Christmas traditions

To be honest we're still working out our traditions, the thing my husband and I agree on the most is that we need to try to avoid too many, especially on Christmas Eve & Day. We've figured out the key to enjoying it the most is to try to keep the plans to a minimum, keeping the expectations low means there's less stress and we ALL have a better time. I mean let's face it with small children about most plans get totally fucked anyway. We can't please everyone, but if everyone is willing to compromise a little and let go of wild expectations of what Christmas should or shouldn't be we both feel like everyone involved will have a better time.

This will be our 7th Christmas together and they've all been fairly varied, from staying in hotels while visiting relatives in Scotland when we lived abroad, travelling to Sweden and bunking up in my mum's house to spending it in our own home. But I think we're slowly figuring what works for us and what traditions we're making (remember laid back is the key).

As we come from different countries we've chosen to mix our different traditions; I grew up abroad but as both of my parents are Swedish there are a few things that I've carried on that made Christmas special as a child. Firstly, I keep an advent calendar going for the kids (not one of the shop bought ones). I was inspired by my mother as she used to hide something small every day of advent for me to find; she'd tell me what room it was in and whether it was a fish (low down), bird (high up) or in-between, she'd then guide me telling me if I was getting "hotter" (closer) or "colder" (further away) from the thing. There's no denying that I loved waking up to this search for the majority of December, I've always found it too ambitious for me to attempt with my own children. I think my mother probably felt it became a lot of work once my sister was born too as she then started to only so it for advent Sunday. When we lived in Switzerland I picked up a pretty hanging advent calendar with pockets at Lidl for about €3 (we lived by the French border so did I shopping in France as it was a lot cheaper) for our eldest's second Christmas and I've used it every year since. As one of my favourite advents calendars were those with chocolate hidden behind the little flaps I figure my children would feel similarly, so I fill the pockets with chocolate coins; cheap, cheerful and looks so much nicer while still keeping the kids happy!

From some of my other posts you'll see I like to try to do at least some of the traditional Swedish baking we do at this year, I also light a candle for the four advent Sundays as is the norm in Sweden. I'll admit I usually forget at least one Sunday every year and have to light it on another day, but I think it's pretty in the winter darkness and it's become a handy way to add some more counting into the kids' day to day life. Other than that we don't decorate too much, neither my husband nor I are fans of clutter or over the top frills regardless of what time of year it is.

Our mix culture household brings a lot of advantages (like two mother's & father's days a year) and the most stand out one is definitely at Christmas. In Sweden we celebrate and open our gifts in the late afternoon of Christmas Eve - I plan on (/hope to if I have time) writing a post specifically about Christmas Eve as Swedes have a long array of slightly odd traditions. We stick to very little, if we have time for some of it (& like it) we do it but there are few "musts" in our Christmas. We do however open our presents on the 24th, partly because my husband is impatient and loves any excuse to open gifts early. But also because we've found the kids get overwhelmed by too many presents in one sitting. So we open the things we have for each other and that my relatives have sent over, then we do a British Christmas on Christmas Day which we now usually spend with my mother-in-law either at ours or her place.

That short list mostly sums up our haphazard traditions although I have adopted my husband's list of 3 things that have to happen at some point in December: Die Hard and Charlie Brown's Christmas need to be watched and James Brown's funky Christmas tunes need to be listened to. All light-hearted and easy tasks to set yourself to get into the seasonal spirits.

This year though it dawned on us that our four, soon five, year old has introduced her own tradition. Every year for the last 3 years she turns up clutching on to our "Family Guy Christmas Special" DVD in the final days before Christmas requesting to watch it. This year we realised that it's become a running theme and now definitely qualifies as one of the new family traditions - call it her "Die Hard" if you will.

What less conventional traditions have your family created over the years? I honestly can't wait to see what else our children and us come up with over time, as long as we remember the important "no stress" rule!