It’s Christmas Eve-Eve, our Christmas baking is done, the presents are wrapped and the shops are full of people frantically scanning the aisles for anything they might have forgotten to stock up on for Christmas.
I thought I’d share some of my favourite Christmas traditions for the festive period in case you need something to spur you on into the Christmas mood in these next few days.
In December one of our big Christmas traditions is doing the Christmas presents for the kids in Acorns Children’s Hospice. It’s always a heartwarming time, we spend the year fundraising with midlandscooters and then take the presents to the hospice with Santa to visit the children, it wouldn’t feel like Christmas without doing it now as we have been doing it for so many years.
In the week before Christmas we have so much to get ready, we usually spend a couple of days baking and preparing the Ukranian food we eat alongside our traditional Christmas dinner. This year we made 6 Christmas Puddings, 36 Mince Pies, 86 Butter Tarts (like Mince Pies but better), 120 Icebox Cookies (like a gingerbread), and 100 decorated Shortbread Biscuits to share with friends and family over Christmas! This always gets us in a festive mood in the run up to Christmas.
On Christmas Eve we used to always have a Christmas party for friends and family but in the last few years with my sisters both getting married and sharing Christmas between our family and their in-laws we’ve scaled down and now just have the immediate family over. We always cook a joint of pork to have in baps and make a spinach loaf as well as lots of other snacks. It’s safe to say that Christmas is heavily dependent on food in our house, but we love to have Christmas Eve together as a family.
Christmas Day is a relaxed one, this year just one of my sisters and her husband are staying with us but we will pop round to visit my other sister and her family after we’ve had breakfast and opened our presents. Then we will have Christmas dinner at home, probably watch some Christmas movies and the Queen’s speech and demolish a box of chocolates.
Boxing day usually consists of a visit to my Aunty’s house, where we sometimes have a cold lunch and have a gathering with some more family, but this year we will be taking some turkey sandwiches and going hunting! I can’t wait as it’s usually a great day out hunting with a big field and lots of followers.
I’m sure that every family does Christmas so differently, so however you’re spending your Christmas, I hope that you have a fantastic time and get some relaxing in there somewhere!
Merry Christmas!