Merry Christmas! - What Traditions do You Have?

[NotYou]

Merry Christmas everyone.

I am curious, what big or little traditions do you personally have for these holidays, or as a family?
When/how did they start?


I only have one or 2 small things.
When I and my brother were kids, we would want some alcohol for Christmas, so a way around this which was good, is our mother would allow us to have something called Bucks Fizz, which I believe it Orange mixed with Wine. Tastes great in all honesty with the dinner and is "safe" (imo) for a teenager to have. So now, every year it's one of those silly little nostalgic things I buy, I don't necessarily have it with my dinner, but i will have some.

I, like many Brits, will also buy a nice big tin of Roses, Quality Streets or Celebration chocolates - for us, it was Roses, so this is what I get.

Oh and I MUST have some cocktail sausage rolls, I just love love LOVE those!!


And for Boxing Day (December 26th, also a celebration day for us) we used to always have a Jacket Potato with Cheese and Cheddar Cheese Sauce on top, and then any leftover turkey - also I do this every year. I love it.

So what do you have? Mine are all food and drink but yours doesn't have to be.

 

[CheeseMoon]

My christmas traditions are all over the place since my life is chaos and becauseI low key celebrate winter solstice and *then* have a traditional christmas. The trad food for christmas eve is whole roasted duck for my microscopically sized close family, and on the 25th nothing special happens. It's just a red day for me. Boxing day is pork ribs, too much wine and regrets over eating a drinking too much (again)

I also need to listen to this song which was on a CD I got from a vendor as a christmas gift in the 90s. I think it was Siemens AG. The song used to be called "Adam's Christmas Song", but it's better known as "O Holy Night" nowadays. The mezzo soprano singer is just amazing!

Merry christmas!

 

[NotYou]

My christmas traditions are all over the place since my life is chaos and becauseI low key celebrate winter solstice and *then* have a traditional christmas. The trad food for christmas eve is whole roasted duck for my microscopically sized close family, and on the 25th nothing special happens. It's just a red day for me. Boxing day is pork ribs, too much wine and regrets over eating a drinking too much (again)

I also need to listen to this song which was on a CD I got from a vendor as a christmas gift in the 90s. I think it was Siemens AG. The song used to be called "Adam's Christmas Song", but it's better known as "O Holy Night" nowadays. The mezzo soprano singer is just amazing!

Merry christmas!

Interestingly, I spoke with a model (Russian) and she has Duck for New Year and Baked Carp for Christmas, neither of which I have ever tried.

 

[AudriTwo]

my christmas tradition is family drama

thanks baby jesus for bringing my family together so we can fight, annoy, criticize, and expose each other. keeping that christ in christmas, folks.


christmas is probably a very turbulent time for me because my side of the family can be extremely toxic. more so my mother's than my father's. but my father side always gets caught up in whatever drama my mom or her family is causing. so i avoid christmas altogether with my family and spend it with my husband's family. i stopped trying to appease anyone to keep up appearances/charade of it all.

at my husbands we normally eat food, open gifts, and watch football. i'm not complaining. for someone who has spent their whole lives being shuffled between split households and everyone fighting, their "boring christmas" is a breath of fresh air.

 

[Dan Epstein]

Well, I’m Jewish but Christmas is very special where I grew up, a city called Jerusalem. We used to see the midnight mass, and I even went to Bethlehem as a kid to see it. Other than that, we called Santa “Baba Noel” in Arabic, and got each other goofy gifts, like this authentic t-shirt I hope I’m getting this year

 

[CheeseMoon]

Interestingly, I spoke with a model (Russian) and she has Duck for New Year and Baked Carp for Christmas, neither of which I have ever tried.

When I was little we lived (several places) in The Cap of the North for some years, and I remember we had halibut as a christmas dinner at least a couple of times. Don't know why, but maybe it was an attempt to go with the local customs. I think fish is a maybe a northern/eastern European thing, but I'm not sure. I've had halibut several times after, and it's really delicious. It's almost not fish.

 

[piercedcock78]

Hey, thanks and a Merry Christmas to everyone here.

Not too much in the way of tradition...a ham, get together with family, and try to squeeze in National Lampoons Christmas Vacation and the 1970 Scrooge with Albert Finney.

 

[piercedcock78]

My christmas traditions are all over the place since my life is chaos and becauseI low key celebrate winter solstice and *then* have a traditional christmas. The trad food for christmas eve is whole roasted duck for my microscopically sized close family, and on the 25th nothing special happens. It's just a red day for me. Boxing day is pork ribs, too much wine and regrets over eating a drinking too much (again)

I also need to listen to this song which was on a CD I got from a vendor as a christmas gift in the 90s. I think it was Siemens AG. The song used to be called "Adam's Christmas Song", but it's better known as "O Holy Night" nowadays. The mezzo soprano singer is just amazing!

Merry christmas!

Wow, that song is beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

 

[zippypinhead]

I eat ham with the fam on Christmas, but overall, it's a pretty chill day. We open gifts in the morning, and watch movies all day.

As far as personal traditions go, I've gotten more into developing little customs for myself over the last few years. I have a tiny tree I set up with a cute toy train going around it. Every Christmas Eve, I "ring in" Christmas by watching the Nutcracker ballet, and drinking a glass or two of expensive whiskey. This year, I've also taken to putting on various "Yule Log" videos, and that's been fun.

 

[zippypinhead]

Oh, here's a great, if unintentional family tradition we go through, which I absolutely adore.

Every year, my mom bakes and makes candy for Christmas, which of course is wonderful, and fills the house with all the best Holiday smells and flavors. And every year, she gets involved in a pitched battle to make the perfect fudge from her mother's recipe. This isn't the kind of fudge most people think of -- it's pretty much purely milk, sugar, butter, and cocoa. No fillers, like marshmallow or anything like that, and it's a process, involving candy thermometers and perfect timing. It almost comes out more like a soft bark than a fudge, and it is absolutely the most intense chocolate you can ever eat. It's amazing, but since she's after perfection, it rarely comes out to her standards. This year, she definitely lost the battle. The fudge never set up properly, so it's too soft -- almost liquid. But, man, I will tell you, throw a square or two in a cup with some hot coffee, and it melts and makes the best hot chocolate I have ever tasted! I'm on my second cup today. It's gonna be a dietarily treacherous next few days!

 

[WickedTouch]

I don't tend to do the big family Christmas do anymore... but I will make a big event of the day itself. I've got Christmas music, tons of lights, two trees and tinsel everywhere. I'm up early... this year at just after 5am... coffee and the usual breakfast cereal, then followed about an hour later with the first, of what will be several, mugs of hot chocolate! While the food is cooking, I will seek out some Christmas animations on TV.... it's my guilty pleasure and I just chill before dinner time. I have dinner going by 10am, having prepped my bird, stuffing, spuds and gravy the night before, so the kitchen chaos is greatly reduced. Later after Christmas dinner, I will engage in an ongoing annual battle with an invading tin of quality street... I don't expect there will be many survivors. I will triumph once again.

I have purchased lots of new cushions over lockdown this last year... and yes there is a set of Christmas ones in there, so I will retreat to my cushion nest on the sofa for the evening to watch TV. Apart from the Christmas dinner, If I get peckish later there are lots of nibbles to fill the gaps... cocktail sausage rolls, mince pies, Christmas cake, stollen bites, pringles and my most recent addition, a box of green & blacks organic chocolate mini bars... so good!!!!!

 

[WickedTouch]

BTW, when I mentioned Christmas animations on TV, I was referring to those based on the Raymond Briggs stories... "The Snowman", "The Snowman and the Snow Dog", "Father Christmas" and "The Bear". Even if I have seen them dozens of times I'll still give them a view.

 

[cbhours]

The last few years I throw in at least one prank gift box to hide their gift inside. This years:

 

[Finchomatic]

This is my 4th year not celebrating Christmas.
I'll still say Merry Christmas to those that say Merry Christmas to me at work cause I don't want them to think I'm an asshole or having to explain to them why I stopped celebrating xmas or any other holiday.

@AudriTwo Family drama is why I walked away from my family. They think I'm a 'troubled' person because I did this. But this is the most happiest I've been in my life because I no longer have to put up or listen to family BS.

 

[Dan Epstein]

The last few years I throw in at least one prank gift box to hide their gift inside. This years:
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Well, since you brought this up, a few folks I know actaully make money from selling caged farts in cans, that's right caged farts. Some come from the Sinai desert, and some come from an accident in Yoga class:

They consider expanding globally now: https://www.nodcallu.com/
Isn't it romantic?