Christmas is coming, the goose is getting fat...

With our first Christmas with Harry approaching I have been starting to do some Christmas shopping already and started to think about the type of christmas family traditions we want to have in our family as Harry grows up. My family never really had many christmas traditions growing up. Working in pubs, hotels and restaurants, Christmas has always been a busy time for my mum and dad and often Christmas day involved everyone pitching in and working during the morning and afternoon as we got old enough to do so. Mamas and Papas have on sale this adorable red felt envelope with santa's address embroidered on it and hook to hang over the door for the letters to santa to be put into it. I appreciate that Harry is only going to be 4 months old at Christmas but I always think these are the type of things you should buy when you see because you will never find them when you come to look for them. And it was on sale! It was meant to be! I also want Harry to have his own dedicated stocking that is used year after year. This is something Chris has had growing up and something I would like to continue. I would love to have the sewing confidence to make one myself but as Chris's looks a bit of a mess, I think I might just buy one so it can be treasured rather than hang limply as an embarassment to him in the future! I would love to make a tradition of decorating the tree with Harry each year. As children we always helped mum with the tree but it was done with little ceremony (my mum if she could would put the tree up on Christmas eve and take it down on boxing day!). I was thinking of something along the lines of decorating the tree then snuggling under a Christmas blanket/quilt to watch a Christmas film with cups of hot chocolate. Or instead of a film, maybe reading a Christmas story. Each year Christmas shopping is usually left until December, but with Harry on board, I am trying to be more organised this year, making the most of sales and deals in the months leading up to Christmas. We decided just to buy Harry 1 gift this year since he is so little, so I already purchased that in the sale (it's a Fisher Price activity table which is bi-lingual in English and French and hopefully he will love it!). Each year brings the dilema of what to buy for Chris's family. In my family we just buy for immediate family (ie parents, siblings and niblings). In Chris's family gifts are bought for grandparents, aunties and uncles and cousins and he has a big family! We used to buy gifts for each individual but in recent years I have been buying houshold gifts - a gift for the whole household rather than individuals otherwise it gets far too expensive or you resort to buying people cheap toiletries which are neither needed or wanted. Last year I made each household a hamper with homebaked goodies, boxes of chocolates, bottles of schloer and a charity recipe book. this year I have purchased some popcorn buckets and going to put in a dvd, popcorn, sweets and some drinks - a movie night in a box! I really wanted to include a blockbuster dvd rental voucher, but they don't do them! So instead, I have bought each family the Muppets Christmas Carol dvd. Hopefully that's a movie everyone likes!