It's Basically Friday...

speakeasy14

I think my mom would always forget to buy a different wrapping paper so that's why our gifts from Santa weren't wrapped haha. I mean one year she used tinfoil to wrap our presents.  

Oh funny story time:  My sister (the one who is pregnant) has red hair and everyone else is blonde.  People would always ask where the red hair came from and my mom would joke that the mailman had red hair that year.  One year my mom ran out of boxes and used USPS boxes to wrap my sister's gifts. As she opened her presents she screamed "My real dad remembered me this year!"

wink0erin

@speakeasy14 I learned about the pickle tradition when I worked at Pier 1 Imports in college, and I bought a pickle ornament because I loved the idea! I tuck it into my tree every year even though there hasn't been anyone to find it. I guess I can make BF try to find it this year!

@jenna8984 My neighbor's family did all their gifts on Christmas Eve and I did not understand that at all. I think on Christmas day they were visiting other people or something, but I don't remember. Ex-bf's family would have everyone over on Christmas eve for gifts at his parents house, and everyone would do their seperate family/santa stuff on Christmas morning. My house was always Christmas morning (or Christmas afternoon once I was a teenager, and now it's Christmas evening). 

@labro, OMG your description of santa paws! In my house the people santa would still leave stocking gifts for the animals. One year I felt bad they didnt' get anything under the Christmas tree so I wrapped up dog biscuits and cat treats. 

labro

@speakeasy14 Omg I literally lol'd.

jenna8984

@cu97tiger How dare you- today is not one to be productive!

wink0erin

@labro @MissKittyDanger @Peaseblossom55 In my house Santa gifts were never wrapped, I never even heard of them being wrapped until I was in college, I guess it's something no one ever discussed! I've seen arguments on social media over it. I think part of it is because I was the only kid in the house, so everything under the tree was mine, and part of it was because my parents didn't want to wrap everything. 

untouchablets

Oh you know how that movie The Krampus is out this year? Well like six years ago I learned about the Krampus and I was home from college for the holidays and I told my second youngest brother that if he was bad the krampus would come and get him and showed him a pic I got from Google. He was 6 at the time and I got such a laugh from it but it was kinda mean lol. My dad definitely played along though. That was the last Christmas I spent with my family actually!

MissKittyDanger

@wink0erin  funny, I'm an only child too and never heard of it {nor ever heard of arguments} My parents enjoyed seeing me unwrap things and my reaction {I was an "OMG *tears*" kid}

wink0erin

@speakeasy14 LOL!!! Tinfoil is creative. My parents used newspaper funny pages to wrap gifts. 

jenjen047

Santa gifts are always wrapped, but in different paper than non-Santa presents.

Peaseblossom55

@speakeasy14 I did just laugh out loud. thank you

jenna8984

did you guys see the Jimmy Kimmel bit where he had parents give terrible gifts and video tape the reactions? A banana, a hot dog, a sandwich, the reactions are pretty hilarious, it's on youtube!

MissKittyDanger

@speakeasy14  I snorted hard XD

GoldenPenguin

LOL @speakeasy14 - That's hysterical. My dad looks totally different than his brothers (they all have red hair and he has dark brown), so the joke is that his dad was the milkman. Except that my grandfather WAS actually a milkman at the time. 

I forgot to copy & paste the questions. Oops. 

We always had at one unwrapped present from Santa. There would be presents under the tree, and then we'd come down in the morning and there would be MORE presents, and then one fun toy unwrapped in the front. 

LizzyTish88

@speakeasy14 One of the girls on my cheer team jokes about her "real dad" all the time so I too laughed out loud at that.

@labro Cinders is adorable. That is all.

Why are we all still here??? I have a tiny feeling that I might be let go early today and if I were I might jump for joy.

What are you doing to pass the time today? I can finally come play on here! So all my plans on being productive are out the window!

What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? Is there anything you think your family does that's unique compared to typical traditions? I don't think we do too much unique things. However I am super excited for tomorrow because my Dad and Aunt requested that I bring CAH to Christmas Eve dinner tomorrow night so my Grandma can play. It's totally up her ally so I am looking forward to that.

Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing? I was on the fence at about 8/9 but then one year Santa brought me roller-blades, and my step-dad (Mom's BF at the time) yelled "I helped mom pick them out!" and it was all over from there.

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now. Just last night mom brought my shopping to pick out my Christmas outfit. She buys it every year as one of my gifts. She will also wrap big gifts "from Santa".

Is there a Santa Paws? Tessie sure does believe it!

untouchablets

@speakeasy14 omg that story!! I would have been crying hahaha

wink0erin

Re: Santa wrapping gifts, I guess my family is filled with weirdos then! I know several friends don't wrap Santa gifts either, really I never heard of Santa wrapping anything until I was in college, although I totally realized in all the illustrations he has bags of wrapped gifts. *mind blown* Now I want to ask my mom about it to see if it was a tradition in her house growing up or if it started with me. 

speakeasy14

@caseface5 I would like a story.

AlPacina

@untouchablets - Your parents sound so sweet. I recently learned that our church "donated our Christmas" one year, with presents and stuff for a dinner. It's so strange looking back now because I never found myself wanting. But that was before kids required expensive gadgets to fit in. I just needed to be able to climb a tree!

@minskat30 - The house cleaning present sounds like the best ever!!

@jenna8984 - Dude, you basically ruined Christmas for yourself by being a sneaky little bastard. I hope you're happy. Jk, I have a similar story below.

@speakeasy14 - OMG, your poor sister! Haha! We've always made the same joke about my sister, who looks different than most of us, except it was a small town so I'd known the mailman my whole life and was friends with his grandson. The joke wasn't super funny to me.

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What are some of your family's Christmas traditions? We mostly watch Christmas movies together and sing along to the musical ones. Christmas eve my little sister and I would typically open our presents to each other, but we're not doing that this year. Most years we make a trip to Leavenworth, WA, which is a Bavarian themed Christmas village with lights everywhere and live music every night. I hope I'll get to visit it this year.

Did you believe in Santa? When did you stop believing? I think I believed longer than most because my little sister and I were SUPER into Christmas. I do remember one year I was going to sleep by the tree and catch my parents in the act! But when I woke up, There were tons of new presents, including a freaking BIKE, and I hadn't heard any of it be brought in, so that completely re-upped my belief level.

Tell us about something holiday-related your parents still do from childhood even though you're an adult now. Hmmm. Well, everything's changed. We actually let them shower before forcing them to come downstairs so we can open presents. Hell, we even eat breakfast first. Plus, as a kid we only had one fake tree. My mom now puts up anywhere from 9-11 every year, haha! I got nothing for this one.

Is there a Santa Paws? Well, Marv did send a nice letter asking for a rubber bone, so he'll have one of those waiting for him Christmas morning!

untouchablets

@AlPacina yeah and my parents still have little kids so they're still putting out presents and waking up at the crack of dawn meanwhile I bullshit around until 2pm and then decide to go to BFs house where we all open presents together. Nothing from Santa though now that I think about it idk if BF ever believed in Santa. Hmmm....

labro

Speaking of sibling Christmas stories/ruining Christmas.

One year I got up earlier than everyone else but Santa had already come. I was bored so I sorted everyone's gifts into individual piles (normally they are all mixed together under the tree). Everyone came down and @southernpeach89 came down and started screaming and crying that I had ruined Christmas because I had ruined the fun of digging through and trying to find your own gifts. So I had to put everything back under the tree! Boy was that awkward.

labro

Oh good you guys...@GoldenPenguin fixed everything!

[Deleted User]

Santa gifts were NEVER wrapped.

@labro - I love that story about your sister.  It is still my brother's "job" to pass out all the gifts.  You never grow out of some things.  He might have to give that job up in a few years, though!

speakeasy14

@labro hahahahaha omg our families are too alike 

Peaseblossom55

@labro I love that story!

jenna8984

My brother and I would trade presents. I remember in like 1999 when my brother was all into like Nirvana, Green Day, etc my aunt gave him TLC crazy sexy cool and he was like what the fuck is this shit? So I totally swapped and gave him my mall gift card for the same value.

MissKittyDanger

on topic of Santa, Matt doesn't know that Mrs. Clause decided to drop a gift for him at my mum's place Buahahahahahaha

GoldenPenguin

labro said:

Oh good you guys...@GoldenPenguin fixed everything!

YAAAAAASSSSSSS FINALLY.

[Deleted User]

Etiquette Question!!!

My co-worker left a card with a Target gift card inside and a bottle of cinnamon (it's a joke, we do bake-offs against each other at work) at my desk for Christmas.  He wrote a nice message in the card.  We are the same age and are pretty good work buds.  Everyone knows if he's not at his desk or in the lab, to come look at my desk because we're probably chatting.

I didn't do anything for co-workers this year.  I hardly got Christmas stuff for my family because I've been so sick.  I feel awful because he was so thoughtful!  I already thanked him, but now I'm wondering if I need to do more?  I won't see him until maybe January because he's off next week.

What would NEY do?

labro

@CocoBellaF Make him spiced nuts using the cinnamon he gave you? I hate it when I didn't do gifts and then feel the pressure to reciprocate!

minskat30

@CocoBellaF - Does he know you are KU?  If so, I'm sure he knows you are feeling terrible and didn't expect anything.  I LOVE @labro's idea of using his gift to make a gift for him though.