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Hey Pandas, Do You Have Any Weird, Funny, Or Interesting Christmas Traditions? (Closed)
Well, it's kinda getting close to Christmas, so it might be nice to hear your favorite Christmas traditions, bonus points if they're funny or weird.
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Spaghetti and meatballs. Christmas Eve was my parents’ anniversary, so mom would make the sauce and the meatballs ahead of time, so on Christmas Eve all she had to do to feed three hungry boys was cook some spaghetti. We ate, and were told to make ourselves scarce (upstairs in our rooms) until morning. Dad and mom took some time to celebrate, then set up Christmas morning for us. I'll be having spaghetti and meatballs on December 24th. I'm 74, and they've been gone 31 years now, but some things are important.
I can relate -- Dec. 26 is our anniversary! Been married more than 40 years now...
My Grandma started this. We were all given an unlit candle and then went one by one from oldest to youngest into the dining room, which was completely dark apart from one large lit candle on the table, which we lit our candle from.
By the time the whole family and friends were in the room, it had turned from a cold dark room into a room full full of soft warm light. Then we all hugged and kissed and wished each other a "Happy Christmas and a loving New Year!".
My moms husbands mother (I know^^) is from finland, they've got a tradition, that little kids get one small present on the day before christmas. It's called Lille Jul - (little christmas). As a joke, he got my sister and I each a present when we were about 20 years old. This evolved into a tradition that we meet with my moms side of the family each year on the 23rd and celebrate Lille Jul, basically stretching christmas for one day longer. At one point we decided to skip this whole presents for everybody for christmas thing and just raffle one person each to gift a present. Over the years this resulted in having one present for christmas and a whole lot of presents for Lille Jul now. I'm nearly 40 now, so about 20 years. I LOVE this tradition.
Living in Australia, we don't have mistletoe, so each year I hang a 'mistle-toad' and we kiss under him!
hiding stockings so that you have to have a very quiet treasure hunt at the crack of dawn.
My sister and I exchange advent calenders that we stock ourselves in memory if our mom. I like to put little extras (like hand cream or scrunchies) in it for the 6th and 24th.
Ohhh...and our little plastic tree is named Joachim and I like to put it/him up at the end of november so we can enjoy it more.
I send my sister advents in memory of our mom. When mom was alive she redone every December and was really fun with it. NO cheating was a hard rule, she savored each piece, talking about how wonderful it tasted and how thoughtful the advent is.
Our family has a nerf gun fight, even my 70+ year old mother gets involved. We have the best time.
I live in Australia and came from New Zealand, where it's summer at Christmas. We still do all the twinkly trees and Santa dressed up for the cold, plus roasts and brandy puddings despite it being 32C plus (or like 40C and over!). Christmas dinner though is as likely to be on the barbecue (keeps the heat outside) and feature lots of salads, fresh seafood, ice cold drinks and air conditioning. Quite a lot of people go to the beach or picnic on Christmas Day. Presents are given on the day, and only before if it's for workmates or neighbours.
The surfing Santas are better though! Actually, they might be trumped by the tradition of Santas on fire trucks turning up to community events.
Back when I was a kid, on our dairy farm, we always set up two Christmas trees - the big, standard "main tree" in the living room, and a smaller tree on a table in our enclosed front porch. This little tree had all homemade edible decorations. Mom would make several big dishpans of popcorn (popping in a cast iron skillet on our wood/coal stove) and make a pink sugar glaze to put on it. Then we'd take needle and thread and string the popcorn on it for garlands for the tree. More popcorn got homemade caramel and peanuts and made into popcorn balls for ornaments and hung on the tree. Plus candy canes and other edible goodies. Presents under the tree were small boxes of homemade Christmas cookies and candy. Guest, carol singers, etc., were all invited to get a 'present' and take some stuff to nibble from this tree. We also had a truly ancient set of heavy wax paper stencils of Christmas stuff that we would use with Glass Wax (colored with food coloring) and small damp sponges to decorate our windows and mirrors.
I remember my Great Grandmother having a very small tree in her tiny living room and we would make popcorn garland for it. She would also save any type of Christmas themed papers from her daily paper and we would cut them out and glue them to cardboard to hang on the tree. It was so simple but so memorable.
We're pagan, but the rest of the family is Christian so we celebrate Yule and Christmas. But Yule, starting at sunset, we have a big bonfire, an outdoor feast and exchange small handmade gifts. We leave a small potion of the feast out as an offering and wake up early the next morning to watch the sunrise.
Christmas stuff, is, you know, generic Christmas stuff; stockings, presents, insanely over-buttered family dinner. We do have a Christmas Eve box with matching pajamas, a movie and snacks,
Norse Pagan here :) I have this thing where I visit some of my ancestors' graves as close to Dec. 24th and I make an offering for/with them: we share a beer. :) it is so nice and peaceful and I am often left to the nice memories I have of my ancestors, while drinking and sharing. This year, I plan to have my kids join in (but with some apple juice or sometjing like that.). They already like to share meals with our nisse so I think that sharing a drink with an ancestor will be fun for them, as well. :)
Both Christmas and Thanksgiving. when i was a young woman, just learning to cook, my family gave me the odious chore of heating up a can of peas. I am sure they thought I couldn't possibly mess that up. well......the kids were running around, the pets were underfoot, all the older family members were 'in charge' of the dinner....so, I forgot the peas. forgot they were cooking, boiling away on the back burner. by the time someone noticed them, they were boiled down to green water with empty pea skins floating . it immediately became a family tradition, and i was asked at every holiday to 'make pea skins"....still making them, sometimes on purpose, sometimes by accident, over 50 years later!
This is a great story! Plus, I can now add "pea skins" to my insult vocabulary! Thank you!
We build a huge nativity scene out of playmobil(google what they are). We make the whole town. I just love it. We have certain things we add each year. All in all it occupies us and stays until after 3 kings day( also google what that is)
We open presents on New Year's Eve instead of on Christmas. On Christmas Eve and on Christmas day we do get to open one present, but the rest are saved for New Year's Eve. The holiday season lasts longer this way and from a young age it taught me that Christmas is not just about the presents.
Not christmas, but hannukah.
One year my dad got a ton of oranges on the second night, cuz they were on sale, so why not. We cut them up and ate them as the candles burned. Then my dad said he wanted to show us something, and used the back of the peel to squirt the oil from it onto the candles. Which makes them spark! My third grade mind was blown! Now every year we get a ton of oranges and use them to make the candles spark while we eat latkes and be happy!
TL;DR - Orange oil make candle go ✨✨✨
My Dad is Catholic and my Mom is Jewish. We used to celebrate both Christmas and Hannukah up until her accident.
For whatever reason, to me, the beginning of November to the end of December is Kaiju season for me, so my brain connects Kaiju w Christmas. I think this is bc Godzilla and Gameras' birthdays are in November, and also this one channel had an event called "Kaiju Christmas" when I was 11. Anyways, during this season, Im always exceptionally obsessed w kaiju. Especially in this age of Kaiju, where Godzilla Minus One and Monarch Legacy of Monsters (A TV show that Godzilla plays a major role in) released in the same month, Ultraman Blazar still is releasing episodes, Hoshi 35 came out this year (but I dont know where to watch it) and over all the Kaiju genre is getting more and more popular in the west, especially with America getting a good introduction to Ultraman, when Ultraman Rising hits netflix!! It makes this year extra special and festive :3 :3
i just watch inappropriate and dirty TV series with my younger brother
and then we sleep until we wake up and do it again
My grandma would always bake a ton for Christmas, so I have taken up torch in that department, just not to the same degree. I have her Tuesday Cake and oatmeal raisin cookie recipes, and I store the cookies in a big Tupperware in the freezer, just like she did! Now, my kids are tucking in to cold cookies and delicious cake for snacks just like I did. (I know, the cold cookies sound odd, but don't knock 'em until you try 'em!)
I was a single Mom for quite a while and stopped going out on new years once I had my first. I started saving fireworks from the 4th and would set them off New Year's Eve with my daughter. It would usually snow that night too and the way the fireworks look when it's snowing is so amazing. This will be my first year with my husband and his 4 kids as a family and he wants to incorporate that tradition in with them. I can't wait to see their eyes light up!!
I'm so jealous of these traditions! We don't really have much of a 'culture' unlike most of multicultural Australia and don't even have any traditions. Some of us are Christian, so will go to church for advent and Christmas eve if we can. Other than that, every year, especially since my parents split, and grandparents died, and mum got remarried so we have a step family, we get to October/November and ask 'what are we doing this year?' Cue complex negotiations about when family is available, who wants to host, or do we go to a park for a BBQ? Wow, this sounds depressing! I do generally enjoy the season, without getting to commercial about it, but sometimes it is just stressful in the planning stages, on the day it is usually fairly peaceful. We used to have stockings, which then became 'Christmas boxes' when we got to our teens, which would always include at least one new outfit. Some years we have exclusively shopped secondhand, but not always, so not really a tradition.
Create your own tradition even if it's just something you do for yourself. Someday you'll have your own family and create any kind of tradition that you want!! It doesn't have to be something handed down to you it can always be something you hand down through generations.
Load More Replies... I was a single Mom for quite a while and stopped going out on new years once I had my first. I started saving fireworks from the 4th and would set them off New Year's Eve with my daughter. It would usually snow that night too and the way the fireworks look when it's snowing is so amazing. This will be my first year with my husband and his 4 kids as a family and he wants to incorporate that tradition in with them. I can't wait to see their eyes light up!!
I'm so jealous of these traditions! We don't really have much of a 'culture' unlike most of multicultural Australia and don't even have any traditions. Some of us are Christian, so will go to church for advent and Christmas eve if we can. Other than that, every year, especially since my parents split, and grandparents died, and mum got remarried so we have a step family, we get to October/November and ask 'what are we doing this year?' Cue complex negotiations about when family is available, who wants to host, or do we go to a park for a BBQ? Wow, this sounds depressing! I do generally enjoy the season, without getting to commercial about it, but sometimes it is just stressful in the planning stages, on the day it is usually fairly peaceful. We used to have stockings, which then became 'Christmas boxes' when we got to our teens, which would always include at least one new outfit. Some years we have exclusively shopped secondhand, but not always, so not really a tradition.
Create your own tradition even if it's just something you do for yourself. Someday you'll have your own family and create any kind of tradition that you want!! It doesn't have to be something handed down to you it can always be something you hand down through generations.
Load More Replies...