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Jimmy Fallon Asked People To Share Their Dumb Holiday Traditions, And The Responses Are Hilariously Entertaining
Every family has their own cherished and beloved holiday traditions, but for some, a handful of hopelessly 'dumb' ones remain alive and kicking as well. Jimmy Fallon, the master of hashtags, helped us deck the halls this week by encouraging Tonight Show viewers to share the most downright questionable Christmas traditions their families are still practicing each year. #MyDumbTradition participants delivered, and here at Bored Panda, we thought it would be a bit of festive fun to gather the best responses together into a big, 'dumb' list for your viewing pleasure. Scroll down to see them all, and be sure to vote for the ones that your own family shamefully (or shamelessly) carries on.
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The fact that your daughters are already/almost adults and they still love it is proof of how totally AWESOME this tradition is!
As an aging grandma, I'd be thrilled to be remembered in any tradition at all, no matter how silly. I love this. It makes me think you all loved her.
Ditto, Jean. Every loving thing my grandkids do opens the floodgates - tears of joy!
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That is actually really beautiful! It is keeping her a part of the holiday
Wha?!?!! Oh come on! Eat it, this is my favorite part of Thanksgiving meals and YES it has to come from a can and have the can marks or it ain't right!
We just pass a bag of fresh cranberries around the table. Duck if you hear "pass the cranberries" !
My Grandmother and Mother used to slice it into 1/2 inch pieces. Then they'd slice it down the middle and arranged it so that it looked like a Christmas tree. I now do that and hope my kids continue the tradition. BTW, they LOVE canned cranberry sauce!
My daddy always made crowns for the salt/pepper shakers in restaurants with the paper ring holding the silverware/napkin setup.
Traditions that carry on after people a deceased are of the highest honor! IMHO
Eat it! It isn't so bad...pretty good actually. (Get an expensive brand...might be of higher quality.). Oh, btw - you can make thin slices the next day for Turkey-leftovers-Sandwiches.
My husband tried to talk our daughter into pizza and beer this year. I told him Santa can't get caught with a fui (flying under the influence).
My sister would take a very cruel advantage of such tradition. And so would I.
Does the Gingerbread family know they only have a week or so to live?
Reminds me of a Thanksgiving with my ex in-laws. As we clasped hands standing around the coffee table, I looked down, and got tickled. The overhead view of that same pilgrim looked as if he were an aroused pilgrim. Try it sometime.
At least, it's not the petrified gnome in a tutu Fred and George used as a Christmas tree top (for those who don't get it, it's a moment from the Harry Potter books).
I love the stories behind some of those traditions. Something that first seemed unimportant escalated into a whole tradition. And it's called a tradition for a reason! Just imagine, some of those might exist for a few more centuries to come! God knows what legends would be made about the creation of those traditions! It would be weird, don't you think?
These were great! They were creative, and have meaningful backstories behind them. Thanks BP!
Our Christmas Tradition is that every year my grandma hides a nail in the tree like the nail Jesus was hung on the cross by and there is always a competition to see who can find it first though no reward. The only reward is bragging rights. Quite fun love it lots. Oh we also go on a scavenger hunt around the entire town and sometimes out side of town it's a lot of fun
Living in Germany we have the presents on Chrismas Eve, normally after dinner. When I was younger, my family would find an excuse to sent me out of the room to make the presents miraculously appear, from the "Christkind" (we don't do Santa here). After I found out it was them we still conitue that tradition and it converted to me saying that I have to "powder my nose" and leave for the bathroom long enough ^_^ Oh and when we open the gifts we all start with trying to guess what's inside by feeling it through the wrapping paper and saying that it's a vinyl for sure!
We have a small toy trash can that says 'you've ruined christmas'. Originally it also had a certificate that said "congratulations, you made baby jesus cry", now lost, but the trashcan is kept with the christmas decorations. Anyone 'ruining' christmas with a bad mood, excessive sarcasm, starting a fight, being offensive in anyway, gets the trashcan, which they have to keep until they can pass it on to the next offender. It usually gets tossed across the room with a shouted "[offence]! ruining christmas!". One time it was tossed too enthusiaticly, and hit the recipient (my sister) in the face, only to be imediately thrown back with the cry of "Hitting your sister in the face with a trashcan! Ruining christmas!" In a large family with several instigators, more than one grump, divorced parents and birthday on christmas day, it's a fun way of squashing comflicts and bad behaviour without starting fights.
Our tradition growing up was we played "find the pickle" with the winner getting to open their present first. Well, my parents had to hide it on the tree first, so we we had to wait on the stairs until we were allowed to go down. They used to make us pay for waking them up early by making us wait while they were drinking coffee, having snacks, changing laundry, etc.
I thought the prosthetic leg was a representation of the leg lamp in the Christmas movie! 😀
When we were kids my brother started stealing my own stuff and wrapping it up with whatever he could find to give it back to me on christmas. There were quite a few years where I got my own barbies and easy bake oven dishes back wrapped in saran wrap, dog poop bag, paper napkin from Mcdonalds, tin foil and 1 of my own t-shirts. He kept it up for a number of years as we got older and got my kids in on the act to help him "steal" something of Mom's to give back to me on christmas. My kids are grown and he's lived abroad for a number of years, but it was always interesting to get my own cutlery, antique dolls and random shoes back for christmas!
When my boys were young i would carefully put fishing line in the tree and rig it up discreetly to a fishing bell.... than stream the fishing line along the back of the couch, stapling it to the length of back of couch, sometimes along the entire length of livingroom so that all i had to do was slightly tug the end of the line when the boys started squabbling . They would stop their argument to stare mesmorized at the tree convinced Santas elves were seeing if they were naughty or nice. Christmas season was the most happiest and quietest time of year.....for mom and dad. Kept the innocence of believing in Santa going for some time with this tactic. Kids grown now but talk about it.
This was delightful. Made me smile and laugh out loud. Thanks for the giggles!
My family roasts one person each year by writing them "Twelve Days of Christmas" parody based on things that they've either done or like. For example, my mother loves horses and so her fifth day was "Five prancing ponies"
On our tree, we have something called the 'Sin Bird'. It's a black oystercatcher bird from Steiff. It has its own nest, with foil covered chocolate balls as eggs that are probably around 20 years old by now. Anyway, the Sin Bird gets put up near the top of the tree, positioned to look as if it's eyeballing everyone in the room, ever watchful for 'sin' (aka, bad behaviour, we're not religious). Every year, everyone teases everyone else that 'The Sin Bird has its eye on youuuu'.
I love the stories behind some of those traditions. Something that first seemed unimportant escalated into a whole tradition. And it's called a tradition for a reason! Just imagine, some of those might exist for a few more centuries to come! God knows what legends would be made about the creation of those traditions! It would be weird, don't you think?
These were great! They were creative, and have meaningful backstories behind them. Thanks BP!
Our Christmas Tradition is that every year my grandma hides a nail in the tree like the nail Jesus was hung on the cross by and there is always a competition to see who can find it first though no reward. The only reward is bragging rights. Quite fun love it lots. Oh we also go on a scavenger hunt around the entire town and sometimes out side of town it's a lot of fun
Living in Germany we have the presents on Chrismas Eve, normally after dinner. When I was younger, my family would find an excuse to sent me out of the room to make the presents miraculously appear, from the "Christkind" (we don't do Santa here). After I found out it was them we still conitue that tradition and it converted to me saying that I have to "powder my nose" and leave for the bathroom long enough ^_^ Oh and when we open the gifts we all start with trying to guess what's inside by feeling it through the wrapping paper and saying that it's a vinyl for sure!
We have a small toy trash can that says 'you've ruined christmas'. Originally it also had a certificate that said "congratulations, you made baby jesus cry", now lost, but the trashcan is kept with the christmas decorations. Anyone 'ruining' christmas with a bad mood, excessive sarcasm, starting a fight, being offensive in anyway, gets the trashcan, which they have to keep until they can pass it on to the next offender. It usually gets tossed across the room with a shouted "[offence]! ruining christmas!". One time it was tossed too enthusiaticly, and hit the recipient (my sister) in the face, only to be imediately thrown back with the cry of "Hitting your sister in the face with a trashcan! Ruining christmas!" In a large family with several instigators, more than one grump, divorced parents and birthday on christmas day, it's a fun way of squashing comflicts and bad behaviour without starting fights.
Our tradition growing up was we played "find the pickle" with the winner getting to open their present first. Well, my parents had to hide it on the tree first, so we we had to wait on the stairs until we were allowed to go down. They used to make us pay for waking them up early by making us wait while they were drinking coffee, having snacks, changing laundry, etc.
I thought the prosthetic leg was a representation of the leg lamp in the Christmas movie! 😀
When we were kids my brother started stealing my own stuff and wrapping it up with whatever he could find to give it back to me on christmas. There were quite a few years where I got my own barbies and easy bake oven dishes back wrapped in saran wrap, dog poop bag, paper napkin from Mcdonalds, tin foil and 1 of my own t-shirts. He kept it up for a number of years as we got older and got my kids in on the act to help him "steal" something of Mom's to give back to me on christmas. My kids are grown and he's lived abroad for a number of years, but it was always interesting to get my own cutlery, antique dolls and random shoes back for christmas!
When my boys were young i would carefully put fishing line in the tree and rig it up discreetly to a fishing bell.... than stream the fishing line along the back of the couch, stapling it to the length of back of couch, sometimes along the entire length of livingroom so that all i had to do was slightly tug the end of the line when the boys started squabbling . They would stop their argument to stare mesmorized at the tree convinced Santas elves were seeing if they were naughty or nice. Christmas season was the most happiest and quietest time of year.....for mom and dad. Kept the innocence of believing in Santa going for some time with this tactic. Kids grown now but talk about it.
This was delightful. Made me smile and laugh out loud. Thanks for the giggles!
My family roasts one person each year by writing them "Twelve Days of Christmas" parody based on things that they've either done or like. For example, my mother loves horses and so her fifth day was "Five prancing ponies"
On our tree, we have something called the 'Sin Bird'. It's a black oystercatcher bird from Steiff. It has its own nest, with foil covered chocolate balls as eggs that are probably around 20 years old by now. Anyway, the Sin Bird gets put up near the top of the tree, positioned to look as if it's eyeballing everyone in the room, ever watchful for 'sin' (aka, bad behaviour, we're not religious). Every year, everyone teases everyone else that 'The Sin Bird has its eye on youuuu'.
