Traditions, nothing stays the same. Should it?

I often wonder if people aren't honest on threads about traditions etc

Our Christmas Eve Usually I have been out and bought the children some new pyjamas to sleep in. This was supposed to be restricted to childhood but when they were adults and I stopped doing it they all got really upset! So every Christmas eve they all get new pyjamas, a new mug and my husband still reads them the bloody night before christmas

Then we always drink too much, watch a wonderful life, drink some more, remember there are loads of presents to still wrap.. drink some more, go to bed late......someone, I say someone...^our daughter^ will always get up really bloody early and we will have had very little sleep and spend most of Christmas day hungover.

The rest of the family generally come to us for Boxing day and I serve 'party food' which apparently everyone on here and every other forum hates. But they all say how lovely it is. The men folk moan about missing the football. Women discuss who is ill or dying and whose last Christmas it will be.

Obviously last year we didn't have anyone round, just our own children

We always built a wall to keep the sea back - passed on to offspring and GC

Beach traditions. My Dad always made us a boat or a car out of damp sand, he did the same for our sons and now no day at the seaside is complete without a sand car or boat.
One of our daughters in law has a family tradition of ‘best sandcastle’ competition on the final day of a holiday which we have embraced with gusto.

I love traditions until they become straitjackets. I watch It's a Wonderful Life and The Bishop's Wife on the run up to Christmas Day. I used to make Christmas Cake and Pudding in October but no-one eats them now so I've stopped. I always watch Carols at Kings on Christmas Eve. One tradition which I started when my husband and I separated was every year I bought three identical Christmas tree ornaments to symbolise that my two children and I were a team. My son in law never had any particular tradition so he was a bit bewildered by our family's numerous ones. I give him, my dd, Ds and my mum a Christmas stocking every year. I find this a nuisance but any hint that I stop brings protests! My aunt and uncle host a Christmas carol curry and karaoke every year. Most of our family traditions are around Christmas.

Just a note before you read - we were not rich - just part of a mixed culture, which as you read , you will be able to guess. where I grew up. Maids and Cooks were commonplace.
Old Christmas traditions _ Christmas preparations starts in early November, the Tailor comes to our home and measures us for a new outfit. The cooks soak ingredients for the Xmas cake, which is later baked. They make the Wheat Halva, Rice Halva, Diamond Cuts, Rose Cookies, All this takes the best part of November, with Mum supervising.
Christmas Day - midnight mass, back home for some home made Sherry and a slice of Xmas Cake. Aunts Ethel and Lily ususally joined us for this.
Then, to bed……Mum got up quite early to dress the Table etc, while the maid and Cook start the process of cooking…..usually, Turkey and Duck (Roast) with all the trimmings. Dad and us kids then get up, music on the Radiogram. Get dressed and ready for the day ahead.
NOW - I dont do Christmas. Just go to one of the three children’s houses. I don’t even go to Midnight Mass these days…

PS always re-read Christmas Carol and always buy a Christmas murder mystery set in the 30s.

Oh Box of Delights! ? It is so far back in my mist of time I can’t remember what it was, but know that I loved it.

in the run up to Christmas I re read A Christmas Carol, The Box Of Delights and The Dark Is Rising. Watching the Muppet Christmas Carol is also a must.

When I was a child we always had cold turkey and ham with mashed potatoes and mixed pickle on Boxing Day. Now I seem to be the only one who likes the pickle so that's fallen by the wayside.

Everything eventually changes.

I come under the heading 'Go with the flow'. Things change and have always changed and the older I get the more convinced I am of the inevitability of change.

DDiL has brought new Christmas traditions to our family, and we have developed our own, no doubt when DGC have tgeir own families they will develop new traditions. some traditions have faded away.

So it has ever been, just go wth the flow.