Christmas Traditions

From 'The Christmas Q&A' post I did a short while ago, one of the questions was about Christmas traditions and this actually got me thinking on all of the Christmas traditions I've had over the years. I wanted to create a post not only on the Christmas traditions that occur now, but also on the ones from childhood that I miss now as an adult.

Christmas Traditions I Miss

Visiting a Santa grotto

When I was much younger, going to see a Santa would always be a highlight of the festive season. This had actually been something that I had pretty much forgotten about, or put out of my mind, when one day my brother and I were visiting one of the garden centres in the morning and there was already a queue of children all lined up ready to see Santa. I used to go to different ones when I was younger and my favourites were one that had had a mini outdoor train that you would ride in before arriving at the grotto and another where before you went to see Santa, there was a little petting zoo type place with reindeer which was pretty cool. It's quite odd looking back on those visits now and realising that this is something I'll only ever do again now if I have my own children.

ITV Panto's 

The ITV panto was a series of televised pantomimes  originally broadcast between 1998 and 2002. These used to be rerun every year on ITV2 when I was younger and I watched them every time I knew they were on. They used to play throughout the month of December and then they only started to come on on the week before Christmas and then they just stopped showing them. My favourites were 'Aladdin' and 'Jack and the Beanstalk'. I really wish ITV2 would play them again😄. One year, it had been snowing and my brother and I had been playing in the street and then when we came back in, one of the panto's was on TV and it felt so Christmassy.

Going to pantomimes

As much as I used to love watching the ITV Panto's on the telly, I also used to love actually going out to see a pantomime. I used to go every year (this year is actually the first year that I haven't been to see a pantomime and as you can tell, I was very disappointed about this😄). There was a local pantomime group that put on shows at the same place every year and always featured the talents of a man named Ian 'Sheepie' Smith who was hilarious - he's been doing these pantomimes since I was a child and he's still doing them to this day - I feel that he is the main reason as to why so many people enjoy the pantomimes every year.

Newer Christmas Traditions

Baking ginger bread houses on Christmas Eve

This is one of my favourite newer Christmas traditions. In the past, I used to buy the pre-made ginger bread house that you had to assemble and decorate yourself, but just last year my family and I had bought a gingerbread house making kit - only we hadn't realised that we had to actually bake the gingerbread ourselves and make it into the right house shapes ready to be assembled once cooled. This made it a whole lot more fun and made the house smell amazing. It also tasted a lot better too. This is something we're planning on doing again this year.

Driving to different garden centres with my brother

This is a newer tradition that really only started last year. I had just finished uni for Christmas and my brother had been off school on study leave for his mock exams and so one day we had decided to go to the garden centres to have a hot chocolate and a nosy around all the Christmas decorations. This year we went round about the same time but we went for breakfast instead and then went for a look around all of the different garden centres. Each one is so festive and we definitely left feeling more in the Christmas spirit. All of the garden centres are decorated so differently but there all still so brilliant in their own ways. I love going to the garden centres at this time of year because it means that I get to spend some time with my brother while doing something that we both enjoy.

Vlogmas

I actually only watch one YouTuber vlogmas and that is Zoe Sugg's (from the channel formerly known as 'MoreZoella'). I used to watch all of Zoe's vlogs years ago but I don't really watch her videos anymore but yet every December I find myself drawn back to her Vlogmas videos. There's something so lovely about her Christmas vlogs that it's almost like catching up with an old friend, seeing what she's up to a year later and then its goodbye till next Christmas😄. I've really been enjoying the videos this year and watching them makes me feel so Christmassy.

What's your favourite Christmas tradition?

Bye for now, xo