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What are your holiday traditions?

Discussion in 'Chit Chat' started by BradThePug, Nov 25, 2014.

  1. BradThePug

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    One of the weirdest that we have is that we go out and pick a live tree. Then we make that live tree into gravesprays because my entire family is allergic to pine and cannot have trees in the house.. my dad is a florist too, so this is why we do this.

    So, what are some of your family holiday traditions?
     
  2. SemiCharmedLife

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    Jewish Christmas: movies and Chinese food
     
  3. Acm

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    My mom and I like to drive around and look at Christmas lights
     
  4. phoenix89

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    For New Years we like to shoot our guns at midnight. I have a legal gun range on my property, and it is with shotguns, so the shot doesn't go as far either.
     
  5. Really

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    This is hilarious! It's universal. How on earth did this get started?
     
  6. BlueAndWhite

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    Christmas Eve either my father or I go outside pretending to hear the knock of an elf, and we head around the house knocking on the windows so that our younger cousins come running tot he widows hoping to see the elf and instead find Hershey Kisses. After a while we'll head back inside after "catching a glimpse of the elf" or almost catching it or what ever to find excited younger cousins with plenty of chocolate:slight_smile:

    Also on Christmas Eve: ordering Chinese take-out and watching a favorite movie with the family
     
  7. CJliving

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    Christmas dinner at my uncle's house! My uncle is Italian and loves to cook, and thankfully passed that on to his sons as well. We have a legitamite Italian feast every year! I think we usually start eating at 2pm and finish dessert around 6. My cousin and uncle start planning the menu in like July. It is the greatest meal of the year! I sincerly hope that when I die, I die the day after Christmas dinner.
    There were a few years after my aunt died that we did Chinese take-out instead!

    Btw: the stereotypical Japanese Christmas, KFC. XD
     
  8. Kaiser

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    Christmas Eve is the only time I'm guaranteed to see my father, or his side of the family. I don't really enjoy it, but I'll kill 2 hours with my father, for $100. It sounds rather cold, but my father and I... we aren't terribly close, nor have we ever really been.

    I get dressed properly, and walk around the town... the distance varies. A few blocks, several blocks, whatever it turns out to be. I walk long enough to get a really good thought process going, and to see most of the downtown area, deserted and quiet. I can be gone anywhere from 1 hour to 3 hours, it all depends. This has become my holiday tradition, sadly, lol.

    Sometimes, I'll buy Christmas cards, stuff them with money, and leave them in random places, for people to find. I enjoy watching this, and the looks on their faces. But it isn't every single year, more like, every other year. So, this semi-counts.

    With Thanksgiving, there really isn't a tradition. One family member hosts, and anybody who wants to go, goes, could count as one, I suppose.
     
  9. BryanM

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    My mom and I still read The Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve. :slight_smile:
     
  10. Blossom85

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    We usually go for a drive and look at the lights sometime during December. When I was younger, we used to always have dinner at our next door neighbors and it was a trade off. One year we would host Christmas Eve dinner and the next year they would, it was always really nice and awesome to look forward to. Also when we got out Santa photos done, we always got to pick one decoration each year and add it to the tree. My grandmother still uses those decorations on her tree cause we grew up living with my grandmother and we left the decorations for her when we moved out.
     
  11. HoneySuckle

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    When I was younger, we always had a big dinner at my Grandma's (and then my uncle's after she passed) with the whole family on Christmas Eve. After the family left, our individual family would open all of our gifts. On actual Christmas Day, we'd spend it with my dad's side of the family.

    Now that I have my own family, we haven't gotten our own traditions down yet as things have been hectic. We're starting this year with my son opening one gift on Christmas Eve that contains a new Christmas movie, PJs and some treat for the movie. After that, clueless.
     
  12. shinji

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    I just sit at the table, pretending that everything is fine and that we are a happy family, while secretly wanting for the day to be over as fast as possible.

    I'm considering, maybe spending christmas somewhere else, away on a trip or something, but i'm not seeing that happening, at least not this year.

    Traditions are kind of hard to maintain when you don't have a big family and the few people you do have, simply don't care for such stuff, myself included.
     
  13. CJliving

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    This is awesome! Can I adopt your semi-tradition?! I want to do this too!
     
  14. Phalange

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    In Sweden, we celebrate on Christmas Eve instead of Christmas Day. Santa doesn't leave gifts during the night when everyone is asleep, instead, someone dresses up as Santa and hands out everyone's gifts.

    It's a common Swedish tradition to put on the TV at 3 PM to watch some Disney. Every year they show the exact same clips. Here are some of them (with Swedish voice-over):

    [YOUTUBE]erqEe49ZwSQ[/YOUTUBE]
    [YOUTUBE]SAHk8nPAa-8[/YOUTUBE]
    [YOUTUBE]XCr3KdvW7WY[/YOUTUBE]

    Kalle Anka is the Swedish name for Donald Duck. Mickey Mouse is called Musse Pigg and Goofy is called Långben.

    Don't ask me why this is a tradition, it just is. There are some non-Disney shows on later in the evening, which also are the same ones every year.
     
  15. Aspen

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    On Christmas Day, I wait for my mom to wake up. Then she calls my grandpa and he comes over to watch me open presents, leaving a couple set aside to open with the rest of my family. Then we get ready to go over to my aunt and uncle's house while my mom complains that they never open their presents in the morning so we always have to sit through them opening every single one of them.

    Go over to my aunt and uncle's. Open last few presents. Eat Christmas dinner.

    Honestly, I look forward to the day when I can say "I'm spending Christmas with my girlfriend" and we can start our own traditions.
     
  16. Skaros

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    Well, my family is Orthodox so we celebrate Christmas a little differently. Since we live in America, we kinda "Americanized" our traditions. We still open presents on Christmas Day and have a family dinner and decorate. However, the thing we do that's unique from other traditions and is done by Greek Orthodox is that on New Year's, we cut a cake with a coin in it. This cake is called Vasilopita. Whoever gets that coin, is the "ruler of the house" for the whole year. One piece goes to Virgin Mary, the others go to each person in the house. Virgin Mary got it one year, so the coin still rests near the frames of her and Jesus we have over the counter.
     
  17. DinelodiiGitli

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    Well let's see here, first me and my family make a game plan of sorts in late November. The plan will consist of figuring out who we might invite over in December so we can have the house ultra clean and tidy looking if we're having one of those relatives over. We put up a fake tree (which usually ends with some one complaining about how it's to big for the living room) and we hang a bunch of ornaments and lights on it that we've had since I was knee high to a quarter horse. My Mom bakes a ton of stuff that nobody in the house is likely to eat so she'll take it to work instead. Christmas eve is usually spent deciding on who we'll send thank-you cards to even if they don't care in the first place. Christmas day is spent with my household having time to take a deep sigh of relief and thinking about the good ol' days.
     
  18. David21201

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    Christmas Eve: Gifts with one side of the family (varies on the year) We also sing Christmas Carols and do a thing at church. Then I stand outside in the cold and watch the sky.
    Christmas Day: Open gifts and stockings, then go to a HUGE family gathering/party
    And depending on the year we open gifts on the 26th or 30th with my other side of the family. (3 actual fams, 2 X-mases w/ friends)
    New Years Eve: Stay up till midnight eating junk and blogging. This year I hoped to get kissed on New Years Eve! ^.^
     
  19. CharlsOn

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    We're not a very traditional family.
    The only one I can think of is sleeping til noon and having breakfast plus tv at around 2pm.:grin:
     
  20. wolf of fire

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    Watching my parents decide who I want to spend it with. Plus of divorced parents two Christmas dinners.