Christmas Traditions: Time to Ring in the Season
It’s that time of the year and it’s time to ring in the season. What are your family Christmas traditions?
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December is officially here! It is truly the most wonderful time of the year. To get Lady Yeya in the Christmas spirit, we watched Olaf’s Frozen Adventure. With his trusty sidekick, Sven the Reindeer, Olaf sets out on a merry mission to bring the best Christmas tradition to the Kingdom of Arendelle for Elsa and Anna.
Here are some of our little family Christmas traditions to help us “Ring in the Season.”
O’ Christmas Tree
In the U.S, the Christmas tree goes up during Thanksgiving weekend. But for us as a new family tradition, the decorations go up forty days before Christmas. With Kenz as the curator, the first weekend is spent decorating the entire house. Then, the next weekend we put up the Christmas tree with a small “trim the tree” afternoon tea party. The external windows are adorned with fairy lights and Christmas baubles. The Christmas stockings with our names take its place at the fireplace. The smell of woodfire makes our home extra hygge. This way, our home is magical in time for the first advent “window”. Lucky for us, O’Christmas tree stays until after Epiphany.
Advent Calendars
Every year, each of us picks an advent calendar of choice to help count down the days to Christmas Day. The last two Christmases, Lady Yeya got a series of baby books and dinosaur figurines. This year, she has two advent calendars. The first is a Disney book collection, featuring 24 short stories about Christmas from her favourite Disney characters. The second is a homemade advent calendar consisting of 24 small burlap bags of a single Schleich toy to add to her growing collection.
For us parents, instead of craft beer, wine, and beauty products, we decided on Hotel Chocolate dark chocolates with a Pukka tea advent calendar. Of course, in keeping to tradition, Buddy gets his annual Lily’s Kitchen Advent Calendar for dogs, which he absolutely loves.
Weekly Homemade Cookies
Who doesn’t love the smell of freshly baked cookies and cakes especially during the holiday season. My beloved KitchenAid is already working overtime with my quest to make weekly homemade cookies and cakes throughout the holiday season. We love sharing these homemade goodies with neighbors and friends. It is always nice to have some baked goods for playdates and impromptu get-togethers. On my list this year are classic gingerbread cookies, oatmeal raisin cookies, sugar and jam cookies, and snickerdoodles. Santa will have to wait and see what he will get on Christmas Eve.
Christmas Carols & Annual Trip to Hamleys
As a little family tradition, we take Lady Yeya to the world famous Hamleys Toy Store on Regents Street on the first weekend of December. This year we kick off the winter season with Paddington Bear’s First Concert at the beautiful St. Martin-in-the-Fields next to Trafalgar Square. With the orchestra playing some favourite Christmas carols, the narrator tells the story of how Paddington travelled all the way from Peru and later settled in at 32 Windsor Gardens with the Brown family. A lovely way to introduce children to classical music whilst enjoying Michael Bond’s classic book.
After lunch at dim sum in Chinatown, it was time for Lady Yeya’s favourite Christmas tradition: a trip to Hamleys. Every year we let pick out a small toy of her choice. This year, we continue with all things and everything related to the beloved children book author, Julia Donaldson. Of all the toys at Hamleys from Paw Patrol, Peppa Pig, Frozen, and Legos, Lady Yeya picks out a Zog, the accident-prone orange dragon from Julia Donaldson’s book. Lady Yeya left Hamleys with her new toy smiling ear-to-ear. The gorgeous Christmas lights on Regents Street greets us as we leave Hamleys unscathed.
So what are your family Christmas traditions for ‘That Time of the Year?” We have one more Christmas tradition to share. And that is to see the beautiful Christmas lights and markets all around London. “Happy, merry, holly, jolly season’s greetings here!” – Olaf
