Christmas Traditions
Stupid jumpers, twinkly lights, Reindeer, heart attack-inducing amounts of cheese, pate and port. There’s an endless list of reasons to love Christmas, and my god do I love Christmas, but one of my true pleasures in life is sharing Christmas traditions with others. I could happily listen to how peoples Christmas days play out and the quirks and oddities of other families until the end of time, and I don’t think there’s a bigger window into how a family works as their Christmas time set up. My favourite question to be asked is “so, what are you up to this Christmas?” Well, now that you’ve asked, pull up a chair pal! I will tell them everything from the Saturday before Christmas festive meal with my friends, right up to my huge family leaving on Boxing Day whilst I lay on the sofa utterly stuffed muttering “any chance there’s a malteaser left in the celebrations box?!”
Here at Tatch Towers we have an ever growing list of traditions that have to be abided by, like Pringles and pate on Christmas Eve, after a very long day of me cooking the festive ham whilst singing “festive ham you are so hammy” to the somewhat off key tune of calon lan. Lucky family! Every year we have to have chocolate coins in our stocking (the ones my mum made us when we were little and we still use every year) and when Cadbury announced they weren’t making them last year we had quite the quandary on our hands. Les, as ever, didn’t disappoint though and managed to source us some, and thank heavens, Christmas was saved! We also have to have Guiylian chocolates and my brother and I have to say it in a weird high-pitched voice every Christmas morning before opening stockings. After we’ve opened stockings (no earlier than 8am) in my parents room it simply wouldn’t be Christmas unless dad pipped up with “right, back to bed then!” And the list goes on. It’s these little familiarities that every family has that makes Christmas the best time of the year for me.
There’s plenty I’ve wanted to add to my collection over the years, such as an old colleague who’s mum would cook the turkey on Christmas eve and before bed she’d slice each member of the family a piece off and deep fry in flour, which they’d eat before bed. I could absolutely get on board with that! See also the families who happily play board games with each other Christmas Day, that’s my actual dream. (“But there’s no end to the bloody thing!” Dad on Monopoly.) Then on the flip side there’s the psychopathically patient people who wait until after dinner to open the presents and sorry but I’d be unbearable! What book do you read whilst waiting for dinner to cook?!
As our family grows we so does the little list of things we have to do each year, and this year we have a puppy thrown into the mix too! I'm already wondering if mum is going to make him a stocking like ours (the answer has been a firm no thus far) and I can’t wait to see what he makes of the rainforest the living room turns into with all of the wrapping paper that descends upon us during the opening! So if you have a family tradition that you love, please share as nothing makes me happier (especially ones that revolve around food, drink and general frivolity!) And I’ll leave you with this fantastic drinking game for Love Actually, which should always be watched five Fridays before Christmas, which very conveniently is today! Happy drinking y’all!