Christmas traditions, old & new

I love a good Christmas tradition and I love finding out what everybody else does, so I thought I'd give you a run down of the things I do with my family and friends at Christmas time!

Decorating the tree is an obvious one, but my mum likes us all to be there and all do it together, although she ends up changing it all around when we're done because she's so fussy. We used to have a little Christmas tree because we went away over Christmas, to stay in a little cottage in Wales with hills and horses in the middle of nowhere. There was an aga (we made scones every day and ate them with Baileys cream) and it was no surprise to have a sheep on the driveway. We don't go any more, but it was an amazing tradition for about seven years.

My mum and I always wrap the presents while watching Christmas films on the TV - my favourites are The Holiday and A Princess for Christmas, and we put the fire on and burn candles and the dog messes up the wrapping paper.

Christmas Eve, it seems, has become a party at our house. My mum and dad invite all their pals over for drinks and nibbles, and they always plan to head to the pub in the evening but everyone ends up pretty tipsy so they never make it. I make it my aim to drink as many cocktails as possible, then get all snug in my onesie. I might be twenty but I still have a story read to me at bed time on Christmas Eve, sorry not sorry.

On Christmas day we get up and open our presents, have a fry up and crack open the Bucks Fizz, then one parent cooks the dinner while the other drives out to my gran's to bring her to ours. There's more presents followed by too much food, the Queen's speech and paper hats that don't fit on any of our heads. We take my gran home then have lots of alcohol/cheese/chocolate and knuckle down for some board games.

Christmas means pantomimes - for a few years it was a family affair, and now my dad is the only one still involved but of course we always have a night at the theatre to see him. Is there anything funnier than your dad with eyeliner on?

Now that I've got Sam in my life, we're creating traditions of our own: we're buying each other a tree decoration, making our own advent presents (we set a budget and bought stocking filler type presents for each other and it's SO exciting) and I'm spending the evening of Christmas day at her house - the board games will continue, obviously. We're also going to the Christmas markets in Krakow, and I'd like to go somewhere different each year to see what they have to offer - if we can afford it!

I hope this wasn't too boring, and I'd love to know your Christmas traditions so definitely let me know. Christmas is such a lovely time of year - if you don't celebrate it, let me know what you'll be doing this winter!