My in-laws have the weirdest way of doing Christmas. We all get together to open gifts and eat breakfast on Christmas Eve.
We used to open gifts on Chiristmas Eve night and eat the dinner on Christmas day. But when the grandkids started popping out, the individual families started spending Christmas day at home. Then everybody decided they would rather do something else on Christmas Eve.
So, instead of turkey and ham and all the fixin’s, we get fried meat, runny eggs and burnt biscuits (I’m not a big breakfast eater).
We celebrate as if we were from Catalan in my house. This means not having Santa, but instead having a Caga Tio.
Caga Tio is far superior to Santa, IMO. Instead of a bearded dude flying down your chimney, you have a log with a little face on it. You feed the log the night before so that, in the morning, he can…um…well, defecate a bunch of gifts.
See, “cagar” in Spanish means “to shit” and “tio” means “uncle,” so, quite literally, you have a shitting uncle in your living room. After he’s fed and covered in a blanket (to keep him warm, of course), you wake up the next day and beat him with sticks until he poos all your gifts out. I guess traditionally, Caga Tio only craps collective gifts, but in our house, he shits something for everyone. When he’s all tuckered out, he craps an onion.
It’s really fun. Especially if you have the sense of humor of a twelve year old.
I started my office tradition of having our party the Saturday between Xmas and New Years. It didn’t work this year, but most years people love having something to do in the interinm, and it also doesn’t mess up any plans for the real holiday.
My family gets together on Christmas Eve and gets Chinese take-out food.
Are you Jewish? A traditional Jewish Christmas (which I will be celebrating) consists of a movie and Chinese food.
We feed all 12 cats canned food at midnight on Christmas Eve, so they’ll talk.
Napier: Are you in Richmond?
I’ll be ready for the after Christmas stories again this year. I think you’ll understand. U= :mad: Me= 
because it isn’t me.
This is the second Christmas dinner I wouldn’t come to if I didn’t live here. I absolutely am feed up with all the non traditional crap food. There won’t be one thing there I want to eat unless I bring it. We don’t have the ham or potatoes or any of it anymore. It’s like expecting to go to Applebee’s and being told we’re eating at McDonald’s. I’ll fix my own little ham all for myself this year. Her excuse has been nobody wants the same thing all the time. We only got the ham twice a year in the past, and now it’s never, but she serves only this same crap food every holiday for the last 2 years, and it was served with the ham for 2 years before that.
Dear God thanks for the frozen tinfoil packaged store bought lasana, that is taking the place of my scrumpious baked ham feast. 
When I was but a wee bairn, my family had a Christmas tradition that, so far as I know, was entirely unique. We’d all gather around the Christmas tree, my dad would bring out our time-worn copy of Clement Clarke Moore’s “A Visit From St. Nicholas” (better known as “The Night Before Christmas”)… and we’d all work together to compose a brutally absurdist parody, which Dad would then read aloud. Actually it was mostly Dad, my brother and myself who contributed… Mom seemed content to listen bemusedly for the most part. Somewhere in the attic, that book is tucked away along with a bunch of hand-scrawled, frequently disgusting and/or sacreligious alternative versions.
Interestingly, at my job’s holiday party this year, I was unexpectedly strongarmed into contributing some sort of entertainment at the last minute. With few other alternatives, I managed to dash off a workplace-appropriate “Night Before Christmas” parody during the morning hours and recited it at the party. It seemed to go over pretty well; I think Dad would have approved.
Two different words, two different languages. “tío” is Spanish (Castilian) for uncle; “tió” is Catalan for log.
All I can think of is that in our family we always watch “Casablanca” on Christmas.
No I’m not Jewish, but my dad thought that escaping Germany may have been what brought some of my relatives to America. Anyway Jewish or not, a movie and Chinese food and then the world’s largest nap followed by left-over Chinese and an early bed time is my idea a grand day. I also feel that I should have everything I want, and that I should not have to wait for it, either.
So what movie will you watch? What will you eat?
I’m going to Egypt. Alone.
Well, technically there are no non-traditional activities at our house, because we’ve been doing all of them for three years, at least, which makes them tradition. Which is why I can’t get the family away from the six-foot sub for Christmas Eve food.
Our Christmas party with my side of the family is always the weekend between Christmas and New Year’s, so we can all have Christmas and Christmas Eve with the respective in-laws.
This is so demented.
Yet, how is some overweight special olympics burglar dropping off Just What You Wanted any less demented.
Caga Tio!
We’re non-traditional in doing it traditionally, but twice. We have our traditional Norwegian Christmas on Christmas Eve, and then we have our traditional American Christmas on Christmas Day. The little flodnaks’ friends always get jealous when they hear this
We also have a tradition for the last day of school before Christmas break that we just seemed to spontaneously invent. I make a couple big pizzas and a pan of brownies, and we eat in the living room (strictly verboten the other 354 days of the year) while watching Christmas videos. When yer munchin’ pepperoni, and Lucy’s shakin’ that cashbox like a modern-day Johann Tetzel? That’s when ya know it’s Christmas!
Flodnak - Does the Norwegian calendar have 10 fewer days than everyone else’s?
StG
Clearly I shouldn’t be allowed near a keyboard after indulging in freshly-baked chocolate chip cookies :o (364, right.)
Yep. Except the Chinese food in Santa Barbara sucks so we’ll be getting Thai instead. The Thai part is what makes this “non-traditional.”
We’re not Jewish, but the mister and I love to go out and have a giant dim sum feast at about 10 a.m. on Christmas day, and then go to the nearby megaplex for a film.
I wonder if Casino Royale or A Good Year will still be playing?