Re: Christmas traditions you still follow : Sat Dec 15, 2012 12:30 am  

I go on holiday, fly to New Zealand tomorrow.

I find it the strangest time of year, more so in Australia were it seems pointless to me.

Re: Christmas traditions you still follow : Sat Dec 15, 2012 1:07 am  

Yeah. I got a bit of sunburn yesterday, whilst Christmas shopping. Not right.

Anyway, I phone my daughter and my mates kids pretending to be santa and asking them what they want etc. It's so lovely to hear their excitement. I still can't believe she hasn't sussed out it's her dad putting on a deep silly voice. But then again, my older sister used to do it to me and I didn't suss that.

Try it. It's lovely.

Re: Christmas traditions you still follow : Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:05 am  

I read "The Night Before Christmas" every Christmas Eve. My Grandparents sent me the book for my first Christmas in England in 1974 when I was 2 years old and its been read every Christmas Eve since. I don't have any kids to read it to, so it gets read aloud to the dogs

Re: Christmas traditions you still follow : Sat Dec 15, 2012 5:02 pm  

Durham Giant wrote:

You should become a presbyterian or a Muslim then you can ban music, dancing, alcohol, christmas carols etc kite flying and all sorts of stuff ...

Oh dear, oh dear.

Most Presbyterians celebrate Christmas – Christmas services have featured in the church's liturgy for quite some years.

And not all Muslims ban music etc.

Re: Christmas traditions you still follow : Sat Dec 15, 2012 5:07 pm  

Decorations – which seem to increase year on year – although no tree because of cats and a lack of space.

Christmas music – there's be plenty of it.

My birthday cards stay in place until 12th Night.

The Radio Times is only purchased at this time of the year, and I still pick through it to spot films I want to watch.

Household traditions we've created include having a boiled ham with sour brown shallot sauce on Boxing Day.

The centrepiece of the Christmas Day dinner, though, never involves a roast bird (a leg of turkey will be roasted the day before to allow me to eat brown meat turkey sandwiches on Christmas night though).

Re: Christmas traditions you still follow : Sat Dec 15, 2012 6:13 pm  

Durham Giant wrote:

Not the obvious ones such as opening presents and having Xmas dinner but the other smaller more personal ones

I always take the kids to buy one xmas decoration /Bauble that we put up and they can take with them when they leave home

I always buy the kids new xmas pyjamas for Xmas eve even my eldest ( and he does not normally wear PJs) gets some

I always go to Midnight mass or a carol concert. Xmas is not the same without the carols or a mass even though i am an athiest!!

Going through the radio times and circling programmes / films i want to watch even though i dont watch much terrestrial TV and have sky information at my finger tips

I have two traditions.

The first is that we always put up our Christmas decorations on the Sunday after our youngest son's birthday (8th December).

The second is never to use the term "Xmas". Except when pointing out that I never use the term "Xmas", of course. I use it then in order to state that I never use it.

Re: Christmas traditions you still follow : Sat Dec 15, 2012 8:11 pm  

We don't open our presents until after we've eaten our dinner. We are proper mental.

Re: Christmas traditions you still follow : Sat Dec 15, 2012 10:02 pm  

Muppet Christmas Carol is always watched on Christmas Eve at our house

Re: Christmas traditions you still follow : Sat Dec 15, 2012 10:25 pm  

Once you've spent Christmas and New Year in the Barents Sea aboard a salvage support vessel surrounded by nothing but ex Navy guy's. Tradition just goes out of the window. Your just glad to be home for the Holiday's each year after.

Re: Christmas traditions you still follow : Sat Dec 15, 2012 10:26 pm  

Bah bloody humbug, hate christmas with a vengence, the season of goodwill, bollox, the season of rip off and exploitation more like