Christmas

I am a big fan of Christmas, it's a great family time.

I always put a lot into making Christmas fun.

I have very fond memories of Christmases from my childhood. I remember hunting down presents for the family on Rushden high street, trying to get nice things with my small amount of pocket money. We spent a lot of time making our own decorations particularly paper chains, and things seen on Blue Peter (which also had its advent candles). We had our advent calendar which we used every year, opening each window every morning. We would excitedly wait for the TV times, particularly to find out what the big Christmas film was going to be. My Nan Bird would sleep over on Christmas Eve and I would sleep on the floor in my Mum and Dads room, it was very exciting. When I was a teenager I would go to the church youth group on Christmas Eve

with my friends and then to midnight carol service, I particularly remember walking home in the quiet early hours with my friends. Christmas Day we would wake up very early and undo our presents on Mum and Dads bed. The present I remember the most was action man, particularly an action man boat which I loved. I mainly remember Christmas Day from my teenage years, with a huge Christmas dinner at mid day, we would often have my Auntie Ivy and Uncle Tony over. We would play some activity games (paper dressing up etc). We would watch TV particularly the 'big film', Top of the Pops and the Christmas Specials (Morecambe and Wise). Boxing Day was always around Nan Birds, with another Christmas Dinner (I loved her Yorkshire pudding).

Our family also has 6 birthdays in the 4 weeks before Christmas (Wife 29/11, Daughter 8/12, Niece 13/12, Brother 14/12, Mine 20/12, Dad 22/12). This makes buying presents very hard. It also makes for a very tiring build up to Christmas.

Favourite Christmas singles:

1. Fairytale of New York - Pogues

2. All I want for Christmas - Mariah Carey

3. One more Sleep - Leona Lewis

4. When a Child is Born - Johnny Mathis

5. Do They Know its Christmas - Band Aid

Favourite Christmas movies (about Christmas, not ones just set at Christmas):

1. Love Actually

2. Elf

3. Miracle on 34th Street

4. The Grinch

5. Jingle all the Way

The very start of Christmas for me is when I get out my miniature Christmas tree at work in the last week of November. I do it early because a; it is cheerful and fun, b; it annoys lots of people because it is so early.

Advent Calendar - I put together my own advent calendar for the kids. Each day has either a; a clue to a hidden present (usually a Christmas making activity), or b; some small sweets with a letter. The letters are kept until the final one is given on Christmas Eve when they must put then all together to spell out the place a prize is hidden (usually a game or activity they can play on Christmas Eve).

Presents - I pride myself on giving good, thoughtful presents. I put a lot of effort into it. We also get quite a lot of presents, for the immediate family, so there is a lot to open, about a dozen presents each including sweets. It is particularly hard with all the birthdays beforehand. I will usually start getting presents in October, although I do look out for anything throughout the whole year. We do have a couple of present traditions, everyone always has a chocolate orange and also a mug.

Decorations - traditionally we put up our decorations after my daughters birthday on the 8th of December. We don't go obsessive with the decorations, they are quite traditional, doing roughly the same layout each year. We usually buy one new item each year. We don't put any decorations outside.

Build up - during December we try to watch as many TV Sit Com Christmas Specials and Christmas movies as possible. We also have a lot of present wrapping to do, which we try to get done before Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve

Very early morning food shopping for fresh items.

Advent calendar anagram.

Christmas Lego building.

Christmas Day - normally consists of the following:
Presents part 1 - are opened as soon as the first child wakes up. Traditionally we undo presents all together in our bedroom, although we sometimes go downstairs if we have people staying.

Treasure Hunt - in the morning I do a treasure hunt for the kids. This consists of about a dozen clues dotted around the house leading to a family present.

Dinner - I do a full Turkey dinner with all the trimmings which we have at about 1pm. This means that I start cooking the Turkey early. We don't bother to wash up, that happens on Boxing Day. I try to get activity Christmas crackers which give us an activity to do, the last few years we have had wind up characters which we raced.

Presents part 2 - with our eldest children now having left home, they sometimes stay with us over Christmas and sometimes come to visit on Christmas Day. If they come to visit then we will open their presents, along with the extended family presents from under the Christmas tree, when they arrive.

Games - during the afternoon, and sometimes evening, we play games. Depending on the number of people we have, this can be either as teams or individually. Some of the games we do include a; picture quizzes, b; activities e.g head sock/ball bottle knockdown, flour/coin slicing, tallest egg supporting tower etc, c; themed video/music, e; question quizzes etc.

Some of our favourite activity games are:

Guess the chocolate

Guess the fruit

Christmas selfie

Flour slicing

Find the elves

Tea - is a buffet of mainly cold meats and salad. No one wants much after a big dinner and lots of chocolate.

Evening - is finishing off the games and then watching some Christmas TV, a Christmas special or a film. We sometimes play a board game, particularly if we have had a new one for Christmas.

Some good board games are:

Wonky blocks

Chicken charades

Large playing card chase the ace

Boxing Day - is normally a quiet day. Sometimes we do go around to an extended families house.

Post Christmas - I always try to have the week between Christmas and New Year as holiday from work. During that time I put together a yearly printed photo book of all the photos taken throughout the year.