Hi IMs!
I'm just wondering what everyone either remembers from their childhood, or does themselves for their own families to make Christmas feel special? What did your parents/family used to do to make Christmas feel magical for you? What are your fondest memories of Christmas as a kid? Or what do you do to make it special for your families?
Christmas was never great in my family but I have 2 kids myself now (a 2yo and a 2 month old) and I want to make this time of year amazing for them and feel really special, in the lead up to and on the actual day too!
Thanks ladies!
7 Replies
I have strong memories of the advent calendar, and the Christmas tree. So that's what we tend to focus on. We buy a special new bauble for the tree every year.
I also have fond memories of shopping for a present for my parents and siblings and wrapping them. They must have been terrible presents but it taught us that Christmas is about giving as much as receiving. We loved wrapping our presents on Xmas eve.
Christmas morning my mum would have set Christmas music etc to come on before we woke up, the lights on the tree would be left on so when we'd come into the room it looked very magical.
We always make an afternoon about setting up the tree. We did that growing up too. It’s the only time my partner will let me listen to Christmas carols 😂
We do advent calendar and the week before Christmas drive around looking at Christmas lights with a tub of ice cream.
And I always do a Christmas Eve box which includes new pjs to wear that night, the flavoured milk straws, popcorn and a Christmas movie or book.
Just having traditions makes it special for me. Every year was the same for us. A week or 2 before Christmas we would go and choose a tree (we lived rurally and had a real one). Sometime before Christmas we would go for a drive around town and look at the Christmas lights people had up. Christmas Eve we used to have fish and chips on the beach which was a big deal for our family - we never ate out - and usually it was the middle of harvest so it was the first real amount of time we'd spent with our dad for a couple weeks. Then the rest of the night was spent making name cards to go on our pillowcases that we used instead of stockings and putting out snacks for Santa and the reindeer and leaving all of the Christmas lights on.
Christmas morning was opening and playing with our presents, lunch with mums side and tea with dads. Christmas was always all about family
I happened to find a pine tree down behind my house so I took my daughter to collect some pine cones. Simple google search recommended cooking them to kill bugs and once cooked it stops them from deteriorating :-) then snow painted them another day. I can tell you when they were in the oven my house smelt incredible! It’s my new Christmas smell and will for sure be a new tradition :-) I make a big deal out of decorating etc. Another thing I have done this year is i have a “Christmas Eve Box” ready to go. In that is a Xmas book, Christmas DVD, popcorn, a new set of Christmas PJ’s and I printed off a little label for “Magic Reinderr food” it is oats and glitter that I’ll put in a ziplock bag ha ha! Gets sprinkled on the grass Xmas eve and the idea is that the moonlight will make the glitter sparkle and the reindeers will know to visit. Found most of my ideas on google. Another thing I have is a Xmas songs playlist on my phone an I’ll play it in the car and we sing along.
One of my fondest memories on Xmas eve is hanging out giant stockings on the stair rails with my little brother (that Santa would leave a gift in), then we'd sit down and watch Home Alone, every year lol. It's still my favorite Christmas movie that I now watch with my kids.
Other than that, just the memories of eating good food and being with my family, listening to my Mum and Nan squabble over how to whip the cream for the Pavlova and there was usually some weird Jesus movie playing in the background 😂😂 and our Aunt used to take us for a drive to look at Christmas Lights. Also, going to see Santa at the local shopping centre and the local Christmas pageant.
And of course decorating the tree (that looked strangely as if it had been rearranged while we were sleeping lol)
It's the little things really
It's just the holiday, let's relax and play atmosphere. Food and drinks, crackers, board games, water games, music, Christmas movies, and of course the suspense and festivities leading up to Christmas. Decorating, listening for jingle bells and reindeer on the roof, writing to Santa, leaving out a carrot or oats and a bucket of water and a cookie and milk for Santa, all of those small things for our imagination made it magical.
We put up the tree on the first of December then the following weekend we each make a new decoration for the tree. My family also had picnics every weekend of the school holidays if we weren't able to go away. Just a simple meal next to a creek (I'm starting to tear up just thinking about it and missing the time with my Dad now he's passed. This is one of my many great memories of Christmas, the simple things!)
Now I have a young family of my own, we've kept the tree and craft tradition. We also have some wonderful Christmas lights around our neighbourhood so we go for a walk after dinner most nights to look at them all before coming home to a lovely supper, shower and bed.