the lights and my siblings and I would gaze at it in awe and breathe in the smell of tinsel. 

In my husbands family, the Christmas tree didn't go up until after his birthday (he's a December baby) I get it  - however, my husband has been kind enough to allow me to continue my family's tradition of decorating the tree on pageant day with our munchkins. Yay!

Oh what fun letters - idea from Honey We're Home

Not only do we decorate our tree on pageant day but I pull out our Christmas book basket and swap out some of our decor to include a lot of red to make the place more festive (much to my die-hard Leeds United football fanatic of a brother-in-law's disgust).

I've always given my children new pjs to unwrap on Christmas Eve so that the Christmas morning photos turn out amazing. However, thanks to the Internet I'm going to tweak this and do a Christmas Eve box which will contain not only the new Pjs but also some microwave popcorn, a Christmas movie and the night before Christmas book.

Before bed on Christmas Eve we leave out a bunch of carrots for the reindeer, shortbread biscuits and a drink for Father Christmas - the drink varies from year to year. Growing up we left him Coca-Cola but I've heard that he prefers some good quality scotch these days. Then we hang our Christmas stockings and it's off to bed. This is another tradition that I am considering tweaking. I recently read that some people leave out a sack for Santa and fill it with old outgrown/unwanted toys. Santa will then take those toys away and fill the sack with new toys. I do think it silly to have a stocking and a sack so I think that in my household Santa will fill the Christmas stockings and take away the sack of outgrown toys.

2011

This year I've made myself a promise to place a gift under the Kmart wishing tree. In previous years I've gone over budget with gifts and left myself short for extras. Since Christmas is about giving I'm going to make it a priority to buy the wishing tree gift before I purchase any gifts for my loved ones.

Oh and at some stage I'll sleep under the Christmas tree next to my munchkins.

Christmas lunch is spent with extended family. Before the meal there's always an abundance of antipasto, cherries, and Cadbury Roses chocolates setup on the table which everyone snacks on. The main meal usually consists of a prawn cocktail followed by a selection of various roast meats, roast potatoes and salads. For dessert, Christmas pudding is usually on offer as well as brandy snaps and pavlova. By then we're all in a food coma and we waddle to the Christmas tree together to exchange gifts. Later in the afternoon we all start nodding off one by one. Christmas isn't Christmas without an afternoon siesta in my family.

What are some of your Christmas traditions? I'd love to hear from you.

xoxo, Bianca