What Weird Holiday Traditions Do You have?

lacqueredlover

I also listen to the LeeVee's Hanukkah album every year because it cracks me up.  Especially the song "How Do You Spell Hanukkah?"

[Deleted User]

Once my mom (FINALLY) told my brother and I about Santa, the only "From:  Santa" gift we'd get would usually some sort of gag gift.  I remember my brother getting a 5lb Hershey bar one year and some carpenter boxers since he was/is a carpenter. 

Strangely, I don't remember any of my gag gifts. 
Oh-wait!  My dad got me slippers shaped like sea gulls.  I don't know why (at the time I wasn't "into" birds the way I am now) other than they looked funny.  What was funnier was when I would wear them and walk around with them, the little wings and the tail would "bounce" with each step and we had a dog that would try to attack my feet when I had them on.

Until we moved in together, my fiance lived with his parents, who have a wood burning stove.  On our first Christmas, he brought home a bottle of Bailey's (he loves me!) and said we'd start a tradition of having a glass of Bailey's in front of the fire on Christmas Eve. 

Now we have an apartment, with no fire place or wood burning stove, so he bought a Yule Log DVD so we could continue our tradition of Bailey's in front of the fire.  :-)

theartistformerlyknownas

Oh man, the waiting at the top of the stairs. It's a wonder we never broke our legs the way we'd trample down. It was also the only time you'd ever catch the 4 of us in such close proximity to each other without fighting. We'd all huddle up in one of our comforters while Mom and Dad would take their sweet ass time making the coffee (no kids til coffee - it's a great rule I intend to keep) and yelling things like "HOLY MOLY, would you look at all those presents?! Santa must have gotten the houses mixed up, there's no way you guys got ALL THESE PRESENTS!" while we all went absolutely mad with anticipation.

They also did awesome things like getting the Easy Bake Oven stuck in the chimney, or making boot prints of glitter mixed with soot leading from the fireplace to the tree. We would also set up my dad's fancy video camera with a motion sensor (no, he probably didn't have a motion sensor, but he convinced us that he did) to try and catch Santa in the act, only to capture a red-gloved hand pushing the camera lens to point at the ceiling and the sound of gifts rustling and jingle bells. Once we were woken up to the sound of sleigh bells in the middle of the night, like Santa was just passing by. It was seriously like 3am and we got to get up and open presents. Poor parents hadn't slept a wink but it was SO COOL for us!

holyguacamole79

I'm so glad we weren't the only ones who had to wait at the top of the stairs!!!

theartistformerlyknownas

holyguacamole79 said:

I'm so glad we weren't the only ones who had to wait at the top of the stairs!!!

It's seriously on the list of reasons I want a 2-story house. Bum knees be damned - I want my kids to have the Christmas morning trample!

sophhabobopha

Nothing weird here, ha! Love reading all of these. (:

penguin44

lolo883 said:

Oh man, the waiting at the top of the stairs. It's a wonder we never broke our legs the way we'd trample down. It was also the only time you'd ever catch the 4 of us in such close proximity to each other without fighting. We'd all huddle up in one of our comforters while Mom and Dad would take their sweet ass time making the coffee (no kids til coffee - it's a great rule I intend to keep) and yelling things like "HOLY MOLY, would you look at all those presents?! Santa must have gotten the houses mixed up, there's no way you guys got ALL THESE PRESENTS!" while we all went absolutely mad with anticipation.

They also did awesome things like getting the Easy Bake Oven stuck in the chimney, or making boot prints of glitter mixed with soot leading from the fireplace to the tree. We would also set up my dad's fancy video camera with a motion sensor (no, he probably didn't have a motion sensor, but he convinced us that he did) to try and catch Santa in the act, only to capture a red-gloved hand pushing the camera lens to point at the ceiling and the sound of gifts rustling and jingle bells. Once we were woken up to the sound of sleigh bells in the middle of the night, like Santa was just passing by. It was seriously like 3am and we got to get up and open presents. Poor parents hadn't slept a wink but it was SO COOL for us!

We also had to sit at the top of the stairs while my dad got the camcorder ready. But my parents would say things like, "oh it looks like Santa forgot our house." or "Santa only brought coal this year."

The only weird tradition we had was throwing carrots in the back yard for the reindeer on Christmas eve.

We were only allowed to open stockings before my grandparents got to the house for brunch. So we would open our stockings and then have candy for breakfast. Oh and my mom always put an orange and mixed nuts in the bottom of our stockings.

theartistformerlyknownas

penguin44 said:

We also had to sit at the top of the stairs while my dad got the camcorder ready. But my parents would say things like, "oh it looks like Santa forgot our house." or "Santa only brought coal this year."

The only weird tradition we had was throwing carrots in the back yard for the reindeer on Christmas eve.

We were only allowed to open stockings before my grandparents got to the house for brunch. So we would open our stockings and then have candy for breakfast. Oh and my mom always put an orange and mixed nuts in the bottom of our stockings.

We did these too! 

emmaaa

My dad used to throw things on our roof to sound like Santa if he knew we weren't asleep yet. Then he'd come up and be like, "Did you hear that?!? Santa was just hear but I saw him leave because he knew y'all were still awake!"

thisismynickname2

These are so fun to read!

We do Christmas Crackers (click there). It's an English tradition. We eat dinner, tell the jokes, and then sit around a couple hours with our paper hats on. DH hates wearing the hat and asked if he had to wear it this year. Obviously, I said he'd be disowned if he didn't wear the hat ;-)  

In addition, my parents won't put out the "kids'" gifts until the middle of the night so we don't see them until Christmas morning. The first time my mom put out our gifts prior to Christmas Day, my sister and I pitched a fit. And we were in our 20's!  There's still something magical about coming down on Christmas day with more presents under the tree than there were the night before.  

climbingsingle

Once I was older, my parents wouldn't get out of bed for us to open presents until I had made them a pot of coffee. And of course, this would be at like 6am. 

When I was 3 years old, I decided to go downstairs and start opening all the presents at like 4am before anyone was up. Thankfully my mother heard me and was able to stop me. But I had already opened most of my gifts AND my brothers. Whoops! I guess I was excited. 

MobKaz

LaPeanut1018 said:

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.

I also grew up in a German Catholic home, so St. Nicholas was an absolute in our home. He would give the kids an ornament every Christmas that encapsulated that year....graduation, driver's license, football.....and the idea was that those ornaments would be taken when the kids branched out on their own to start their own tree. In hindsight, I wish I would have gotten duplicates. My tree looked very bare once the kids took those ornaments. @LaPeanut1018‌ , we always celebrated New Year's Eve with herring on the table. Did you have that as well?

novella1186

ClimbingBrideNY said:

Once I was older, my parents wouldn't get out of bed for us to open presents until I had made them a pot of coffee. And of course, this would be at like 6am. 

When I was 3 years old, I decided to go downstairs and start opening all the presents at like 4am before anyone was up. Thankfully my mother heard me and was able to stop me. But I had already opened most of my gifts AND my brothers. Whoops! I guess I was excited. 

FI's mom said that when he was little, he snuck downstairs while everyone was asleep in tore a little hole in the wrapping paper of EVERY. SINGLE. PRESENT. Whether they were his or not. He needed to know what he was getting and what everyone else was getting. Then he snuck back to bed like no one would notice. When they all got up in the morning his parents knew it was him right away and said "Oh look, it looks like a little mouse got to all the presents!" 

Thanks to that story, I have some genius hiding places for his gifts, but now I can't find one of them. 

theycallmelinz

holyguacamole79 My dog would be the happiest dog in the world if that happened haha. It reminds me of A Christmas Story where the family has to go eat Chinese food for Christmas dinner.

That being said, some of our traditions were going to eat Chinese on December 23rd and then opening presents between my immediate family, because the 24th and 25th were usually packed full of extended family gatherings. 

Another tradition is my parents and I playing Circle of Death (aka Waterfall/drinking game) on Christmas eve. It started with my mom being super stressed about my ho-bag sister causing problems at Christmas, coupled with my crazypants aunt (hey that rhymed!) also causing drama, so I decided to get my mom drunk before they all came over so she wouldn't stress about it haha. It just stuck after that. I'm gonna miss it this year because we're doing Christmas with FI's family in Georgia =/ 

labro

@MobKaz No we don't...but my oma loooovvveeeddd herring. My MIL does (and did) the same thing with the ornaments. She gets H and his sisters (and me now) an ornament each year. When H moved out officially she sent him with a small tree and all of his ornaments. It was nice for us in a way, now we can buy a full size tree each year and it looks mostly full between the ornaments I've acquired and his childhood ornaments.

WinstonsGirl

So many, now that I've read all of yours.  We're a family of gamblers.  My Aunt/Uncle/Cousin lived about 12 hours away, so we saw them in the summer and at Christmas.  Every night, we would play 65 (a version of rummy) or rummoli for pennies.  We still get together for Rummoli nights.  

We also have a Christmas pickle, but no one looks for it/gets anything if you find it.  

Christmas dinner at my Aunts (2 spinster sisters who lived together their whole lives) were huge, and always involved Christmas crackers at the beginning of dinner.  We'd all wear the paper hats too.  My brother/SIL have kept that up at their years Christmas dinner.  

My personal ones are ornaments on the tree.  I always put my Baby's First Christmas on first, and take it off last.  Next are all of mine with my name of that I made as a kid.  I actually had a meltdown our first Christmas cos I couldn't find the one I made in grade 1 (a little class photo of me surrounded by red and green poms).  I was tearing apart the Christmas boxes looking through all of the other ornaments and couldn't find it.  Finally found it on the tree cos DH had hung it up not realizing that it was one of my important ones.  

Stockings are always first.  And after breakfast.  I swear, as kids this was the only day my Dad ever slept in.  He's a morning person and is usually up around 6.  Christmas morning, he's still dozing at 10am.  Breakfast first (waffle, bacon, fruit, cinnamon buns, etc., then stockings and finally presents.  I don't mind it now though.

ETA - I forgot about my stocking.  Not really a tradition, but I've made it very clear I never want a new one.  Mine was made by my favourite Aunt when I was a baby for my first Christmas.  She died about 10 years ago, so it reminds me of her too.  

steph861

Every year for as long as I can remember, my mom (and my sister, once she was born) and I have watched Father Goose (which has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas). My mom said she first saw it as a kid when it came on TV around Christmas, and she's associated it with Christmas ever since. 

doeydo

I am usually up super early on Christmas, and I love coming down in the dark with all the Christmas lights on.  We were always able to open our stockings as soon as we wanted without having to wait for everyone else to get up.  Once everyone is up, we do Christmas gifts (or sometimes breakfast then gifts) one by one in a circle.  We also have a big-ish breakfast and dinner and just skip lunch because we have so much junk food to snack on all day.  My mom never did the whole Santa Claus thing, which is apparently not usual.

holyguacamole79

@theycallmelinz‌ - it was just like that! They were happy dogs, indeed!

hellohkb

We always make it a tradition to get Chinese food on Christmas. No, we're not Jewish. Some people think this is bizarre but some think it's normal. I like it and associate Christmas with wonton soup now.

MobKaz

steph861 said:

Every year for as long as I can remember, my mom (and my sister, once she was born) and I have watched Father Goose (which has absolutely nothing to do with Christmas). My mom said she first saw it as a kid when it came on TV around Christmas, and she's associated it with Christmas ever since. 

I love that movie!

jenna8984

Ok I'm pissed. We didn't have an upstairs so I got jipped of the waiting at the stairs trampling!! 

This happened earlier than Christmas but it was tradition that the first snowfall of the each year, we'd make hot chocolate and watch THIS  movie. It's called The Snowman, it's from the early 80's, it's 20 minutes long, it's animated but it's all pencil sketches and only music no words. I loved it so, so much growing up that I bought myself the DVD when I went away to college. 

porkchops926

My mother had a serious love for those singing Christmas trees when they were a big thing. You know, those golden years of the Big Mouth Billy Bass when everything sang and did a dance?

Anyway, she bought this tree, it promptly lost one eye, and then the second eye (which has a "tree eyelid" that blinks) lost the eyelid. So now it's just one glowing, staring eye. It also never plays its song correctly, and started slurring and sounding demonic.

This was easily 10 years ago. She puts it out every Christmas because she thinks its so funny. And then makes me listen to it slur and dance and stare. 

Don't be surprised if in another 10 years there's a feature length movie about a possessed toy tree who told the daughter to kill the whole family. 

beachyone15

Not sure it's weird (at least not around here), but we always have tamales on Christmas Eve.

Also, we watch Christmas Vacation at least 10 times before Christmas. That movie never gets old.

teddygirl9

Awe I love reading these! Some very cute traditions!

 

I don't have too many. This will be my first xmas living with SO, so that should be nice.

 

I always watch Rudolph the red nosed reindeer - the oldschool stop motion one! I just love it haha.

We make croissants on xmas morning. You can buy them frozen, let them thaw overnight and then bake in the morning. None of this pillsbury bullshit.

We have 2 dinners to goto. My family hosts it in the afternoon/early evening, and SO family has it in the later evening more of a party type atmosphere. Its nice to have both, and we get to see everyone!

Inkdancer

On the day after Thanksgiving, we do all our Christmas decorating, make pepperoni rolls, and listen to Christmas music. When we put up the Nativity, Baby Jesus goes last and everyone hugs him before he gets put up.

On Christmas eve we eat pizza, and everyone gets to open one present (usually new pajamas).

On Christmas morning, nobody gets out of bed until I play this song:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mOhcuaut5sw
Then we open presents and mom usually makes sausage gravy. Then we watch whatever DVDs we got for Christmas all day until we have a huge dinner. If nobody ends up with all the present bows on their head, it's been a rough day.