Carols playing in the malls, Christmas markets, trees outside local stores..this time of year gets me giddy with excitement.

I was brought up in a home with a dad who literally celebrates EVERYTHING. He’s a sucker for tradition and thus every special occasion had a number of traditions around it, making life that much more exciting. Christmas was no different, to the point that dad WOKE US UP (Instead of the other way around) at 5am (sometimes even in the 4’s) because he was so excited to see what Father Christmas had bought us. And so as one should, I caught his love for celebrations and traditions and have brought this into our De Beers home too. We love celebrating any special occasion (even some not so specials ones) but Christmas is a firm favourite.

Here are 3 traditions that we introduced last year (Se’s first Christmas), in addition to the standard hype around Christmas, that we plan to continue year on year…

1. The TREE

I have the BEST childhood memories of trekking around our local neighbourhood in search of a good tree (to cut down). YES we were that family. So H and I have continued the tradition of a real tree, every year. And we just love the smell of pine in our home. This year, H surprised us with THE most enormous tree, which he brought home as soon as they appeared in the stores. We then spent the evening, decorating the tree, whilst dancing to carols (even our Se Bear) and Se got a pressie to open up too (just something small to get the excitement going). This year she got a puzzle, but let’s be honest, she literally didn’t look at it again that evening, as Christmas decorations that jingle are far more entertaining for a 21 month old.

2. Family Christmas Bed

With the lights on the Christmas tree twinkling away, there is no better place to spend that first night, than in our lounge alongside our new tree. So yes, a Christmas bed is made for the whole family to sleep in, on that first night of the tree being up. {Unfortunately we had to miss this tradition this year due to a security breech in our complex and ‘having’ to set our full home alarm}. This photo is of last year’s bed <3

3. The Night before Christmas

Along with the usual hype of putting out milk and cookies for Father Christmas and carrots for the reindeers, we also allow Se to open up a gift containing new jarmies, before bath time on Christmas eve. She then sleeps in her new pjs and obviously looks gorgeous on Christmas morning. {Noah will be getting pjs too this year}.

I’d love to hear your Christmas traditions in the comments below…