12 Days Of Making, Day Six.

The prompt for Day Six of our 12 Days Of Making challenge was CHRISTMAS TRADITIONS, and I was the lucky person playing host that day. It meant that I  got to read oh, so many lovely Christmas traditions from so many people. Here are a few of my own favourites:

I have several festive films that I love to watch in the lead up to Christmas. I usually watch It’s A Wonderful Life and Love Actually while I’m wrapping presents. Brian likes Die Hard, (which as far as we are concerned IS a Christmas movie, to end that debate!) and we usually watch Scrooged, The Grinch and Elf together too. In more recent years, I’ve fallen in love with Arthur Christmas as well! (Or maybe just James McAvoy?)
My sister loves A Muppet’s Christmas Carol, and it used to be our tradition to watch it when school broke up for the holidays. Now that she works in a school, she continues that one each year, and sometimes, if I am back in time, I get to join in too. We both loved seeing the Coca Cola Christmas adverts when we were younger, (because then you know it’s really almost Christmas!) and she usually manages to see it first, (It may be a bit of a contest between us) and send me a screenshot.

(Please excuse the bad photos. I took them of various TV screens over the years!)

 My Mum’s birthday is mid December, and when I was little, she told me how, when she was little, she used to only get one gift, combined birthday and Christmas. I thought that this was so sad, that I decided to give her a small gift to open, every day from her birthday up until Christmas, and I have continued that tradition ever since! I have so much fun finding small things that I know she will like, and wrapping them all up for her.
We used to wait until Mum’s birthday to put up the Christmas tree, and that became a tradition that we still follow together if I am home in time. We would put on old Christmas records, and dance and sing around while we decorated. Now there is less dancing, but more mulled wine, so it is still great fun!
Now that I live in America, once Thanksgiving is over, if we are staying here that year, I decorate our house. I actually have a BLACK Christmas tree, which was a gift from Brian the first year we were together, as I told him I thought it would be cool to have one. It looks gorgeous decorated in all red or silver decorations, (because my OCD makes me want to have everything match!)
I have a Christmas mug that was a gift from my aunt and uncle when I was little, that has travelled across the world with me, and gets put to use every year. I also have several pairs of festive PJs, and dozens of Christmas socks, so it’s great to unpack those each year to wear.
As I said, I do get very blue around the holidays when I can’t be home with my family for Christmas, so all of these little traditions are a way to cheer me up and make me feel closer to the.