Personal Christmas Traditions - do you have any?

a reply to: berenikeWe don't really have any rituals. We just open presents up. That basically all.


This year my mom put up a tree after like 8-9 years after my grandfather passing on Christmas day from a heart attack. That's the only difference this year, lol.

a reply to: berenike

I have two.

The first is watching The Labyrinth while I wrap gifts.




The second is our Christmas Eve ritual. We have hot chocolate, a selection of meats, cheeses and olives, popcorn and other assorted snacks while watching White Christmas.

family din on Christmas Eve. siblings exchange presents.

In December leading up I like to read 'All the Bells on Earth' by James P. Blaylock. great (and non-traditional) Christmas tale.
www.amazon.com...

When i was a kid and we used to go to my grandparents farm on Christmas. Christmas eve is when we get presents and Santa Claus stops by. Before Santa comes we ate Christmas dinner and spent time together in big livingroom, playing and chatting. Living room had big baking oven which was still warm at eve and kids liked to be on the roof of that and it had curtains around the oven roof.
Oven looked like this but it was much bigger so 3 adult men could nap there side by side.

So we peeked through the curtains so we won´t miss when Santa is coming..
Santa looked more traditional than commercial Santa US have

Tho Santa had also stick and shepherd rod in his hands for naughty kids ( never used tho ) and old big burlap sack with presents. Santa travelled with sleight with reindeers ( well i live in Scandinavia ) to in front of farmhouse. No elfs around..
Santa always asks " Is there any kind ( inoffencive ) children around " When he steps inside and all us kids cheer " We are"
It is a custom to sing for Santa a christmas songs, usually couple.. so we sang. After that Santa gives presents from his sack. When he is done it is custom that he get something to eat like cookies or puff pastrys and when he is outside head of the house offered Santa a cognac drink so he stays warm till he approaches next house.

later we go to sauna, sauna is separate building, it is so called smoke sauna ( fire has been in sauna stove for several hours and smoke heated inside .. after heating they let smoke out and stove is hot like .... )
Sauna traditions are, we bath, we sweat and when it is too hot we go nakid on the snow and cool down there and back to sauna .. and so on...

After that evening snack and bed time..

This thread is so enjoyable, it's great to be here reminiscing about Christmas with everyone.

One thing I noticed is how much our parents had to think on their feet to make Christmas magical for us. Inventive, or what?

I've just had a little piece of Christmas magic myself. A few days ago I got two parcels sent to me by a friend - my presents. They looked a bit too big for the end of the bed BUT I' ve just taken the brown paper off one of them and found 3 small wrapped presents inside. So I can have my Christmas tradition this year after all. And I can't guess what they are, either.

DustbowlDebutante I've got the David Bowie action figure from Labyrinth. It's a good likeness

a reply to: berenike

That is awesome. Between that movie and my mom''s album collection, I've had a crush on Bowie since I was ten years old, maybe younger. Lol.

Here is photo of our Christmas Eve spread this year.



Habanero venison summer sausage, ghost pepper venison summer sausage, beef summer sausage, salami, pepperoni, prosciutto, smoked cheddar, smoked Gouda, bacon cheddar cheese ball, pepperocini, pickled okra, lil smokies in BBQ sauce, assorted sweets that a friend brought by to us, ritz crackers, and we washed it all down with Apple Peach sparkling fruit juice (my 12 year old's way of feeling grown up, lmbo).

It was a good way to end the year

We don't really do anything ultra-traditional or special, at least not to me. Everybody opens one gift on Christmas Eve. Both my & my husband's family did that one, so it's I guess a family tradition of sorts.

My hubby's from Germany, and to keep in touch with his roots, he's fond of setting out a loaded plate of German holiday cookies and candies for Santa, with the occasional stein of beer or mulled wine if he doesn't just set out coffee with the kids. I think that's what he looks forward to most -- going to town on the goodies after the kids are asleep & indulging in his childhood favorites.