Our Favourite Christmas Traditions | AD
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Do you have any Christmas traditions that make you smile whenever you think about them? Well, the whole of Christmas is like that for me, it’s my favourite time of the year. Even so, there are some parts of Christmas that make me extra happy and they are always some of our fondest memories in the years afterwards too.
Christmas starts as early as possible for me. I love all things festive and I’d happily be singing Christmas songs through November but, I tend to hold off until the very first days of December. The Christmas tree goes up, the advent calendars are opened and we crack out the Christmas jumpers.
That first week in December is so magical. All the excitement and preparation, seeing the finished tree for the first time, putting all the little decorations and ornaments around the house that we’ve collected over the years and putting twinkly lights in every spare space, making our home as festive as we possibly can.
And it’s at this time of year that I have one of my favourite Christmas traditions. As soon as the Christmas tree is up and the festive jumpers and matching Christmas pyjamas come out, we take a photo of us as a family. Our first photo of the festive season and one that often appears on our photo Christmas cards that year.
When LP was first born we had a photo of just her on the Christmas cards – her in a festive box, as if she’d just been delivered for Christmas. Then, for her brother’s first Christmas we had a picture of the two of them on the cards, surrounded by Christmas lights and featuring that exact same box.
But after that, when our family was complete and it was no longer a first Christmas, we started sending photo Christmas cards with the four of us on them and they have been a tradition ever since. We send them to everyone each year and always save one for the memory box too, something to look back on and treasure for years to come.
We also make photo calendars as gifts, with this photo used as the December picture for the following year, and I always share a festive photo of us at Christmas on the blog and across social media too. It feels like we need to take these photos every year, for so many reasons, and it’s such a big part of our Christmas. A really lovely tradition.
So, I love taking those photos each year. Getting dressed up in often matching outfits, laughing as we take them and then enjoying a whole wardrobe full of festive-ness for the rest of December. It really does kick off our festive season perfectly and it’s something the children always look forward to as well. Our family Christmas photo.
