Every year about this time I reread Terry Pratchett’s Hogfather. I like the Discworld twist on Christmas and the way the crazy consumerism of our own world is being skewered. I feel that reading Hogfather keeps me grounded.
What special little thing do you do for yourself each year?
My sister and I used to go through Mom’s presents for us a couple of months ahead of time. I know that sounds terrible. My sister would always forget. I wouldn’t.
We drive around looking at Christmas light every year. My favorites are the ones that look like gingerbread homes - not the ornate displays, not the crazy things on the yard, or the single line of obligatory lights. My mom thinks the more ornate the better.
I take a quiet hour by myself to read The Story of Holly and Ivy by Rumer Godden. A copy with the illustrations by Barbara Cooney. It’s one of my very favorite stories.
I have a Festivus pole. 
My son and I catch a flick on Christmas day and then we go to Walgreen’s because it’s open. It’s pretty traditional, I know.
I’ve gone to Matzoh Balls, but I’m feeling a little too old for them now.
Every year I make my mom a present. She celebrates Christmas, so this year I’ve made a tree skirt for her antique German aluminum tree.
The Christkindlemarket in Daley Plaza. I always find at least one gift for someone on my list, and it’s just not close to Christmas without some potato pancakes and spiced wine and a pretzel (of course bratwurst used to be on the list until I became vegetarian). I also love taking people who’ve never been before. I have two trips planned this year with different groups!
About 25 years ago the wife and I decided to do absolutely nothing, henceforth, forever. I had no family. Her family was rather small quite scattered and not very close. Occasionally there was an employment situation where something was required but most of those could be avoided.
For Thanksgiving, I have a bag of animal crackers.
We have Japanese food on Christmas Eve:
Years ago I was very stressed out about getting everything ready Christmas Eve, so declared that I was not cooking dinner after work that day, that we would have pizza. This went over very well, so the following year I decreed it again. “But we don’t want pizza. Can we go to the Japanese restaurant instead? You still won’t have to cook.” Oh, okay. Following year: What shall we have for dinner tonight? “We have to go to the Japanese restaurant! We ***always ***have Japanese food on Christmas Eve!” Thus was a tradition born.
Also, I used to look for when the Alistair Sim Christmas Carol was on TV so I could have it on while I decorated the tree. A couple of years ago my family got me my very own copy, so I can now decorate the tree & watch the movie any time I want to.
I light a menora. This year I’ll have to do it early or not at all because of when Hanukka falls. Or maybe I can bring it with me when I go on vacation.
On Christmas morning we eat kringle. Not the kind that most people know, but a recipe that’s been passed down through at least 5 generations, probably more.
Love the holidays in our house!
This was the fifth year that my family celebrated Fakesgiving. It takes place the weekend before thanksgiving and is way, way easier on everyone involved.
Traditionally, Christmas was the time of year that booze appeared in the house. We drink so little, that one bottle of rum once lasted a couple years. If only that one client of my dads didn’t send us a whole case of hard liquor every year…
On Christmas Eve we go to church where my brother in law plays the organ. We then go back to my parents house where my dad puts the Alastair Sim version of A Christmas Carol on repeat and eat junk food (chocolate, cheese, nuts) and drink my Dad’s booze. My sister and I raise a glass of sweet sherry in rememberance of my grandpa (who would have one drink a year, sherry on Christmas Eve).
On Christmas in the late morning or early afternoon we go for a hike to shake off the post-present doldrums. Usually the weather is beautiful, and even if it isn’t just getting the kids out of the house and into nature is grounding and helps pass the time until dinner.
I collect bad movies so every year I try to find a new bad Christmas movie to add to my collection. (For some reason, Santa Claus seems to be the focus of a lot of these.) In past years, I’ve bought Santa Claus Conquers the Martians, Santa Claus, Santa with Muscles, Jingle All the Way and Santa’s Slay.
This year, I’ve finally found a copy of Santa and the Ice Cream Bunny in which Santa apparently gets his sleigh stuck in the sand and gets it loose with the help of a man in a bunny costume who drives a fire truck and has no adequately explained connection to ice cream. I can’t wait to get a chance to watch it.
Put up the (artificial) tree the day after Thanksgiving. (I started a new tradition more recently; I only decorate the top half of the tree - I only have two “large” windows; one looks up to another row of townhouses, so I put the tree in front of the other one, which has a large balcony in front of it, so people outside can only see the top half of it.)
Take the tree down the day after Christmas.
On New Year’s Eve, listen to the BBC World Service at midnight GMT (the one time each year when they play Big Ben tolling the hour; you can hear the crowds outside, but now that they have included fireworks, the sounds of the fireworks drown out almost everything else).
My family does a few things:
My dad’s extended family, on Christmas Eve, has a large get-together. This ends up being close to 60 people. My dad is one of 9 (two have passed,) so the remaining 7 and their spouses (and the spouse of one of the deceased, ) and I am one of 21 cousins that sprang from those 9. Of those 21, all but 8 of us are married. Of the ones that are married, there is a total of…19? 20? kids…it’s hard to keep track of them all. At any given time, I’m almost guaranteed to have a pregnant cousin/cousin-in-law.
So that’s over 60, but any given year a few won’t/can’t show. We do a big potluck sort of thing…appetizers, desserts, etc…Then we do a large ornament exchange (generally about 2/3 participate in that.) It’s a variant on Yankee Swap. Everyone gets a number, then when your number is up, you can either pick an unwrapped ornament, or steal someone else’s. But that person has to get a new, unwrapped, one.
When my immediate family gets home from that (well, now that we all have our own homes ,we go back to my parents’,) we unwrap one present, which is an ornament to each of us from our parents, and then the ones my brother, sister, and I got for them. We all have “themes.” My sister has rocking horses, my brother has bears, I have mice, my mom has angels, and my dad has snowmen.
On Christmas Day, after we open presents and clean up, we always have wings. Damned if I know how it started, but we get them Christmas Eve during the day, reheat them in the oven, and chow down before actual dinner.
My best friends (a couple) and I and our mutual friend from college get together to make “gingerbread” houses from graham crackers. We’ve been doing it since 1995 (well not the college friend).
Also, one of the aforementioned best friends and I play in TubaChristmas in Akron every year.