Holiday Traditions

[Tolya Ugajin]

Since we're a week from Christmas, which, even if not a religious holiday for you is certainly the largest commercial holiday of the year, I thought it would be fun, diverting, and interesting for people to share holiday traditions (or even just find memories) of the season.  Please note, this is intended to be nondenominational and I think we would all be very interested to hear about traditions or memories for any of the holidays around this time.  Please, don't get into arguments over religion, etc.

I'll start and forgive the TLDR post.  When we were kids, "Christmas" started around noon on the 24th with the battle to get ready.  Getting 5 kids dressed in nice clothes (I was easy, I loved wearing ties, even when I was little), and making sure Dad didn't start the "holiday cheer" too early must have been a chore for mom.  We'd hit Church for Mass (we were Eastermas Funwederal Catholics when I was a kid - Easter, Christmas, weddings and funerals only), then my paternal grandmother's house for dinner.  She was a great cook, and made the best cookies.  Presents (always clothes at this house, and I think $5 from my godfather) at this one.  If we weren't stuffing out faces or opening presents and trying to look excited about getting corduroy pants, the kids were downstairs playing pool or, in my case, reading. I never did figure out why Grandma and Grandpa had "Conan" paperbacks down there, but that is how I developed a love of science fiction and fantasy.

When dad had had just enough beer to be tipsy but not enough to be unsafe to drive (by Wisconsin standards in the 70's, which would be double the legal limit today) we'd head out to drive around town and look at Christmas lights, which is probably the only reason I put up lights today.  It was amazing what you could do with just simple bulbs, which is all we had back then.  Once we got home, date cookies and milk (which I later learned was poured down the drain and replaced with another beer or two) we put out for Santa, and off to bed for the kids.  Mom still had to get the presents out from hiding and put them under the tree.

In the morning, queue the opening of the gifts about 30 seconds after dawn?  Actually, no, dad would make breakfast and we'd have to eat it knowing all those gifts were out there.  Could this be where I picked up my sadistic streak?  Anyway, THEN the presents would be opened, in an orderly controlled fashion, one at a time, while everyone watched and waited impatiently for their turn.  Then, it was time to play with them while mom get ready for her side of the family - 40-60 people, and mom did most of the cooking.  More presents.  Brandy Alexanders.  Sheer exhaustion.  Everyone would head home and cleanup (other than dishes) waited for the next day.

It was all so fun and special.

Today, almost everyone one Dad's side (including Dad) is gone, so there is no get together on that side, and about half of mom's brothers and sisters are as well.  My kids are grown and out of the house, so not much point in decorating (except for lights outside, which I still feel like a kid when I drive by them).  Shopping is mostly online.  Christmas is mostly a nuisance.

But, when I wake up on Christmas morning, and especially if there is snow on the back lawn, and I sit with a hot chocolate and look outside, with a little Christmas music in the background, for a little while I feel like I'm a kid again, and all those people are sitting there with me, enjoying a peaceful moment of reflection on how truly blessed we all were.

Peace and best wishes to you all.

[cheesecurd]

My spouse drives a truck and gets some obscenely good holiday pay, so we move Christmas back to the 29th.

Also Chinese food on Christmas has been a family tradition on my side since I was a kid. My family doesn’t like holiday fancy meals, everyone decided one day to go get Chinese food.

Turns out a lot of people do that, there are four Chinese food places in town and all four are packed on Christmas.

[Orwar]

   My siblings and I will all go to my mother's house, and have a more or less traditional Swedish julbord. I usually make a Swedish variant of Mozartkugeln with the assistance of one of my little brothers (I make him do the boring bit of chopping nougat whilst I add liquor to the almond frosting - tasting it off generously, of course).

   Being Swedish, we usually celebrate Christmas Eve rather than Christmas Day - which is usually spent being hungover and eating scraps from the feast the night before. This year, due to scheduling shenanigans, we're doing Christmas Day instead. Some day later I'll visit my father whilst I'm in town, and we'll pick scraps from the julbord they're having on Christmas Eve. Then it's back north, just having the entire school to myself over New Year's.

[LyricalBookworm]

My dad and I used to go caroling with our church. That was my all time favorite thing. 

If it was just him and I for dinner at home, my dad made homemade spaghetti and bread for dinner because it's one of my all time favorite meals. My dad has passed and I live on my own, but I still make his spaghetti and bread recipes every year. 

On Thanksgiving we would have a more traditional holiday meal. 

Edited December 18, 2019 by LyricalBookworm

[MrsSeren]

Mom and me have this small little stocking, I put her present in one year; and now we take turns in filling the little stocking like this year is her turn to fill with present for me so next year I do the same for her.

[Maryanne Solo]

A tube of sweetened condensed milk. (posted this in the old forums I'm sure)

We were dirt poor when I was little, that was a treat we kids specifically asked for.

It continues many many years after. ❤️

Merry Xmas!

[Lindal Kidd]

When I was small, our Christmas was a bit like Tolya's...but minus all the relatives.  We lived too far away from both sets of grandparents for the big family get-togethers.  But the traditions were fixed early on...going to see Santa, driving around to see the lights, when the tree was decorated, and in what order the ornaments and lights went on.  Reading "The Night Before Christmas" on Christmas Eve.  Christmas Eve church service.  We kids were allowed to open one present on Christmas Eve.  Choosing which one was always so hard...and I always chose one that turned out to be a disappointment.  We weren't forced to wait through breakfast, though...it was up early, bash the parents awake, and run down to see what Santa had brought.  That was always a magical moment...somehow, the presents under the tree had multiplied in the night, and were of a MUCH better quality.  One year it was pogo sticks; my little brother never mastered his, but I was determined to, and I got really good -- one time I pogo'd all the way around our block nonstop.  All that bouncing probably is the reason for my current mental state.

When I married, Christmas became a lot more like Tolya's; we added the relatives.  We alternated years; one year we'd spend Christmas with one set of parents, and the next year with the other set; or some years, the parents would come to our house for the holidays.  Summer vacations were handled the same way.  We alternated present-opening traditions too; my family had always opened presents on Christmas morning, but my spouse's did it on Christmas Eve.

[Rolig Loon]

My Christmas rites have changed over time, but two things have been constant for at least 50 years.  One was the Dutch Cake, which my aunt used to make in quantity and then ship to the various relatives.  It was a very un-fruitcake-like fruitcake that was full of currants, raisins, sultanas, and almonds.  It was not at all heavy and gummy, the way that apocryphal fruitcakes are, but more like a pound cake in consistency.  It was lovely to eat, sliced thin and with a smear of butter.  When my aunt died almost ten years ago, my sister took on the role of baker/distributor.  Sadly, this year she has been panicking because she seems to have misplaced the recipe as she moved homes, so there is no Dutch Cake.  I'm sure that it will resurface -- these things do -- but it's a matter for some anguish right now.  The recipe was our great-great-grandmother's, in the family since the mid-1800s.

The other unchanged rite is the Kringle, which I have been making since the early 1970s.  I discovered a prototype -- a lovely pastry with buttery almond filling -- in a julbord over Christmas in Uppsala, Sweden in 1973 but was dissatisfied with the recipe that I managed to find then. When I came home, though, I discovered that my neighbor, who was Danish, had a much better recipe that her mother always made as she was growing up. I have used that ever since, and have passed it along to my son and daughter, who use it in their families each Christmas.

Neither the Dutch Cake nor the Kringle ever lasts more than a day once they are unveiled for consumption.  Calories be damned.

Edited December 18, 2019 by Rolig Loon
typos. as always.

[Momo Addams]

My absolute favorite holiday tradition, that started early in my childhood and went on until, well, it stopped cause life happens, was when on Xmas eve my family and I would pack into our little red mini van with huge amounts of baked goods and go out and deliver them to our family friends and some who we just wanted to show some care to, given how hard this time of year was for some people.

Like one gentleman who, at some point, had lost his wife and lived pretty much alone from the world with no one who really checked in on him but us and few other neighbors from time to time. We'd always give him a pie or cookies that time of year tho, and in exchange he always showed his gratitude by giving us free corn from his little garden when he had them later in the next year. n.n

But in this route of ours to give away all these goodies, the last stops we'd make would be at the military base that we lived 5 minutes from. It was a pretty decent sized military base, and we'd always give pumpkin pies and a few cookies to whatever random gate guards were on duty and thank them for their service.

We'd start at the main entrance of the base then make our way to the back gate entrance through the housing area so we could see all of the Xmas lights the families living there had put on display. And the base made a big deal of the lights and really encouraged everyone to go all out with them. 

After everyone had gotten everything, we'd all go home and just enjoyed the remainder of our Xmas eve until it was time for bed to celebrate Xmas on Xmas day. :3

[Alwin Alcott]

Christmas for our family never was a big thing .. more like a sunday, to church in morning, and being bored till the two days were over... ( we traditionale have two christmas days in the Netherlands) and the horror when Christmas was on Friday and Saturday... omg another day added. And it was already exceptional to have a tree at home.. you could bet the honorable reverent preacher came later in the month or after newyear to ask how you dared to get such heretic thing in your home.
The whole thing of presents under the tree is of later date, and still not a real tradition at many families, we hav dec 5th for that St. Nicolas.

since i got a bit more religious engaged with another denomination, Christmas got a bit different load, mainly religious. But as liturgie is a big hobby for me, and also play as one of the4 main organists at a Abbey it's work these days,  ... starting at dec 24th with first Vespers of Christmas... later that night Vigily and night Mass, next morning Lauds, High Mass  and later in the afternoon 2nd Vepers.
It's fun, really fun, but i realize most people somewhere in time lost the religious connection to this Celebration, but being with family isn't less fun or meaningfull.

[Ceka Cianci]

I remember giving a friend an idea to toy with her kids on Christmas morning..

just put one box each with a piece of charcoal in each box under the tree,then move all the gifts downstairs on the couch where the kids usually first go when they get up..

But Christmas morning you know they are going for that tree first..

She was like,OMG we have to do this..They just have this automatic attitude that they are getting something..

So I went over to her house real early in the morning and helped her move the gifts downstairs that she was gonna put under the tree..

We had tea and waited for them to get up..

Sure thing,they went straight for the tree first thing all excited,until they seen only 3 boxes under the tree..

So they ripped off the paper and opened the boxes and found the charcoal..

The youngest came up to their mom and said mommy Santa gave me one of dads rocks for the grill.. I about busted out laughing but held it in when she said that..just relating it to the grill I guess..hehehehe

Anyways,she said to them..you guys must have made Santas  the naughty list or something..

So they all threw the charcoal in the garbage and went down stairs..

 

There was this big pause and then the loudest screams of joy I'd ever heard..

hehehe

I could finally let loose and laugh..

She told the kids,Santa must have been leaving you a warning about being good..

I started laughing even harder when she said that..

she say's ,those kids didn't take Christmas for granted after that..

They know now what we did,now that they are older and know there is no Santa..

But ask them what was their favorite Christmas and they'll tell ya..the one where we didn't think we were getting anything and then we did..hehehehe

[Ingrid Ingersoll]

3 hours ago, cheesecurd said:

Also Chinese food on Christmas has been a family tradition on my side since I was a kid. 

Ha! We do this on Christmas eve! And save the turkey for the 25th. Funny how Chinese Food seems to be a bit of a tradition with lots of people.

[Orwar]

   I made an interesting Christmas-related observation two years ago, and again last year, and again now - Danes don't have 'julmust', and as a result, they don't like it (.. Is my deduction, of observing my one Danish classmate - she always lets me have hers, when they serve it in the school restaurant). I -was- going to write a recipe for a Christmas drink here, but I figured that since it's a so Swedish thing that's the main component, it might be pretty pointless - but then I remembered; IKEA.

   I can't say their soda is the best (it might actually be among the worst), but they apparently do sell julmust abroad, under the name 'Vintersaga'. So, here are two recipes for some Yule drinks I make based off of it:

• 1 part beer (Porter, Stout, or a dark Yule Ale - try what you like best!)
• 2-3 parts Julmust (to taste)

   This is a pretty simplistic version of 'Mumma'. There are more intricate recipes for it, but I think this is just fine and less messy to put together. Julmust trivia #1: Julmust was invented in the 1920's, and was intended as an alternative to the traditional Yule beer - its inventor, Harry Roberts, a chemist, was a member of the temperance movement.

   The second recipe is for a slightly different flavour approach:

• 1 part Glögg (Sweden's variant of Gluhwein - you'll find plenty of recipes online, if you don't have access to buy it ready-made).
• 2 parts julmust.

   This creates a very frothy brew, with an intense and deep flavour profile. It does very well to be allowed to age a day or two in the fridge, to let the flavours get to know each other! Julmust trivia #2: Globally, Coca Cola's sales during Christmas are up across the board - except for one country; Sweden, where the sales instead decrease by an average of 50%! Why? Julmust! https://www.thevintagenews.com/2016/12/02/julmust-the-soft-drink-that-outsells-coca-cola-during-christmas-seasons-in-sweden/

   So what -is- it? What does it -taste- like?

   Well. It's a spiced malt soda. Doesn't taste much like beer, doesn't taste at all like the lime-based colas (the fruit, not the mineral!). The closest I've come to compare it with, is a black barley wine. To a Swede, it simply tastes like Christmas!

[Claireschen Hesten]

When i was small boxing day used to go to my food hating vegetarian gran that didn't cook and only used the oven to warm up plates for Chinese takeaway. in more recent times one evening between Xmas and new year like to drive round somewhere in my county seeing all the festive lights people have put up 

[Rolig Loon]

Glögg is a lovely invention and is quite easy to find in the US, at least in the northern Midwest, which is still full of Scandinavians.  I associate glögg  and aquavit (very high alcohol content) with midwinter, when everyone needs a taste of antifreeze to keep the blood thin enough to flow properly.  Oh, and split pea soup and ginger cookies, for a balanced meal. 

[Bree Giffen]

I celebrate with family. We used to give gifts to everyone but after giving/getting sweaters and jackets all the the time we stopped and now just give gifts to the kids. Food is kind of all over the place. I think there's always a roast beef but everything else can be quite random. 

 

[Janet Voxel]

French-Canadian Christmas isn’t all that exotic.

We used to go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Then we’d come home and have dinner, which always had two staples: turkey and a meat pie called a tourtiere. Everybody has their own way of making tourtiere in Montreal, but ours always had venison, potatoes and onions.

This year will be my first year trying to make one on my own since my mother passed.

New traditions: since I married a Puerto Rican, I’ve had to adopt some new ones. Everybody makes a eggnog-like drink called coquito. Everybody gets together on Christmas Eve and eats dinner. Pork shoulder called pernil gets made, I have to do the turkey, empanadas with ground beef and others have guava. It’s pretty exotic to me. There’s other things, I can’t remember or don’t know what it’s called that is pretty danged good.
 

Then we exchange gifts at midnight. Christmas is a pretty chilled day.

[Charles Blackwood]

31 minutes ago, janetosilio said:

French-Canadian Christmas isn’t all that exotic.

We used to go to midnight mass on Christmas Eve. Then we’d come home and have dinner, which always had two staples: turkey and a meat pie called a tourtiere. Everybody has their own way of making tourtiere in Montreal, but ours always had venison, potatoes and onions.

This year will be my first year trying to make one on my own since my mother passed.

New traditions: since I married a Puerto Rican, I’ve had to adopt some new ones. Everybody makes a eggnog-like drink called coquito. Everybody gets together on Christmas Eve and eats dinner. Pork shoulder called pernil gets made, I have to do the turkey, empanadas with ground beef and others have guava. It’s pretty exotic to me. There’s other things, I can’t remember or don’t know what it’s called that is pretty danged good.
 

Then we exchange gifts at midnight. Christmas is a pretty chilled day.

I can relate to this. I came to Canada from Poland in 1985. We celebrate Christmas Eve and opened some presents which usually was not a toy. Midnight mass was a pain for. child because it took 2-3 hours. Our parish had about twenty thousand parishioners, so at midnight all I remember is peoples feet. That is all I could see, but that probably explains why I can sit in a doctors office or wait for a bus without any stress as cool as a cucumber.

We would opened the gifts on the 24th because nobody had anything to give to begin with and this way when we went over to our extended family there was no pressure of opening any gifts. I remember all he alcohol. People being drunk. It uses to bother me for years and years and years, but I have come to terms with it. I have learned to forgive and let go because poverty is abuse too.

We came to Toronto with six suitcases, which now seems so long ago. The first store I ever stole from was called Honest Eds, which is ironic now that I think back.  My parents died over ten years ago but I keep their memory alive by bridging Polish and Canadian customs together. 

One of the things I particularly love is setting an extra plate at the dinner table for a stranger. In Polish culture you are supposed to set an extra plate in case an Angel or a homeless person comes to visit you. They are not a bother, but are to be treated as an honour guest. I was also told as a child that all the animals talk on the 24th of December, just like all the animals did to entertain baby Jesus. I have no idea where that custom came from, but I continue to spread it today.

Oh... and it was my job to sit by the window and look for the first start because that was the time to sit down and eat. Now that I am older, I suspect this was just my moms way to get me the hell out of the kitchen (laugh).

[LyricalBookworm]

I forgot to add my favorite tradition that began six years ago...finding this tiny miss under the tree each year snuggling with the presents. She certainly is my most precious gift that is under that tree each year. ❤️

Edited December 18, 2019 by LyricalBookworm

[Beth Macbain]

I don't think we really had any traditions in my house. 

My memories are mostly of being excited about the magic of Christmas and then the disappointment when the magic turned into dust because magic isn't real, Santa isn't real, and god isn't real. Born and raised a heathen, Jesus was just a dude, and not really anything special so I don't quite get celebrating his birthday thing. Santa was cool in theory, but even seeing him at the mall up close and personal made me scream and cry and traumatized me. I learned early where all the Christmas presents were hidden so there was no excitement about the magic of delivering presents to all the houses in the entire world.  

By the time I was old enough to start getting into Christmas, most of my siblings had grown and already left the nest and started their own families. I remember always being sad, and a bit resentful, that they didn't come home anymore, and that I was born too late to enjoy the fun Christmases they always talked about having when they were little. 

Christmas is just too much. Too much everything. 

Wake me up on Boxing Day. 

[Lindal Kidd]

2 hours ago, Orwar said:

...to a Swede, it simply tastes like Christmas!

One side of my family are transplanted Meen-ah-so-tah Swedes.  THEIR Christmas taste tradition is lutefisk.  This is whitefish, pickled in lye.  EUGH!

I hate that stuff.

Another part of my heritage is Scots.  THEIR traditional food is haggis.

I wish I'd come from peoples who had better tasting traditional Christmas foods.

Edited December 18, 2019 by Lindal Kidd

[MrsSeren]

I still have one habit I do from when I was small child, that put the presents in piles of who their belong to and place by where they sit in the living room and even if I'm not first one up now I still do this as well as help mom with cooking Christmas day morning breakfast and help clear up after then we open the presents.

Edited December 18, 2019 by MrsSeren

[Janet Voxel]

I’m really excited to play “elf on a shelf” with my kids when the time comes!

Everybody I know that does it says it’s a pita, but I’m cheesy like that.

[Orwar]

13 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

THEIR traditional food is haggis.

   Try asking the Swedes for pölsa. It's the same stuff, but better!

[Rolig Loon]

45 minutes ago, Lindal Kidd said:

One side of my family are transplanted Meen-ah-so-tah Swedes.  THEIR Christmas taste tradition is lutefisk.  This is whitefish, pickled in lye.  EUGH!

I hate that stuff.

Another part of my heritage is Scots.  THEIR traditional food is haggis.

What bothers most people about lutfisk is the texture.  It's pretty gelatinous, which is not what you expect of a fish.  Lutfisk itself has virtually no flavor, but you load it down with various sauces and whatnot. Personally, I can't say that I enjoy it, but it's not bad.  I truly prefer pickled herring, which comes in a great many varieties.  Some of them are delicious.

Haggis is an acquired taste too.  I've had some in Scotland that is overly seasoned and heavy, but I've also had some that was a real treat.  I found a couple of pubs in small towns on Skye that I would go back to in a heartbeat ... just for the haggis.  It's not exactly a Christmas fare, though.