Share your fun Holiday traditions

[Lady Amy of York]

I thought this might be a fun topic.  What holiday traditions  do you and  your family have ?   Do you have any that   relate back  to your ethnic  background.
  For example  my family is part Irish  and part  Dutch, and  we  always celebrated and  still do the Irish custom of  putting candles  in the window, which symbolizes  welcoming a  stranger or someone in need into your home  during the holidays. We also celebrate the Dutch custom of St. Nicholas on Dec 6, which is St. Nicholas  day .  We put our shoes outside our bedroom door  and rceive a  small gift in the morning.
        We have other family traditions  too.  There is Santa  elf.  He is a small little elf made out of plastic and  cloth material  that  sits in a differnt place in the house each day during the Christmas  season.  During the day  he keeps an eye on the children in the house  to see if you have  been good  or  bad, and  at night he  flies back to the north pole  to tell santa, only to reappear in the morning. The  fun part is looking  for his  new hiding spot  in the morning. My little boy loves this tradition.

We always put up the christmas  decorations the day after Thanksgiving although this year i am a bit behind schedule.

We always have a nativity scene up in the house. We  sing happy birthday to the baby Jesus on Christmas  eve, and  the youngest  member  of  the family gets to place  the  figurine of  the  Christ child  in the manger.

we always have a christmas  tree of course  witha star on top.

  We bake cookies and  fudge  every year.

  The  youngest child gets to open a present on christmas  eve. My mom started this with me when i was a child cause i would get so excited  i would make  myself  sick !

We watch Frosty and Rudolph every year .

[captmarga]

There is my father's favorite tradition of putting a smallish present in the biggest box he can find.  One year I got a new English saddle for my new horse.  He put the saddle in a washing-machine box (you could have put the horse in there, too!!!)

Capt Marga

[Ferret]

I used to so look forward to Christmas.

The MNRF used to do a Fezziwig Feast and really gave a good kick off to Christmas.

Anytime I saw a bell ringer I'd put something in their bucket and wish them a great Christmas. And anyone I ran into I'd give a hearty greeting too.

I'd put up about an 8 foot balsam fir tree. Decorated with antique ornaments. I had a pickle ornament too, put that on last. Supposedly there is a tradition where the child that finds the pickle ornament first gets an extra gift. Put a couple presents around it for the dogs.

I'd bake 14 different kinds of cookies. Had Christmas Eve day and Christmas day off, so I'd be busy visiting friends and delivering goodies.

I'd be up about 2am Christmas morning dropping toys off at homes where otherwise the children wouldn't have much of a Christmas.

Put up decorations at my business. Had a reindeer outfit for the Goose, and close to Christmas a Santa outfit for him.

I'd leave everything up until the day after the Orthodox Christmas. Then me and the dogs would open their presents, mine too if I got any. Then take things down and wait for next Christmas to do it all again.

Ferret

[Cormac]

Cinnamon rolls are always baked around our house for the holidays along with the cut out cookies.  Tree goes up at Thanksgiving and down at New Years.  Christmas Eve we watch the 24 hour marathon of Christmas Story and then go out and have Chinese for dinner.

[Lady Christina de Pond]

Christmas Eve my favorite day of the year. about 4 dad starts preparing the lasagna then about 6:30 my aunts uncles and cousins start showing up and they bring deserts you've never seen the likes of you could make a meal of all the deserts we have that night. then we eat and enjoy the fellowship then the younger ones open gifts and past few years my generation has started giving the aunts presents that night. then we hang out and just enjoy fellowship until around 10 then everyone packs it up and heads home

[LadyShadow]

Usually I find Rainbow colored Plah-dough cookie mix.  And the kids and I make "Santa" A LOT of colorful cookies.  Put them out the a plate with some hot chocolate, tuck the kids in and as soon as the last one is out... I start wrapping everything, while enjoying the fresh cookies.  When I've had my feel for cookies I try to hide them so the kids wont see that Santa didnt eat all 7 dozen or so cookies.  And spending the morning listening to the kids tell how Santa ate the cookies and drank the hot chocolate and what wonderful toys they got.

[DonaCatalina]

Every year we plan a 'Themed Thanksgiving dinner' if we're not going to be at TRF. This year is Hawaiin Luau. I'm making coconut curry beef for my dish.

[Zaubon]

I lock all the doors, turn off the phone and hide from all the holiday cr*p.

[Noble Dreg]

Not much for traditions, not because I don't enjoy/admire them...just don't have any.

Closest I come is setting up a train around my tree, it's a 'must do' in my house.

May have to "steal" some traditions from here!   

[MorganaLightskirt]

I lock all the doors, turn off the phone and hide from all the holiday cr*p.

My family puts the "fun" in dysfunctional...It will be a serious beer:30 when I get to the airport and then upon arrival at my dad's.

[Noble Dreg]

...I'm making coconut curry beef for my dish.

Now I'd be very thankful for some of that!

[RSLeask]

Every year we would have the Thanksgiving dinner going-away party before my grandparents migrated south for the winter (literally... Florida retirement villages are nice).  This was usually spending the morning helping mom getting the side dishes ready to go, then heading over for the day, helping set up the basement.

Sometime in the weeks before Christmas, since we usually went to visit them during Christmas vacation, we would have the pre-Christmas party at my aunt's house.  Dinner, followed with some mulled apple cider (the real stuff... the stuff bought from the mills in Michigan, unpasteurized, all-natrual, right from the presses... the stuff that doesn't exist today, thanks to overbearing government regulations  ) and gift opening. 

One of the traditions we had for that party was the fireplace would be going, and we would hurl balled-up wrapping paper into the fire as each gift was opened (except my Aunt Denise, who meticulously opens each gift just so neat and perfectly, never tearing the paper, always to preserve it for reuse).  That tradition lasted until my Aunt Marilyn didn't feel like lighting the fire.  But the local TV channel had a roaring fireplace that it displays during the Christmas season.  So instead, we'd chuck the balled-up wrapping paper at the TV! 

Then the evening would conclude with us watching A Christmas Story.  One year, we even dialed down the volume, and each took turns reciting the lines, we'd all seen it -that- much.  This would pretty much be on through the rest of the night, unless we had some video tape of family events to watch as well.

[Celtic Lady]

For Thanksgiving, when I was a kid, we used to drive up north to spend it with my grandparents (we lived near Detroit and they were near Gaylord, MI). After my nana passed away and my papa remarried we would spend it with him and GG (Grandma Gean). Now, I'm married and living away from family. My husband and I don't really have any traditions for it... yet  .

For Christmas, we used to go to my dad's sister's house on Christmas Eve. We would have a big dinner, pass out gifts to the cousins, and watch Christmas shows on tv. After everyone in my aunt's family had grown, married, and had their own homes the cousins have started taking turns hosting Christmas Eve. Everyone brings a dish to pass. The kids still get presents and the adults bring a gift that is given but you don't know to whom until the end of this game they play.
I usually make homemade eggnog and do the decorating of the home. Other than that new traditions are going to have to be made my me and my hubby.

[Amyj]

Oooooooooo Christmas!!!!  I LOVE Christmas!!!! 

The biggest traditions I have are, no matter what, Bob and I spend Christmas Eve at my parents house so we can wake up early (it gets later as we all get older  ) and open our gifts in our Christmas jammies!  (They live out in the woods, so it's really cool...one year it was snowing like crazy, the house was full, so Bob and I made a pallet by the fire in the living room to sleep. Right about midnight, a 10 point buck deer walked out of the snowy dark to come to one of the corn feeeders my parents have....WOW!!!!)

Another "tradition" that we had...and has since gone away, is the annual attempt at Divinity.  (If you haven't had it, it's a light fluffy candy that is a real BEAR to make)...we usually either got a gooey "taffy" consistency or a solid brick!  Ha ha ha!

My favorite WINTER tradition is Mom would make homemade cinnamon rolls on the first snow day from school of the year.  I don't get days off for snow anymore, but I still try to make cinnamon rolls on the DAY of the first snow!