Our Christmas Traditions

I would say that Christmas is feeling a lot more busy these days. Obviously with children, comes lots of activities such as school plays, Christmas parties and visiting Santa, but there seems to be so many other little factors that need to be thought about as well.

As the children have got older, the traditions we are making as a family seem to be growing every year. I’ve seen a few bloggers mention about things they have adopted and things that they would rather not! I agree that Christmas seems to be much different to when I was a child. It was all about Father Christmas when I was young but there were no elves that came to stay in our home who reported good or bad behaviour to the North Pole.  There wasn’t a gingerbread house in sight nor did we sprinkle glittered oats out on the lawn for the reindeers.

Traditions are all around to choose to adopt or not. Every family is different and I would imagine it’s nigh on impossible to try to wing them all, not to mention extremely stressful. I personally think that traditions are important though and it’s what gives some more magic to this time of the year and makes things more festive.

We’ve had our elf on the shelf for three years on the trot now and my boys love him visiting for the month. I’m not sure for how many more years my eldest will believe but even when he doesn’t, I’m sure he’ll join in with making it magical for his little brother and sister for many more years. He even has his own quarters now when he comes to stay…

This year I decided to decorate an advent tree in the hope that it will last a few years. I really did underestimate the work involved and the spare time I would need (which is next to none with a baby) to complete it, as well as wasting far too much time in Hobbycraft. I love the ideas they have there and particularly their tutorials on their blog, but I do not love the fact that they advertise products that are no no longer in stock. Very frustrating. I had bought the advent tree and was unable to buy most of the bits and pieces I had in mind to buy. So I had to buy alternatives and make the best of what I had.

It came out pretty well, even if the drawers don’t slot in properly and the glue gun wasn’t sufficient enough to keep the numbers on. The photographs don’t do it justice though as it has white glitter and really sparkles in the light. Now I’m wondering how well it will store away for next year…

We received some fantastic festive stickers from the lovely folks at Stickerscape. The countdown is a BIG thing for the boys and they make it their daily ritual to update this wipeable ‘blackboard’ sticker which they have up on the wall in their playroom.

Sadly we don’t have a chimney in our house, (the one above is a mock up mantelpiece) so of course a magic key is required for Santa to make his entrance with the boys sacks. This handy stop sign on their door should stop any confusion on his part.

I love this tartan stag design which we have in our hallway.

Seeing as it’s only a few days until the big man makes his appearance, I guess I better get on with the gingerbread house and actually wrapping some presents, oh and the Christmas Eve box and food planning and anything else I may have forgotten…