Our Christmas starts on the 1st December. A few years ago, I made the girls a little activity advent calendar. They get a surprise letter every morning with an activity on for them to do such as making a gingerbread house, putting on a shadow puppet show or going to the forest and decorating a lonely Christmas tree. I love creating these memories and traditions for them and making that build up to the 25th just more magical and special for them.
On Christmas Eve, we love to go on a forest walk followed by hot coco before putting on new pj's and watching a Christmas Movie.
I love our forest walk. I love seeing all the other families out and seeing the children just as excited as my two! Everyone just seems very happy and the whole atmosphere is enchanting.
After the forest walk, we have hot coco, put on fresh pj's and watch a Christmas film before doing a few little traditions before bed. After dinner, we make our reindeer food with glitter and oats and sprinkle it on the path outside our house. We also put out treats in the fireplace for Father Christmas and then sit in bed and read a Christmas book before I put them to bed. The girls Daddy works in the theatre industry and is normally working on the pantomimes. This year, he won't be home again until late at night, so I like to make it even more special for them.
I love to host either Christmas or boxing day so there is always lots of baking to do. The girls love to help me and they like to make their own treats for Father Christmas. We light the fire and they set up their treats on a plate along with a carrot and milk (of course!).
Before bed, we hang their stockings on the fireplace, have a little dance to some Christmas music and then they get tucked up in bed. It can take them hours to actually fall asleep because they are so excited but I remember being the same when I was little so I cannot really blame them! It takes me hours to fall asleep too because I am just as excited as they are!
The girls were so kindly gifted these pyjama's from Marks and Spencer. They have the most wonderful selection of Christmas pyjama's! I always love to get them new ones for Christmas Eve to make the day just that much more cosy!
What are your Christmas Eve traditions? I love hearing about them.
(this post is in collaboration with Marks and Spencer. All opinions are my own)
Oh I couldn't adore this post more! Such lovely traditions for your girls xx
ReplyDeleteLove the pjs! Your Christmas traditions are so lovely. We used to enjoy a film on Christmas Eve and hot chocolate with Christmas biscuits. I always cook the turkey on Christmas Eve afternoon, so the house smells of Christmas already! We also used to go round the village, to deliver cards and little gifts to our friends. We would wear Christmas elf hats, which always made us smile.
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