I wanted to hear what you and your families do around the holidays, be it Christmas or otherwise. Any neat traditions or other fun things you do every year? Our only tradition is spending too much money and then fighting the unbelievable urge to open presents early. Oh, and two other traditions are that I'm good at figuring out what I'm getting and my wife is good at leaving out receipts, bags from stores she shopped at and other stuff that she gets un-Jolly about. So I guess I'm not that good at guessing because she's not that good at keeping it secret.
Pretty mundane stuff. I hop the fence to the neighbor's yard & cut down their best looking Christmas tree. Then we get roaring drunk on Bailey's and forget about decorating the tree. Then it's feats of strength. Usually ends with cops & lots of drama.
We like to decorate a Christmas tree in the week or so after Thanksgiving and then watch the kids ritualistically tear it apart during the next few weeks until a sad-looking, Christmas tree-like substance is left on Christmas morning. We like to put the kids in the car and drive around nicer neighborhoods where the Christmas lighting is more extensive just for fun. We like to make little gifts for the neighbors and then fight over who has to deliver them. (Reminds me of an early Simpsons episode: "We're fighting about which one of us loves you the most." .. "Oh really? Carry on!" .. "YOU love him more!" .. "No, YOU love him more!") When we're feeling crazy we drive up to Temple Square in Salt Lake City to see the vast array of Christmas lights there. Cool stuff. Also cool if we go on a Thursday and we can watch one of the Mormon Tabernacle Choir rehearsals when they're doing Christmas songs. My 4-yr-old really wants to do gingerbread houses this year, so we'll probably do that. Before we were married, my husband and I went all out with this and made a Victorian Gingerbread mansion. When the kids are like 10 years older, we'll do that again some day.
We're a Catholic family, so our tree goes up on the first day of Advent and comes down on the Sunday after Epiphany. For Christmas we generally go to the Catholic Midnight Mass, come home, sleep, get up, go to the Presbyterian service (my dad's CoS), come home, open presents and have the traditional Christmas lunch. Always a roast but never turkey - generally venison. In the afternoons we have a ton of friends and their kids come around. We live across the road from a park with a cricket pitch and the beach. Given the composition of our friends we generally have an Australia vs Rest of the World cricket match ("rest of the world" being a bunch of South Africans, Englishmen and Kiwis) and then have cold dinner on the beach - prawns, ham, salad, pineapple, etc - which is a pretty popular Australian Christmas tradition. Then after dinner when the sun goes down we go back to the house and get rip-roaring drunk.
I'm Dutch and my husband's English, so that complicates matters somewhat. In Holland we don't 'do' santa claus, we celebrate Saint Nicholas (the original!) on December 5th. So in my family we exchange presents on both Saint Nicholas and Christmas. Thankfully we're both catholic so on christmas eve the whole family goes to midnight mass. After that we eat our first christmas meal, traditional for my region is that we eat balkenbrij, which is similar to yorkshire pudding and which my grandad makes himself (I won't get into details seeing that there might be vegetarians among you). Christmas day is spent with the whole family, this year it's at mine. There's loads of food, again what with the Anglo-Dutch combination I cook both a traditional English roast turkey and traditionally Dutch stewed rabbit. After the meal everybody drinks too much and falls asleep.
Well, in Germany we celebrate christmas and St Nicholaus. The kids have to clean their shoes on the night of the 5th of december and put them out of their room in the hallway, in the morning of the 6th they'll find some presents (nuts, chocolate, maybe a book or two) in it. Another tradition is the christmas claendar. Usually you get a sweet every morning from the 1st of december untill the 24th, but we usually gice out some useful things or toys as well. On the morning of the 24th we all get together and open the mail we got from everybody. At night we used to go the church but didn't do that in the last 2 years since we'r all atheists anyways, then we came home, had a nice dinner and open the presents. For young people who study abroad it is custom to meet at the local clubs after 'Bescherung' (the giving out of the gifts). We usually eat a simple dinner on christmas eve, ie potatoes, fish, Bratwurst for those who don't like fish and for those who want Caviar. In prechristmas time we usually go eating a goose at some point of time, on the 25th or 26th we go visit relatives and eat game. The christmas tree is decorated on the 23rd, and usually stands untill my birthday, which is the 5th of January.
My family is Indian (mostly) so we have some intersting traditions. Typically, we spend Christmas at my uncle's house in North Carolina. We usually get there on Christmas eve, where we're greeted with a spread of Indian food, pizzas, sodas, pies and my aunt's brownies, which are quite possibly the most unhealthy food on the planet. Then some of us tramp off to church to listen to my cousin wow the congregation with her singing. My cousin's a professional singer and professor. Christmas morning, we get up, get dressed, eat breakfast, sit around, watch TV, wait for another cousin to come over with her family, and then sit down to our traditional Christmas Day feast of Mexican food. And lots of it. Finally, around 2:30 someone remembers that it's time to open presents and we do that for a couple of hours. Everyone has a great time. My nephews retreat to the rec room to build whatever they got. The rest of us eat more watch basketball and nap. Finally, that night, some of us go out for a movie. Boxing Day, we put on FSC until I fall asleep, which being the EPL, takes about 30 seconds, and then I nap while everyone else does what they want. Then it's time to go home. Sachin
My Mom grew up in a large, blended Scotch-German Catholic family (4 his, 4 hers, and 3 theirs all under age 18) living on the salary of one special education teacher (my Grandpa). Down the street from them in a relatively poor neighborhood outside of San Jose (uh, go Earthquakes!) was a large, blended Mexican Catholic family (also 10 or 11 kids) living on a shoe string. On Thanksgiving, the Mexican family had no funds for a special dinner, so my Mom's family took their turkey and trimmings and delivered dinner to them. By Christmas my Mom's family was flat broke, barely enough for one small present for each person and no money to have a special meal. But on Christmas Eve the neighbors showed up bearing a feast of tamales, rice, and beans, and a new tradition in our family was born - tamales on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure how many branches of her family still does this. My Mom does, and I do with my wife and children and we talk about the origin of it every year. We also started some of our own. We buy a new card game or board game each year to add to our game night stash, and open it and play it on Christmas Eve. Last year was a card game called There's a Moose in the House; this year it is Blokus. We cut down a tree the day following Thanksgiving. Everyone gets an ornament every year, which are labeled discreetly. My wife and kids get an immense kick out of my bell bottomed felt elves from when I was a baby - those get put ont he back of the tree (an outrage!). They all get put on that Saturday following Thanksgiving, and we clean up before New Years. We're also careful to let some of the traditions evolve based on the input of our children, who are now 6 and 10. My eldest siggested two years ago that we follow Christmas dinner with laying on the floor around the tree, looking at the lights and talking. We started doing that - it's a calm, fun few minutes - and she feels good about that. By the way, I don't know when I've enjoyed a series of posts as much as this one. That you very much for sharing.
my 3 brothers plus spouses started something last year, we call it EBAY xmas. we draw names and buy gag gifts from EBAY only, 25 dollar limit to include shipping. There were loads of laughs last year...some examples, my wife is a dental hygienist, someone got her a pair of nipple rings shapped like teeth. My brother is pretty much in love with himself, thinks he is the greatest, he got a trophy of a horses butt, that said worlds biggest a$$ This year looks to be more of the same fun thanksgivings we, my bros and I, usually head to the old High school after several beers for the turkey bowl, game is usually at 10 in the morning. Then off to moms for turkey dinner, more beer and then pass out from, beer and food
i LOVE the idea about card games or board games. We were looking for something neat to do like that with our family. but our son's only two, so we're a few years from that. but I LOVE that idea. i love it so much I'm gonna steal it. But I'll always tell them where I got it. another family I know gets everybody a new pair of pajamas that they open on Christmas Eve (everybody draws a name and has to buy that person some PJs). so they all get in their new PJs, play games, etc. and then wake up the next morning with one present already there. so that's nice.
another great idea. because that's something you HAVE to think about. That could be great fun. you know, this IS a great thread.
Inspired partially by the great stories I've heard in this forum, I'd like to dedicate this year's Christmas letter to all of you. I wrote it right after reading the first part of this thread. Enjoy! On the 12th day of Christmas, my children gave to me: 12 soiled diapers 11 temper tantrums 10 sticky fingers 9 scribbled drawings 8 melted crayons 7 files shredded 6 hours of “Barney” 5 missing things 4 falling plates 3 drenched boys 2 curdled drinks …and an ink cartridge in the laundry!
nice. I may steal that too as i've yet to finish our Christmas letter. wait, I mean borrow the idea. I'll think of original gags. but, nice. very nice.
We usually make a gingerbread house, but I've been getting cranky about it lately and last year we skipped it. I don't skip making an assortment of Christmas cookies. I might try the gingerbread house this year and attempt a replica of our own house.
we have a big family poker game after christmas dinner. although, it might not happen this year, because they are tired of my brother and i cleaning up.
Not particularly an Irish, but a family tradition is that we open our gifts on Christmas Eve rather than Christmas morning. Christmas Day, visiting or receiving neighbours in the late morning followed by eating and drinking too much. On 26 December (known as St Stephen's Day in Ireland) there is a tradition in parts of the country where kids in the locality (traditionally known as Wren Boys, but girls can do it too nowadays) go from house to house, similar to trick or treaters on Hallowe'en.
Yes, it's not a typically Irish thing, just something that has emanated from my mother's side of the family. No idea why, as most Irish familes open their gift on Christmas morning. I believe the practice is also common in Scandinavian countries.
As well as Flanders and the German parts of the Alps. I like it better that way, though, don't know why exactly.
not me. I've always loved waking up Christmas morning with presents to look forward to. at least where I grew up, the Christmas Eve thing rarely happened and when it did the people were thought of as whacky. I'm not saying you're whacky (nope. ... different areas, different traditions.
My family does the majority of our gift giving on Christmas Eve as well - I always thought it was because we were just killing time until we had to head off to Midnight Mass, heh. I'm thinking its just a very European thing to do (my parents families are French and Italian, respectively).
Couple of years ago my kids told me they felt like the Christmas season didn't really start in our house until they heard me call the tree a c--ks--ker while trying to force it in through the kitchen door.
Our day usually starts off early - 6AM to run downstairs to "check and see if Santa came" (for my 2 yr old). Follow that with opening presents, then a hearty breakfast. By 9AM, we start getting drunk-dials from the UK relatives - "happy Chrisssshhhmush - here, talk to your aunt". The rest of the day is spent snacking and napping until dinner.
It might be a European thing. My family always had large 'ethnic' dinners on Christmas Eve followed by presents with the family. Christmas morning was for kid's presents from "Santa" and Mom <-> Dad presents.