It’s that time of year again and curiousity has once again killed the cat.
I remember when I was a child we would always celebrate Christmas on the Eve - opening presents, mass (sometimes at midnight), and the legendary soup and sandwich night (usually clam chowder or oyster stew - yuck!).
Christmas day was for playing with the new toys, relaxation for the adults, and a big lunch with family - much like Thanksgiving but with a ham instead of turkey. And of course, Christmas stockings filled with goodies from Santa!
Some of the traditions I started with my kids are:
tree ornament every year (really encouraged the homemade ones)
Christmas music in the background on the Eve and day of.
Classic Christmas movies from TMC
I’ve kept the soup/sandwich combo on Christmas Eve, but serve different soups!
And the ham dinner on Christmas Day.
What traditions have you kept and ones you have made?
Decorating the tree about ten days or so before Christmas
Putting the kids’ presents in pillow cases
Midnight mass
A family lunch with cold food - ham, turkey, salads and seafood. In recent years after lunch we’ve taken to going for walks, or playing golf to work off all the food.
Boxing Day - eating leftovers and having the television on in the background, switching between the cricket and the yacht race.
Going home to mamma for the sweatshop tamale factory–those who don’t make them don’t eat them.
Christmas Eve is the huge celebration.
Christmas Day Bag O’ Batteries–Daddy brings out the huge bag full of every kind of battery you can think of, from AAA to camera/hearing aid buttons.
On the evening of the last day of school before Christmas break, I make pizza and brownies. We eat in the living room watching Christmas videos - Charlie Brown and the Grinch are required, though the others tend to vary from year to year.
Since we’re a two-culture family, we celebrate two Christmases - generally our “Norwegian Christmas” is on the 24th, while the 25th is our “American Christmas”. It gives us a chance to mark our dual heritage, and the kids don’t exactly object to celebrating twice (They do not, of course, get twice as many gifts, but believe it or not that seems to be beside the point for them.)
I started or should I say my sons nagging started the tradition of having Christmas dinner and opening of all the gifts on Christmas eve. We started it about five years ago and it has been that way ever since.
Dinner consists of Ham, some cold side dishes, a pie and the traditional cookies.
The one tradition I am breaking this year is the making of Brandy Alexanders. My mom made them every year on Christmas eve and I continued but this year I am changing it to White Russians. I don’t know if it will become a tradition or not but I am breaking the code.
The other tradition is a massive breakfast on Christmas day.
French Toast
Sausage
Bacon
Hashbrowns
Egg the way you order them
Biscuits
Orange Juice, Milk, Tomato Juice or Coffee
Then you fall into a coma the rest of the day and enjoy your new toys.
For my family, we would open one gift on Christmas eve. Then, on Christmas morning, we would wake up and find our stockings placed at the foot of the bed. They were alwys filled with small trinkets, the Lifesavers “story book” and an apple and orange, along with some walnuts. This kept us busy until a reasonable hour when the opening of the other gifts would occur.
Now that I am married without kids we have some unusual traditions that we are developing and ‘tweaking’. On Christmas day our tradition is to spend it alone. We make a menu of international food (last year it was East Indian, this year we are planning Greek meal). We open gifts in the morning and then spend the afternoon cooking. I refuse to travel on this day.
Pixilated,
I too come from a family that served Oyster Stew for Christmas Eve dinner. Mom likes it, Dad tolerates it, Kids ate it under protest–and with only one oyster, preferably. Sometime in my late teen years, Mom got a recipe for Crab Corn Chowder, and that has become a replacement.
We didn’t have sandwiches, though, but Dad’s Bread–which to most folk is Julekag, made by Dad. Christmas Day breakfast is usually more Dad’s bread.
We usually ate breakfast after opening our socks–and the list of what Santa brought everyone is extensive, not expensive, and I’ve typed it in some other Santa related thread.
Another tradition is driving around looking at Christmas lights after the Christmas Eve service. That one I’m skipping this year–or maybe revising to be before the service (I will be attending a 10 pm service).
It’s a tradition in our house that one gift is opened at a time, then the gift opener picks out a gift for someone else to open. And so it continues. Gift-opening can take days. (And this year will mostly take place closer to New Years–it’s just more convenient for my family to gather at my brother’s house NEXT weekend).
Santa always gives us at least 3 1000 piece jigsaw puzzles, which we then put together as a family, mostly between Christmas and New Years, with some potential for continuing to put puzzles together during NFL playoff season.
My tradition is to spend Christmas alone, far from family and the stress that comes along with them.
I don’t open presents until Christmas morning, and I play the soundtrack to the Charlie Brown Christmas special while I’m doing it.
Christmas Eve, supper is whatever we feel like having. We generally do a little birthday cake and presents for Velociraptor, to keep his birthday seperate (might not to that this year since we did a party and I gave him his birthday present then). When he’s in bed, I watch Die Hard while I put out the stockings and presents and, if need be, do set up.
Christmas day, we open presents, then have a big breakfast (I think this year I’ll make some panakakua, a sort of baked pancake) and play with our stuff. That evening, we go to my Aunt’s and see the other relatives, have a big turkey dinner and open more presents.
Quite different from when I was a kid, but nice still.
We are non-christians who celebrate Christmas for ‘cultural reasons’ and the argument that Jesus was a Boddhisatva, and therefore fair game. Our traditions run like this:
Discuss whether to cut a tree or buy a tree.
Cut a tree. This year I get to use the kukri that my brother gave me to fight off zombies with
(I should tell that story another time)
Discuss whether to go caroling with the neighbors
Go caroling with the neighbors (tonight)
Trim the tree. This usually involves dressing up Madeline or Barbie as an angel for the top. One year Madeline was trapped in the Xmas box until the next year.
Big present extravaganza usually happens on Xmas morning. Kids exhausted and cranky by noon
Big feed at Grandmas that evening.
Growing up, because my mother was from Germany, we celebrated Christmas on Christmas Eve. We had a small meal, usually some kind of german brats, sauerkraut, beer (or cereal beverage for my sister and I), and opened our presents.
Christmas Day was celebrated with a big Christmas goose and family. After my parents divorced, we were usually invited to friends homes for Christmas Day, but we kept our Christmas Eve celebration.
As an adult, we spend Christmas Eve at MIL’s, with turkey, trimmings, etc and exchange presents. My kids get to unwrap one present when they get home.
Christmas Day: The morning is just for the nuclear family: myself, husband and kids. We exchange gifts and enjoy each others company.
Then I prepare a big Christmas Day meal, which always has prime rib roast, and everyone, including those we just spent Christmas Eve with, comes over to eat and exchange gifts.
I, personally, would prefer one of the days Eve/Day to be just my nuclear family, but as long as our parents are alive, we will continue with what we’ve got.
Go to mass at about 10 PM on Christmas Eve, get home at midnight. Open some presents (hey, it’s technically Christmas), go to sleep. Open remaining presents in the morning, cook up some good food and watch movies together.
When I was growing up, my mother’s Icelandic traditions dominated. We’d eat the big official dinner on Christmas Eve, which almost always included some sort of lamb (rack of, leg of, or hángikjöt was usually on the menu), potatoes, and almost all of the Thanksgiving stuff except for stuffing. After that, we’d sit around and open presents. We’d go one at a time, but since we never had more than five people (and a dog) as a nuclear family, it didn’t last too long.
When I was really little and still gullible enough to believe in Santa, we’d leave out treats for Santa (hot chocolate and cookies) on the back patio. (Florida = no chimney, so poolside patio must do.) While I was distracted by “OMG PRESENTS,” one of my parents would sneak out and smash the cookies up and spill the hot chocolate. I was gullible enough to think that Santa was a messy eater and made that mess.
When my brothers were little, they left their shoes on the windowsill for the Jólasveinar, who are a bit like disturbingly mischievous Christmas elves. If you’re good, they give you stuff in your shoes, but if you’re not, the Christmas Cat will get you. :eek:
Growing up, my father was in politics and we had to put all of our presents away, except one to play with other kids, at about noon on Christmas Day - as about 300 people (seriously) would stop by to visit during the course of the day and into the wee hours. We kids were to be on our best behavior.
Christmas Day was always a huge buffet of our family lasagna recipe, plus sausage in wine and a few other specialties. And lots of booze…I could already mix some drinks for adults when I was 7 years old.
Up until recently, I too would invite everybody I knew to stop by on Christmas Day, but over the years I have cut back. I still have some people stop by and still make the lasagna and sausage with wine, but no longer feel the need to try to compete with the family tradition of having more people stop by at the house than could fill a small gymnasium. My largest Christmas Day open house was about 60 people.
I do miss the huge crowds at Christmas marching through the house and the sheer number of so many people hanging out, eating, drinking and laughing…but I am starting to get used to a smaller crowd and a more relaxing day.
Our family recently changed, with me moving out and my bro moving out & getting married. So we’re still working on what will most likely become our traditions for the rest of our lives.
Right now, my brother and I are on year 3 of getting together and making oodles of oatmeal scotchies together to give away to friends. I really like this one and I hope he sticks with it!
For the past 12 years my friends and I have gotten together each Christmas to make graham cracker gingerbread houses together. This is the highlight of Christmas for me.
The rest of the Christmas-related stuff - opening presents and trimming trees and whatnot - hasn’t really fallen in to any specific format yet. But still, I am content.
Christmas starts usually about two weeks after thanksgiving with the family christmas gathering, basically a christmas celebration involving my mother’s brothers and sisters, their children and spouses. Which is a fairly basic weekend celebration, with friday night being for the cocktail party and catching up on the year then saturday having the big dinner usually roast beef or roast pork and the family presents exchange. The present exchange has very strict rules everyone opens one present at a time while all others watch. At the end is the unveiling of this years family vacation usually scheduled for the febuary holiday.
Then for real christmas: Turkey dinner on christmas eve followed by a christmas movie which is selected by the youngest member of family in attendance. Then just before the kids go to bed they get to open one present. Christmas morning is brunch and opening presents. Since we do this one at a time and there is much eating going on during this takes about 5 hrs on average. After this my SO and I make the christmas rounds to family friends.
(They do not, of course, get twice as many gifts, but believe it or not that seems to be beside the point for them.)