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Hey Pandas, What Is A Holiday Tradition That You Always Have Every Year? (Closed)
The holidays are coming up as 2022 comes to an end, slowly but surely. Everyone at least has a holiday tradition that just ends up becoming the normal thing to do every year, besides listening to Christmas music in July.
This is what people do during the holidays.
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I am Jewish and my family gets Chinese food every year because it's the only thing that's open.
My sister and I exchange homemade Advent calenders since my mom died who bought them for us...
At the beginning of December we go to a tree farm to cut our own Christmas tree. They charge by height and I always take a picture of my partner, my kid(s) and the tree in front of the measuring stick.
I have ten pictures so far, with my son growing taller in each and then 6 years ago the new baby appeared in her first picture (this year she's just a little shorter than the tree herself).
My friend and I have been gifting 🎁 each other the same fruitcake for 30 years.
It is not an activity, but a decoration that is my traditional holiday marker. When my son was only 3, he decided to make a Christmas decoration for the tree. He got a Lego man and glued a little triangle of red paper on its head with Superglue. (I have no idea how he got the glue or how he managed not to glue his fingers together!) Then he put a piece of garden wire around its neck which looks like a noose and put it in the tree. It has had pride of place for over 30 years.
Reminds me of my son's tiny clay "stocking" which also gets a place of honor each year. In reality it looks like a fat golf club. We all, with him joining in as an adult, laugh our heads off and hang it each year on our tree.
When I was a kid we always drove around looking at Christmas lights while sipping hot chocolate. Then we would read the Night Before Christmas on Christmas Eve while also drinking hot chocolate in our Christmas themed pajamas! I carried that tradition on with my daughters. My girls are now 13 and 17 and yes we still do it and will until they have children to do it with themselves!
As a kid, you drank a hot chocolate while riding around in a car? My son would have had a completely burned tongue and be covered in hot chocolate.
Bake cookies, eat cookies, snowball fights, hot chocolate, watch Christmas movies, play games, listen to carols by the fireplace .. the most wonderful time of the year
Plan a visit to north with family, spend quality time .
Tacos on Christmas Eve. My parents lived In London (we are from California) during the late '60s and there was not a tortilla to be had. I was in University and went to London for Christmas. My folks asked me to bring all ingredients in my suitcase. Which I did. Since it was a special meal, we had it Christmas Eve, and Turkey the next day. Then had some turkey tacos for the leftovers. Whole family does this! My grown kids and their families, my brother and his family. Even my ex husband.
Mine might sound weird if you don't live in a country where it is hot during Christmas. My family has a tradition to eat lunch on Christmas in our pool. We put a table and some chairs in the pool and then we sit in there so we can cool off while eating.
Every year, we make Lefse with my mom's side of the family (it's a type of Norwegian flatbread) and celebrate with them on Christmas Eve with dinner.
On Christmas Day, we go to my dad's mom's house, and celebrate with them over breakfast.
As recent as 2018, my parents brother and I decided to do "Santa" presents on Christmas Eve after my mom's relatives leave, so that we can sleep in a little the next day.
I used to buy Christmas presents for my dog, but sadly, he passed a few months ago. So this year, I'll toast to him.
Annual Christmas pub crawl with all my good friends in Christmas jumpers and silly hats 🎅❤️🎄
During Eid (Or really any family event), there is this one game me and my cousins play, called driving to disney land. We all just get in the car, and pretend we are driving to disney land. We have gotten in trouble numerous times for honking the horn in the garage.
Every year, my family drives around our town looking at all the Christmas lights. After that, my mom reads Twas the Night Before Christmas to us. She has the calming loving mom voice, so it makes you feel like you are a child again.
So my family celebrates both Hanukkah and Christmas. During Hanukkah, starting a few years ago, my dog would jump into and sit in someone's lap (usually my dad), and wait patiently and silently during the candle lighting. It's a little odd, but still cute.
Ever since we got married, we've gotten a real tree each year. Each year I make a fresh cut off the bottom of the tree before we put it in the stand. We mark what year and save the pieces. Once our daughters were born, they joined in the tradition. Last week we put up our 29th piece.
One of our grandparents lives in Texas- she sends a box with gifts for us at the start of December, and we always open them Christmas Eve. Idk why, we just do!
We always have to put up the Christmas village in our living room. Been doing it for years and years can't stop now.
Every year my mom and I (with Aunt or Grandma sometimes) bake snowball cookies and white chocolate peppermint bark.
When I was living with my parents we celebrated Christmas, then went to my aunt's (8 hours away) for New Year's Eve. Then I got my own family and I don't really believe in Christmas so we didn't celebrate - we still don't. But we do get together for a simple meal, mostly pot-lucks. My youngest son is now married and his MIL has first choice for dates since she celebrates Christmas full-on, then work schedules, then family. My daughter and I usually make ~6 dozens cookies, which we then give out to our neighbors and friends. This year (2022), she's pregnant and can't take the heat or the smell so I'll be on my own to bake. I'm looking forward to see everyone, except my oldest son & GF won't be there as he's now in PEI and it's too far to drive over (the irony is that he's an aerospatiale mechanic and won't take the plane!). We don't have turkey as I'm the only one who likes turkey - I get my fix at Swiss Chalet.
Boxing Day (26th of December) at the movies… usually buying one ticket and sneaking into several sessions…
This accomplishes several things…
1) gave time for the parents to recover from the day before.
2) got the kids out of the house
3) luxuriating in air conditioned glory (I live in Australia and Christmas/Boxing day can be staggeringly hot
4) Dad could watch the Boxing Day Test Match (Cricket) in peace
My cats get a steak for Christmas Dinner. I've always had cats as an adult (ranging between 1 and 4 over the years) so I do them a blue steak for dinner, one steak per cat. It usually lasts for both lunch and dinner, although my current cat is perfectly capable of eating the whole thing at once (and then lies in a meat coma for the rest of the day)
every year we go to a christmas tree farm and get a real tree, and then decorate it without the ornaments and in the days leading up to christmas, each family member gets to put two ornaments on the tree every night.
Loony Tunes Thanksgiving. Screw turkey, we have Duck, Rabbit and Pork Ribs!
Not put up a tree because if it's real, it'll drive my wife's allergies crazy and if it's fake, we'll forget when to take it down until about April. Either way, our cat will be knocking all of the ormanents off of it constantly...
I have some wooden Easter Bunnys from my grandmother. They are almost as old as her(from the 1920s) and she had them since her childhood. She passed away about 20 Years ago, but I still use them as decoration every easter. It's the only holiday tradishion I have(except from watching 'over the garden wall' on Halloween) so this ist something special.
Every year, we bake christmas cookies. By 'we' i mean my sister and i. What usually happens is our father sneaks into the kitchen early and makes off with some of the cookies before we wake up XD
From my first Christmas my parents would buy me a snow globe. I have discolored plastic ones from 70s and 80s, musical ones, large ones etc. I stopped the tradition after I had lost both my parents.
My Great Grandmother sent oranges from Florida every year packed in this amazing box. (We were pen pals and very close, she passed when I was 24.) The last year she was able to send them, my mother kept the box and used it to store ornaments. I was gifted this box which had ornaments from my mother's childhood and mine as well. We have ever since pulled it out to decorate, sharing stories that have been passed down and our own as we decorate the tree, keeping our Christmas memories alive every year!
My kids asked why I always gave them oranges in their stockings (spoiler alert--no Santa). It's because my parents thought that was luxury to have oranges in winter. They didn't have trucks bringing fruit to the middle of the United States in the winter. I just passed down the tradition and forgot to explain it. All those toys and one orange in their stockings!
My husband and I have Christmas eve with my family (eating dinner together and opening presents) but on Christmas Day, we don't get out of our pajamas and drink good wine and eat snacks and cheesecake. We then open our presents from one another and give the dog his gifts.
Christmas dinner. Each member of the family chooses a favourite dish and that's what I make for Christmas dinner. For example one year we had lasagna, quiche, donuts and cheesecake.
That's such a nice tradition you have! I want to come to your house!
Celebrating a couple days of Hannukah without my mom explaining why we're doing this, seeing as we're not Jewish, as far as I know.
Every year my uncles read us the night before Christmas and to finish of Christmas Eve we all sing the Canadian version of the twelve days of Christmas.On New Year’s Eve we have a “galette des rois” in which there is a figurine, winner gets bragging rights…
Christmas Eve tacos. Why? Because tacos are the best with homemade cocoa and presents.
I sit around and wait for it all to be over.
Starting at about 8:00pm Christmas Eve through at least noon on Christmas Day we watch the marathon of "A Christmas Story" as a family.
Our holiday tradition every year is...
On Thanksgiving we as a family set up the Christmas Tree.
Christmas Eve we let the kids open one gift and state that Santa is going around other parts of the world, and dropped one off for them.
Christmas Day kids open gifts, leave the mess for me (mom) to clean up...dads job is to add batteries to all new toys, set up racing strips.
I eat Marie Callender's frozen turkey dinners at each holiday, alone, and have done so for 34 years. I'm 80.
I'm also 80 yrs old and I stuff another cookie in my mouth that my daughter made. Merry Christmas to me! Before my aunt died, she dragged me to midnight mass every year and I always fell asleep half-way through.
Graveyard walk.
The local graveyard turns into a sea of candles every Yule. It is cold, calm and so beautiful. So every year we eat dinner, open presents and go for a walk. Then come back, eat a bit more, have a few drinks and... That's it, that'a our Yule.
Christmas is usually spent quietly, we would go to church at 9PM on Christmas eve then come home at 10pm, where we have a meal together then open the gifts we gave each other at 12 MN, clean up our Christmas eve meal, then go to bed. Santa doesn't really exist in our culture so we don't claim our gifts as from Santa.
Then New Year's eve, we would go to my grandparents' house and have a party with all my aunt's, uncles cousins and cousins' children, with lots of games and prizes, hot chocolate from a giant pot, a potluck, exchange gifts, and karaoke. This lasts until 1 am.
Oranges in our stockings. As kids, my brother and I didn't get it. We can literally have an orange any day we wanted one. They were always in a bowl on the counter. Years later, my Dad tells us it was a tradition from his Dad and common in Germany (where his Dad grew up). We felt terrible for all the jokes and disappointment when we were young.
I give my husband socks and underwear (good quality) from our dogs. It started when one dog chewed his socks. It's now a tradition. (He does get real gifts, too)
Early rising for & Xmas jammies & goofy headgear then stuff & start turkey. Break out the Christmas dinnerware & fancy glassware then pop champagne & make Southern Comfort punch. Put out sprinkled store Christmas cookies, fruits, nuts, & cream cheese celery. Self-service.
Youngest acts as Santa & sits next to tree doling out presents. Each takes turns opening gifts one at a time. We admire our stuff & remember past holidays while we finish the champagne bottles. Cate sings. Little kids get corralled together where they can safely play & watch movies. Everybody chips in to help prepare the holiday meal while draining the punchbowl. Refill it as needed. Each adult takes turn with yells of, "What are you kids doing?" & spot-checks. Kids must set up tables & chairs as well as decorate the tables & put out settings & serving ware (adults can help if asked).
We decide if we care that we be seen as drunks in pajamas to change into real clothes as guests arrive.
Gravy must be served in Cindy's handmade turkey-shaped & painted gravy boat that works horribly...& guarantees a laugh. This starts the "who is funniest" competition. We all win!
Unfortunately, girls get stuck w/clean-up while boys watch the tube. They filter into the kitchen because of all the laughter...still not helping. We make them go out & shovel & keep vehicles clear while playing street hockey.
We all play age-considerate games until it's time for a turkey sandwich supper w/a variety of desserts. Sober person starts returning everyone to their homes or hotels w/care packages.
Spending the entire day with my husband, staying in our pajamas, eating appetizer- like foods, enjoying a bottle of wine and eating cheesecake for dessert. 13 years strong!
Getting sick. Every December all family members get a cold, flu, or RSV, whatever is making the rounds. If we are lucky we will all be over it by December 25th.
Only Brits of a certain age will get this. My personal tradition is to still buy the Christmas Radio Times and circle what I want to watch. Yes, I am fully aware I don't need the Radio Times to know what's on TV and, yes, I know I'm in my 50s but it's my own little bit of Christmas nostalgia.
