Christmas Traditions - A taste of blogmas

Christmas traditions can be the festive recipe to a nostalgic and Merry Christmas! As it's that time of year, I'd like to share some of my own traditions that I love to do and look forward to do each year with my family. Grab yourself a cup of tea and enjoy!

---

- Watching The Polar Express on Christmas Eve

Watching all the good old Christmas movies, I think, is one of the best ways to feel Christmassy. We always want to dive straight into the good movies but generally we save the best ones for nearer to Christmas day. These ones usually being The Santa Clause trilogy, Muppets Christmas Carol, Jingle All the Way and last but not least, The Polar Express.

The Polar Express is one that we always save for Christmas Eve, just before reading the night before Christmas book. I'm not particularly sure why we always save this one movie for Christmas Eve, it just became routine and then a loved tradition.

When the conductor (voiced by Tom Hanks, just like every other male figure is in this movie) asks the children on board if they would like any refreshments, we always pause it right there and go and make steaming hot chocolates in our big, thick Santa mugs! Topped with whipped cream and mini marshmallows, always ready so when we finally sit back down and press play, the staff on the Polar Express start singing the 'hot chocolate' song. Again, another thing that just fell into a tradition along with this movie.

- Christmas Jigsaw

For as long as I can remember, every year on the week leading up to Christmas, we will begin a 1000 piece Christmas jigsaw. The brand is always Ravensburger, because every year their jigsaws are always the best!

We start the jigsaw together, usually sat around the table and just chip away at it every day until Christmas! I think it is one of my favourite things to do at Christmas with my Dad. We all really enjoy it and I really cherish this as one of our family traditions.

- Harry Potter

Although Harry Potter aren't essentially very, heavy Christmas movies, we always have the Sky Harry Potter channel on in the background over the Christmas period. The channel provides 24/7 Harry Potter movies over and over, with the addition this year of the first Fantastic Beasts movie. Having these movies on over Christmas just adds something to the feeling of Christmas. I do genuinely think it's down to the soundtrack and music that comes with the Harry Potter movies. As they are simply on in the background, we're listening more than we watch. So the sound of Hedwig's theme or the Christmas/winter tune that plays when Hagrid drags the Christmas tree across the courtyard... these are the background sounds of our Christmas and we always look forward to this around this time of year.

- Snowflakes

When we decorate for Christmas (usually in November, just after Dad's birthday) we will crack out the Christmas decorations and go nuts. We have gorgeous garlands, a collection of snow globes, decorations hanging from the ceiling - the works. But aside from general Christmas decorations, which of course, most people will do. A traditional part of this are the snowflakes that we put on every window.

This tradition is usually lead by my Mum. We will cut the circles out of paper and get to cutting as many different snowflake patterns as we can, usually fashioned in two sizes. Once completed, we will tape the snowflakes to our windows and this is officially the last decoration we put up.

Obviously, we make new snowflakes every year, but, we do have about 3 paper snowflakes that we get out every year since my Dad made them. Being the clever man that he is, he figured out a way to fold the white, circle paper up and cut into it so the patterns made a Santa, a reindeer, and a snowman. They are absolute magic compared to the big triangle cuts that I usually make each year. These 3 snowflakes have been laminated and have gone up on our windows each year since he made them and honestly, I still don't understand how he managed to do it!

- Family

Usually, for some, people will go around and visit their families on Christmas day, but for us, the week leading up to Christmas is where we fit that in. We are usually an open house for our family around this time. They'll pick a day and come and visit to say hello, wish a Merry Christmas and exchange gifts (that immediately get stashed under the tree) We will usually have our last family members visit on Christmas Eve, just before Christmas can officially start. I find this so refreshing and fun, to see different aunties, uncles, cousins and my grandma on the lead up to Christmas, especially when the new year is just around the corner. It is one final catch up before the new year begins and the official festive period between Christmas day and New years day starts.

- Normal festive traditions

On top of our specific family traditions, we also join in with ones familiar to everyone around this time of year. We leave mince pies and milk or baileys out for Santa on Christmas Eve, as well as our Santa sacks we've all had since our first Christmas'. We will read the book, the night before Christmas and aim to be in bed earlier than we achieve.

As well as advents calendars, singing Christmas songs/carols, we try to make this time as memorable and special as we can.

---

I would love to hear what your Christmas traditions are! Do you have any? Are they somewhat similar to mine? or do you find mine completely normal? Let me know and thank you for reading!

I hope everyone has a very Merry Christmas - please keep safe!

And go make yourself another tea!