Xmas Traditions Old and New

Thank you for all the comments on my last post, it is interesting to hear how we all cope with Xmas.  Our chilled Xmas has taken years to achieve.  I spent many years rushing down to my parents house on Xmas Day to cook the Xmas Dinner  for everyone including my brother and his family.  My mum had Alzheimers so we wanted to keep everything familiar. After we lost mum I continued to do it for my dad as he wanted to have the traditional Xmas at their house as they had always done.   Now both my parents are gone I have created new Xmas traditions more suited to us.  I like to keep it as simple as possible and be able enjoy it as well, I really don't want to be stuck in the kitchen all day. We don't want to eat huge amounts of food just because it is Xmas.  We have a nice Xmas breakfast usually croissants and fresh orange juice, and simple light lunch, (everyones been stuffing their faces on chocolate anyway) and don't eat the Xmas meal until the evening.  Even that isn't totally traditional as myself and our sons are vegetarian and there are just two meat eaters on the day so not worth cooking a turkey for, so more likely to be a small chicken which doesn't take long to cook and won't be wasted.  That leaves us time to go for a walk on the beach while it is still light and work up an appetite.  I try to do everything before Xmas Eve so we can have a nice lunch and drink in the city before everyone arrives. We really enjoy that day so it has become a new Xmas Eve tradition.   There are usually 5 of us on Xmas Day and then 12 on Boxing Day so that will be a buffet. There will be four generations, 2 dogs and a cat.   Most of them stay over so there are bodies sleeping everywhere!  If I had my way it would be even simpler with pasties on the beach on Xmas Day but I haven't been able to persuade my family to adopt that new tradition yet!


Every year my dad would plant some hyacinths in a pot for each of us to take home, they would blossom over the xmas period and fill our homes with their beautiful smell.  It is such a lovely simple tradition that I have tried to keep it up, though I'm not always organised enough to get it done.  Here are this years ready to be given out.

Our other newish Xmas tradition is the Secret Santa draw.  We have four children plus their partners so it can be very expensive for them to buy each other presents, so they decided a few years ago to have a Secret Santa with a set amount of money to be spent on the presents.  The bearded one is responsible for the draw and takes his duties very seriously.  All the names are put in a hat and drawn out.  Texts are then sent to everyone telling them who they will be buying for and of course they all have to keep it secret.  It is all good fun as they try to work out who bought the presents.  We still buy them all presents but they include locally bought and made products, fair trade and environmentally friendly gifts.  A  new Xmas tradition I like to keep up.


So that is our Xmas with some new and old traditions.  It has been interesting reading about other bloggers Xmas traditions.  I wonder what the Xmas traditions of the future will be.

Chickpea xx