On the sixth day of Christmas ....
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On the sixth day of Christmas we bring you a guest post from Wendy McDonald who writes at In the Wendy House.
"One of the things that I love most about Christmas is resurrecting our family's Christmas traditions. With my eldest child being 24, I have had plenty of time to come up with tried and tested things to do that keep the family happy over the festive season. Continuing these traditions over the years has given me such joy. This year, my youngest son Freddy is 3 and ready to embrace everything that the festive season has to offer. Doing it all again, and seeing it through his eyes will be completely magical.
One of the things we love to do in the run up to the big day is lots of baking and crafting. It's great fun to get on our Christmas aprons and get messy! Gingerbread is always a favourite to make. Festive gingerbread shapes are easy and fun to make. This year I've bought a silicone mould from Lakeland, to make the parts for a gingerbread house which will be quite an ambitious project. This will be our first time and I hope it will herald the start of a whole new tradition!
I love making personalised home-made presents for our family with the children. Using poster paints and their handprints, we have made reindeer and angel pictures which we have mounted onto cardboard. Adding a small printed calendar to the bottom, makes a present that will be enjoyed all year. You can buy plain white T-shirts for a couple of quid. Getting the kids to draw a self-portrait onto them using fabric paints makes a gift that will be much loved. It also provides a fantastic record of your child's artwork from year to year. Another thing we do is make a video featuring the kids singing carols, reading poems and playing musical instruments in front of the Christmas tree. We burn the film onto DVD and the children make a personalised cover. It is a lovely way to bring Christmas with the children to those who we won't be able to see over the festive period. We pop them in with the Christmas cards. My kids love watching them back every year too to see how much they have grown and changed.
One Christmas Eve tradition is the annual preparation of the Christmas dinner. Over the years I have learned that there is nothing worse than being stuck in the kitchen on my own preparing food while the rest of the family is having fun in another room. So, instead on the afternoon of Christmas Eve we all don our Santa hats and take to the kitchen together. We put on our festive tunes and work in a production line prepping sprouts, carrots, spuds, parsnips etc and sealing them into plastic bags ready to be cooked next day. Making this chore a fun family activity that is filled with fun, music and laughter, lightens the load giving me more precious time with the kids on Christmas morning.
Before bed time, the children all receive a new pair of Christmas pyjamas so they can wake up on Christmas morning wearing festive pj's! Freddy will be in charge of getting a snack ready for Santa and the reindeer and we will sprinkle reindeer dust (porridge oats, sugar and food colouring - which is a bird friendly recipe) over the lawn. Once everyone is tucked up in bed, my husband and I bring down all the children's presents and put them under the tree and add extra decorations to create a real winter wonderland. Then we get a big roll of wrapping paper and tape up a length to completely cover the opening of the door. In the morning, the paper cover hides everything from the children, raising the excitement levels and building their anticipation. On the count of three, the children burst through the paper! It signals the start of Christmas Day and all its magic.
I can't wait to celebrate Christmas with my husband and five children. We'll be enjoying our old traditions and hopefully discovering some new ones along the way!"
Love,
Wendy (Inside the Wendy House)