Crazy family Christmas / holiday traditions

holyguacamole79 · December 2015

@ClaraGrace - I LOVE the O Antiphons! It gets me into the mood for Christmas

ClaraGrace · December 2015

@holyguacamole79 - Yeah, that's my adult start more now. But my dad still insists on stockings every December 6th. I would complain about an overload on sugar and tea but well, no.

I will be wearing a paper crown on January 6th also. Hey, I teach kindergarten in a Catholic school. I think everyone will be wearing their crowns.

holyguacamole79 · December 2015

@ClaraGrace , we're bad Catholics. We've never been the family to go to midnight Mass. I think we went once or twice, but it's never been our thing. Our parish usually has an 8 or 9 pm Christmas Eve Mass, which works best for us.

I teach Children's RCIA at our parish, so I have a great respect for grade school teachers!

ClaraGrace · December 2015

@holyguacamole79 My Mom is the one who always wanted to go to Midnight Mass. Thus we did. I think I slept through many years of it. Going now, yup, a lot of the kids are asleep. We always help carry kids to cars after service. I kind of think Mom liked not getting a wound up kid to bed on Christmas Eve, so anything to make me sleep.

I have my Sunday School class with the 8 pm service, yet I'll still show up at midnight.

drunkenwitch · December 2015

holyguacamole79 said:
@drunkenwitch , DH and I have a tradition of watching Die Hard as we put up our tree!

Yippee ki yay

holyguacamole79 · December 2015

@ClaraGrace , you're hard core!

Growing up, we would go to "children's Mass" at 4 or 5 at our church on Christmas Eve. We'd go directly from church to my grandparents' house to open presents with them. From then on, we've always just been in the habit of going to Mass earlier in the evening. But once we were all out of grade school, "children's Mass" had no appeal to us whatsoever. Luckily by then there was an 8:00 pm Mass.

I seriously don't know how priests (and music / liturgy staff) do it on Christmas Eve / Christmas Day and Easter Vigil / Easter.

banana468 · December 2015

I think I'd fall asleep in midnight Mass. We always go to the Christmas Eve vigil service at 4 PM. I've gone to the same church every year. We now drive the hour to go to the service in the church where we were married and then we head to the IL's to celebrate with them alone.

Christmas Day we get up in our house and unwrap gifts. Then we pile in the van and make the hour drive to get to my parents for around 11 AM to do it with them before the crowd gets there.

We have been toying with hosting Christmas at our home but I'm glad my parents are doing it this year.

MrsMack10612 · December 2015

RomanceManaged said:

I've got a couple traditions, maybe they're weird. IDK.
The Saturday before Christmas is my Grans party, and for like the last ten years me and my cousins (10 girls in all) would get a different part of a Christmas elf costume, the adults would get drunk and then we would all go caroling around her lake in our elf finery. Theres only like three houses there, but it always takes a good two hours. We all have to wear a matching red sweater with our elf costume. And bells. I'm very happy that I'm of legal drinking age now because buttershots and jager are going to be required to get me out there this year. (I haven't gone in the last 4 years.)
Nothing else too strange, other than we call stockings socks, and on my dads side they are filled to the brim with only candy.
This year I guess we are doing some different things, as we are all older, so everyone is only buying for the children, and then we are doing some weird gift passing game and then playing cards against humanity.

The bolded reminded me of a tradition my H started. When he was a kid they didn't do stockings (which was weird to me); so when our first Christmas living together rolled around, I tried to explain about stockings and what goes in them. Growing up it was always socks, a Lifesaver candy book, little things like that. As we got older it would change with what we needed (razors, pantyhose, whatever). H interpreted that in his own way, so now on Christmas morning my stocking, which is a rather large handknit that has been stretched for the last 40+ years, is filled to overflowing with candy (wrapped chocolates) and some sort of little toy mixed in. It's been little green army men, matchbox cars, just little things like that.

All the toys now go into a bin to be used by our friends' kids when they come visit.

Moppet82 · December 2015

Not a family tradition, but something silly my mom used to do for me. After I moved out of my parents house and was still single, I would sleep over at their house on Christmas Eve and when I woke up there were presents from "Santa." Now my Mom only did this for me, none of my siblings got in any of the action as adults. When they found out about it, they enviously asked why a 30-year old would still get presents from Santa. My response, "If you believe in Santa Claus, then Santa Claus exists. He just happens to look a lot like Mom." Ultimately, I think my Mom felt bad for me because I was alone and my siblings had their families, and ultimately, she loved it because she is a Christmas enthusiast.

holyguacamole79 · December 2015

Moppet82 said:

Not a family tradition, but something silly my mom used to do for me. After I moved out of my parents house and was still single, I would sleep over at their house on Christmas Eve and when I woke up there were presents from "Santa." Now my Mom only did this for me, none of my siblings got in any of the action as adults. When they found out about it, they enviously asked why a 30-year old would still get presents from Santa. My response, "If you believe in Santa Claus, then Santa Claus exists. He just happens to look a lot like Mom." Ultimately, I think my Mom felt bad for me because I was alone and my siblings had their families, and ultimately, she loved it because she is a Christmas enthusiast.

Our mom did something similar. We also had a tradition of us kids waiting at the top of the stairs until my parents told us we were allowed to come downstairs to see what Santa got us. Mom & Dad would play Anne Murray's "Christmas Wishes" album (growing up it was a cassette, it was later on CD). As the years went on, the CD got scratched. We wouldn't replace it, which made it funnier to hear the songs scratch as we were gathering in the living room.

Even in our 20s, we waited at the top of the stairs for Anne Murray's music to start playing. Then we were allowed to come downstairs to see what Santa brought us.

madamerwin · December 2015

So, I have a somewhat related question regarding Santa - it came up among my coworkers the other day: How many presents (or what percentage of your gifts) did Santa bring you, and what types of items were they?

In my house, Santa usually brought us 1-2 gifts each - one of which would be somewhat significant. One year Santa brought me an American Girl doll, another year an Easy Bake Oven. And usually there was something smaller, pajamas or something. He also filled our stockings. Until, of course, we were all old enough to know better, then Mom got all the credit.

Others I have asked have had wildly different experiences, ranging from Santa bring ALL the gifts (and a lot of them) to Santa only filling the stockings. I am actually surprised I never had this discussion with other kids when I was young, though I am glad I didn't - it would seem wildly unfair if Santa only brings one kid pajamas every year, while he brings other kids a shit ton of expensive gifts.

CharmedPam · December 2015

madamerwin said:

So, I have a somewhat related question regarding Santa - it came up among my coworkers the other day: How many presents (or what percentage of your gifts) did Santa bring you, and what types of items were they?

In my house, Santa usually brought us 1-2 gifts each - one of which would be somewhat significant. One year Santa brought me an American Girl doll, another year an Easy Bake Oven. And usually there was something smaller, pajamas or something. He also filled our stockings. Until, of course, we were all old enough to know better, then Mom got all the credit.

Others I have asked have had wildly different experiences, ranging from Santa bring ALL the gifts (and a lot of them) to Santa only filling the stockings. I am actually surprised I never had this discussion with other kids when I was young, though I am glad I didn't - it would seem wildly unfair if Santa only brings one kid pajamas every year, while he brings other kids a shit ton of expensive gifts.

You're right - I don't think I ever asked my friends what gifts were from Santa. As a child I could not tell you what came from Santa vs my parents, but I do remember waking up to probably 50% more presents than when we went to bed. I have two siblings as well.

spockforprez · December 2015

Santa only brought us one gift and it was never wrapped. Once we got older (no longer believing in Santa) my parents started signing random tags as being from Santa just for fun. I do it too now.

OliveOilsMom · December 2015

spockforprez said:

Santa only brought us one gift and it was never wrapped. Once we got older (no longer believing in Santa) my parents started signing random tags as being from Santa just for fun. I do it too now.

Once we were all "in the know" my dad started signing his gift tags to my mom from Santa to Mrs. Claus.

MairePoppy · December 2015

We gave our kids new pjs, books, a small toy or two. Santa brought the majority of toys and they were wrapped in his special Santa paper, unless the item was too big to wrap. Santa brought about 70% of the gifts.

ChelleJayne · December 2015

Growing up all my siblings would stay at my house (my siblings are 10, 12 and 16 years older than I am) and in the morning, my older sisters would send our brother out to see what presents were there.

Now that I'm older, we do a Christmas a week before with all the family. On Christmas Eve, its me, my Mom and FI. We get together with a bunch of friends and go out to dinner. Then we come home, drink and play cards. Christmas morning is for presents.

OH and you have to wear Christmas socks in order to open presents.

ahyatt87 · December 2015

Santa would fill our stocking and we were told we could only ask Santa for a maximum of 3 gifts. Oh, and Santa did not bring electronics (e.g., TVs, boom boxes, video game consoles, etc.). My parents would also give us 1 gift and then we would get 1 gift from all the siblings.

In terms of traditions, we were allowed to open our stockings before our parents woke up. Santa would also bring a stocking for our dog (disposable and full of dog treats).

I am hoping to start a new tradition this year where DH and I go ice skating in the afternoon of Christmas Eve. I was really into Sesame Street growing up and on their Christmas special they all went ice skating. Ever since I was 3 or 4 years old I thought that everyone should go ice skating on Christmas Eve, and this year we are doing it! I'm so excited.

wandajune6 · December 2015

I don't know that our traditions are crazy but every year my sister and I (and now my niece) get cans of black olives in our stockings. When we were younger, my parents felt compelled to fill our stockings but didn't always buy enough stocking stuffers. One year when we were 6 or 7, they got desperate and raided the pantry. The tradition stuck.

Fortunately, we love olives. My niece was so excited about her olives last year (she was 2.5) that she ignored all of her other presents until she ate half the can!

anjemon · December 2015

I love the traditions that sort of just happen. They're so fun.

Growing up we always went to my Grandparent's on Christmas Eve. Often the candlelight service at church. Then we'd go back to Grandma's and someone would read the Christmas story out of the big Bible. We sing a few Christmas carols and then open presents. My immediate family has always done Christmas on Christmas Day, we open stockings and presents whenever everyone finally wakes up. My Mom still tags things "from Santa" even though we're all 20+. I bet she' so excited that my niece is finally old enough to start understanding things like Santa and presents.

My Dad's family was always non-traditional growing up. We'd celebrate Christmas on the 27th or around New Years. And my aunt always made ribs instead of ham or turkey. But I loved that moving the celebration meant I got to see all my cousins. One year we celebrated at a hotel and there was a rule about not allowing any cake but birthday cake. So my step-grandma made a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake.

My family all lived without about 3 hours of each other growing up. We're so spread out now that it's lovely to think about a time when I could see everyone at Christmas.

thisismynickname2 · December 2015

Moppet82 said:

Not a family tradition, but something silly my mom used to do for me. After I moved out of my parents house and was still single, I would sleep over at their house on Christmas Eve and when I woke up there were presents from "Santa." Now my Mom only did this for me, none of my siblings got in any of the action as adults. When they found out about it, they enviously asked why a 30-year old would still get presents from Santa. My response, "If you believe in Santa Claus, then Santa Claus exists. He just happens to look a lot like Mom." Ultimately, I think my Mom felt bad for me because I was alone and my siblings had their families, and ultimately, she loved it because she is a Christmas enthusiast. WHOOPS BOX BOX BOX---------------

We have a similar tradition. Gifts "from Santa" aka Mom and Dad aren't put under the tree until Christmas morning. Gifts from me, gifts from my sister, gifts from my parents to each other- we all put those out early. Not "from Santa" though! I might have been 22 or 23, my sister 25 or 26, when my mom brought all our gifts out to put under the tree a couple weeks before Christmas. We had a cow and asked her to put them away. Part of the magic of Christmas is waking up to surprises! It probably sounds silly but even though we've known for 30+ years that Santa is really Mom and Dad, we still love to wake up to surprises. So Mom "can't" put out our presents until Christmas morning or at least after we go to bed on Christmas Eve, lol.

ShesSoCold · December 2015

We wrap up things we've borrowed from each other and give them back as "gifts". My mom used to wrap up our mail that would still come to the house. This year, I've somehow acquired two pairs of my sister's sunglasses, a pair of gloves and three bears game giveaways so I'm going to wrap those up for her.

SP29 · December 2015

Nothing too crazy here. Growing up was always Christmas Eve at my mom's mothers house with her side of the family and Christmas Day was at my dad's parents side of the house with his family. When I was young and there would be at least a few days off from school before Christmas, my oldest cousin and myself would stay at my nanny's house for a few days leading up to Christmas Eve. That was always special to me.

Now as adults, and everyone having different lives, it's difficult. Both DH's and my parents are divorced. My dad's gf has a large family, and they have their own family gatherings planned too. DH's mom does not celebrate Christmas, so that takes 1/4 of the parents out, but it's a negotiation between my parents with who we see Christmas Eve vs. Christmas Day. Boxing Day is spent with DH's dad and his side of the family. This year it's Christmas Eve at my mom's and Christmas Day at my dad's, but my youngest brother is with my mom on Christmas Day, middle brother is with his gf's family Christmas Day and visiting Dad on Christmas Eve, so I don't think I'll see him

.

I had to laugh about the Grandmother and tags still on items comment. My grandma does that too! Except she takes off the sale sticker and leaves the original price tag so it looks like she spent a lot of money. I really don't know why she does this- as long as I like the gift, why do I care if it cost $5 or $50.

As for Santa- we always got a mix. When I was young we did get lots of gifts from Santa, but I don't remember telling friends "Santa got me a barbie while mom and dad got me clothes", I would just say, "I got a barbie and clothes". We didn't "believe" in Santa for very long, but I think that's because my mom would often buy us presents "from Santa" while we were with her in the store- quite obvious

. Not that I complained or said anything about it- who am I to dismiss this mystical jolly man if "he" wants to give me gifts?

Years later, even as a teen my mom would sign gifts from Santa.

PamBeesly524 · December 2015

Homemade cinnamon buns Christmas morning! Also, my dad still reads us the Night Before Christmas on xmas eve... It's a little silly and I grumble about it a lot every year now, but I admit it would be weird if we didn't do it.

sunflower0592 · December 2015

We spend Christmas Eve and Christmas day with all the extended family (aunts, uncles, cousins) on my mom's side, at my grandparents' house. My grandparents like to go to Christmas Eve mass (not the midnight service though), then we come home and have dinner, followed by lots of drinking and playing games. However, three years ago, we started a new tradition- caroling! The neighbors love it and ask my grandparents leading up to Christmas every year if we'll be coming around again that year. The next door neighbors are German and always invite us in for a shot of German liquor when we come to their house- we usually stop at their house on the way out and on the way back

For Christmas dinner, we have my grandfather's homemade stroganoff- SO GOOD. I look forward to it all year.

Crazy family Christmas / holiday traditions

Re: Crazy family Christmas / holiday traditions

Choose Another Board

Search Boards