Name a holiday tradition of yours you enjoy!

Hello ATS members, time for a lighter topic!

What's a holiday tradition you enjoy?

It can be anything - From just getting the time off work, to celebrating jesus, to spending time with family, just whatever! I'd love to hear what others do.

As for myself? Thanksgiving is nothing particular more than eating food with the most family that can make it.

Christmas, my family spends christmas eve together, often tells a religious story, and we open one gift that night and have a family dinner. I really enjoy christmas eve, everyone seems even more thankful and happy than they did on thanksgiving - Thanksgiving can be kinda crazy! My aunt has 7 adopted children, 1 biological, 1 foster - most being ages 2-10! Then my uncle with his triplets that are 5, it makes for a crazy day. Christmas is just relaxing.

a reply to: deadlyhope

So many traditions I love but I'll just toss out a few.....

Thanksgiving: Of all the traditions, one that I like is my glass of Baileys. I never drink the stuff except for on Thanksgiving....the moment I wake up. An eye opener before I start cooking.

Christmas: Of course there are many.... But if I had to pick one (leaving Mass out of it).... every year on Christmas day (well, early evening) I fire up the charcoal grill and cook some prime rib steaks. It's awesome watching people walk by, smell the great BBQ smell and look around to see where it is coming from.

New Years Day: Flipping back and forth between The Honeymooners and Twilight Zone marathons.

a reply to: deadlyhope

This is the first christmas I will actually have extra money, so presents as well as baked goods will be shared this year.

But two christmas eve traditions are:

1. KFC Branded chicken
2. 5.30pm to 7pm Supermarket reduced to clear marathon around Swindon to see what the reduce to clear fairy is going to give us for Christmas day.

And this year for the first time in 4 years, NonSpecific is actually buying my a Christmas present! Usually we don't do them for each other because we never have any money but this year we both do! I am so happy!

a reply to: eluryh22

Oh prime rib! I can't even buy it where I live, I'm in the middle of no where.

a reply to: MrsNonSpecific

I'm glad to hear you're financially stable enough this year to afford a bit more sounds like it will be a good year!

a reply to: deadlyhope

I like groundhog day, its my birthday,
and Bill Murray is frigging awesome.

a reply to: solve

Love that guy! The man who knew too little.. What about Bob... Groundhog day. Oh yeah!

The Christmas token.

For years, my mom refused to have anything to do with Christmas until Thanksgiving was done, but ... she always dug out some Christmas music to take to Thanksgiving with us and as soon as we hit the car to leave Thanksgiving, the Christmas music was in and the holiday season had begun!

No one else in the family knew about this one for years until we all talked about traditions, and this one got adopted. Currently, everyone gets a small Christmas token of some sort as we leave Thanksgiving dinner, nothing expensive or big. Just a reminder that of what we are Thankful for in a couple ways ...

Christmas eve after we've finished stuffing our faces and cleaned up, everybody gets to open one prezzie. After that we all curl up in front of the tv to enjoy our annual viewing of the movie "A Christmas Story".

Christmas morning, I make Irish Coffees for everyone (coffee, whiskey, Bailey's Irish Cream, and topped off with a dollop of fresh whipped cream and shaved dark chocolate), then with our cups of joe in hand, we gather around the tree to open all the prezzies.

Afterwards we sit down to a nice Christmas breakfast.


Oh, and one other Christmas morning tradition.... everybody has to wear their new Christmas jammies and nobody is allowed to get dressed out of them for the rest of the day.

a reply to: deadlyhope

Thank you for sharing your traditions! It is always fascinating to me the way most westerners are able to adapt their personal beliefs and traditions to the seasonal celebrations.


Thanksgiving: Our version Thanksgiving is celebrated in September. We generally collect canned foods and clothing for the homeless shelters. No special dinners or anything (vegetarians here).

Christmas: Before Christmas, we celebrate Yule with various traditions. The most consistent of which is, of course, the Yule tree and bringing nature into the house. Being the solstice, a lot of time is spent in reflection of the things we were able to eliminate in our lives that winter and what we plan to bring into our lives. Christmas itself is spent in the typical western culture way, with gifts and stockings from Santa/The Holly King.

Another tradition we have started for Autumn/Winter is "Pumpkin Bocce". We made up a version of Bocce Ball but with those tiny pumpkins you can get at the grocery store. We each have our set for the year, decorated in personal and religious "team" designs.

I think my Christmas tradition starts around the beginning of November when I start complaining about all the Christmas ads on TV. At least give us some breathing space after Hallowe'en...

Next thing is asking myself the big question - do I want to do anything special for Christmas this year? Back comes the answer 'Nah'.

Then it's a matter of sending out a few cards to people who'd give me grief if I didn't. And that's it, Christmas done and dusted. Unless... there's a decent film on in the afternoon.

Humbug

I know you asked for a holiday tradition, But we have a birthday one. I'm a single father of three kids 12, 7 and 5 and we have a tradition that when it's your birthday you get to stay up as late as you want. It starts at age five and has been going since my 12yr old was five.. funny thing is most times they fall asleep within an hour of bedtime anyway... but they LOVE the idea of that freedom to stay up all night if they want. And yes.. even on a school night!

And just so I'm not left out of the Holiday end of things.. Every child gets a new pair of PJ's for X-Mas and is allowed to open them on Christmas eve. (So they look great for Pics on X-Mas Morning!

What does everyone else do?

-Mus

originally posted by: deadlyhope
a reply to: eluryh22

Oh prime rib! I can't even buy it where I live, I'm in the middle of no where.

Don't worry.... they have them in all the supermarkets where I live.... but due to the never ending increases in the price of beef.... it's a rare thing indeed for me to be able to buy them.

To be candid, one of the ways I track inflation (because I don't trust the manipulated figures put forward by politicians and political hacks pretending to be journalists)...is to check the price of our prime rib each year at Christmas time. It shot past $15 each a few years back and coming up on $20 (of course, the weight isn't always the EXACT same but pretty close).

Edit to add: Sorry about drifting off topic there.

a reply to: MuslickzI think birthday's qualify for Holiday Traditions (but I'm not the OP).

We usually have him in some new PJ's on Christmas Eve but hadn't really thought of giving them to him as a present that night. I like that tradition.

Drinking. Followed immediately by; family confession.

a reply to: deadlyhope

I can't believe I forgot THIS one....

Christmas: Every year, a few days prior to Christmas we make donations to local Animal Shelters in the names of our pets that now reside in heaven.