Holiday Traditions - Whats Yours

[CK]

I love holiday traditions. At our house we do the Christmas Pickle

If your wonderng wtf - well basically its a pickle ornament made out of blown glass. You hide the pickle in the tree on Christmas eve after the kiddies have gone to sleep and when they wake, the first kid to find the pickle opens the first gift. Its fun.



We also give the kids one gift on Christmas Eve to open. Its always fun to watch their eyes light up opening it just to find their Christmas Eve pj's

Myself I love to cook, and I really enjoy holidays so I have to have at least 1 or 2 other families here for our dinner. Its to the point now that the kids are excited to find out who is coming to our house for Christmas dinner (this year its three and Im so looking foward to it). That started after I decided one year we didnt need to do a big dinner because we'd be at the inlaws on Boxing Day. Well when the urge came that day we went on a hunt for any restaurant having Christmas dinner and everyone was booked. Needless to say we drove an hour away only to eat pizza in the car (it is a memorable xmas). So now I have to have a big dinner regardless of how many turkey dinners we go to and I have to have lots of people over.

Anyone else have traditions

EDIT - If you dont celebrate Christmas but still have a family tradition for your holdays post away. I love learning about other people's holidays

[PTC]

We have a tradition in my parents house. Every holiday, either me or my sister answers the question "...And do you know where these plates came from?" To which we will respond "Yes, from our great grandmother, can you please put some turkey on mine."

[themike537]

Lol my parents always do the "open one present on christmas eve", but I think it's really just a ploy to get us to go to church haha.

[Josh]

At my aunts house we play this annoying game. Basically everyone brings a neutral (guy/girl) $10 present. If you say "no" or "know" you have to give the present to whoever catches you saying it first. It may sound easy but I never go home with anything.

[pokerprop]

My tradition was always going to movies on Christmas. Though the past few years Ive been visiting didn't bother with a car rental so ended up breaking that one.

My mothers boyfriend family comes from Sicily every year either b4 Christmas or after Christmas (this year it is before). Everyone brings a gift and they're put under the tree.

Then what happens is they deal out cards from a red deck. Generally everyone has 2 or 3 cards depending how many brought gifts.

Then cards are drawn from the blue deck. The person with the matching card (rank and suit) gets a choice to either open a gift that hasn't been opened under the tree or swap a gift with someone that has one. If this person is called and currently is not holding a gift, they pick one from tree and must exchange it prior to opening for it to still be the same turn. The person who had the gift taken from them can now open their replacement.

This gets competitive because there is always some lame gift and some decent ones. They all have money, but the older people in family are tight fisted and come in this looking at how to get the most EV. where others just run and have fun with it some bringing nicer gifts and then pretending to want the lame one as they all fight for it.

[PDX Nikki]

When I was little, no matter what holiday it was (Easter or Christmas) we would have to search for our goodies early in the morning. I think this was my parents' way of getting us to let them sleep in as my older brother and I were always up bright and early and this way it usually took us a good hour to find our stockings or Easter baskets.

We are not as creative...so we get stuck getting up hella early :P We have little traditions we have started as a family of our own like decorating the tree together and only opening 1 present at home on Christmas Eve (Christmas Eve is the day to spend with other family, on Christmas Day we stay home with our own little or big families) and then the rest get opened before breakfast on Christmas morning.

This is a very cool thread...thanks for adding it Kaus

[Ridge]

We let the kids open 1 gift xmas eve -

No real traditions on Christmas Day, I guess we all have fun decorating the tree and putting on the homemade ornaments that the kids have made over the years. I usually just take pictures and video while the kids for to town. Do do make them all open 1 gift at a time though. With 6 kids toys, papers, trash, etc all piles up quick.

ah that's one tradition! Me walking around with a trash bag keeping wrapping paper out of the way, and double checking that no important parts are being discarded.

[Chalkie]

I point blank refuse and always have to allow any presents to be opened before AM Christmas morning.

Our family has always been traditional in the way that we all get together at Christmas.

I grew up with my grandparents visiting my parents house for xmas lunch, this then developed to me and my children visiting my parents house for lunch. Then as the children grew and my parents aged we changed it to all coming to my house for lunch.

This again had to be changed when we grew as a family, (i now have 3 grandchildren and 5 step grandchildren) because after we moved in to an apartment we simply have not the room to seat everyone.

This year sadly will be a break with tradition because my daughter in law wants a christmas lunch for just the immediate family so we are not eating there as we normally would, my son in law has his children christmas morning and does not feel like enjoying christmas lunch after just handing his children back, so this year it is myself, Tina and my dad!

Worst part of this is not being able to see the kiddies eyes light up when opening their presents.

Still, looking on the bright side, at least i get to have a leg!

As it is just the 3 of us, we will also get to see the Queens speech too, so that's a result as i love the Queens speech.

[Jeremy]

In our family, we celebrate Christmas at my parents house on Christmas Eve. As of last year I stared a new tradition of cooking the meal, prime rib.

Another tradition that has been in my family for as long as I can remember is that my Grandpa says the Norwegian prayer before dinner. Apparently it's been handed down for many generations since before they came here.

Another one of my favorite traditions is when we get home from my parents. As Karen is getting the kids ready for bed, I run around the house with some loud reindeer bells. The kids love it and are excited to tell me they heard Santa when I get inside.

Christmas day we head to another family members on my wife's side (Uncle Dale's), and in true Midwest fashion, the guys end up downstairs at the bar playing pool and drinking beer, while the ladies are upstairs working on the dinner.

In another tradition I am starting this year, I am not working starting next Monday through New Years.

[Skinski]

Growing up, and right on up till my dad died we cooked a hog every year for Christmas. I did skip it for a couple years after that, but I do the hogs now.

I generally start cooking it on Christmas Eve and have family and close friends over for a little party. Then on Christmas when it's done we eat and I give everyone that came enough Bar-B-Que to take home with them.

Cooking a whole hog is what's known round these parts as a real Bar-B-Que.