Christmas Eve Traditions

Families all have their own separate traditions for every time of the year but Christmas is one of the main ones where our traditions are lit on fire and you have to go by the book otherwise it won't be the same. My Christmas Eve either tends to be a very busy one in terms of having to do a lot of things or it tends to be a very drunk one. I thought in light of Christmas Eve and awaiting Christmas Day, I would share with you some of the traditions from past and present.

1. Leaving out milk and mince pies for Santa.

This is definitely a tradition that no longer happens because I know the great truth of Christmas. I shall not tell you all, in case some of you are pretending that it isn't true. But this is definitely the tradition that used to get me so excited for Christmas. I feel like without the magic of Father Christmas, it isn't really that much of an exciting day. I feel like it's the penultimate day before you break up from school- a little pointless because all you want is the actual day to come. But I definitely will continue this tradition on when my niece or nephew comes along and certainly when I have my own children.

2. Wrapping up the night before.

This has been more of a Mum tradition but this year, it has fallen to me. Now, I had been asking and telling my Mum to give me the presents she needed wrapping two weeks ago to help her out but she likes to leave everything to the last minute and so today I have been frantically trying to wrap up the presents my Mum has given to me. She annoyingly has given me the presents in dribs and drabs possibly to annoy me because she knew that I wanted it to be done before today. Anyway, I like wrapping up but it is a pain on Christmas Eve when you're meant to be chilling out.

3. Drinkies.

On Christmas Eve, I usually go to the pub with my sisters to have a couple of drinks and welcome in Christmas Day with a cold beverage in my hand. It's always a good time because everyone is in such high spirits and you know that you won't have to go to work for a couple of days. But this does mean that you either a) do not get drunk enough so it gets a bit boring or b) you get too drunk and then it's a little bit of a disastrous Christmas Day trying to eat your massive dinner. I don't know whether I'm going to go to the pub tonight just because I've got such a bad cold and cough that I don't know if I'll really enjoy it. I would like to go just because it would be a nice time out but I don't want to make myself worse. We shall see! 

4.The smell of turkey.

Now I do like a bit of turkey for my Christmas dinner but the smell of it cooking every Christmas Eve kind of makes me want to vomit. I don't know why it makes me feel sick but the smell of it lingering for hours does go right to my head. I am hoping that this year I won't be feeling sick from the smell of turkey cooking in the oven. Hopefully, with my door shut, it might lock the smell away downstairs.

What are you Christmas Eve traditions? To me, it doesn't really feel like Christmas and I don't know whether that is because I have grown up and the build up is a massive let down, or because I kind of don't want it to be Christmas. I know this year, we're going to be missing two of the most important people in my family an it's not going to be the same. It's the first year without both my Nan and Grandad and it does make me awfully sad. Christmas doesn't feel like Christmas but we're sure as hell going to try and make it happy as it can be this year.

I hope you all have a very merry Christmas and that you get everything that you wanted. Remember, Christmas isn't all about getting presents and having the most expensive gifts. Have fun with your family and appreciate how rich you are in terms of love and laughter.

MERRY CHRISTMAS!

xxx