Christmas/Chanukkah Traditions

I'm sure lots of us do the whole big dinner thing, and the opening the presents thing, but is there anything you and your family does (or did when you were little) that was also a holiday tradition?

For me, it would be the Christmas Eve festivities. We would have take out for dinner (not rare, but somehow better on christmas eve, because it was not often that we'd all sit together and eat take out). Then, we would take a walk to look at all the christmas lights. When we got home, we would have hot chocolate, followed by the family reading of a goodnight story (even when we were not little anymore...though now that two of us are out of the house and one is a full-blown teenager, we've given up the Dr. Seuss and replaced him with other things). I think I'll always like christmas eve better than christmas, because it was so informal and just about having a good time, all together.

So, what are your favourite holiday traditions and memories??


Leli.

oh i was the same when i was little, it wasnt so much a tradition, but on christmas eve we just all stayed in together, watching christmas films, getting your stocking ready.
and at night me and sisters would stay awake all night looking out the window to see if we could see santa passing lol, its lovely when you think back.

welll... no?
not in my family but i remember when i found out that santa was my mum!
i was crying so much!
My cousins and i were all tucked in bed and my aunt accidently opened the waldrobe full of presents!!!
i was 3 then but i remember that moment for some reason
That was the only xmas i spent with any family lol

that's young to find out

I was about 6, I think. I asked my dad and he answered honestly....hmmmm. I didn't expect that! But I made lemons out of lemonade....I tortured my little sister with the knowledge!

Me: "Hey, guess what? Mom and Dad are Santa."
Kate: "Nooooo....." and crying
Me: "Just kidding"
Kate: "Oh....ok....want to play barbies?" (she bounces back quickly)

Repeat on about a 3 times a week basis until christmas

that sounded soooo much like me and my sis

How about instead of a tradition, just some bizarre holiday habits? My family has never been "BIG" on the whole christmas things....
1) I do a lot of my shopping on Christmas eve. I like shopping on Christmas eve. I know exactly what Im going to buy (and its always there, Im not the kind of person who selects mass marketed/in high demand gifts) and really enjoy watching everyone panic and run around and be stressed. I guess thats not the nicest festive attitude....I do like seeing what they are buying and making up who they are giving it to....that is quite fun
2) We go to McDonalds for lunch on Christmas day. I think this started because of my Aunts "slightly" modified traditional Christmas dinners....It continues because of how ridiculous it is. We have a lot of fun getting up, opening presents, and going to McDOnalds before heading to my Aunts.
3) My cats all LOVE Christmas, so we "wrap" them cat treats to go insane for.

I guess thats about it...just wanted to add my 2 cents.

we go to midnight mass, and then at noon a formal sit down xmas dinner at my dad's mom's house, then at three a formal sit down dinner at my mom's mom's house. The at night we might open some presents.

But this year I'm doing half bf's xmas and half mine. I'm thinking midnight mass, then visitng the cemetary as we did last year to wish people we have loved a merry xmas. Then christmas morning at his mom's house where there will be presents to open and a christmas brunch.. then dinner at my mom's mom's, then opening presents with my family at night.. we might be worn out a bit hehe.

We actually celebrate Hannuka this year, as Ron is old enough to enjoy it. We just lit the candles and sang the songs. I made some low-cal doughnuts (baked and not fried).

We had started a thread before the crash about holiday traditions which I thought was really interesting since we have members worldwide.

My family did try something new for Thanksgiving this year with other family members, that I'd like to make a tradition. We had a family breakfast. We told the extended family be at the house at 9am and had wonderful breakfast casseroles, sweet breads, sausage and gravy, pancakes, fruit, juices, etc. It was really yummy and a nice change. An added bonus is that it didn't interrupt everyone's day as they all went home around 1 or 2 pm. I would like to do this at Christmas.

What is your favorite tradition or how do you celebrate the holidays in your country?

Gravy?????? for breakfast??? wow is mash potatoes included !

I want to make my tradition also.. but for christmas and make up my own thanksgiving?
If i have this xmas with my bf then im going to bake and cook and make a big thing out of it...

I know in australia We celebrate Anzac day and we make yummmyyy bikkies and its celebrated in new zeland too. Its to remember the people in the war.
Sam posted that in the forum before the crash

What are bikkies made of?

Sausage and gravy is a gravy that is flour and milk based and it's served over biscuits.

Is this just a food tradition? I love that in my family we open up one gift on Christmas Eve... makes the wait a bit more bearable. Although there was this one Christmas Eve when I opened up a package to find batteries... that year we had to open up two presents...

What? Just the batteries not good enough? No, it's not just a food thing. I think I threw Fran off by mentioning the gravy We also did the one present on Christmas Eve thing.

I didn't know that people from my country celebrate thanks giving with a stuff chicken instead of a turkey. They also have nacatamales which is kind of like Tamales but better. Rice and Beans mixed together (Gallopinto).

For Christmas we always celebrate it on the 24 and when it's midnight we open up the presents. The food is also different, we have a dessert made with Rum it is called Pilloquinto, we have Nacatamales again and we have a soup called Sopa de queso which means cheese soup. We also have Cannelonis.

I hope I didn't confuse anyone with all these spanish words.

We don't really have any traditions. Bill and I both come from Southern families and grew up near the Mexican border and we blend Southern, Mexican and Tex-Mex.

For example, we have tamales at Christmas and black-eyed peas, ham and cornbread on New Year's.

We're spending this Christmas Day with my Hispanic DIL's family and we'll get some REALLY good homemade tamales. Sam's Nana makes three kinds.

Do you have someone like a Santa Clause who brings those gifts on Christmas Eve???

Originally Posted by babygirl

I didn't know that people from my country celebrate thanks giving with a stuff chicken instead of a turkey. They also have nacatamales which is kind of like Tamales but better. Rice and Beans mixed together (Gallopinto).

For Christmas we always celebrate it on the 24 and when it's midnight we open up the presents. The food is also different, we have a dessert made with Rum it is called Pilloquinto, we have Nacatamales again and we have a soup called Sopa de queso which means cheese soup. We also have Cannelonis.

I hope I didn't confuse anyone with all these spanish words.

Click to expand...

Maybe when we were little but now that we are adults and we know the truth, we don't have a Santa Clause.

We have never woken up in the morning to go open present we always do it the night before.

At Chris' request, I'll merge this with the other thread we have on holiday traditions.

Thanks Heidi! I didn't realize there was another thread out there!

Originally Posted by fwan

Gravy?????? for breakfast??? wow is mash potatoes included

!

I want to make my tradition also.. but for christmas and make up my own thanksgiving?
If i have this xmas with my bf then im going to bake and cook and make a big thing out of it...

I know in australia We celebrate Anzac day and we make yummmyyy bikkies and its celebrated in new zeland too. Its to remember the people in the war.
Sam posted that in the forum before the crash

Click to expand...

Yea we celebrate Anzac day here in NZ and over in Aus but that is on April the 25th. And Chris the "biscuits" are made out of rolled oats and such....