Childhood Christmas Traditions
Christmas traditions always change and evolve and that is okay. That's part of life. They change because of circumstances or because children grow up or like in my case, we move country. I spent some of my childhood years in Germany and we had one set of traditions at Christmas that then changed when we moved back to the UK.
On Christmas morning, we always had to have had breakfast as well as be washed and dressed before we could go into the living room and see if Santa had been in the night. It's only been in the last few years that I've learnt the story behind this tradition which we still do to this day at my mums. My dad was in the British Army and so was often on duty Christmas morning and he wanted to see my brother and my faces when we first saw the tree. My mum making sure we were fed, washed and dressed as a way of keeping us occupied until dad was home from work.
Another tradition at this time was either mum phoning her sister in the UK or her phoning us, it would be alternated each year. My mum and her sister's parents would go round to my auntie's on Christmas day as well and when Grandad died, Grandma would stay at my auntie and uncles for Christmas. Our Dad would always read my brothers Beano annual and my Dandy annual before us as well.
When we moved back to the UK, we lived around the corner from my mum's sister; my auntie, uncle and two cousins, so our traditions changed. My Grandma would still stay at my auntie and uncles' and we would have Christmas morning and afternoon at our own houses.
My brother and I would go and wake our parents up, Dad would make him and mum a coffee and put the turkey in the oven before watching us open our stockings on their bed. I can't remember what we had before we moved back to the UK, but over here we used a spare pair of my brother's red hockey socks that ended up being stretched about three times their original length!
We would still have breakfast, as well as being washed and dressed before we went into the living room where the tree is put up to see if Santa had been. After we'd all opened our gifts, my mum and dad would finish making Christmas dinner while my brother and I looked at our gifts and played with some of them. After Christmas dinner, we would then watch Christmas themed films and TV shows. At around 4 or 5 pm on Christmas day, my family would go round to my auntie's for a Christmas buffet tea and more presents.
On Boxing Day, in the morning my brother and I would play with our gifts that we'd got the day before and watch Christmas TV, then mum would go and collect Grandma who would have dinner with us. In the evening my auntie, uncle and cousins would come round for a buffet tea.
