Fake Christmas 2015

Fake Christmas is an age-old tradition... ten years old, in fact.

My friends and I celebrated our first ever Fake Christmas in 2004, during our first year at university. The idea was born when we decided to have our own very Christmas Day before we went home for actual Christmas. This involved Christmas dinner, Christmas presents, Christmas music... you get the picture. Someone referred to the day as 'Fake Christmas', and the name has stuck ever since.

I'm so glad we carried on the tradition after we left university as it's the one occasion we all attend without fail. As we all scattered to different places after we finished university, Fake Christmas now involves travelling to different parts of the country every year to the host's house. We've toured to Cardiff, London, Minehead and Milton Keynes so far! We also now meet in January rather than in December as it's so difficult to find a date before Christmas to suit everyone. It's also nice to have something to look forward to during the inevitable bleakness and diet-fest of January.

We travelled to Milton Keynes for the 2015 edition of Fake Christmas as Fee and Dave had kindly offered to host. Our partners have been invited for the last two years, so there were 11 of us present for this year's spectacular. Ten years since our very first Fake Christmas!

Kirsty is the Head Chef for Fake Christmas dinner due to her rather immense cooking skills... I particularly love Kirsty's cauliflower cheese, gravy and roast potatoes. I generally stick to chopping duty as I haven't got the slightest bit of experience when it comes to cooking roast dinners. The girls worked on the dinner in the kitchen while the boys played Wii U games in the lounge. This gave us a chance to catch up and to discuss our hilarious and rather catastrophic catalogue of ex boyfriends... those anecdotes never get old.

Our Christmas dinner was ready at around 5pm and was spectacular as per usual...

Mashed potatoes, roast potatoes, cauliflower cheese, broccoli, carrots, sprouts fried with bacon, normal sprouts, parsnips, pigs in blankets, bread sauce, chicken, gravy, stuffing... ACTUALLY AMAZING. As yon can imagine, I was pretty full after eating this lot. 

However, there's always room for dessert. Liz has made a Christmas cake for the last few Fake Christmasses and the tenth anniversary was no exception. This year's cake was beautifully decorated (and tasted pretty good too), and Liz even bought a special anniversary decoration!

After dinner, the boys took over the kitchen to clean and wash the dishes and we retired to the lounge to exchange gifts. We decided that we'd only buy for one person this year instead of buying for the whole group as there are so many of us these days. I had lots of lovely presents from Kirsty including a Disney notebook, nail varnish, weekly memo board and a Love Hearts mug. 

When the boys re-joined us (leaving a sparkling kitchen in their wake), we proceeded with our other Secret Santa ceremony. In a nutshell, everyone spends £5 on the most rubbish/random collection of items they can find then the lucky recipients are randomly drawn on the day. This year's gifts included obscure children's toys, a goldfish pencil sharpener, chocolates, edible eyes, Tango shower gel, an expandable flannel, a One Direction annual and rucksack, a Rhydian CD, 'BOOM' party glasses... you get the idea. 

After the excitement of opening the presents and having a little mini slump/nap after food, we proceeded to play games on the Wii U until it was time for bed. Who knew that jumping over ski slopes, drawing pictures and racing animals could be so much fun? I don't enjoy video games as a general rule but even I had to admit that the Wii U games were so much fun. 

Fake Boxing Day is always sad because it means we're all going back to our respective homes and won't see each other again for a while. However, we've got Fee's hen weekend and wedding to look forward to in the next few months so all is not lost. 

Do you have any similar Christmas traditions with your friends or family? I'd love to read your posts if you've blogged about similar rituals!