Unique Christmas Traditions??

I havent kept any of these traditions, but just remembering things from my childhood:

Christmas Eve, we had the grandparents, aunts & uncles over to open all the presents.  To eat, we always had 'grinders' (big sandwiches) from the local deli.

Christmas morning, we opened our stockings, and always had cinnamon rolls, home-made by my mom.

We had our big Christmas meal at lunchtime... turkey and stuff.  Then later at night, we had turkey tacos.

I think you should re-institute some of those! The grinders and cinnamon rolls sound great!

On Christmas Eve at my house, we didn't eat much in the evening - in preparation for gorging the following day. Instead, we'd have champagne and some elegant hors d'oeuvres. Needless to say, I've been unable to get DH to give up his proper evening meal. 

I think you should re-institute some of those!

we'll see how things go! 

Definitely egg nog while decorating, along with cheesy Christmas CDs.

Love the cinnamon rolls or eggs benedict for breakfast ideas - must try that this year as we don't have company for the first time in a while so I can just focus on dh and me!

We always watch It's A Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve and we both always cry. Then on Christmas we watch How The Grinch Stole Christmas and I cry (which is vaguely non-sensical I know - something to do with childhood tradition... not entirely sure I understand myself) and dh takes the piss (which makes me stop crying and laugh - his specialty!)

We always go to the pub for an early drink with dh's family friends (will be logistically difficult this year now that we've moved - we'll have to drive down there which means I won't be drinking. Poo.) and then come back and light a fire and start dinner.

We always go to the pub for an early drink with dh's family friends (will be logistically difficult this year now that we've moved - we'll have to drive down there which means I won't be drinking. Poo.) and then come back and light a fire and start dinner.

I may have to "borrow" your Christmas pub tradition.  I'm sure my husband would be all over that too.  A new tradition for us to start our first Christmas.

I may have to "borrow" your Christmas pub tradition.  I'm sure my husband would be all over that too.  A new tradition for us to start our first Christmas.

It's great on two fronts - we get to see friends and have a drink or two, and dh can't con me into staying longer than I want to (gotta get home to get dinner going!) because they always close early! 

The Belsnikle.  My dad would fill my shoes with fruit and nuts.  I did not, like my grandfather, get a whip.  He was a bad boy.  Although he said you always wanted to be in a house at the beginning.  After going around and getting some drinks at each house by the time he reached the end if you got switched you REALLY got switched.

Other than that I like to bake my cookies and watch It's a Wonderful Life while sampling a few. 

mmm Eggnog, can you buy this easily in the UK? Any recipes out there?

This is really close to the recipe I use:

http://www.eggnogrecipe.net/traditional-eggnog-recipe.html

And you can get the tinned stuff online here at americansweets

http://www.americansweets.co.uk/bordens-egg-nog-limited-stocks-1st-come-1st-served-826-p.asp

it is my first Christmas with my DH and my first in the UK. At home we always decorated the house around Thanksgiving with the lights and stuff so I am going to do that. We are going to midnight mass...but I am trying to find out what other traditions they have here so we can incorporate them...My family and I watched Christmas Story, Christmas Vacation, Elf and Emmet Otter's Jug Band Christmas every year...and I will still be doing that...

We have several starting on Thanksgiving day. We put the tree up and hubby lights the outdoor Christmas lights we hang. We put out the majority of little bits and bobs that we decorate with.  A week or so before Christmas we all bundle up in the car with a blanket for the kids and we drive all over town looking at the the lights people put up.

Dh and I always do most of the shopping together and usually in one or two trips. At least one of those includes a nice dinner out for just the two of us and lots of hand-holding around the shops.

I usually wrap all the presents while he watches and makes fun of all the time I spend wrapping gifts that the kids are going to rip open as quickly as possible  

On Christmas eve, we always have a snacky meal, cheeses, meats, fruit, some pasty puffs things, hors d'oeuvres basically, but simple ones. We normally all curl up together, snacking and watching one of the standard Christmas movies, usually White Christmas because it's my favorite.

Christmas morning is a nice hot cuppa sitting together watching the kids dig into their stockings and then the presents. We try to keep them going one at a time so it lasts a bit longer and we get to see them open each one.  Then it's a nice big breakfast, eggs benedict, coffee and cinnamon rolls. We usually eat the big meal mid afternoon with snacks laid out all day.

I'm so ready for the holidays!!

(edited for spelling)

The American shop at Coventry Market (4th of July Imports I think it's called) has eggnog as well.

We're still blending our traditions - my Mom's coffee cake, all the Rankin-Bass specials, etc. with his mince pies and christmas pudding.

Didn't have any particular ones when I lived in the US - it just depended on where I was & who I was celebrating with there.

Being here with DH's family for Christmas (since 2003), I love that things sort of follow a traditional pattern for the day - the way that his family has been doing it for awhile.

Last year, I went with a friend to York Minster for the Service of Nine Lessons & Carols, which was really nice & I'm not at all religious.  I felt a bit teary though because at the time, I knew my mom in the US was dying (she died the next day) and I kept thinking how much she would have liked to be there (at York Minster for the service) too.  Maybe I'll start going to York Minster every year as sort of my own tradition.

But for DH's family thing (in Norwich), Mum usually makes a nice but simple evening meal for Christmas Eve - it's Mum & Dad, Steve and me, and sometimes they invite some friends over.  BIL will be partying in town that night, catching up with old friends.

Christmas Day, everyone sleeps in as long as they like!  There may be simple nosh in the morning like cheese scones & sausage rolls.  When BIL turns up usually around noon, cocktail service begins as he is the family mixologist:  snowballs, frisky bisons, who knows what - usually some new cocktail recipes he wants to try out on us.  Well beforehand, Mum will have been given a list of what ingredients he will need & for there to be plenty of ice.

My in-laws often invite others over to share the Christmas with us - friends who would otherwise be alone, so they might stay over at the house for a day or two as well.

Christmas dinner is usually around 3 or 4 - of course, with crackers and paper hats.  Lots of silly photographs get taken!

Presents are saved for opening until after Christmas dinner.  Dad or BIL will pass them out and there's a mass frenzy of opening gifts.  More drinks.

There will be another round of buffet food at some point.  And once is everyone is well liquored up, we play charades & 'guess who I am' & any other silly games that people come up with.  Until everyone is too tired or too drunk to move, and then to bed. 

In my family, we wear a santa hat with the nose and glasses and beard bits on it to hand out gifts, someone different has to play Santa every year. After we exchange all the regular gifts, we do a gag gift exchange where everyone draws a number and then number one picks the first present and number 2 can either take number one's gift or open a new one, etc. It's hilarious! Hard to do without a big group of people, though, and DH's family doesn't all get together over Christmas, everyone tends to do their own thing. 

Tesco has eggnog!   Every Tesco that I have been in that has a World Section, so every Tesco that is bigger than an Extra, has had it all year round.

It is in with the Jamaican food in little juice boxes.  It isn't bad, not as rich as the stuff you would get at home, but still tasty.  They have at least two types though in different stores, so I can't vouch for them all.   

Tesco has eggnog!   Every Tesco that I have been in that has a World Section, so every Tesco that is bigger than an Extra, has had it all year round. 

I think the World section varies from shop to shop, though, depending on the demographics of the surrounding population. We don't have any Jamaican stuff in our Tesco, so no eggnog. But I'd just as soon make my own, anyway, so it's OK.