# Need a family Christmas tradition **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [December 10, 2012, 4:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614 "2012-12-10T16:46:00Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![Dangerosa](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/22d042/32.png) [@Dangerosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dangerosa)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 12:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/21 "2012-12-11T00:26:53Z")
Zombie Dice does have the expansion with Santa Claus in it -which would make it holiday themed šŸ™‚ We sing Jingle Bells - badly. The men do it (including all the boys - plus my daughter because sheā€™s the only girl) for the women. They wear Santa hats and sing VERY badly. Its a hoot. ---
**Author:** ![overlyverbose](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/o/9dc877/32.png) [@overlyverbose](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/overlyverbose)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/22 "2012-12-11T02:56:14Z")
We pile in the car, crank up the Christmas music and go look at Christmas lights. Kinda like what **That Don Guy** suggested. When I was younger and didnā€™t have kids, we would all wait until 12:01 a.m. Christmas Day to open gifts, even into my late 20s. It wasnā€™t so much that we couldnā€™t wait until the next day, but we had a really good time talking. Weā€™ve also had the same dinner for 20+ years. Itā€™s kind of a pain in the ass, though - takes 3 of us all day to make the damn thing. It tastes awesome, though. ---
**Author:** ![voguevixen](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b5ac83/32.png) [@voguevixen](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/voguevixen)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/23 "2012-12-11T03:19:41Z")
> [@Foxy40](#): > > Since we all spend Christmas at my parentā€™s home, my father gets us ā€œbackā€ when we woke him up early as kids and starts making phone calls at 4:30am to get us to their house for his traditional pancake breakfast. I adore this! One we did is just for the immediate family is the Advent chain. On December 1st my parents and brother and I sit around after dinner cutting strips of red and green construction paper (about an inch wide along the short edge of the paper) then laboriously begin making them into alternating links (with tape or a stapler) until we have a chain 25 links long. We would hang it over the wide archway to the dining room and every night before bed my brother and I would take turns snipping off a link ceremoniously. By the night before Christmas youā€™re left with one link, which I assume Santa takes with him or something. I forget. ---
**Author:** ![InsomniaMama](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ad7895/32.png) [@InsomniaMama](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/InsomniaMama)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/24 "2012-12-11T03:20:54Z")
Very enjoyable thread. I think Iā€™ll buy Christmas crackers this year and start a new family tradition! Any recommendations on nice ones? Or are they all similar? Iā€™m near Chicago, if that helps. ---
**Author:** ![Becky2844](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/91b2a8/32.png) [@Becky2844](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Becky2844)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 4:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/25 "2012-12-11T04:09:48Z")
Right off the bat I thought of bowling, with everybody wearing their most over-the-top Christmas sweaters. Sounds like fun. Play the board game Aggravation. I defy anybody, no matter how drunk/staid/mad-at-somebody they are, to not at some point leap out of their chair and yell ā€œNoooooo!ā€ We like it. ---
**Author:** ![CrazyCatLady](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/dfb087/32.png) [@CrazyCatLady](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CrazyCatLady)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 4:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/26 "2012-12-11T04:22:16Z")
As board games go, Pictionary was always popular with our family. It moves reasonably quickly, allows for variable numbers of players, and is suitable for a large range of ages/skill levels. We also always really enjoyed Jenga. ---
**Author:** ![Vihaga](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/v/b4bc9f/32.png) [@Vihaga](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Vihaga)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 1:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/27 "2012-12-11T13:54:18Z")
> [@InsomniaMama](#): > > Very enjoyable thread. I think Iā€™ll buy Christmas crackers this year and start a new family tradition! Any recommendations on nice ones? Or are they all similar? Iā€™m near Chicago, if that helps. If you have a decent number of people, itā€™s probably worth going online and finding the ones where everyone gets a whistle and a bit of sheet music, and you can all play a song together. Fun even if it doesnā€™t work! As far as traditions, I like the ā€œpickle giftā€ Christmas tradition if you donā€™t mind your tree getting worked over. You get a pickle ornament (and they come in different sizes, ie. difficulty levels), hide it somewhere in the tree, and whoever finds it gets the extra gift youā€™ve bought for the purpose. Usually we buy something weird for it. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 2:18pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/28 "2012-12-11T14:18:39Z")
> [@Yllaria](#): > > Singing carols is nice. I agree. Or you can sing non-carols, too. Maybe doing some rounds. ---
**Author:** ![chela](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chela/32/21582_2.png) [@chela](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/chela)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 3:36pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/29 "2012-12-11T15:36:36Z")
Christmas Follies? to follow spoons (Could be fun!) (use special spoons, not the everydays) Direct your guests /players to bring a prop, bad hat or granny dress, snorkel and finsā€¦ y a knowā€¦ claim to play an instrument bring that too! Put on 30 sec skits, ala martin short or crazy comic sing your heart out, embarass the kids, tell silly jokes, puns, give ityour best shot. Everyone laughs! ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 10:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/30 "2012-12-11T22:01:32Z")
Anna Quindlen once wrote about how her family took turns reading a chapter of Dickensā€™s _Christmas Carol_. Some deep-voiced male always got the first chapter: ā€œMarley was dead: to begin with. There is no doubt whatever about thatā€¦ā€ Iā€™m not sure if that would work for the kids, though. Or maybe you could just sing Christmas carols? ---
**Author:** ![Katriona](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/katriona/32/113_2.png) [@Katriona](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Katriona)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 10:13pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/31 "2012-12-11T22:13:48Z")
Once we outgrew gifts ā€œFrom Santa,ā€ my mom started to get silly with the gift tags. The year she gave me a video of ā€œPretty in Pink,ā€ the From was ā€œUgly in Blue.ā€ Or when she gave me ā€œFresh Lilacā€ perfume, it was From ā€œStale Roses.ā€ Itā€™s always fun to try to guess from the From what the gift is. Sheā€™s better at it than I am; she always figures mine out! And there was a gift box that sheā€™s been using since my brother was a baby that finally bit the dust last year (at 41 years old, it did pretty well). It was shaped like a toy soldier/nutcracker. ---
**Author:** ![sisu](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df705f/32.png) [@sisu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sisu)\ **Post date:** [December 11, 2012, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/32 "2012-12-11T22:37:01Z")
We have played ā€œsee someā€ since the kids were little, the trick is drive around [remember in Australia it is summer] and the first one to spot some christmas lights and yells ā€œsee someā€ gets a bit of chocolate or lolly. Silly, pointless but lots of joyous fun. ---
**Author:** ![Dendarii\_Dame](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/bbce88/32.png) [@Dendarii\_Dame](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dendarii_Dame)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 12:07am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/33 "2012-12-12T00:07:16Z")
How about a jigsaw puzzle? ---
**Author:** ![Sicks\_Ate](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/258eb7/32.png) [@Sicks\_Ate](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sicks_Ate)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 2:05am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/34 "2012-12-12T02:05:38Z")
> [@Sicks\_Ate](#): > > On my Momā€™s side of the family, they used to (still do maybe) do a jigsaw puzzle over Christmas. I can remember at Gā€™mas house there always seemed to be a card table with a puzzle. My Auntā€™s family does (or did) the SAME insanely difficult puzzle EVERy year. > > This is something Iā€™d like to do, eventually when I have room. I think it would be neat to find a new cool puzzle every year. Then glue them and back them, if for no other reason that to get them out and look at them once a year. > [@Dendarii\_Dame](#): > > How about a jigsaw puzzle? I know, right?! šŸ˜ƒ ---
**Author:** ![Hedda\_Rosa](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/hedda_rosa/32/1204_2.png) [@Hedda\_Rosa](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Hedda_Rosa)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/35 "2012-12-12T06:21:17Z")
In my family we go for a hike after opening gifts - it gets the kids out of the house, burns up some of the late morning/early afternoon, works up appetite for dinner, and when we get home checking out new toys and gifts is exciting again instead of having the ā€œis that it??ā€ attitude they have right after opening presents. We are in CA so maybe wouldnā€™t work everywhere with true winter, but we go even if itā€™s raining. ---
**Author:** ![Boyo\_Jim](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/87869e/32.png) [@Boyo\_Jim](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Boyo_Jim)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 6:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/36 "2012-12-12T06:42:51Z")
Since my parents died, our family tradition is to ignore Christmas altogether. And that is a much happier tradition than before. ---
**Author:** ![Ranchoth](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranchoth/32/1066_2.png) [@Ranchoth](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranchoth)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 9:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/37 "2012-12-12T09:55:09Z")
Chinese food, then go to the movies? ---
**Author:** ![inedible\_knapsack](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/49beb7/32.png) [@inedible\_knapsack](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/inedible_knapsack)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 4:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/38 "2012-12-12T16:03:17Z")
**Sicks Ate** and **Dendarii Dame** , a jigsaw puzzle is a great idea. We used to do them as kids and loved it, and it would be something people could do passively throughout the day. Iā€™d actually love to read _A Christmas Carol_ aloud, as **a35362** suggested, but thereā€™s zero chance my family would put up with that. I couldnā€™t get away with reciting \*The Red Wheelbarrow \*to this group without eyerolling and groans, much less a whole story. Alas, Iā€™m the sole literature lover in the family. If I could get participation, Iā€™d love to break out the olā€™ guitar and get everybody to help me write our own Christmas song. My friends and I wrote goofy songs all the time in collegeā€“purely for our own amusement, mind youā€“and it was a blast. **Boyo Jim** , Iā€™m sorry Christmas has been so bad for you. Wishing you a Merry Christmas, whether you celebrate it or not šŸ™‚ ---
**Author:** ![Happy\_Lendervedder](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/happy_lendervedder/32/8488_2.png) [@Happy\_Lendervedder](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Happy_Lendervedder)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/39 "2012-12-12T16:19:39Z")
> [@inedible\_knapsack](#): > > In terms of limiting factors, it needs to be: > > [ul] > > [li]Unisex. Men, women, boys and girls will be playing. I donā€™t know if there are any gender-specific traditions out there, but just in case. [/li][/ul] Oh. There is. [Itā€™s the most popular Yuletide tradition that absolutely no one wants any part of.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=670892&highlight=yuletide) ---
**Author:** ![a35362](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/3da27b/32.png) [@a35362](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/a35362)\ **Post date:** [December 12, 2012, 4:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614/40 "2012-12-12T16:37:02Z")
> [@Ranchoth](#): > > Chinese food, then go to the movies? _The Hobbit_ _Monsters, Inc._ in 3D _Les Miserables_ [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/need-a-family-christmas-tradition/643614.md?page=3)