Favorite Holiday Tradition/Most Memorable Holiday Disaster

mkrupar

1) What is your favorite holiday tradition?

2) What is your most memorable holiday disaster (that you can laugh about now?

Mine:

1) Breakfast on Christmas morning and calling all out of town family members while everyone is gathered and passing the phone around so everyone can say hi!

2) My holiday disaster is actually a Thanksgiving one. We were supposed to travel to my step dad's parent's house for Thanksgiving one year and the day we leave Ohio and Pennsylvania got hit with a nasty blizzard. We spent 4 hours travelling to Youngstown, OH from Cleveland, OH (normally 45 minutes to an hour) and decided there was no way we were going to make it all the way through PA and NJ. We were stuck on a bridge and had to get out at one point because someone was stuck. There was probably 2 inches of ice on the pavement and we weren't moving anywhere. We got off at the next exit, ate at Perkins, called the family to tell them we weren't going to make it and drove home. We ended up eating at Old Country Buffet for Thanksgiving that year since we didn't have any of the fixings at the house. It sucked at the time, but I'll always remember that Thanksgiving.

Edited: couple of typos

akhensley81

Favorite tradition is eating dinner by candlelight on Christmas Eve with my family.

Biggest disaster would be the time my mom forgot to take the roast out of the oven on Christmas Day. LOL! I never knew a whole huge roast like that could literally burn all the way through to the middle. To this day, we take a food roll call when it's time to eat, to make sure everything's there.

Meg1979

1) Our favorite tradition is watching Mr. Magoo's Christmas Carol and the Christmas Carol with George C. Scott.

2) Holiday disasters?  Well, I guess when the dog did some counter-surfing and got into the green bean casserole before we caught her.  She got terribly sick later that night.  Fun times! 

Snippylynn

Oh, I don't have any stories, really.  Except that one of the holiday's that sticks out to me, is the first I spent with now H, and his sister and her in-laws down in Kentucky.  They celebrate on Christmas Eve, which I've never done before. 

It's a tradition with them to do at least one gag- gift and my SIL and her H go all.out. buying the creepiest/funniest things they can.  The year we were there, they were running around last minute for their gags.  We went into TJ Maxx and found this statue hand making this sign:



We thought it was random and hilarious on it's own.  But then, we got it home and were thinking of how to make it even MORE funny.  Allen says, "It looks like it should be holding a drumstick."  EUREKA!!  Since KFC was open on CE, we stopped there and got two different kinds of drumsticks (regular and extra crispy) for comparative purposes.  Clearly, extra crispy worked the best.



We then placed the hand, WITH the drumstick through it's O shape, into a pretty Christmas bag, and covered it up with all kind of pretty paper. 

H and I were having a really horrible time keeping our faces straight when BIL's BIL opened the gift.  He just looked up from the bag and said, "Y'all are just not.right."

DED. 

To this day, they stick the random hand statue into other people's gifts and try to one up what we did- but they cannot reach the epicness.

The.End.

baystateapple

1) I love going to see the kids' Christmas pageant at church on Christmas Eve.  We've gone every year since I was a little kid, although now instead of being in it, I help wrangle the kids in it.

2) My parents make strawberry (spiked) punch every year.  The year I was 7, my dad and my uncle crammed two whole packages of strawberries into my mom's cheapass blender -- but they forgot to thaw them first.  The frozen strawberries blew a hole in the blender, and strawberries got EVERYWHERE, all over my mom's clean kitchen.  My mom heard the racket and almost had a heart attack when she walked in, strawberries everywhere, my dad and uncle laughing so hard they were crying.

Rosie109

For some reason the passing of the phone around reminds me of when I get together with my dad's side and my aunt that lives in FL calls.. and everyone runs to the  hill to not have the phone handed to them. I have spilled a drink to dodge a bullet, and I am not ashamed. 

scpalmtree06

Christmas 2004, December 22ish: My parents and I were scheduled to fly to upstate NY from South Carolina through Atlanta.  We got to Atlanta fine, only to find out that our flight to Rochester was canceled because bad weather elsewhere was causing flight cancellations, etc.  Meanwhile, it was also the year that the computer system for Conair, the operating carrier, crashed.  Of course the later flight to Rochester was already overflowing, and probably going to be canceled anyway.  The airport was crowded with hoards of people trying to get to their destinations.  We literally spent 12 hours going from service counter to service counter trying to figure out our options.  We finally decided to just return home on a flight that was headed back that evening.  Miraculously all 3 of us made it on that flight with stand-by status and we made it home that night...

...but not with our luggage!  Between the three of us we probably had 6 bags checked (before they did all the restrictions and fees).  We had checked our luggage in SC to go all the way to NY.  We figured our luggage would arrive the next day if they were able to figure out that we had returned to SC instead of going to NY.  Sadly, that didn't happen...it took 12 days for all of our luggage to trickle back home, and even then it was only one piece at a time.  We figured that by the time the huge mess from the weather and computer crash had settled, our bags had been routed to NY, only to spin around on the carousel for days until someone realized they needed to go back to SC.  All of our presents were inside the bags, so whenever a suitcase did show up at home it was a big deal to open up our gifts 8, 10, 12 days later.  It was like celebrating Hannukah.

Meanwhile, my mother didn't have any Christmas preparations done prior to leaving because we thought we'd be in NY.  She bought a 20" tree at Walmart on Christmas eve morning and fixed a roasted chicken for dinner for Christmas day.  My brother, who was originally going to meet us in NY, had to go through the whole ticket-re-routing mess as well, which also landed him in Atlanta, spending Christmas Eve on the floor in the terminal.  He finally made it home Christmas day and we went to the movies.

Stackeye210

Favorite Holiday Tradition:  Driving around on Christmas eve to look at Christmas lights with the family growing up. 

Worst Holiday disaster:  I wouldn't exactly call it a disaster, but on CE we were flying to Chicago to celebrate Christmas with my grandparents.  The plane got all the way to Chicago and it was too foggy/icy (to be honest I forget which it was) to land.  They circled around for 1.5 hours and then decided they just couldn't do it.  So they flew us back home.  The next morning (Christmas morning) we get to the airport to try again.  We were one of only 6 planes to actually land in Chicago on Christmas before they closed it again. 

akhensley81

Rosie- We do the same thing. And nobody EVER wants to talk to my great aunt. She's totally BSC. But my mom calls her anyway. Then it's a huge ordeal to try to find something else to be too busy doing, to avoid the phone call. Every bathroom in the house suddenly gets used. Haha.

I actually have a photo of my dad from a few years ago, he got "trapped" and was on the phone with Aunt Marion. He had the phone in one hand, and a spatula in the other - the spatula held up to the other ear like a phone. He's making the stupidest face, and I'm standing behind him giving him bunny ears. I think the photo is on my FB somewhere, but I won't be able to get it for you all in time before this thread dies, I'm sure.

mkrupar

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_favorite-holiday-traditionmost-memorable-holiday-disaster?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:fb95e629-52f2-4e37-bdfc-75b508fe5738Post:55f2cd33-9f0e-4a80-be9f-2c4db7be0a4d">Re: Favorite Holiday Tradition/Most Memorable Holiday Disaster</a>:
[QUOTE]For some reason the passing of the phone around reminds me of when I get together with my dad's side and my aunt that lives in FL calls.. and everyone runs to the  hill to not have the phone handed to them. I have spilled a drink to dodge a bullet, and I am not ashamed. 
Posted by Rosie109[/QUOTE]

Bahaha that's hilarious Rosie. There's only one set of Aunt and Uncle that I would do that to, but luckily they've disowned my father and us kids so we don't have to deal with it.

baystateapple

Stacks -- that SUCKS.

lyndausvi

1)  We do not do this anymore (due to location) but from the time my brothers no longer believed in Santa until  we started getting married  everyday from the time we put up the tree until xmas eve random gifts would show up under the tree with only numbers on them. No names at all.   

 After mid-night mass we would sit around the family room and my mom would pull out a master list and tell us to grab a gift with a certain number on it.  The first year we did not get it at all.  After that it was a ton of fun.  We spend all month wondering and guessing who gets what box.  We even had side-bets going on.  My parents were really creative in their wrapping.  So a lot of  gifts were well disguised.

2)  When I was about 7 I got an Easy Bake oven for Christmas.   I begged my parents to let me bake a cake to take to Grandma.  I did and then wrapped it up and held it in my lap for 4 hours while we drove up to Delaware.  It was a snowy icy night, I got out of the car and slipped and fell on my cake.    I was soooo upset .

LDYGTR13

Favorite Holiday Tradition: My mom always makes Pilsbury orange sweet rolls for breakfast on Christmas morning. Dad always makes mimosas. I've been having orange rolls since I was a baby and the mimosas since I was about 15. It's good times.

Holiday Disaster: I was trying to help my Granny get down the stairs in the front of my parents house and she misstepped and kinda slow motion fell on her butt. I tried to keep her up, but it didn't happen. Ever since, my family always mentions things about "not dropping Granny"...not a disaster, but at 82 she couldn't move very well for about a week afterwards. I felt bad =(

[Deleted User]

1) What is your favorite holiday tradition? Gosh, I would say baking cookies with my Mom and sister on Christmas Eve. But now, H and I go to church on Christmas Eve, which will be out new family tradition/

2) What is your most memorable holiday disaster (that you can laugh about now? Hmm, I can't really think of any right now.

mkrupar

Lynda that is an awesome way to give gifts after the Santa magic has disappeared. I'll have to remember that for the future. and I got this ridiculous picture of a little girl falling on her easy bake cake. That is sad, but I had to chuckle a little.

salt78

1) Favorite Holiday Tradition:

When I was little my mom or dad used to put a stuffed animal next to the doorway outside of my room so it was the first thing I saw when I got up to run downstairs. I want to do that with my own child. 

Also my husband and I do an ornament exchange every year and I love going with him to the Christmas shop near our house to pick them out. 

2) Favorite Holiday Disaster:

I can't remember exactly what year it was (2003-ish?), but we were having Christmas dinner at my ex stepdad's really obnoxious aunt's house. She was so loud and annoying and I hated her. Anyway, she was serving people and leaned into one of the candles on the table and lit her shirt on fire. My mother and I were DYING laughing. Luckily she wasn't hurt, but to this day it is one of the funniest things I've ever seen. 

lyndausvi

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_favorite-holiday-traditionmost-memorable-holiday-disaster?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:fb95e629-52f2-4e37-bdfc-75b508fe5738Post:f33f4546-e038-4e4e-b57f-97a89e1d4c55">Re: Favorite Holiday Tradition/Most Memorable Holiday Disaster</a>:
[QUOTE]Lynda that is an awesome way to give gifts after the Santa magic has disappeared. I'll have to remember that for the future. and I got this ridiculous picture of a little girl falling on her easy bake cake. That is sad, but I had to chuckle a little.
Posted by mkrupar[/QUOTE]


You are so right, tt was a great way to keep the magic alive.   My siblings all started the tradition for their families.

And it's okay to chuckle about the cake.  I do now..

ehathewa

Tradition: Can't choose just one.  Love spening time with my family, baking cookies, holiday dinners, decorating the tree, "booze nog", etc

Disaster: Probably when we went to Texas for Easter to see my Great Grandma.  My brother told our elderly and conservative relatives that he wanted to be a palentologist  and study dinosaurs when he grew up.  They let him know that he was going to hell for believing in dinosaurs.  He was 11.  The trip came to an amazing close when our minivan broke down in Joplin, Missouri.  We were given a compact rental car and all 6 of us piled in for the 10 hour ride home. 

There was also the Thanksgiving where we went to North Carolina to visit my Aunt and Uncle.  My dad was bit by a poisonus spider (unknown to him) and became delirious on the ride home.  We got lost in Baltimore trying to find a hospita in DC.  Dad was admitted to the hospital.  We spent the night in the car in hospital parking ramp (5 people in car aged 40 to 3), 1 in hospital).  We picked Dad up in the morning and had to fly him home to hospital there.  Dad was in the hospital for 2 weeks at home. 

MattsPenguin

Tradition: My brother (the 23 year old Marine) likes to put his Christmas bows on his head.  Every year he says that he "won't do it this year", but halfway through opening presents, he puts them on.
Not really a tradition, but fun times!  The thing that I love about Christmas is that we make it an immediate family thing.  It's only my siblings, my mom, my stepdad, and I.  We sometimes don't leave the house, and I might not get out of pj's until mid-afternoon.  It's great!

Disaster: when I was about 14, we lost power Christmas eve.  We had been making onion burgers in the broiler, and luckily there was enough heat to cook them.  We ate by candlelight, and then we all gathered around read the Christmas story in the Bible and to hear my great-grandmother tell the story of "Tommy and Rosie". 

[Deleted User]

I laughed at how utterly adorable and traumatic that must have been for you Lynda! 

Tradition: My grandma coming over to our house Christmas morning for breakfast.  She would look at all our gifts and we'd exchange with her.  I'm absolutely going to miss that this year. 

Disaster: My mom was carrying a salad to the car on Christmas Eve and it was snowing and super icy out.  She fell and the salad went sliding down the driveway.  My dad didn't see her fall and was all concerned about the salad going into the street.  He ran for it and ended up falling and dropped everything he was carrying as well.  I was carrying my nephew and was laughing so hard I fell down, with him on top of me.  I think everyone just sad there for a few minutes like "wtf just happened?". 

mkrupar

Awww Andress....I hope everyone was ok. I can just imagine the looks on all of your faces.

chuygrl77

Favorite Tradition: Dad always watching Miracle on 34th Street

Memorable Disaster: Bought daughter a My Little Pony castle with about 10 ponies and she asked me (with a sour look on her face) "Why would you think I would like this?"  It broke my heart and I cried all of Christmas.

mandysmear

trad: before my mom passed away i always loved that everyone was at our house.  my mom would cook.  there would be about 20-30 of us.  we'd play a game or two (the kids).  the men would watch don cherry's newest rock em sock em cause my dad always got it for christmas.  the women would be in the kitchen bs-ing and cooking.

i am hoping this fondue thing is going to stick for future years.  or my sister and i baking for an entire day.  that was fun this year.

disaster: not sure.  i suppose my mom having to go to the hospital every 4 hours on christmas day our last christmas as a family is memorable.  but not in a good way.  everything always went pretty well on christmas.  being 4 and your parents forgetting batteries for your new toys always sucks too though.

[Deleted User]

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_favorite-holiday-traditionmost-memorable-holiday-disaster?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding%20BoardsForum:9Discussion:fb95e629-52f2-4e37-bdfc-75b508fe5738Post:dd94b23e-be34-4f37-ba86-7cfb61c19448">Re: Favorite Holiday Tradition/Most Memorable Holiday Disaster</a>:
[QUOTE]Awww Andress....I hope everyone was ok. I can just imagine the looks on all of your faces.
Posted by mkrupar[/QUOTE]

Yeah, it's only funny now because no one was hurt.  My mom still swears that my dad was more concerned about that salad than her though.

Chuy - ugh, I'd cry too.  I love giving people gifts and watching their reactions.  That would break my heart. 

chuygrl77

Yeah, I guess that's what I get for teaching her to speak her mind at a young age.  I think she was 5 when she said that to me.  I get so scared to buy her anything now and she's 13. 

mkrupar

In Response to <a href="http://forums.theknot.com/Sites/theknot/Pages/Main.aspx/wedding-boards_etiquette_favorite-holiday-traditionmost-memorable-holiday-disaster?plckFindPostKey=Cat:Wedding BoardsForum:9Discussion:fb95e629-52f2-4e37-bdfc-75b508fe5738Post:03ed4402-5c6f-4510-8a83-dfa282807b51">Re: Favorite Holiday Tradition/Most Memorable Holiday Disaster</a>:
[QUOTE]trad: before my mom passed away i always loved that everyone was at our house.  my mom would cook.  there would be about 20-30 of us.  we'd play a game or two (the kids).  the men would watch don cherry's newest rock em sock em cause my dad always got it for christmas.  the women would be in the kitchen bs-ing and cooking. i am hoping this fondue thing is going to stick for future years.  or my sister and i baking for an entire day.  that was fun this year. disaster: not sure.  <strong>i suppose my mom having to go to the hospital every 4 hours on christmas day our last christmas as a family is memorable.</strong>  but not in a good way.  everything always went pretty well on christmas.  <strong>being 4 and your parents forgetting batteries for your new toys always sucks too though.
</strong>Posted by mandysmear[/QUOTE]

The first bolded part is sad and I'm sorry you all had to go through that. We had to visit my mom at a nursing home every Christmas for the last 15 years of her life and it was always kind of depressing. We wanted her home, but she couldn't be there.

The second bolded part made me chuckle. It does suck having to wait until the next day to play with toys when the parents can get out and get batteries.

sarabellam

Favorite - Christmas Eve church services, specifically the late service. We have gone to both the early (with the children's pageant) and the late service, and the late service is my absolute favorite.
Disaster - Christmas 5 years ago. We had a stomach virus going around the family, so bad that my dad couldn't do either Christmas Eve service (he's a priest), and not enough of us were feeling up to cooking or eating Christmas dinner. We had a professional photographer scheduled to come to my parent's house on the 26th for a family portrait. My younger daughter, then age 4, got hit with virus Christmas night. She got sick on my bathmat, so I washed that in the middle of the night. Later she was about to get sick again, so I was hustling her into the bathroom. I tripped and started to fall on top of her. Somehow I managed to cradle her head and stop it from slamming into the tile floor, but smashed my nose into the floor. Broke the nose, but saved the child. Made for some lovely pictures the next day. Thank goodness for makeup.

PsyDet 2155

1) What is your favorite holiday tradition? Waking up early on Christmas morning to open presents and make a huge breakfast to enjoy.  My parents are divorced and sometimes my Dad comes over my Moms, which is really special.

2) What is your most memorable holiday disaster (that you can laugh about now?
When my Dad told me "You don't still believe in Santa Claus, do you?" on Christmas morning when I was about 6 or 7.  That was a downer,  he felt so bad after he said it and tried to cover himself but the damage was already done.  We still laugh about it.

SEWF

My favorite tradition is passing out the gifts. When I was little, I did it because I was the smallest and could walk around the easiest (I have a HUGE family, which equals a ton of gifts). Now, I still do it because it's tradition. I think this year will be my last, considering I'm 25 and have a bunch of cousins who are the right ages now to handle the "responsibility".

My most memorable holiday disaster is the year I woke up with the flu on Christmas morning and we were having the family dinner at our house. I was about ten, and all I wanted to do was hang out with family, eat dinner, and open presents. I ended up on the couch with my head in my moms lap while she stroked my hair. I saw family, but I fell asleep for most of it. I ate crackers and 7Up that day (although they did make me a plate of leftovers that I ate the next day), and I could only gather enough energy to open one gift that day. It sucked.

kmd0501

My favorite tradition is burning the dinner rolls.  Every year, without fail, my mom-mom would put the rolls in the oven and forget about them until the fire alarm went off and the kitchen filled with smoke.  She passed away in 2007 shortly after Christmas, but not without burning the rolls one last time.  Every Christmas since, my cousins and I purposely burn the rolls to remember mom-mom, and it also gives everyone a big laugh.

The biggest holiday disaster would probably be back in 2006, we came down stairs Christmas morning to find our cat had passed away throughout the night...under the christmas tree!  Luckily, me and my sister were 15 & 19 so we knew it was coming and werent so little that we were overly upset.  He had been really sick and had several surgeries the few weeks before.  Oddly enough, he was sick from drinking the tree water and the needles blocked up his urianry tract.  Lesson learned: DONT LET YOUR CAT DRINK TREE WATER!!!!

annagtz82

My favorite holidy tradition is, when we spend Christmas Eve with my dad's side of the family, some of the family gets together to perform a funny skit of some sort. Like a parody on a story. It's really funny. Especially if things go wrong.

Most memorable Holiday Disaster was one year when the power went out. We were hosting Christmas Eve dinner and we had an electric stove/oven. We found another oven to put the roast in but we were in the dark for a little bit. Luckily the power came back before our guests arrived.