My family is from southern Italy originally, so Christmas Eve was actually a bigger celebration than Christmas Day (which was meant to be a bit more solemn). On the Eve, an Italian tradition is to eat only seafood for dinner. This is sometimes refered to as the "Feast of the 7 Fishes" but we always seemed to have more than 7 in my house. According to tradition, fish was eaten to thank the animals for allowing Christ to be born in their stable.
In our family we always had the "Feast of the 7 Fishes" dinner on Christmas Eve, then we'd all plop down in the living room and kill time before we'd all go to Midnight Mass. After midnight mass people would come over for coffee and desserts and everyone would get to open one present, the rest were saved for Christmas morning. According to our Italian tradition, there were 7 different fishes for the 7 Sacraments and it was fish because you're supposed to fast before communion. I.E. no meat.
I just remembered another family tradition while I was in the process of picking up before our guests come over. My brother and I used to collect all the cardboard tubes that had held wrapping paper and use them for a sword fight. We'd sort through them, dividing them into weak, regular and strong to make sure they were fairly divided between the two of us and leave everybody in the family room as soon as possible after presents were unwrapped. Usually the living room was empty and we'd slash and stab away until the tubes were destroyed and we were covered with welts. While we were little nobody noticed but once we reached college age it got turned into a big deal, which made it less fun. I think we finally quit when one of our own kids was watching and started to cry because he thought we were really mad at each other.
My older son has developed a new Christmas tradition. Starting about 5 pm on Christmas Eve, before he even eats anything, he starts throwing up on everyone and everything. I then spend most of the night sitting up with him as he moans and groans from a sudden fever, until we both fall asleep in his bed. About 5 p.m. Christmas night, though, he is fine and running around like a mad man.
i remember years back, coming home from a xmas eve party, wife and I were very very drunk. she passed out on the couch next to the xmas tree, I went to bed. my kids who were between 4 and 8 woke me up and said mommy smells funny. She had thrown up all over the floor next to the tree. 6 in the morning I was scrubbing the carpet. Smell was so bad the kids would take a deep breath of air in the kitchen, run into the living room holding their breath and grab a present then run out with a present and open it up in the kitchen. that was one memorable xmas,,,,thank god that is not a tradition!!
We always go out for Chinese food on Christmas Eve and then go to a house in our town that is quite an exhibition of lights and characters. Lets just say that the start to decorate it every August. And every Christmas Eve, Santa and Mrs Claus are there at 7pm to meet the neighborhood kids. A heartwarming story.... last Monday morning on Christmas day, when our 3 kids came running into the living room to open their presents, my 5 year old son came in with an envelope for me. He told me to open it but I told him to open his presents first. But no, he insisted me opening my letter. It said "Daddy I love you" with a picture he drew of me with a soccer ball. He told me "Daddy, you are the best dad in the world and the best soccer coach". (I coach his team) Thats all I needed this Christmas.
Just in case you were wondering, the following were the gag gifts exchanged. Brother Bill - personalize autograph picture of Billy Beane(gay ex-baseball player) Brother mike - book, 1001 ways to be romantic and a blue pair of thongs with tassels Sister in law Becky - desk sign that says "this nurse goes from 0 to bitch in 3.5 seconds. Brothers girlfriend Gini - DVD, how to strip for your man Sister in law Cindy - T-shirt, Frankie says Relax(she is an 80s freak) my wife - a naughty Elf, push the button and it says stuff like, thats not a lump of coal in my pocket, pinnochio has nothing on me!! with each saying he gets a bulge in his pants Brother keith - pair of stress relief fake breasts and me - a holiday turd candle and a pair of 80's Ferrari glasses!
nice. I wanna start doing that but I don't think my family is filled with people with the proper sense of humor to pull that off.
I am fortunate enough to have all brothers that are ball busters and wifes/girlfriends that are just as bad. We have a great time together
Great thread. One December about 25 years ago, I was hanging out in the toy section of KMart or somewhere, and this grandmother-looking woman came into the aisle and started trying out all kinds of little wind-up toys and putting them in her cart. Like, a lot of different wind-up toys. I eventually asked her what she was doing, and she said that all her children and grandchildren came to her house on Christmas day, and she would put a different wind-up toy in everybody's stocking. Later in the day they would have wind-up toy races. That always sounded like a fun tradition!