Blogmas Day 23: What Are Your Christmas Traditions

A tradition is something that can mean a lot to many of us and is something that we do each year; and a lot of these traditions happen at Christmas. For some that might mean that they go to church on Christmas Eve every year and for others it could mean that they all go for a walk after they've eaten their dinner on Christmas Day. My family don't really have a Christmas tradition, well to me we don't anyway. But if I had to pick something that could be classed as a tradition, I would say that our family tradition at Christmas (well, it's more of a New Years tradition but it's basically the same thing - sort of) is to go and see a panto.

Now, when I was younger our tradition used to be to go to church every Christmas Eve. Every year I would be dragged out of my house to go to this Christmas Eve service at our local church to sing carols and watch a recreation of the Nativity scene. But I never really got it because I never saw my family as that religious but apparently they suddenly seemed to be at Christmas. However, when my parents split up in 2014 this all changed. We no longer went to church as we would spend Christmas Eve at our dads and I would like to think that we stopped going to church on Christmas Eve because of that reason. Anyway, we haven't done this Church thing in about two years and I doubt we're ever going to do it again. 

But on to our new tradition which is to go and see a panto every New Year's Eve. This has been our tradition since 2011 (so we're now in our fifth year) and it consists of me, my brother, my mum, my mums friends and their daughter. It did used to include my dad as well but when my parents split he no longer came to see the panto. But this year my youngest brother is coming with us being as though he turned four this year and my mum feels like he'd be more likely to understand what's going on and will be able to sit and watch it for however long it goes on for without getting bored. What we normally do after seeing a panto is go for a Chinese afterwards but this year we've decided to go to my mums friends house and then stay the night there for whatever reason. I've got to be honest, I would rather go out with my friends but I'm sure I'll be able to see them a couple of days later (I'm supposed to be spending New Year's Day with my dad) and plus it has sort of become a tradition now to spend New Year's Eve with them so I guess it's something I have to do. 

So there is my Christmas tradition (even though it's really more of a New Year's Eve tradition than a Christmas one) but we don't really have any Christmas traditions that I can think of in my family so I had to settle for that one. But I'm really interested to know what your Christmas traditions are so please let me know in the comments below.

Love Beth xx