Its a Christmas thread - don't come in if its not for you ;-)

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I really fancy a Christmas sweater but I think the style police (DD2 and DH ) might have something to say

I have xmas jumper so I would say go get one! There are so many to choose from and all different price ranges. Lovely to see so many of you enjoy xmas and still have family traditions. It really does make xmas special if you have loved ones and young children around you. Once the family moves away we can all remember the happier Christmases we had and dream too of being together again

I am a big fan of Yuletide. Christmas morning starts for me with a glass of Buck's Fizz and I manage to quaff the rest of the bottle throughout the preparation of the turkey and trimmings. We gather round as a family for the opening of presents and every year I tell the grownups that this will be the last time I do Christmas stockings for them ( it never is ). I love Christmas and don't let any sad thoughts intrude. Hogmanay is the time for that.
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Oh don't mention hogmonay! No one surely looks forward to that! Only the young ones to parties

jordana, you are obviously not Scots.

DDs little best friend and her parents are leaving Brussels to live in Luxemburg in January. Not that far and I have checked out the trains already. Just no more pop in playdates and going to Sunday School together.
They are coming here for Christmas Day so I am thinink of special things to do.
They are Brazilian so will have their big dinner, fish, on Christmas Eve.
I am going to do a sort of special buffet not sure what yet.
I will be be looking for ideas for during the day, so will be carefully checking all your ideas.
DGS will be going up and down the stairs between here and Mummy and Daddy so I think it will be a bit pot luck.
We will miss them a lot.

I am a Scot and Hogmanay is a big deal. For years now we have met up with family from all over the UK to celebrate. This year, though, we gave lost a dear man so there will be mixed emotions.

annodomini, i am from S.W.Scotland and we celebrate ne'erday !

We are really fortunate. DD always spends Christmas with us and DS and family live 200 miles away and spend every other Christmas with us, and on the non-Christmas years come down a few days after Christmas and stay for the New Year.

For years our Christmases always included some other members of the family or friends who would otherwise be alone, but many were the generation above us, so have died and we had a couple of quiet Christmases when we felt quite lost. However we now have DDiL and two DGC so do not really have space for more visitors, although this year we do have a friend coming to see the New Year in with us

Found these on Mumsnet

We always make Christmas Pudding vokda but I like the sound of a Werthers Original variety.

Never used a dishwasher before. DH is itching to have a go

Now he just has to learn how to use it.

Love Christmas, choosing the real tree, going to a Winterwonderland with my daughter and 3 year old Grandson. My Son and Grandson who live 300 miles away coming to see me. Time of work, the list is endless.

Our family are very big on Christmas and tradition. Too many to name here but we also have the complication of 4 pre-Christmas birthdays including DGS1 on Christmas Eve. This year all our children and their partners and children will be home, apart from DSIL 2, a professional actor, who will be in a Christmas show and is unable to get back. There will be 14 for Christmas dinner and 9 people in the house for a week. Hard work but generally good fun.

I love a few sherries while cooking the dinner and a considerable number of Bailey's during the season. And our Christmas tree must be a real one covered in decorations acquired over many years. The grandchildren like to hear about the stories connected with them.

I do miss my mother terribly at this time though, even after 20 years. I always had Christmas at mine when our 4 children were young and she would have come on Christmas Eve to help with the preparations. We would drink sherry and listen to the Carols from Kings on the radio.

We always have Buck's Fizz on Christmas morning, and in fact right through the day until dinner around 5. Only one year I drank rather too much and completely forgot to put the potatoes on! Dinner was somewhat late that year, but I think they enjoyed it all the more.
Another tradition, unless it's actually raining, is a good walk around lunchtime, not that we have lunch on Chr, Day - just late breakfast and early dinner, with drinkie nibbles in between.

On Pinterest I saw a novel idea of turning Tunnock's Tea Cakes into mini Christmas puddings by unwrapping and adding icing and miniature holly leaves and berries. I am going to try this.

Oh. Missed out Carols from Kings. It isn't Christmas without it. ⛪️

grannypiper, I'm also from SW Scotland - North Ayrshire. Hogmanay was hectic in my childhood. The ships in the harbour all hooted (loud and long) at midnight. People were tramping up and down the road all night. My uncle, who was provost, lived there and he had a lot of first footers. Many of them dropped in to our house on the way there or back. My parents were quite strict about sending us to bed, but that didn't mean we went to sleep. Nowadays, and exile in England, I visit friends for a meal, some games and a certain amount of wine. You don't have to be a youngster to have fun at New Year.

Well I did sneak in, nanaand grampy, I take it that the title was aimed at me, so anyway I gatecrashed. I may not like Christmas but I am interested to read what others see in it.

Much of the same as in the last post really.

Funny how we all differ isn't it? There is Witzend saying she LOVES the Carols, and for me if one comes on the radio( and they do, all the wretched time, I HAVE to dash and turn it off, cannot stand them.

It annoys me that they seem to be on every station . I like my Radio four, a good play or book, and what do I get ? Blinking Carols grrrr

Maybe you should start your own thread sharia on who hates xmas... ha ha?

Sorry shanma I miss spelt

Ooh Christmas, (rubs hands together in glee). My Christmas begins on my birthday which is exactly two weeks before Christmas day. I put the tree up and decorate the house on my birthday, it has become a ritual ever since I married my DH. He's a bit bah, humbug, but he puts up with it ??. It isn't quite the same these days as my DD, DSinL and DGC have moved away, but we are visiting just before Christmas so that will be lovely.

My D and GC are also visiting before Christmas. They are 300 miles away and if bad weather prevents them coming it doesn't seem as bad as if they can't come for Christmas itself. Well I understand the logic behind that.

Christmas without being the big cheese, in charge of the little kids is PANTS !!!!!!!

I made a gingerbread house for my new DGD last year. She's half German, and in the US we used to make these, although my mum didn't, and this was my first.

Have to dream up a new design for this year!

-Lights and tree
-one special decoration bought for the tree every year
-DH peeling (far too many) vegetables to the 'Nine Lessons and Carols from Kings' on Christmas Eve
-turkey dinner with one more thing on the table every year
-grown up children 'acting the goat' to entertain everyone
-the Christmas afternoon walk around the village as the gloom and glim descends
-'Last Christmas' and all the other cheesy George Michael '80's songs on as dinner cooks (not lunch as we eat in the evening)
-Champagne
-rubbish TV in the evening
-crackers, mince pies, pudding with flaming brandy
-presents (for others as we couldn't afford them for each other when the kids were little and then we were out of the habit)
-being with my lovely family