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What Weird Holiday Traditions Do You have?

So this weekend, I introduced my soon to be step kids to my weird family holiday tradition.

I'm Jewish (super reform) but since I was a kid, my parents had a Hanukkah Stocking for us.  They told us the Hanukkah Mouse came every night to leave us little presents (anything from a dollar to some gelt to a pencil, just little stuff) and every night we would check to see!  No idea why my mom made it a mouse but whatever.  Since we don't have my step kids full time, we made stockings together this weekend and then the Hanukkah Mouse (aka me) stuffed them with little girts.  The kids were so excited at 5:30 am they woke us up going "the mouse came!" and it was adorable!

So, what weird traditions do you have?
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Re: What Weird Holiday Traditions Do You have?

  • I had a Hannukah stocking too! 

    On the first day of Hannukah, I love to light the menorah, cook a whole bunch of bacon, and snack on it while I watch Christmas Vacation. I know that makes no sense at all, and I'm the worst Jew ever, but I do it every year. 

    I also have a glass of whiskey while I put up my xmas tree every year (and I have a few Hannukah ornaments that go on it). 
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  • I'm not sure if this qualifies as a tradition, but many of our holiday gatherings end with a family trip to the casino. The family that gambles together stays together.
  • That's very cute and I love that you're continuing it!

    I come from a family that's just my parents and I and my birthday is Christmas Eve so Christmas is always just them throwing gifts at me. We aren't religious and we aren't much for tradition so holidays aren't a big deal other than the presents (which is the way my mom prefers to show she loves me.) I honestly can't think of anything we do every year, is that weird? Like sometimes we don't even do a special dinner or anything.

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  • I have a Christmas pickle ornament that I hide on the tree, but for the past few years it's only been me in the house, so there's no one to find it, haha. 

    I also give the cats catnip on Christmas morning.
  • I had a Hannukah stocking too! 

    On the first day of Hannukah, I love to light the menorah, cook a whole bunch of bacon, and snack on it while I watch Christmas Vacation. I know that makes no sense at all, and I'm the worst Jew ever, but I do it every year. 

    I also have a glass of whiskey while I put up my xmas tree every year (and I have a few Hannukah ornaments that go on it). 
    Can I come to your house for hanukkah?  That sounds amazing.  I may have to do that this year hahaha.  While drinking bourbon :)

    I used to help my bestie decorate her tree when we were younger.  She's a pizza bagel (italian jew) so they had a giant menorah and a huge tree and we would put hanukkah decorations on the tree and make a gingerbread house.
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  • edited December 2014
    Most of these have been somewhat retired, but here are several of our odd traditions:

    • On Christmas morning, we (the kids) HAD to wait at the top of the stairs.  We could not come downstairs until my dad had his camcorder out and had started playing Anne Murray's Christmas album.  When we were kids, he played the cassette tape, but starting in the 90s, we had the CD.  The CD got scratched in the early 90s, but we never replaced it.  It was comical (and became tradition) to listen to "Joy to the World" skipping.  It was "jjjjjjoooooooooooyyyyyy tooooooo theeeeee wooooooorrrrrrrllllllldddddd".
    • In my dad's family, his Aunt Dean was infamous for giving socks / underwear / clothes, etc (she was THAT aunt).  Her husband's name was Don, and their daughter was Donna, so the gifts were all signed from "DDD".  She never boxed the gifts, so they were soft, and we would yell "DDD Special!" and toss the present from person to person across the room until the wrapping paper fell completely off.  We still wrap t-shirts like this (without a box) and throw the present across the room.
    ETA:  This one lives on - We have "Open Me First" presents and get Christmas pajamas.  We open those gifts first, change into our PJs, and then open the other presents.

    On Christmas Eve, we would go to Mass and then come home to open presents.  Dinner consisted of a HoneyBaked Ham which we used to make sandwiches.  The next morning, we'd have ham and eggs.  We'd always also have a cocktail shrimp appetizer (I have no idea why).  We stopped the Honey Baked Ham a few years ago.  My parents went to bed Christmas Eve night and accidentally left the ham on the counter.  The next morning, they woke up to this:
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  • Not exactly weird, but after Christmas Eve church we come home and sing all the Christmas carols that weren't included in the church service. Except my family are TERRIBLE singers. I feel kind of bad that FI will have to be subjected to it.

    Also not a tradition per se, but my aunt employs an au pair through a one-year program, and each year she gets a new one between Thanksgiving and Christmas. So basically there's a complete stranger staying with my family for Christmas every year. And my family goes completely BSC at Christmas, so I can only imagine that this poor guy is wondering what on earth he got himself into.
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  • That is super cute. 

    We celebrate Christmas every year with my mom's side of the family. After we're all done opening presents, we have a massive wrapping paper fight. No one remembers how it started. We've been doing it for as long as I can remember. It gets pretty competitive, with people forming alliances, picking out the heaviest wrapping paper to wrap their presents in, and stealing paper before the fight starts. 
    That sounds like so much fun!
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  • esstee33 said:
    I have a Christmas pickle ornament that I hide on the tree, but for the past few years it's only been me in the house, so there's no one to find it, haha. 

    I also give the cats catnip on Christmas morning.
    Take a picture of the tree and lets see if we can find the pickle!  Like Where's Waldo!
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  • When we lived in Germany and for a few years afterwards we always recognized St. Nicolas Day. We'd leave our shoes outside our apartment door and in the morning they were filled with chocolates and other small treats.

    Every Christmas Eve my mom and I cook a traditional Bavarian dinner. We have schnitzel with a side of sliced lemons (although in recent years we've started adding mushroom sauce for a yaegerschnitzel), potatoes of some sort, cucumber salad, and some other stuff. On Christmas Day we usually make a standing rib roast and then have a ham on New Years with collard greens and black eyed peas.



  • We always got to open one gift on Christmas Even before bed. Now, FI and I exchange something small.

    We used to stand at the top of the stairs Christmas morning and stomp our feet to make sure our parents were up. My older brother is 7 years older than me and 10 years older than our younger brother, so he didn't always like getting up at 5:00 am on Christmas in the later years, haha. Now, FI and I get up early and go to his parents to open presents. They still make us wait on the stairs. And then we go to my dad's to open presents.

    FI's family has always done a huge Christmas breakfast. I have thoroughly enjoyed taking part in that tradition.

    Then we go to my mom's to open presents and have a light lunch.

    Then we go to FI's aunt's for desserts and snacks and family time.

    By that time it is around 5:30 pm so we go see my dad at work (he works third shift and always ends up working Christmas) and spend time with him.

    When we get home we exchange our gifts and stockings and let the dogs open their presents (bones and toys and treats) while we watch Elf (which was the first movie we ever watched together the day after we started dating, which was in October). This year it will be the last night we spend together before we get married so we are drinking the Champagne my cousin got us as an engagement gift.

  • esstee33 said:
    I have a Christmas pickle ornament that I hide on the tree, but for the past few years it's only been me in the house, so there's no one to find it, haha. 

    I also give the cats catnip on Christmas morning.
    I have the pickle too! :P 
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  • How cute!

     

    Growing up, my mom and I would always snuggle on the couch on Christmas Eve with some hot coco and read 'Twas the Night Before Christmas. I still make it a point to bring out the book on Christmas Eve every year. We read it together and drink more adult beverages now!

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  • FI's family does their Christmas with his mom and his siblings and all their kids on Christmas Eve, and it always involves making massive trays of nachos and drinking.  That's when I really knew I'd fit in well with his family!
  • We really didn't have any that were out of the ordinary. My parents are health nuts so Christmas morning was literally the one day a year they'd make us bacon for breakfast. I think I liked that more than the gifts, so I continue to do that at my brother's house.

    My husband's family would take him to his aunt & uncle's party on Christmas Eve. FIL would sneak away from the party, go home, and set up the presents. They'd get home around 8pm and Santa had come and they'd open all the presents. I think it's BSC and I don't understand why you'd do that but it's what they did.

                                                                     

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  • My dad grew up super-Christian and my mom was raised Jewish. We got a bit of both:

    Hannukkah is always hosted by my uncles. We listen to the musical menorah that my great-gramma bought my uncle when he was bar mitzvah'd. It's dying but awesome. The guys compete to see who can eat the most latkes while the women try to figure out how not to get sick off of the nasty suckers (they're not the best recipe...). My mom didn't get Hannukkah gifts so we didn't either.

    Christmas is at my parents' house. No gifts are allowed to be opened before Gramma makes it to the house but stockings are allowed. Breakfast is always bagels and lox. We then spend the day cooking for the big family dinner later - as we like to say, a big group of Jews sitting around the tree. If there's time, we watch "Love Actually" once the work is done and before people arrive. Good times.

    Though our Christmas traditions have changed since I met DH. Sharing custody over the holidays with his ex-wife definitely throws off schedules, though it's still pretty awesome.
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  • lyndausvilyndausvi mod
    Moderator Knottie Warrior 10000 Comments 500 Love Its
    edited December 2014
    Growing up we had to also wait at the top of the stairs.  With the camera and all.

    Then we we got older and didn't believe in santa gifts would magically appear under the tree throughout the month.   Not a single one would have a name on it.  Only numbers. 1- whatever.  My siblings and me would spend the whole month trying to guess who gets what gift.  

    Then on xmas eve we would have a big turkey dinner.  Then have an open house with the neighbors.  Then we would drive 20-30 minutes away to my grandmother's church for mid-night mass.  Actual mid-night mass, none of this mid-night mass at 8pm crap.  Then we would go back to grandma's for drinks (well I was the driver, but the adults drank booze) and breakfast. 

     Mind you it's like 1:30 am at this point.   Then we would make it back to our house by like 3am.   We would walk in the door and often some little elves would have delivered. big items that could not be wrapped.  Then it was time to open the gifts.  My mom had a Master List.  She would all out random numbers like "12 - Lynda, 3 - sister, 28 - bro 1, 11 - bro2".  Then we would open those gifts.   Then the next set of numbers were called out.

    By now it was like 5am.  We would all go to bed and wake up whenever we wanted.   Mom had mini-meatballs in the crockpot which we ate throughout the day.   Eventually we would make our way back to DE (20 mins away) and see my aunts and cousins.   Huge drinking parties.   Even at 14 I was a bartender.    hehe.

    After grandmas passed and if my parents were in town we still did big dinner and mid-night mass.  I would sometimes have a buzz in church.  Then we would come home, eat monkey bread, drink whiskey sours and open gifts. 

    fun times.

    Now we don't really do anything because we were always working.  We use to open gifts the morning of the 24th because we would not really each other until the 26th. 2 years ago we were at my sisters.  Last year his mom's.    

    On the 24th the club is completely full with like 200 reservations.    They recruited me to work.   We are both off on the 25th. The plan is to go skiing.






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  • esstee33 said:
    I have a Christmas pickle ornament that I hide on the tree, but for the past few years it's only been me in the house, so there's no one to find it, haha. 

    I also give the cats catnip on Christmas morning.
    I have the pickle too! :P 
    I also have the pickle! I would give my cats catnip Christmas morning, but unfortunately we have to travel, so we won't be home.
  • My family isn't really one for traditions. We used to go to Midnight Mass, but then we changed parishes and everything SUCKED at the new parish so we just kinda stopped going...

    MIL and SIL bake cookies in the week or so before Christmas, and distribute platesof them to the neighbours. The last two years, I've made Peppernotter for the plates, but this year I'm probably only going to do one batch for the family because I'm also making Christmas cupcakes (cranberry aple cinnamon). I have no idea why I make Peppernotter. I have no Scandinavian blood at all, and DH and I seem to be the only ones who like them.

    We open presents on Christmas morning, in our PJs (I got yelled at my first Christmas for being dressed), with tea and cookies, and carols in the background (they drive me nuts, but MIL's house, MIL's rules). DH and/or SIL act as the elves and hand the gifts out.

    Christmas falls midsummer here, so we generally have a BBQ on Christmas eve. Christmas lunch is Brie/Camembert hot-pots for starters, and shrimp for mains.

    And then we usually hang out with DH's bestie and his family for a bit on Boxing Day.
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  • Yay!

    Every Christmas Eve we would go to my Uncle's (giant) house with all of our extended family (over 75 people) and would tape a Christmas show and send it to my great-grandmother in Ecuador. My family started this before I was born (I think my dad was 17 for the first one) and we've just been doing it ever since, even after she passed. We would have different groups of the family sing different songs; all the men (called "Los Chupamedias", as that's what my great grandmother would call them) would sing something, all the women ("Las Mozas del Sol") would do a number, and all the kids. All different kinds of songs from current to oldies, and some people would bring out guitars. 

    My parents divorced when I was 9, so we ended up having dinner at my moms and my dad would pick us up and drive us to my Uncles. We would spend the night at his place, he would wake us up with blasting Classic Rock (Beatles, Led Zep, Doors, the like), we'd open presents, he'd drive to my moms, we'd open presents.

    Later that afternoon, we'd go to my Aunt's and she would play the Christmas show from the night before and we'd laugh at how ridiculous we all were.

    My fiance surprised me last year at the Christmas show; he was supposed to be working all night but he traded shifts, drove from Orlando to Miami, and got to my Uncle's before I did. They all thought he was just there to surprise me; but to my, and their, surprise, that's when he proposed.

    The man has balls to do it in front of all my family.


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  • My dad grew up super-Christian and my mom was raised Jewish. We got a bit of both:

    Hannukkah is always hosted by my uncles. We listen to the musical menorah that my great-gramma bought my uncle when he was bar mitzvah'd. It's dying but awesome. The guys compete to see who can eat the most latkes while the women try to figure out how not to get sick off of the nasty suckers (they're not the best recipe...). My mom didn't get Hannukkah gifts so we didn't either.

    Christmas is at my parents' house. No gifts are allowed to be opened before Gramma makes it to the house but stockings are allowed. Breakfast is always bagels and lox. We then spend the day cooking for the big family dinner later - as we like to say, a big group of Jews sitting around the tree. If there's time, we watch "Love Actually" once the work is done and before people arrive. Good times.

    Though our Christmas traditions have changed since I met DH. Sharing custody over the holidays with his ex-wife definitely throws off schedules, though it's still pretty awesome.
    Our Christmas breakfast is always lox and bagels too! With chive cream cheese, cucumbers, red onion, tomato, capers... omg I am drooling so bad. And bacon, of course! 

    My mom makes the best latkes ever, but all the grease usually isn't that good for my stomach so I have to try to control myself and not eat like 30 of them lol 
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  • I watch Muppets Christmas Carol every Christmas Eve.

    Our future Spawn will too.
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    Anniversary
  • We watch Christmas Vacation while we decorate the tree, and now I do that at my house, too.

    The old tradition when we had Christmas at my grandma's house was that everyone tore into their presents all at the same time (none of that one at a time bullshit that takes all fucking day), you run around and thank everyone as you open things, and then once everyone was done, you had a HUGE wrapping paper battle.
    --

    I'm the fuck
    out.

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  • beethery said:
    We watch Christmas Vacation while we decorate the tree, and now I do that at my house, too.

    The old tradition when we had Christmas at my grandma's house was that everyone tore into their presents all at the same time (none of that one at a time bullshit that takes all fucking day), you run around and thank everyone as you open things, and then once everyone was done, you had a HUGE wrapping paper battle.
    I saw a tape last Christmas of DH's family doing the one at a time thing at his grandparents' place: for all the kids and then AALLLLL the adults. I was seriously amazed at how orderly everything was and how even the five year olds waited their turn. That would never have flown in my grandparents' house! We were more the wrapping paper party type.
  • Not "weird" per se, but just weird because neither of my parents are Polish. We each take a little square of an Oplatki wafer--these big rectangular wafers, taste like Communion wafers and printed with the wise men or other Christmas scenes. We take turns reading some prayers out loud and then eat the wafers. This is before our Christmas Eve dinner, which is a take on the "7 fishes" Italian tradition, but with less fish and more apps from Trader Joe's.
  • chibiyui said:
    I watch Muppets Christmas Carol every Christmas Eve. Our future Spawn will too.

    I WAS JUST GOING TO WRITE THIS. I know its not super weird since its a movie but its LITERALLY THE BEST MOVIE OF ALL TIME. but no one really includes it as a classic! I remember going to see the play the first time and I was like this music sucks compared to Muppet Christmas Carol. God I love the songs in this movie.


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  • I don't think we do anything for a long enough stretch of time to call it a tradition except for the Irish tradition of putting a candle in the front window on Christmas Eve to welcome weary travelers looking for somewhere to rest. Beyond that, we're still trying to figure out what our traditions will be.
    ~*~*~*~*~

  • FI has also been big on putting this on while we wrap presents:


    I usually end up being talked into doing my Clone High JFK voice and singing 'Jerky Balls' to the tune of 'Silent Night'. 
    --

    I'm the fuck
    out.

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