Christmas shouldn't just be about food, television and new toys. Here are some ideas from iVillage members on how to make your family Christmas magical

Traditionally Christmas is a time of giving, sharing and celebrating with your family. However Christmas traditions can be marred by seasonal stress and the pressure to shop, shop, shop! Keep your family focused on the true spirit of the season by celebrating your special family Christmas traditions.

Homemade ornaments
'My mother has kept all Christmas decorations and cards my siblings and I created as children. Seeing our loo-roll Santas and pipe-cleaner fairy decorations on the tree each year always makes us laugh and in a funny way reminds us of how much our mother loves us!'
iVillage member Tara

An ornament a year
'Starting when we were little, my mother gave us a Christmas tree ornament every year with our names on them somewhere so we knew which one belonged to which child. I have carried this over with my own boys. The good thing about this is when the time came for us to have our own trees in our own homes we had tangible memories and a set of ornaments to hang on our tree.'
iVillage member courtx

A holiday paper trail
'My children and I love making our own Christmas decorations. We started with homemade paper chains. We recycle Christmassy adverts for paper links because of the bright colours and Christmas pictures.'
iVillage member hermansens

A festive Christmas Eve
'My favourite Christmas tradition, handed down since I was a child, is to go out and look at Christmas lights on Christmas Eve. When we come back home, 'Santa' has been there and all the Christmas presents are under the tree for us to open. We also open our presents on Christmas Eve.'
iVillage member babs

Celebrating the Solstice
This year my daughter and I are going to celebrate the solstice by attempting to stay up all night. We will be baking, working on a puzzle, playing games, singing and dancing and exchanging homemade gifts. Even if we don't make it through the whole night, we have fun trying and get back to one of the real reasons for celebrating at this time of the year -- the passage of seasons and the return of the sun!
iVillage member chris.n.k

The twelve days of Christmas
We celebrate the 12 days of Christmas in our family and this has many advantages: 1) there is no horrible letdown on Christmas afternoon since there are still 11 days until Epiphany; 2) it reduces the stress, with no big panic all focused on one day; 3) there is much more time to space out celebrations with friends and family, all of whom you'd like to see. Our family saves Christmas Day for our homemade presents to each other and leaves the shop-bought stuff from others for the other 11 days - our children open up one present apiece on those days. Not only is the celebration much more fun, it also allows us the chance to feel much more genuine gratitude.'
iVillage member quest4444

Deck the halls
Every year we combine a family woodland walk with collecting pine boughs, holly and ivy to decorate the house. The walk is really fun and good exercise for the whole family. We come home and have hot chocolate and decorate the house together.
iVillage member leaalison

Marking the Advent
We have a traditional advent activity for each day preceding Christmas, beginning 1st December. We give each of our boys a disposable camera with 24 exposures. Their 'homework' is to record the advent with their cameras, taking a picture each day of the Christmas season.
iVillage member anon2345

While visions of pyjamas dance in their heads
Every Christmas Eve we give our children one present to open, and that one present is always a new pair of pajamas. Even though by now they know what the gift is, it helps put them to bed in a happy mood dreaming of what's to come in the morning.
iVillage member phillum