Christmas is all about memories.  Do you want to make some magical Christmas Memories this year? What does Christmas really mean to you?  Edna Ferber, a late 19th century author, said ‘Christmas is not a season.  It’s a feeling.’  I share this sentiment and have come up with a checklist of 5 ways to help you make the most of your Christmas feelings and memories this year.

1 – Christmas Cake

Not everyone makes their own Christmas cake these days, but if you want to give it a go, now’s the time to start – baking guru Mary Berry recommends making hers 3 weeks before Christmas, which by my reckoning gives you until 6th December.

And of course, this is a great way to start laying down the Christmas memories and getting in the festive mood by involving your children in the weighing, measuring, and stirring (using the biggest wooden spoon in your house!).  For her recipe click here.

 

 

 

2 – Homemade Decorations

One of my lasting childhood memories is making decorations for the Christmas tree using milk bottle tops (do you remember the silver tops?  Thread them on a cotton for a retro 70s decoration!), shapes covered in silver foil, and of course lots of glitter.  These days you can buy kits, or look up ideas on Pinterest.

 

 

 

 

3 – Christmas Tree

Many people put up their tree on 1st December, and that’s when Christmas really starts to get going for them.  In previous years we’ve tried Pick-Your-Own Christmas tree, which was great fun when my children were really young.  The photo below is of my son 2 years ago.

If you fancy doing this then google ‘pick your own Christmas tree’ in your local area and go along and bag a tree – it’s great fun.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 – Music

Invest in some Christmas music to put on whilst you put up your tree and decorations, and to open your presents to on Christmas Day.  Then every time you and your children hear that tune the happy memories will come flooding back.

 

5 – Christmas Eve Magic

Christmas Eve – traditionally a time for midnight mass, but if you’re not particularly religious, or  your children are too young, you might want to consider a new tradition of a Christmas Eve Bag, or box.  At a time when the excitement can be difficult to contain you can produce a Christmas Eve Bag, filled with items to keep their minds off the presents under the tree and help them calm down for bed.

In previous years I’ve included colouring books, pajamas, puzzles and hot chocolate.  But this year I want to focus on helping my children to create and preserve their Christmas memories, so I’ve bought two disposable cameras and some small photo albums.  The idea is for them to fill the cameras with Christmas photos, send them away to be printed (ah, like the good old days!  Hope you can still get this done!).  Then they can spend time after Christmas putting them in their photo albums, and hopefully re-living the memories from time to time.

Your Memories

I hope this checklist has given you some ideas for this Christmas.  Keep this list handy as you go through December and you’ll be well on your way to making some fabulous Christmas memories that will last for years to come.  Enjoy!

And if you try out any of my ideas, please let me know, I’d love to know how you get on.

Rachel