What holiday traditions do you have?

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agriffin

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I don't have many right now...lol. I think part of that is because I don't have kids. But growing up...

We'd spend an evening decorating the xmas tree. Drink hot cocoa that my mom made. We had mostly homemade decorations and alot of photo ornaments. We'd also put up all of the "year round" knick knacks and got out boxes of Christmas knick knacks that would replace those. We had a basket of stuffed christmas animals that would go out...my favorite thing was a stuffed christmas tree with bells on each branch. And lot's of christmas candle holders! Although we never really lit candles. lol

When we got cards in the mail they would get taped to the coat closet in the living room.

Christmas eve we'd get to open 1 present and that was it. And mom and dad got to pick it out. It was usually a pair of pajamas. lol We got a pair of pajamas every year.

Christmas morning my mom would usually make sausage balls. Or sometimes cinamon rolls. And of course more of that hot chocolate. Then we'd open our presents and have familly over for lunch. Usually ham and potato salad.

My Mom did most of the Christmas shopping but my Dad would make it a point to pick out at least one gift that came from him for each of us kids. These became known as the "infamous Dad gifts" (and you have to roll your eyes when you say that). One year he got my sister and I golf clubs. Then took us golfing a week later in 20 degree weather. I remember laying on the ground to try to keep out of the wind. Lol, haven't been golfing since. Then one year he got me this nail dryer..okay it was kinda cool. The next year he got me a nail dryer also! lol. I was like, hey you got me this last year...he didn't remember. lol
 
Our Christmas traditions have evolved over the years, especially since all our children are grown now. One that never changes though is the cutting of the tree. Usually it's a couple days before Christmas, we all have lunch at a Japanese Steak House then drive out into the country to a beautiful tree farm, Snickers Gap, pick out our tree and chop it down! Sometimes we wait until Christmas Eve before we decorate the tree.

Mr Legg, Chop Down That Tree!
 
We're pretty stock standard here.
We do a few drinkies on christmas eve with nibbles.
We sit around & wait for the excited children to finally go to sleep.
Santa come christmas night.
Collapse into bed.
Christmas day is ham off the bone with salads etc.
We always spend it with family.
Quiet simple but nice.
My Dad & his wife will be with us this year which is a special treat for us as he hasn't been to my house for 10 years.

I hope everyone has a really lovely day.
 
When I was growing up, Christmas Eve was always celebrated with my mom's side of the family, which is Polish. It was a big gathering of family- aunts, uncles, grandparents, cousins and friends. It was wall-to-wall people. Oh, what fun we had! Good, good memories. We'd all sit down to a huge meal of my great-grandma's homemade pierogis (3 different kinds), ham, kielbasa, baked beans, pie, cookies, egg nog etc... and then later on in the evening we'd gather around the Christmas tree to open presents, and then finally go home exhasted sometime near midnight. :lol:

In the morning, we'd have a special time unwrapping presents around the Christmas tree with just mom, dad, and us siblings before getting dressed and heading out to my dad's side of the family, which is Irish. We'd spend time visiting, listening to Aunt Nelly play Christmas carols on the organ, and opening presents and eating a ham dinner with all the fixings together. So many priceless memories to treasure!

Fast forwarding to the present.... not much of my family is around anymore. :cry: Many have passed away, and of those that are still with us, most live on the other side of the country. I'm very thankful to have my sister and brother and their families close by, though, and my hubby's mom and brother, too.

My sis and I have kept the Polish Christmas Eve tradition alive. A few days before each Christmas, we set aside a whole day to make pierogis from scratch together with all the nieces and nephews helping out. It's a lot of fun. On Christmas Eve we all go to my sis's and celebrate (and eat all those pierogis!), and on Christmas day we celebrate with just hubby, son and me in the morning, and then we spend the rest of the day with hubby's mom and brother.

We always try to get the tree and all the decorations up the weekend after Thanksgiving, but we're a little late this year. We're aiming to get it done this weekend.


IrishLass :)
 
we all get together for lunch on Chrissy Day and eat then swim then snooze while the kids swim some more ....then boxing day its off to the beach for more food, beach cricket and swimming lol......
 
Every Christmas morning I make crepes but NOT just ANY crepes:
They're filled with bananas, ice cream and drenched in chocolate sauce (made with a Toblerone and cream).
Word got around so we sometimes have neighbours knocking on our door on the 25th! I love it since it's only the three of us.

We celebrate with my in-laws on the 25th with the mandatory dinner and gift exchange and then I hit the road to visit family and friends 'back home' (a 7 hour drive I undertake with my daughter) If we're lucky (with enough snow and good conditions), we go dog sledding with my best friend!
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I am from Slovakia and we have 3-day Christmas holiday there: 24-25-26. The 24th is the main holiday - we have dinner followed by opening presents. Before dinner we say a prayer and eat communion wafer (just bigger size) with honey and we cut apple in half to see if everyone in the family will be healthy the next year. If the apple is nice inside, everything is fine, if its not, then someone will come down with some illness. (We pick the best apple there is…)
For dinner we have creamy sauerkraut soup with smoked sausage and mushrooms, then fried fish with potato salad. After dinner we open presents and at midnight everyone goes to church for a midnight mass. Next 2 days are for visits with family and friends. All stores are also closed for 3 days.
I try to keep some of the traditions- like eating the communion wafer. I bring a package each time I go back and keep it in the freezer- this way it lasts for few years.
 
Since being in Australia it has become a tradition to spend the afternoon at the beach :0) Oh and love watching the kids fill a plate full of goodies and get a drink ready for santa and put it under the tree on christmas eve (Kev reckons santa needs a rum and coke to get through the cold night)
 
Sounds good to me! Here are some Czech traditions.

No lights should be lit in the house before the first star comes out. After it does, dinner is served.
The table should be set for an even number of guests. An odd number brings bad luck or death.
An extra plate can be used to even out the number of guests. An extra plate should also be prepared in case an unexpected guest or a person in need comes by the house at dinner time.
The legs of the table can be tied with a rope to protect the house from thieves and burglars in the coming year.
No one should sit with their back to the door.
Christmas dinner should consist of nine courses including soup, bread with honey, carp, potato salad, fruit (dried, fresh or canned) & dessert (apple strudel or vánočka - Christmas bread).
No alcohol should be served on Christmas Eve.
No one should ever get up from the Christmas table before dinner is finished. Doing so brings bad luck and death in the family.
Everyone should finish their dinner and leave nothing on the plate.
The first person to leave the table after dinner will be the first one to die in the coming year - that is why everyone should get up from the table at the same time.
Any leftovers from dinner (crumbs, fishbones, etc.) should be buried around outdoor trees to ensure they will bear lots of fruit.
All household animals should be fed after dinner so that no one goes hungry on Christmas Eve.

When I was little, we used empty walnut shells and each family member placed a little burning candle into a shell. Everyone's shells were then floated on a bowl of water. If the shell made it across the bowl, its owner will live a long and healthy life. A shell that sinks brings bad luck to its owner.

For New Years, we ate a bowl of lentils with a cooked egg on top. The lentils were for lots of money for the coming new year and the egg for a sunny future.
 
It's so great to hear of everyone's ethnic traditions. My family was Swedish, so when I was a child we had lutefisk, lingonberries, and fruit soup on Christmas Eve, and burned a bayberry candle down to the socket before midnight to bring good luck in the coming year. In 1965 my dad accidently blew out the candle, and in the following year my mother's back went out and she had to have 2 disks removed, we found out my sister (she was 5) was deaf in one ear, and my dad was diagnosed with diabetes (erroneously, it turned out later). Needless to say, we're paranoid about the bayberry candle!

As soon as my sister and I were teenagers, we begged mom to stop the lutefisk, and she was very happy to do so. When our own kids were little, it was pretty traditional American celebration; dinner with one side of the family on Christmas Eve, midnight Mass, and dinner with the other side of the family on Christmas Day. The kids used to sprinkle "hay" on the driveway to feed Santa's reindeer (dead grass pulled out of the yard). My mother and I baked hundreds of cookies every year, until she passed away in 2002. I still bake a few, but not the quantity we used to. Our Christmases are quieter than they used to be, but someday our youngest boys will have families and we'll have chaos again. I'm looking forward to that!
 
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