Angelicscalliwags Christmas Traditions: Christmas Eve

I do realise I’m posting this after Christmas, but I wanted to include it in my tradition series, without having to wait a whole year to do so.

This is a tradition we have had since Gary and I shared our first Christmas together in our very own flat.  It has changed a little, accommodating the growth in our family, but has basically occurred like clockwork for the past decade and a half.

Sixteen years ago we begun our Christmas eve celebrations by making some ginger cookies, icing them together, whilst a pork roast cooked in the oven.  When we were ready to eat we would snuggle up in our living room, roast on lap, newly decorated biscuits for pud and the Muppet’s Christmas Carol.  And it is at this point I am unsure whether I ought to be blushing a little, because we had no children, no real excuse for watching what is essentially a children’s film; we watched it because it was truly good.  And we have watched the same film each year since then.

Nowadays I buy in some ginger bread men and some animal biscuits and we have a competition to see who can make the best manger/ Christmas story scene from these biscuits and the copious amounts of icing provided.  This was the first year that all five children joined in, and the first time A5 really understood what was required of her.  Everyone did a brilliant job and there was much banter going round the table:

And last but not least, mine:

It was left to me to judge.  Of course I chose mine, but after much moaning from everyone about the apparent unfairness of that, I reluctantly changed my decision to A5, who I thought did a sterling job!

Whilst the pork joint roasted in the range, the Christmas pyjama packages were handed out.  Pyjamas are the children’s main present at Christmas, so it is a highly anticipated event:

Each year we attempt to buy pyjamas for all of us that are similar in nature.  Last year they all had the Carlisle pattern, this year they were all panda onesies:

And didn’t we all look a treat?  Yes, even mummy and daddy had their very own panda onesie.  And yes, we really did look like Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum.  We even argued which one would be Dee and which one would be Dum(b)!!

Once we were all dressed up, roast at the ready, we popped on our favourite Christmas DVD and settled down on the couch to sing along to the very excellent Muppet’s Christmas Carol (below is the trailer – you can download the whole movie for 99p from YouTube):

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dhpu2tq9GG4

Happy sigh…..