I asked some of you to tell me about any Christmas traditions or funny stories that you have and thank you to everyone that contributed. I'd like to share a few of them with you.
I'll start with my Mum. She told me about the time that she bought a turkey and it was only once she had stuffed it, used the giblets to make gravy (yuck), spent hours cooking it and then started to carve it when she noticed that one of it's legs was missing. She was going to accuse my sister of stealing it but the skin hadn't been torn so it must have just been an invalid turkey. We are amazed to this day that it wasn't picked up on.
Might it have been this one?
My Sister Kelly remembered when my Nephew Marc was so excited waiting for his Sister to get up on Christmas morning that he was sick everywhere.
Every year, Diana Yates puts two sprouts on her Daughter Georgina's plate every year and every year those same to sprouts end up on her other Daughter Tracey's plate. Needless to say one of them loves sprouts and the other absolutely hates them. The same girls, along with their sister Emily used to take it in turns to sit between their Mum and Dad in bed every year on Christmas Day morning to open presents and they would never, ever forget whose turn it was to get that prized position.
Whilst Clare's tradition is to have Hanky the Christmas Poo on the top of their Christmas Tree, Lou shared a couple of traditions that she and her Fiance have. Firstly, the presents don't get opened until the afternoon, once Christmas dinner has been eaten and the clearing up has been done; this one would have killed me when I was younger. Huw always got (& still gets) a Beano annual and a selection box to open in the morning (he's now 36). Secondly, there is a family gift of a bottle of really old and pretty dreadful aftershave called 'Tang'. It gets wrapped up and passed around the men in the family each year. I wonder how long it will be before one of her sons - aged 5 and 8 - receive it.
My Auntie Sue told me that her three boys, Nick, Ant and Jordan pull their crackers at the start of their Christmas meal and they wear their paper hats until the very end. Nick's fiancee Nichola has vowed to continue the tradition with their Daughter Jessica. Nichola sent me a lovely message so instead of re-writing or altering it, I wanted to write it exactly as she did:
"We're trying to start our own traditions now with Jessica. So far it's just simple stuff like ice skating on Christmas Eve and reading The Night Before Christmas. We spend Christmas morning with just the 4 of us (I included Monty dog in that!) then Sue, Jordan and Ant come to us till about 4 when we leave to go and have dinner with my family. Not much yet but I get excited about the traditions that we are yet to build for our little family! I want Jessica to grow up with wonderful memories of family Christmas."
I love that. If we aren't doing this for our families and our children then who are we doing it for? We hope that when the children grow up, they'll continue the traditions and keep the memories. It surprises me how different and individual the traditions are and some of these have been years, even decades, in the making.
And me, I have memories of my Sister Lindsay and I dressing the tree listening to Christmas songs and wearing santa hats. We still have the same stockings that we used 20 years ago and every year at my Dad's house, without fail, our Christmas dinner will be served with mashed potato and yorkshire puddings.
Thank you to everybody that contributed to this blog. I wish you all the best of Christmases and long may the traditions continue.
Love to you all xx
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