Christmas Traditions

[thegiraffe]

Alright...it's almost Halloween. I dunno about the rest of the world, but that seems to signal the beginning of the Christmas season here in America (so much for Thanksgiving...it seems to get earlier and earlier each year). In light of my personal favorite holiday, what are some Christmas traditions you guys have? And...I know not everyone on here celebrates Christmas. Do you guys have any "winter holiday" traditions (trying to be as PC as possible).

I mentioned on the Pranks thread that my family, thanks to my best friend's family - we're good family friends - starts playing Christmas music on November 16. My street (very close-knit) also has a Christmas party at a different person's house each year. One person comes with a portable light string powered by batteries hanging on him, and my best friend's dad always wears this....awful candy-cane striped shirt that his dad gave him. He loves the shirt, and the story behind it is great and all, but it's....seen better days haha. We know that he'll wear it until he no longer can, or it literally falls apart.

Alright...anyone else?

[Sphinx]

We always put up the tree on my birthday(Dec. 13) so it will stay alive for the duration of the holiday, and it makes the house smell sooooooooo good:D

[PuckishOne]

We don't actually observe Christmas, but I do keep on hand a scented candle called "Joie de Noel" that stinks up the place exactly like a freshly-cut tree would. I bake like a madwoman between late November and January 1, and hang up pretty lights around the windows for a nice, glowy ambiance. :)

Also, I have to watch "National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation" and "Scrooged" every holiday season, drink at least one glass of eggnog, and eat a couple of Frango's (a locally-produced chocolate-melty-candy-thingy that comes in a zillion flavors).

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

Speaking of awful Christmas fashion sense, I used to have a math teacher in high school who's Christmas-y outfit was a bright green turtleneck and bright red pants. :eek:

Anyhow, my family used to have a big party over by one of my cousins, who has a home right in the middle of some woods (really buggy in Summer, but awesome setting in winter). We haven't had it in a couple years though. Maybe this year.

[DGoddessChardonnay]

Usually, I'll go to my Dad's on Christmas Day around 9:30 or 10. My stepmon has dinner ready by 1, so that way we can have time to visit some before and after dinner.

Then my brother and I will come home around 4:30 or 5 and we'll spend the evening w/Mom.

This year, we're planning Christmas dinner at home w/Mom. We'll be home w/her on Christmas Eve after I get done w/work (but then this year Christmas Eve is on Sunday and as a general rule I don't work Sundays) so we'll have time to get part of the cooking done, then Mom will get the rest done while I'm at Dad's and we'll eat at our house later (probably around 6 or 6:30 I'm guessing.)

As far as traditions go, we bucked on the tree, as we've left it up since last Christmas (that way we'd have less to do:D) But we'll probably start decorating the living room and dining room the first of December. We hang stockings over the fireplace mantle in the living room and we have TON of stuffed reindeer people and frogs to set out all over the place.

We also have wreaths to put under all our windows outside the house, which I'm hoping I can get done late November (as we have currently decorated for Fall outside and inside.)

I do enjoy watching some of the traditional Yuletide programs. What we watch every year:

Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer
Frosty the Snowman
Rudolph's New Year's
T'was the Night Before Christmas
A Charlie Brown Christmas
A Garfield Christmas
National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation
A Christmas Story

My dad's family started a "tradition" of having their annual get-together the weekend before Christmas several years ago, but I won't be attending. It's the same thing every year:

Meet at the church (since Aunt C's house has outgrown it in the early 90's)

Eat and watch everyone go into their little clicques (pass a barf bag, please)

Then after lunch, they get together and while part of them leave, my aunts stay and get together gift bags for the elderly residents who live at the apartment complex my late grandmother lived in when she died (she died back in 1991 and the aunts have been doing this ever since.)

After the bags are ready, they'll drive over to the complex and hand them out to residents and then they get into their cars and they all drive back to their homes, where nobody sees each other foranother year.

They're a fun bunch, my dad's family is.:rolleyes:

[Jpurple]

We don't have a lot of traditions unless we're in Canada, which we won't be this Christmas. When we are in Canada, its something of a scheduling nightmare because my parents and my in-laws live within 2 km of each other. Last year we gave up on separating everything and just did Christmas morning with everyone at my parent's place. All anyone wants to see is the munchkin opening her presents, anyway. :D

We do have a few other (mostly odd) traditions that I try to stick to even living in a non-Christmas-celebrating country. All three of us hang up our stockings- I fill the munchkin's and my husband's, and he does mine. All stockings must contain some form of Lego, much chocolate, and an Archie comic if the owner of the stocking is old enough to read. We also leave out cookies and beer for Santa (I don't know what's up with the milk thing!) and carrot sticks for the reindeer.

[thegiraffe]

Beer? Maybe THAT'S why Grandma got run over by a reindeer.... Santa's not steering very well haha

[Ljt09863]

my families tradition used to be, every christmas eve, we would all hop in the car, and drive around looking at christmas lights. we would do this for a couple hours. but since we moved closer to family, we go to my grandmothers for christmas eve dinner, and my mothers for christmas dinner. i love driving to and from my grandmothers house though. there are so many beautifully decorated houses down there. oh, and who here remembers Home Alone? the first one? you know when he runs away to the church, and hears the girl singing? well, thats on the way there. it is beautiful!!! i love seeing it covered in snow.

last year, though, i worked both christmas eve, and christmas day. i wasn't able to get to my grandmothers house. i went over to my mothers house on christmas, but they had already eaten. afterwards, fiancee and i went to his parents house. im at a different store this year, and ive heard rumors that we close on christmas. i hope we do, cause i have a feeling that if we don't, im going to get screwed over on the holidays. im sure my boss will say something like"well, your the training SBA, you need to be here...." thats her reason for me working every weekend while everybody else gets every other weekend off.

[sportsmom]

Let's see here,

*We put the tree up the weekend after Thanksgiving, and then I spread out the rest of the decorations for a couple of weeks, the nativity gets set up last

*Hubby will hide the Baby Jesus if I put him in the nativity before Christmas Eve. Actually take him and hide him, not just put him behind the set.

*We get together with both sides of hubby's family sometime on Christmas. (Long story, but, there are a lot of bad feelings between FIL's and MIL's sides, but they are very good about working together to arrange their times so they don't overlap. I guess they both figure that I am enough of a bitch to say "fine, we'll just stay home if you cannot act like grownups.":lol: )

*The girls get up and come climb in our bed to wake us up on Christmas morning (I hope that stops before they are all teenagers) so they can open presents since they are not allowed to open them up until we are up and moving.

*Some years my mom flies up, but she just fits into everything else we do. She is not flying up this year, however.

*This year, my nephew will be stationed at the Army base in KY, so I will take the girls down for a few days and meet my mom there so nephew won't be totally alone right around Christmas.




I'm sure there are other things, I just can't think of any right now.

[protege]

Since I'm living by myself now, I'm not sure what'll be going on.

In years past, my dad's mom and aunt came over Christmas Eve. Then we'd head to my other grandmother's house Christmas Day. Most of that day would be spent opening up presents, having *way* too much to eat, then falling asleep with the kitty in the recliner.

New Year's is a bit different. Usually, I'm at home by myself, since my parents and brothers go out. And no, I don't watch the ball drop. I'd rather build models while having a "Steve McQueen" night. I'll start things off with "LeMans," followed with either "The Getaway" or "Bullitt." If time allows, I'll throw in the 1969 version "The Italian Job" as well.

[draftermatt]

A few days before Christmas Eve we go to my parents to exchange gifts and have dinner. Nothing fancy, but my Mom does'nt like us opening things in front of the whole family.

Christmas Eve we spend with my wife's mother's side of the family at her grandmother's.
Christmas Day (if she's not working) We open each other's presents in the morning, then go to her mother's. After that to either my mother's or Aunt's for my Dad's side of the family.
12/26 is my mother's side of the family at my grandmother's. (Which will stop for good when she dies I know).
12/27 is the anniversary of when my wife and I started dating.

[Spiffy McMoron]

Holiday traditions in my family have stopped a little bit, as the family is flung aroung the province, but there are a few things that you can bet on:

-A "themed" Christmas tree at Mom and Dad's-one year is red decorations, the next is all angels, etc. Also, I've noticed that the decorations that were made by the kids when we were young have mysteriously dissappeared...:rolleyes:

-A small get-together on Chistmas Eve, right after Christmas Mass, with some family and friends-and we all know the menu. Among other items, there will be: bacon-wrapped cocktail weiners, "Chicken wings" (Which are really a bunch of drumsticks coated in Shake'n'Bake), spinach dip, shrimp cocktails, surprise spread (Which is a misnomer, concidering I know what's in it) and enough sweets to make a diabetic weep.

-On Christmas morning we all wake up at about 9 or so (That six-in-the-morning business ended when my little sister became a teenager:lol: ) Have coffee, open presents, have a quick brunch, and then veg out for a little while before the big evening meal.)

[MadMike]

Usually sometime after Thanskgiving, my mom will invite us over for dinner, while she, my grandma (her mother), my wife, and my brother's wife all go down in the basement and make Christmas wreaths. We usually have a Christmas dinner at her place, but it's never on the actual day. She and my stepdad are nurse and doctor, respectively, and since people don't stop getting sick or hurt on weekends and holidays, the place where they work needs people to cover those days. Since they no longer have any kids living at home, they usually volunteer to work the holidays so that the people who do have kids can have them off.

We usually go to my dad's for Christmas Eve. My grandma (his mother) used to have it, until we lost her to cancer 12 years ago. I have fond memories of Christmas Eve at Grandma's house, and still miss it every year. :(

Something that became sort of a part of the above-mentioned tradition was a prank my dad used to play when he was young and still living at home. My grandma used to have four small candleholders that held miniature (birthday cake-sized) candles. Each holder was shaped like a choirboy holding a songbook, and each book had one of the letters to "Noel" on them. My dad used to rearrange them so it spelled out "Leon." She told me she used to get so mad at him for doing that, but once he moved out on his own, she missed it. So he started it up again, and it usually stayed like that.

We really don't do a whole lot on Christmas Day. My wife's sisters, and her one sister's kids usually stop by, and we all exchange gifts and have dinner.

[Greenday]

Ah, Christmas. Well, it's one of the couple times of the year I go to church. Actually, we go to church on Christmas Eve. Then my parents, my sister, and I chose some random resturant to go to and have a nice big meal after church. Every time, the places are almost always empty and we leave a nice tip to the poor waiter/waitress stuck working REALLY late on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Day my parents, my sister, and I open some gifts at home from eachother. Later during the day, my entire family in the area gets together, we open gifts from eachother, and then have an early dinner. It's really nice. I enjoy it. Now maybe one of these Christmas's there will actually be snow on the ground.

Ooh, I almost forgot something. Every year, my parents, sister, and I go to NYC close to Christmas, usually see the Christmas Show, check out the tree, I force us to go to Manny's. This year, since we always see the Christmas show, we are seeing Les Miserables instead. I can't wait. Despite not being a big play person, I've always wanted to see it.

[Heksubah]

My own personal tradition is that I refuse to acknowledge Christmas until after Thanksgiving. In fact, I usually prefer to wait until December 1st. The reason is that with people pushing it so much further out before Thanksgiving, before Halloween, encroaching into back to school and so on, it just feels less special if I let it hit me early. I condense it into one month and then I ride high on the concentrated holiday fumes.

I love the holiday season when it's not tainted. As a rule I avoid the stores. I speed shop for Christmas gifts. You would probably think of me as the perfect customer in Christmas, waiting patiently in lines and then leaving without a fuss after being polite and wishing a happy holidays. Ironically, I'm not even a Christian, but I love the spirit of the holidays. It has a power to it and a peace about it.

So, seeing as it's still October... *runs away from this thread* I heard nothing about Christmas! Not a word! Aiyeee!

[Ree]

Our family has always been big on traditions at Christmas, but over the years, we have had to adapt.
I was always a little uneasy and sad about it, because I don't always deal with change, but in the end, it turned out OK.
When I got married, it meant the end to Christmas at my parents' house, and starting our own traditions, blending my husband's with mine. By the time our daughter was old enough, there were certain things that just had to be done, or it wasn't Christmas. Once we started taking in foster children, we had to adapt again. Mind you, one of the girls never really had much until she came into foster care, but she had picked up a few traditions from the other home she lived in for a few years. We blended those into ours as well.
When my father passed away in 1995, that marked the end of a lot of great traditions. Then, with the passing of my husband's father in 2003, and now his mother, a week after Christmas last year, the holiday has really changed for us.

Some of my childhood memories:

When I was little, we would never put up the tree until Christmas Eve.
I always thought it added to the specialness of the day, but in looking back, I now know how that "tradition" came to be.

My parents claimed that they were worried that my little sister would be so attracted to the lights and pretty ornaments that she would pull the tree over on herself. That was silly, since the tree was up after Christmas Day until Jan 6, and they didn't worry about it then. Now, I know that it was because our house was so small with 9 people, that the tree was an inconvenience and it was better to only have that for a week or so, than for a whole month. Also, I now strongly suspect that my Dad always bought the tree with his Christmas bonus, that he didn't get until Christmas Eve.

Now, we put our tree up the first weekend in December, and then decorate the house with my vast collection of ornaments and trinkets. I love Christmas decorations. Every year, we end up having to add a new box to the storage area because of stuff that I have picked up.

We usually invite my sister and her family for the tree trimming, but the past few years, they haven't been able to come up. I remember one year, I had this extra candle holder that my sister loved. Since I had two, and no place to put it, I gave it to her. My daughter came down the stairs just as my sister was putting it in her purse. My daughter's eyes got huge as my sister looked over her shoulder at me, put her finger to her lips and made a "shush" sound, pretending that she was stealing my decoration. :lol: She had to laugh, though, and let her in on the joke when she saw that my daughtere was so upset at keeping the secreta that her beloved "Auntie" was stealing her Mom's decoration.

We always went to Midnight Mass. I still remember one year, my baby sister hiding under the bed and refusing to come out because she didn't want to go to church.
My parents said, "Come on honey, don't you want to come with us to celebrate Jesus' birthday?"
Her little face appeared from under the bed, eyes huge with excitement and curiosity, and she asked, "Is there going to be ice cream and cake?"
My Mom said, "No."
Then my little sister scrambled back under the bed and said, "Well I don't want to go then. " :p

When my daughter was little, we always went to the early service for children. Since I have stopped attending Mass regularly, I don't go to church at Christmas. I still feel like I'm missing something.

We all hung stockings, which we safety pinned to the couch with a piece of paper on which our Mom had written our names.

Christmas morning, none of us were allowed to go to the living room, where the tree was, until we had all lined up, youngest to oldest and waited for our Dad to go out and turn on all the lights.
Every year, we would hear the same thing, "Oh, dear. Santa didn't come." Then we walked out in a line to the tree to find he was joking...again.

That one is still a tradition in our family. At our old house, we had the upper level, and my daughter and I would wait until my husband had lit the tree, then we went down together. Funny thing, he always makes the same lame joke my Dad did. Now that we are in a bungalow, and the living room can be seen from the hallway, it's harder to prolong the suspense, but we still have the rule that nobody goes to the living room until everybody does.

Last year, we invited our foster daughter, who had moved out on independent living, back with us, as she has now become a part of our family. I was a liitle upset to find that she had already been up and out to the living room, having a cigarette with my husband's brother, who was also visiting and had slept on the couch.
It kind of ruined that moment for me.

My husband always makes a big pot of stew for Christmas Eve dinner, with a loaf of homemade bread. Our daughter insists. Foster daughter hates stew, so she gets my husband's chili, which she loves.

Christmas Eve, we light all the candles, put on Christmas music through dinner, and then watch a Christmas movie or two. After the kids go to bed, hubby and I curl up on the couch together and watch "Scrooge - A Christmas Carol" (the 1951 Alastair Sim version). If it's not on TV, we pop in our own copy of the movie.

Again, foster daughter usually crimps that style, as she heads off with boyfriend to his place, and gets back around bedtime, missing the family time, or she invites him here, which also ruins the 'family' atmosphere.

My sister and her husband always come to our house on Christmas Day, and we go there for New Year's Eve. Since there is such a large group, we usually draw names. Our family names go in one basket, and theirs go in another, and we draw from the opposite basket, so we each buy for one person. It's supposed to be a secret as to who has whose name, but sometimes secrets leak out. Also, they have 4 in their family, we only have 3, so we started adding my hubby's brother and then the foster child.

Last year, because we had 2 foster children, and one of them was not particularly likeable to my sister, my sister's family opted out of the name drawing and just bought for my daughter (although, somehow, they still ended up buying for hubby and I, which was OK, since we had also bought for them). The previous year, we had included the second child in the gift exchange, and, instead of saying thanks, she had a comment or problem with every gift my sister bought for her (too small, too big, wrong style of nose ring, etc.).

Last year, both girls were now on independent living, so we thought it would be the first time in several years that it would be 'just family', but since the one girl is now like a second daughter to us, and she was going to be alone, we invited her to be with us.

I am usually really excited about Christmas, but last year, I couldn't have cared less if we even celebrated. I don't know why. I think it was because I was having some health issues. I was in the middle of a cancer scare which luckily ended up being nothing serious. I had asked to take a break from foster care, because I was burnt out. (There are still ornaments sitting around that I never packed up because I was just in too much of a funk, and as time creeped by, I figure, "What the hell, in a few months, it will be time to take them out again.")

This year, I am a little excited about the holiday, but so much has changed that I don't know what 'traditions' we will keep or which new compromises we will have to make, that will become new 'traditions'.


...And I just realized I wrote a novel...Sorry. :p

[Ree]

Forgot to include one major tradition.

In November, we do the "Operation Christmas Child" shoebox thing.

We usually do one box for each age group and sex.

We always put in a letter. One year, we got a thank you note back from a child. It was from the Ivory Coast and it was all in French, so we had to get it translated.
Later that year, it was all over the news about the violence that erupted there.
I have always wondered about that child.

Two years ago, our foster daughter got a note back. I forget exactly which country that child was from, but they were pretty excited about getting school supplies, because that meant they could now attend school.

[thegiraffe]

I forgot about this 'til now:

We have an unwritten tradition of taking the bow off the package we happen to be opening at that moment, and placing said bow on our heads. When it comes to open the next package, it either stays there and gets a neighbor, or is replaced - depending on size, mood, etc. This is true with birthday presents and all too. Strange, but amusing lol.

[Jpurple]

we do something similar, giraffe, although we're more likely to stick the bows to the head of the youngest person in the room. (you should see the looks we get from my daughter!)