Family Christmas Traditions | Guest Post

Family Christmas Traditions | Guest Post

Hi everyone! I hope you are all well, today I have a different post for you, a Guest post from the lovely Chloë.

We have teamed up for a collaboration to talk about our Christmas traditions.

Chloë has written about what traditions her and her family have in the run up to the big day which you can read below and I have my post on our family Christmas traditions available to read on Chloë’s blog.

So grab a cuppa, get settle and get ready to feel festive with Chloë’s family Christmas traditions.

Family Christmas Traditions 

Christmas time is definitely my favourite time of the year.

Everywhere beautiful fairy lights are popping up, people are putting up their trees and everything simply looks so much cosier.

December is genuinely the month where I feel the happiest, simply because we’re all preparing everything for the big day.

The month of December is always really busy in my family.

On the 6th of December we celebrate “Sinterklaas”, which is the Belgian and Dutch equivalent of Santa Claus.

Nine days later it’s my sister’s birthday, then Christmas Eve, Christmas Day, my birthday on the 26th and my dad’s birthday on the 27th. After those four days are over, I usually have had enough food to last a whole week ha-ha.

Besides all of these festive days, there are a few other traditions we have in our family in the run-up to Christmas, which is what I’ll be talking about today.

Thank you Jordanne for giving me the opportunity to talk about the Christmas traditions in my family on your blog!

Picking Secret Santa Names

Every year, on my aunt’s birthday – the 10th of November – we put all of our names in a jar and one by one we pick a name. It’s the day Secret Santa comes to life in our family.

At the same time, it’s also the day where all the Christmas excitement starts, and everybody starts looking forward to the big day.

Another Christmas tradition in our family, related to this one, is creating a wish list. That way, your Secret Santa perfectly knows what you would like, and you won’t get disappointed on Christmas Eve!

The lists have to be ready before the 1st of December, which is the day they are being hung up in each house. Everybody secretly finds a way to copy the list he needs – I usually take a picture of it with my phone – and gets ready to go shopping.

Decorating the Tree

The first weekend of December is usually my time to shine. Every year that’s the time where we put up the Christmas tree and I’m always the person in charge of decorating.

It’s a family activity, because everybody helps with putting the tree together and putting in the lights, but as soon as the ornaments have to be put in, I’m the one showing the ropes.

Usually, when I’m putting the decorations in, my brother puts up the “Christmas Village”: this is actually a miniature Winter village with houses, an ice rink, fountains, a mountain with snow, etc.

It brings even more of that Christmas spirit into our house. My dad puts up the decorations outside while my mum and sister are usually helping me a little.

This year, however, things have been different.

As I moved out of my parents’ house in August, I got the chance to put up my own giant Christmas tree in my apartment. I handpicked all of the decorations myself, bought all of the lights, so that I could create my own perfect Christmas tree.

Even though I had loads of fun decorating, I did miss doing this together with my family a little!

Walking Through Our Neighbourhood

When I was younger, there used to be a man in our street who would put up decorations in front of every house in our neighbourhood.

The only thing everyone else had to do was turn them on at night. We had the most Christmassy neighbourhood in our whole town and every year we would go on a walk at least once in December to look at the decorations.

A few years ago, however, the man stopped putting up the decorations, because he was getting too old and struggled decorating all of these trees.

Back then, he gave us all the opportunity to pick up some decorations to continue the tradition the year after. Unfortunately, not many people did, and our neighbourhood isn’t as beautifully lit at night as it used to be.

Nonetheless I still enjoy going for these walks as it remains a Christmas tradition.

Visiting A Christmas Market

A tradition we added to the list a few years ago was visiting a Christmas market in Germany. Every year, we would go there and, in some cases, even stay over for the night.

Out of all the traditions we have, this is definitely my favourite.

There is just something so magical about Christmas markets that always makes me feel so happy.

The delicious food, cosy stalls and unique products, it’s just an experience you have to at least have done once! Christmas markets in Germany are the biggest and most beautiful ones in the world.

Unfortunately, due to the ongoing pandemic, this is a tradition we had to skip this year. However, I’ll make sure we make up for it next year!

Christmas Eve

In our family, Christmas Eve is the most important night/day, because that is where presents are being handed out!

Our family usually comes over around 6PM and then we have dinner first, before starting a fun quiz to decide who gets their presents first.

There are several rounds during this quiz and after each round, the winner gets their presents. If you happen to win multiple rounds and you’ve had all of your presents already, you pick someone else that gets theirs.

The quiz usually guarantees a night full of laughter, although sometimes it also gets really competitive.

I always love handing out the presents I’ve bought because I love seeing the smile on everyone’s faces. It’s the best part of Christmas!

These are some of the Christmas traditions we have in our family. I absolutely love the whole run-up to Christmas and every year I look forward to doing all of these things. Thanks again, Jordanne, for letting me share them on your blog!

A big thank you to Chloë for guest posting with me, it’s been super interesting reading about someone else’s Christmas traditions. Please make sure to pop on over to Chloë blog and read my Guest post.

• Blog: chlodoeslife.com
• YouTube: Youtube.com/chatterboxchloe
• Twitter: @chlodoeslife

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