Corny, I know - but when my daughter was born 23 years ago we were so thrilled to have our first Christmas as a "proper" family that a tradition of reading a particular book started.
Hubby bought a small book of " 'TwasThe Night before Christmas" and inscribed it from the baby, "To Mummy, from Rachel, You can read me this xxxxxx"
It became a Christmas Eve ritual - just before the kids went up to bed, we'd set the tray for Father hristmas with sherry and mince pies and a carrot for Rudolf and then sit down for the grand reading of the poem!
Over the years there were some mild panics as the book was lost, but always seemed to turn up i the nick of time. We decided to pack it away with the decorations every year, and so it has remained.
It's a bit dog-eared now, and other copies have been bought, but we still use the original - a tradition that continues even though the kids are 23 and 21!
