Christmas Traditions


I have had a variety of different Christmases since I was a little kid. I've had Christmases in Portugal and here at home in England. I've had the traditional Portuguese Christmas and tradition British Christmases. I've got a lot of family traditions and over the years with John, we have made our own traditions. Today I want to share all those different traditions with you and maybe after, you can share some in the comments with me! How do you do Christmas?

When me and my brother were little, our Christmas was quite like how they do Christmas in Portugal and it was the only way we knew Christmas to be for a long time! Like most people celebrating Christmas, we decorated the house, we gave and received presents and ate a big meal together. Now our Christmas is more traditionally British and to be honest, we prefer it the way we do it now. But I do enjoy looking back at how we did Christmas before.


Christmas Dinner

In my house, Christmas dinner has always been the same. Big turkey with all the trimmings! I'm not a fan of turkey to be honest so I'm always more excited about the trimmings part of the dinner. I don't remember much more than that from when I was little but I do know we used to have fish every Christmas Eve because it was our alternative to having fish on Christmas Day like they do in Portugal. My mum always loved a British Christmas dinner so we've always done that.

Boxing Day has changed a couple of times though. We used to stay in for Boxing Day and just eat whatever was left from the day before but over the years we have started to go to my Nan and Granddad's house for Boxing Day lunch. It's been something we've done for so many years and I love going there to eat all the Greek food and catch up with family. This year we're doing it at my house! Maybe a new tradition is brewing...


Presents

When I was little we used to do presents on Christmas Eve. "WHAT?", You say! Yeah, we did! Well, actually after midnight. My mum used to tell us that we had to hide at midnight because that's when Santa came. We did just that and then we'd come back into the living room to find our shoe filled with gifts. Magic! A shoe you ask? "Well, how else would Santa know where you are?", my mum would tell us. Especially as we spent a Christmas or two in Portugal and worried about this.
When we got older this changed and we were only allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve and it always had to be a small one. Then we would open other presents on Christmas Day. Me and my brother were not impressed with this when it first happened but we soon started to realise that we liked it better this way. Eventually we started doing just Christmas morning and we realised that it was more fun and exciting the way most people do it!

Another thing our parents used to do was hide the 'big' present somewhere in the house. We'd play hot and cold and eventually find it. This was so much fun to do and when we were too old for this, we started doing it with our younger siblings. The last time we kind of played this, my mum and dad let me stumble across my car that they gave me for a joint Christmas/Birthday present one year. If you're a long-time reader of my blog you might remember that one from about 7 years ago!


Christmas Tree

We used to put up our tree only 12 days before and take it down 12 days after Christmas. It was something to do with the 12 days of Christmas song. But as the years went on, me and my mum started growing impatient and too excited about decorating for Christmas so waiting for the 13th December every year was no longer an option! We started putting it up much earlier and now we love that we have it up for longer. It's usually the first couple of days in December but still goes down only 12 days after Christmas. When do you put up your tree?

Mine and John's Traditions

Since our first Christmas together, John and I have made our own traditions. The first year we had this idea of having our own tree that we would put in his room and so we bought our own tree and put it up every year with our own decorations. Since then, every year I insist on buying a new decoration for the tree. This year I made one at the Pandora Christmas Market so I didn't need to buy one. But nevertheless it is still a new addition this year. We also always put our tree up in the first week of December and then finish off by watching Elf. Elf is always the first Christmas film we watch together.

Another thing we started doing is buying each other Christmas jumpers! It started when I bought him one and then he bought me one in return. We've been doing it every year since... It's something that maybe one day we don't do because we have too many jumpers but for now it's still a fun tradition!


Those are all the traditions that I can think of right now. I love reading about how everyone does Christmas because there are so many different traditions and they're all as beautiful as the next.

Something I read today said something along the lines of: no matter what you get for Christmas or give your children for Christmas, it doesn't matter because you don't remember them after a while. You always remember the little things like traditions and the memories made. It's so true though. Just something to think about.

P.S. I hope you're enjoying Blogmas too :)

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