Personal Christmas Traditions - do you have any?

Do you have any personal traditions or rituals for Christmas that you'd care to share with us? They can be as profound or as silly as you like, but is there something you do for Christmas that you don't or can't do at any other time of the year, even if it's only changing your underwear?

When I was a kid I'd lie in bed on Christmas Eve hardly able to sleep as I waited for Santa to arrive – just like everyone else. If I was lucky I'd be able to stay awake until my mum judged that I'd nodded off and crept into my room to lay my Christmas stocking on the bed. That stocking was so exciting, it was made of net and crepe paper and would have an orange, apple, nut and shiny new coin in the toe. There'd be a bag of chocolate coins and lots of small, wrapped presents in the leg.

I wouldn't dare open it straight away, I'd have to wait until about 3 or 4am to do that, but I'd worm my way down in the bed until my foot could just touch the stocking where it lay on top of the covers. Then I'd very, very gently kick it to make it rustle – the most exciting sound in the World. So much promise, so many small, cheap plastic whatnots just waiting for me to play with them.

As an adult Christmas hasn't meant much to me but I never forgot about the delight of my Christmas stocking so if I ever got a couple of small presents I'd put them at the foot of the bed on Christmas Eve and give them a few gentle kicks as I drifted off to sleep. They didn't rustle quite the same as my stocking and they probably wouldn't be very exciting, but it's an enjoyable little tradition.

a reply to: berenike

*Must watch A Christmas Story, It's a Wonderful Life, Merry Christmas Charlie Brown and The Grinch!
*Have a few drinks with my brother and my two brothers from other mothers!
*Finish shopping on Christmas Eve

I wish I had something more tangible but that's it!

a reply to: berenike

I was going to ask the same question myself later today, saved me a job!

Two things that have become something of a tradition for me and is starting to spread.

The first is leavig the christmas food shoppig until 6pm Christmas eve ad then braveing the masses to get everything dirt cheap in the reduced sections.

Sprouts and parsnips are usually 2p per bag if your willing to wrestle with the other shoppers and a couple of years ago mrsnonspecific and myself got a tesco finest free range turkey rrp £34.99 for 87p!

It makes it exciting as you never know what Christmas dinner will be.

The other is keeping an eye on ebay for listings that end at an odd time Christmas eve/day that are non christmas related, last year I got a tshirt heatpress that would have been about £150 for £30 including postage because the seller had not realised it was set to end at 11.30 christmas eve evening, not many people looking for one at that time other than me

Crackers.. x mus means crackers in sri lanka. Not just small stick crackers. I mean there is stuff you can buy from grosery shop, powerfull enough to blow up a car.
dbsjeyaraj.com...

chinese food, whiskey and watching the hebrew hammer

Iam getting drunk and high for christmas and will party myself into the new year.
I always do.

From the top of Norway, a happy christmas to all of you!

Thanks

I'm starting a new one this year. Smoking a stogie in front of my outdoor fireplace on Christmas eve in my first home which I bough this year. Puffing a fat one while sipping on the remnants of Bacardi 151 that I still have. Discontinued now so I have to buy up all I find.

Then first thing in the morning, of course, opening gifts with my gorgeous fiancee in front of the tree and cooking a nice breakfast.
Merry Christmas!

Mrs CR and me always watch Patrick Stewart's version of A Christmas Carol on Christmas Eve. I still really enjoy it apart from the extremely irritating Tiny Tim character.

Opening the stocking stuffers on Christmas eve.
My wife started that over 20 years ago.

That and Christmas eve dinner with the inlaws.

originally posted by: Nivek555
Iam getting drunk and high for christmas and will party myself into the new year.
I always do.

From the top of Norway, a happy christmas to all of you!

Thanks

I shall do the same in southern Australia, we can cover the whole world from those 2 locations.
Let's crank this global warming up a notch or two.

a reply to: berenike

We hang a big brass key on the door so Santa can get in. It's a magic key. I don't know when it started, I had it when I was a kid. Even if we lived in a house with a fireplace, we still hung it.
I haven't found it yet this year as there are still totes of stuff I haven't gone through. I'll post a pic later when I find it.

The kiddos always get to open one gift on Christmas Eve. When I was still entertaining large gatherings for the holidays, I would be cooking way into the night, preparing beds and drinking wine...telling stories. We haven't really gotten used to what to do now. There's not much to do, I suppose.

Regardless of how old I get, I like to try to catch at least some of the classic Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer movie.

When I was a little boy, one year I wouldn't go to bed on Christmas eve, so my dad took me outside to show me "Rudolph's nose" and said that if I didn't go to bed, he wouldn't stop by. So I ran inside and went straight to bed. Every year after that, I always wanted to go look for Rudolph's nose before I went to bed.

Well, "Rudolph's nose" turned out to be a red light on top of a tall antenna that you could see through the trees from our front porch.

I, of course, no longer believe there was ever red-clad jolly fat bearded old man squeezing down our non-existent chimney when I was younger, and my dad has since passed, but it is funny to remember that little 'tradition' my dad started that one night.

a reply to: dashen

Thought the chinese food thing was just a stereotype. That's great.

a reply to: berenike

That's neat. You made me feel nostalgic about something that didn't even happen to me.

Christmas morning in my house everybody gets new pajamas outside their door and we put those on and then we get in front of the tree and whoever's turn it is to be "santa" that year passes out the gifts from under the tree and then we each take a turn opening one gift each.

One Year when my brother was real young he was excited because it was going to be his first year to hand out the gifts; so he got up real early and made a giant stack for himself and a couple for the rest of us irrespective of whose names were on the tags.

Back when was in army would send my troops on leave and pull duty myself over christmas since no one to spend holidays with it just another day .

These days its a day spent with bottle of Dalmore 40 year old whisky and drinking the day away .

originally posted by: weirdguy

originally posted by: Nivek555
Iam getting drunk and high for christmas and will party myself into the new year.
I always do.

From the top of Norway, a happy christmas to all of you!

Thanks

I shall do the same in southern Australia, we can cover the whole world from those 2 locations.
Let's crank this global warming up a notch or two.

Thats a really great idea, iam cranking as I type this!
But i have allready started the festivities though so here, I raise my glass in your general direction!

thanks

I watch the TNT version of A Christmas Carol starring Patrick Stewart. To me, that is the defining film version of the story.

I'm sorry to hear that. Do you keep in contact with any of your former troops? If any of my commanders had treated me as decently as you treated you your guys I would have made it my business to keep in touch with them. .a reply to: VengefulGhost

originally posted by: CulturalResilience
I'm sorry to hear that. Do you keep in contact with any of your former troops? If any of my commanders had treated me as decently as you treated you your guys I would have made it my business to keep in touch with them. .a reply to: VengefulGhost

Outlived all of them , last one passed on 5 years ago . Lost many in the field and the rest over the years since . Up till then had kept in touch with them . Still wonder why at times as they had more to return to and live for than I did .

These days am glad that retired from it no way could put up with what it turned into .

Back on subject , have a good christmas

When I was a kid, we used to have a family get together at my grandparents house each year on Christmas Eve.
It was the only time I saw most of those family members, so it was a big deal to me.

Coming to France, Christmas is largely a religious thing - people go to mass. So those who are not religious (like my husbands family) are sort of rebellious about it- they don't want to do much. For years, I tried to make a big Christmas celebration and they'd all go sit silently in front of the tv - while I drank and blared music and danced with the kids.

Eventually I gave up on his family and it became our custom to put the tree up altogether, drinking hot cocoa, playing christmas music, and making popcorn strings. My job is always the lights on the tree. Once that's done they decorate it.

But this year I'm sick and alone to get the tree up, though the kids and grandkids are all coming tomorrow, and I can't seem to get the energy up for it. I am feeling nostalgic for the preparations together more than anything else.

My kids say their fondest and most clear memory of Christmas morning is always seeing me sitting there in my robe, hair disheveled and a coffee cup in my hands. I found this strange, but for some reason they claim this is a heartwarming memory...I've seen photos, it wasn't pretty.....