Christmas traditions old and new

We always had to watch the Queen's speech in silence. My grandparents made it a high point of the day and the meal was timed around it.
Nowadays we maybe catch a snippet of it if it's on the News. (If we watch the News!)
However, the Queens speech back at the start of Covid I might make a point of watching her again this year.

I remember my father carrying the christmas pudding to the table lit up with brandy! Then seeing who found the small silver sixpences in the pudding

On the first Christmas after my grandparents married in their early twenties, my grandfather woke my grandmother up with a cup of tea in which he had put a couple of teaspoonful of whisky to mark the special occasion and he always continued the tradition. The first Christmas after my Grandad died, my grandmother stared ruefully at her cup of tea, and remarked that it was over 60 years since she had drunk tea without whisky on Christmas morning. There was a silence and no one knew quite what words of comfort to say. Suddenly she burst out laughing saying “Thank the Lord for that!” It appeared that she had drunk it because he thought he was giving her a treat, failing to realise that she wasn’t enjoying it, and she never told him, even though she was in fact, virtually teetotal. Despite this they had a wonderful marriage and were devoted to each other.

Lovely story Lexisgranny.

I may well be the only person on GN who has never watched the Queen’s speech at Christmas.
The only tradition we had as a child was to be taken to midnight mass.It always felt such a grown up thing to do, and to come out afterwards into a dark starry night ( or a dark snowy night) and walk back home to have cocoa and hot buttered toast and then bed, all excited, was magical.

We lived on a small-holding and every Christmas Eve, when we were a bit older, we children were led out to the byre approaching midnight (we were always still awake and excited on Christmas Eve) to see if the cattle went down on their knees in homage to Christ’s birth, as the old superstition says they do. There always was one random cow that did, if not on the stroke of midnight!
A magical sight for young children, never forgot the wonder of it.

For me it was the smells of cooking that you never got at any other time of the year even though we had roast every Sunday.
The turkey in the oven on Christmas Eve, mum used to stuff it so the smell of that was combined. Mac red apples added to the " scents ". This same atmosphere was year on year and didn't change. King's speech on Christmas Day, then dinner.

Early baths, early bed and armed with a pillowcase for Father Christmas to fill. Apple, tangerine and nuts at the bottom of the pillow-case every year. Plasticine and new annuals for extra festive smells.

Needless to say I carried these same traditions for my own flock and it's something they never forgot. I enjoyed the hard work at Christmas over the years for the ever-growing family . The only thing that didn't happen was the Queen's speech which nobody bothered with.

Always quiet except for the carols on the radio, no boozing ,only a drop poured over the pud and fired ( dad's whisky ) then a case of being careful in case you swallowed the silver threepenny bit in it.

I still try and capture those times in my own way which made Christmas more than anything, even though I'm on my own, who wouldn't ?

Lovely stories on here. ‘Plasticine’ EV! Brought back memories - it’s all soft ‘Play Doh’ stuff nowadays.

I agree that scent is one of our most powerful senses for memory recall.

The only one I can remember was every Christmas Eve my Dad and I would walk to the off licence to buy Sherry, Advocatt, Port, lemonade, cream soda and tizer it was the only time we had any alcohol in the house and it was the only time I spent with my Dad without my siblings.

My mum was a nurse at a nearby cottage hospital, and on Christmas morning, whether mum was working or not, we would all go to her ward and dad would hand out satsumas to the patients. Lunch was always turkey and my grandparents always came. In our Christmas stockings we always had a tin of tooth powder and a new toothbrush.

Tanith your story reminded me of a family story. In the 60s and early 70s mum and dad always celebrated new year with a party of their friends and our family. We are Scottish so hogmanay was important to us. Dad used to take a bottle to the local supermarket and they would fill it with sweet Sherry. One year a friend of mum was drinking rum and coke. When he left, dad was looking for the Sherry. It had been put in a coca cola bottle and the only cola bottle he found was empty. Yup, sandy had spent the party drinking rum and Sherry together. He must have been fu' but you would never have known. Thank you for reminding me of this story.

My parents always invited local friends and neighbours round for drinks on Christmas morning. It wasn't unusual for people to have to be carried out. Some must have driven in a very inebriated state. This was considered hilarious in the 1960s. The mornings went on for ages. I can't imagine my DM was very enamoured of them, but she was a brilliant cook and organiser and somehow the turkey was on the table at about 4 and all the glasses washed and put away - the fairies must have done that.....

I found it difficult to establish traditions here as we live between 2 cultures. From time to time a routine did establish itself, e.g. when the boys were altar boys and I was in the choir and we all had to dash off at 9.30 for Mass at 10.30. And when they were older they used to meet up with their friends after Midnight Mass in a cafe near the church.

When I was a teenager I loved carol singing with some friends from school. We had good musicians and put on a good show,.

As I have just written on another thread, as an army brat we were always on the move, but Christmas day rituals never changed.

Up and open the stockings laying on our beds, church (until we were olde enough for midnight mass), breakfast then presents. Each person's presents on a separate chair. Then DF would disappear because officers always served the junior rank's lunch on Christmas day so we had a late Christmas dinner and so on through the day.

I still follow a modified version of these Christmas rituals today.

Does anyone else remember the episode in After Henry (lovely series years ago with grandmother, mother and daughter) where the granny insisted on having the Christmas dinner all cleared away before the Queen’s Speech, because it was disrespectful to listen to her with dirty plates still on the table?

The poor thing was dreadfully disillusioned to be told that it was pre-recorded and not live!

Lexisgranny
My father used to bring Mum and me a cup of tea in bed on Christmas morning with whisky or rum in it; he looked so pleased to do it.
I never had the heart to tell him I didn't really like it.

Urmstongran I smiled at your post, plasticine still makes my mouth water. I have no idea why, I have never eaten any as far as I know and don't have the urge to eat it but the smell really does make my mouth water

Up to the age of 5 my Dad was a postman who delivered on Christmas morning. We would get up really early to open our stockings on their bed then have boiled bacon sandwiches before he went off to do his round.we still have that breakfast now with our grandchildren son and daughter-in-law.61yrs later whilst opening the first of our gifts. Every Christmas I was at home Dad would be exhausted as they were not allowed in those days to leave work before all the letters were sorted ready to go out the next morning so he often worked from 8- midnight or longer in the lead up. He did his surprise shopping on Christmas Eve teatime just before the shops closed so there was always a carrier bag under the bed with unwrapped last minute gifts. That way Mama got a surprise.

Lovely stories on here, and I especially like Suzette's.

Lovely memories! The Queens speech yes we had to stand up too and that was in the 1960s.
Silver sixpence in the pud, pillow-case of presents from Santa. We'd always put a mince pie and a glass of port out for Santa and a carrot for Rudolph.
My brother & I used to wake at 5 in the morning - somehow & drag out presents into our parents bed to open them.
With my own children, DH & I would wake at 6 - but DDs wouldn't wake till 8!
With the Christmas pudding; going back to my grandmother and continued in my household we have almond sauce (sweet white sauce with almond essence).

Stockings on the foot of the bed delivered by santa when we were asleep. Small gifts, something to read, sugar mouse, chocolate coins and a satsuma. They kept us quiet in the morning, for a while at least.

Gathering round the Christmas Tree so early it is still dark and we are wearing our pyjamas. There are children involved here.. The excitement is palpable. We inspect the drink, mince pie and reindeers' carrot to make sure Santa and his animals have refreshed themselves. The youngest person delivers the presents around , while cups of tea or coffee are made. Then we have a delightful unwrapping of gifts - paper rustling, excited chatter and exclamations, thank yous, names of givers are noted on the gift labels, sneaky chocolate for breakfast.
We have a brunch later of my son-in-laws gently spiced butternut soup and delicious fresh bread. My daughter and I always fit in a mince pie and a glass of sherry. We have our traditional turkey Christmas meal at about 4ish in the afternoon and it goes on into the evening, as we play various games between courses. Those who have not cooked see to the washing up, or loading the dish washer these days. A period of quiet, listening to a recorded Queen's speech if anyone wants to, and then board games or fun games that my son-in-law has devised. The children stay up until they fall asleep and are carried off to bed.
Boxing Day is much quieter while the children play with their new toys and games and the adults put various new things together for them, or work out the rules to new games. Those who want to go for a walk, wearing any new clothes or accessories they have been given.
We always have a cold lunch with left over meat and various fresh salads, and a trifle for dessert. Later there is a cheese board, pickles and biscuits followed by Christmas cake and reheated Christmas pud for those who who can eat it.
This pattern has gone on whoever is hosting. I did it for years, taking over from my parents until I moved into a small apartment, but now my daughter takes it on. It's lovely to see the customs handed on.

Some truely lovely memories here. Mine is always of my beloved god mother, uncle and two cousins joining all of us for Christmas. MY dear mum always seemed to be in the kitchen from CE until BD making sausage rolls, and mince pies. She made wonderful pastry and we just gobbled them up. We always played board games after lunch and in the evening the table would be moved to the middle of the room and laid for christmas tea, salads, cold meat, jelly in little plastic dishes, a pink blangmange and of course 'the cake' after tea,the table was moved, carpet square rolled up and music on. We kids danced and the grown ups had a tipple and eventually joined in. I always remember mum and her sister singing 'Only the Lonely' by Roy Oberson, they were both a bit squiffy by this time. It was the only time we had Beer [for the men] and Dubonnet [for the ladies] in the house. It is so lovely to have such memories.

We had stockings in the morning, no tree presents until after the Queens speech. As we got older my Mum used to warp fake presents with a little rhyme in, this was a clue, you had to stand up and read it out to all, quite often the present found, brought back to the room, was another rhyme! This meant present opening went on until about 7pm, particularly as the family expanded. I continued on a similar vein for my children, often leading to a large present in the boot of the car, or under the bed. Hence, on opening of presents the cry ‘it’s a note, it’s a note’ would ring out. Huge effort by Mum, good job Dad cooked the lunch.

When we were children our maternal grandma and auntie always came for Christmas Dinner then it was games. Charades was our favourite because our auntie couldn't ever play without talking.... we all thought it was hilarious... still do. Our auntie is now 89, stays at my parents on Christmas eve and Christmas day, charades is still played and now it's my children, and grandchildren who find it hilarious and keep telling her she's not supposed to speak.