So Christmas is upon us and I feel a little sad that I haven’t been able to update my blog much recently. Sure there has been content but it’s not been especially personal! Christmas Eve is really the first day that I usually start to feel Christmasy and sadly so far, not so good. Alright so it’s only midday so there’s time for that to change, but as yet I’m still not feeling it!
However I wanted to share with you some of our Christmas Eve traditions and obviously that will explain why its the first time I get in the Christmas mood. Until yesterday, I hadn’t wrapped a single present (bar the one person I needed to give their gift to at the weekend) and I hadn’t really done much Christmas prep (bar shopping). But with my orders at Closet Geek finally coming to an end, I took the time to get myself organised and wrap all the presents to go under the tree and then stocking gifts for 7 stockings!!! Other than putting up the tree at the beginning of December and the girls writing their letters to Santa, only this week, there’s nothing much else we do I suppose in the run up to Christmas Day.
The Christmas Eve gift in our house is ALWAYS pyjamas. I remember as a child occasionally getting other things like bath toys, a hot water bottle, board games etc. but in this household it’s always pjs. There is also a Christmas book and some bath stuff (usually the one time I allow the kids to have Lush!). My mum and sister come around as we open these gifts, they have pjs too and so do Chris and I. We all open our gifts and then I read the Christmas book to the girls, then we all have a glass of Baileys, or sherry or even a glass of wine. After a little while, I run a bath for the girls with their Christmas Lush and they get themselves clean, ready for the big day! Afterwards they put on their clean pjs and we make the final preparations.
My mum and sister are usually gone by this point and so the rest of the traditions are just ours. The girls put out milk and cookies for Santa, carrots for the reindeer and then sprinkle their reindeer food outside the front door. They hang the “magic key” on the front door, that allows Santa to come in and then finally they hang their empty stockings. It’s usually bed time by this point and so they head off to sleep, giving me a little time to myself. Chris and I then have baths too and change into our new pyjamas, before spending a little time together and then heading to bed. At dead on midnight, we exchange an early Christmas gift. This is a tradition that comes from Chris’ family and we have only done for the few years we’ve been together. It’s never anything specific, no reason for it being the early one, just a gift to exchange when it’s just us and technically just turned Christmas Day.
What Christmas Eve traditions do you have?