"What are your Christmas traditions?"

[High Lord Tolkien]

Hello everyone.
We have a wide geographical membership here.
I'd like to hear what everyone does on Christmas.
We all must have a certain "must do" type of thing.
From a food to an event to getting a tree (or not) or a certain something.

Since Christmas is on December 25th I'd also like to hear what members who don't celebrate or aren't Christian do as well.
In the US the whole country pretty much shuts down as far as business goes.
Christmas is kinda tough to avoid.
(lets not post about what stores are open though unless it's your tradition to shop there.)

Here are a few of mine:

I make a bread that my mother used to make at Christmas.
We call it "Christmas bread" but the real term is "Grecian Feast Loaf".
Small round globes with currants.
Sadly she past away several years ago and no one's been able to match her delicious breads.

According to my wife, getting the tree must be a family affair.
(You have to be there to see how much trouble it is with two little kids!)
I do the lights and she'll do most of the rest.
We keep the tree up for at least a week after usually 2 weeks.

I like Christmas Eve more than Christmas itself for some reason.
I always watch "It's a Wonderful Life" on DVD.
(It used to be on 10 different channels at all hours the week before Christmas and I watched it all the time. Damn Ted Turner for restricting it to one night a year!!! )
The kids must be quiet and I must suffer no interuptions!!
I totally get involved in the film.
LOL!

On Christmas Eve the kids are allowed to open ONE gift of thier choosing.
It's always fun to see them browse the "loot" beneath the tree and shaking or weighing a box to get an idea.

We actually have a real fireplace!
As a kid my family had a one of those fake fireplaces with an electric "rotating" log. Pitiful but it worked.
The stocking are filled with fruit, an apple and an orange usually and some candy.
This tradition has always been in my family.
Some people do it while others look at me like I'm from Mars.
I think back in the "old days", 1970s, fresh fruit was a real seasonal treat.
So to get it in December was a BIG deal.
So I keep the tradition going.

Once the kids are asleep we bring up Santa's gifts from the cellar.
I thought it would be cute to have the gifts from Santa to be put in a small sleigh that the kids don't see all year.
My daughter is old enough now where she starts wondering wear the sleigh goes. Santa? LOL

Christmas stories at bedtime.
Mostly about Jesus but I always end with "Twas the night before Christmas"

My side of the family is kinda scattered so we spend Christmas with my wife's sister's family several towns away.
Food is simple but superb.

I try to teach my kids about giving too.
I have my daughter buy and then donate toys.


That's it for now.
What are your traditions?

[duchess of malfi]

I work Christmas every other year. This year will be the first in nearly twenty years that I will have off Christmas Eve, Chrsitmas, New Year's Eve, and New Years. I won't know what to do with myself!

My husband has a special fudge recipe handed down from his family that he makes every year.

We try to decorate our tree sometime between Thanksgiving and the middle of December. We finally broke down and bought an artificial tree a few years ago after we had a real tree that constantly fell over in the middle of the night. We finally had to tie that one to the wall.

We try to go to midnight church services on Christmas Eve in the rare years I am not working that night.

We exchange gifts on Christmas morning. We always cook up a huge hot breakfast and play carols on the CD player as part of Christmas morning.

[[Syl]]

First we erect the aluminum pole. Then, the airing of grievances. Finally, feats of strength.

[Cersi]

Sounds interesting, Syl!

I go to Midnight Mass on Christmas Eve. The church I go to does a very nice job. They hire professional musicians and singers for the event and really put on a great show!

There is also a Mormon Center in a neighboring city that has frequent Christmas concerts throughout the season and they decorate their center to the teeth! They really do a fabulous job and all denominations (or athiests) are welcome to partake.

I allow my kids to open one present on Christmas Eve. They get to choose which one. As they have gotten older, though, they just ask for money. I decided not to allow that this year because it is no fun for me to watch them open presents. (Pretty selfish, huh>)

[The Somberlain]

Being an atheist, as the rest of my family are (well, most of them), I primarily celebrate Christmas as a traditional thing - as well as celebrating the charitable "Spirit of Christmas". Let's not forget the original festival at this time of year had nothing to do with Christ. I don't think I'm being hypocritical, anyway

But we usually get a Christmas tree (from the woods, naturally) and decorate the house a bit beforehand. My dad usually watches the midnight Mass on the television, but... as I say, the religious aspect isn't what I believe in.

On Christmas Day we tend to have a big family event, as well as visiting a family with whom we were friends with in the past. Not so much now - at least for me - but we still go round to there house every 25th of December.

As a child, Christmas Eve would involve me (and later my brother) being read "The Night Before Christmas" before we laid out stockings by the fireplace. We conveniently ignored the fact that it's a gas fireplace. That doesn't happen now, but in the morning we all (adults included) still get a few "Father Christmas" presents, which are usually smaller things like a couple of books/CDs/chocolate/novelty items.

Then when the family's together (the venue alternates) we exchange the main presents, that are from each other.

It's a very middle-class Christmas, I suppose.

[variol son]

Ah, Christmas.

Us old folks (over 18) get dragged out of bed at around 8.00am and made to sit and watch the children open presents, which is always fun. Thank gods for coffee at times like this.

We always have a late lunch for the whole family, starting at around 2.00pm, but everyone eats the assorted chocolate gifts they have received to keep them going until then.

Lunch itself is a little like a barbeque - sitting on the deck or the lawn eating and drinking a few beers. Or more than a few actually. In fact, I think most of us have had a beer bofre breakfast on Christmas morning.

There is always roast lamb, and cold ham on the bone, and new potatoes, and, best of all, pavlova for dessert. That and lots of salad, it usually being too stinking hot to eat too much cooked food.

Then, after eating, we sit around and drink some more and talk and while away the day in each others company. There is more eating, and a toke or two, sitting in the sun until it disappears at 9.30pm or thereabouts.

Then it's inside for more drinking, and a lot of drunken jolity.

Hmmm, we sound like alcoholics don't we?

[firelion]

Pre Christmas is a chaotic period of trying to make the children leave the tree alone and not open any gifts(theirs or others that might find themselves under the tree,we also found out last year that my 5 year old can not keep secrets).Christmas Eve is always spent at my grandmother,and grandfathers house where my grandmother slaves all day in the kitchen and cooks more food than the 8 or so people there could possibly eat.Christmas morning:We get up wat earlier than I would like and see what Santa brought.Then off to the in-laws more gifts exchanged and a big breakfast,then to my mothers and stepfathers where we are forced to eat more.Lastly to my uncles and another meal,more gifts-very Christmased out by then and quite depressed about the mess of wraping paper,boxes from the kids toys,putting toys togeather.But hey its for the kids!At least there is football!

[sgt.null]

Midnight Mass. (but my family didn't)
tree goes up after Thanksgiving, with heirloom ornaments.
stockings are opened first.
Christmas dinner.
I get chocolate covered cherries from my wife because we always gave my dad those.
I also get socks because we always gave dad socks.

I miss snow.

[MsMary]

Like Duchess, I have had to work many Xmas days. Since I am Jewish, I don't really mind. This Xmas, I won't be working, though.

Since Hanukkah is around this time, while Christians are doing their thing, we are celebrating Hanukkah. (Sometimes it comes earlier in the year than Xmas, occasionally, like this year, it is very late.) We spend 8 nights lighting Hanukkah candles, one more each day till the last, when we light all the lights. Remembering the Hanukkah story of how a little bit of oil burned for 8 days in the Temple, we eat foods cooked in oil, like potato latkes (grated potato pancakes) and sufganiot (donuts). We play dreidel and give each other little gifts.

Every year, on the weekend closest to Xmas (which this year happens to coincide with Xmas), I attend an Israeli folk dance event called Machol Miami. After all, Jews have to do something with that day off, right? We dance non-stop the whole weekend and then some. It's a blast.
My son, who is also an Israeli folk dancer, will come with me for the whole weekend, and Foamy, who dances a bit but not as much as my son and I, will join us for part of the event.

The other thing my hubby and I did last year and will do this year is attend the Xmas party thrown by the consulting group with which my husband works. I had a lot of fun last year. In years gone by, when my husband worked for a big corporation, we used to go to a holiday party thrown by a supervisor of his.

Since my mom's birthday is around this time, we always get together with her and my sister's family to celebrate.

I enjoy many of the TV specials and movies that are on around Xmas time. An old favorite is "White Christmas."

[Avatar]

Nice thread HLT. I especially like the fact that you get your daughter to donate toys.

Our own Christmas tradition bears a suspicious resemblance to Variol Son's, and I'm guessing that it's a byproduct of living in the southern Hemisphere, were it's boiling hot over Christmas.

Usually a big cold lunch, barbeque (braai ) style. For the last 10 years or so, we've all spent christmas holidays down at my ncles huge place on the coast, (In SA the whole country pretty much shuts down from mid-December to mid-January. Our school year runs from Jan-Dec as well, so everybody gets, takes, or is on holiday.)

This year, for the first time in a long time, it looks like I'll be spending christmas in Jo'burg, so I don't know how we're going to work it.

(Oh yeah, the religious aspect never appears, those family embers so inclined go to church, the rest don't.)

And no young kids really left, so presents get exchanged once everybody is up and about. (When the kids (cousins etc) were small though, they were up at sunrise, never mind 8am. )

--A

[Nathan]

The way it works for me is:

Get up when you wake up, nobody opens any presents until everyone's up.

After immediate family presents are opened, we go round to grandma and grandad's for christmas lunch, dinner and tea, we almost always stay the night also, playing games into the early hours of the morning.

[kevinswatch]

First we erect the aluminum pole. Then, the airing of grievances. Finally, feats of strength.

A Festivus for the rest of us!-jay

[High Lord Tolkien]

Nice thread HLT. I especially like the fact that you get your daughter to donate toys.

Thanks!
Yeah, she likes it and it's a good lesson.
What I want to start this year is for her to put aside one of her gifts this Christmas to donate for the next.
We're not rich by any stretch of the imagination, (lower middle class if we're lucky) but there's no need for her to have as much as she gets (lots of relatives give her gifts too).

Actually, due to the large numbers of adults in my family we've all agreed years ago to NOT give anyone older than a highschooler (18) a gift.
So we all just shop for gifts for the kids.
So my brothers and sisters and I just say "Merry Christmas".
This has been a **HUGE** relief to Christmas shopping.
I love my Aunts and Uncles and Cousins but really, they don't need a sweater or anything else from me.
Funny gifts are always welcome though!

I'm glad people are responding about the weather.
I've seldom had snow on the ground during Christmas but it's always cold.
I can't imagine a 90 degree Christmas day!
You should see if you can get the Snow Meiser and Heat Meiser to make a deal.

[onewyteduck]

We don't really have any set tradition. We're doing Christmas at Thanksgiving year so I am done and ready. I kind of like that......able to sit back, relax, and laugh my butt off at everyone else. Think it may be good to do it that way ALL the time.

[Furls Fire]

Christmas for us is not just a day. It's a whole season. It's actually already started, but really gets going right after Thanksgiving.

In the weeks leading up to Christmas our family is involved in several things at once. For the last, oh 8 years or so, I've been one of the coordinators for the Adopt-a-Family program here. In this program needy families are matched with people who aren't needy. We always adopt at least two families. The kids just love it, because they get to pick out the gifts for the families, they help wrap them and we always make sure that the families have everything they need for Christmas dinner (and dessert). So, that is one of the things we are involved in this time of year. We also have World AIDS Day that we get ready for, that is on Dec 1st. We usually go to San Francisco for it, but this year I think we will just stay home and get involved in the activites here in Bend. Our family also organizes our Christmas Basket program for families and individuals affected by HIV/AIDS. The kids love to go around and deliver them, and we usually do that on the 24th. And, of course, there are the Christmas programs to go too. This year we have the High School one, the Middle School one, the Elementary School one AND the preschool one. Oh, and the community choir and orchestra always does Handel's Messiah, so we always go to that too.

Once all that is done, we can settle in on Christmas Eve and enjoy our family traditions. Dinner is usually light on Christmas eve...homemade vegetable soup, hot sandwiches and the birthday cake the kids always make for Jesus. We then go into the library/music room and sign Christmas carols and enjoy the fire in the fireplace. The kids each take turns hanging up their stockings on the mantle (it's a reaaaaaally crowded mantel these days...hehe). Then as it gets closer to midnight, we take candles and go outside to Stephen, Zia, Isaiah and Lynne's graves, and sing carols and share memories of them. After that, we come back in and go into our little chapel here at the house. The kids put on the Nativity play, and we read Luke...for unto you is born this day in the city of David a saviour...which is Christ the Lord...We then go back out by the tree and Russ will read "Twas the Night Before Christmas." and then the kids all go to bed.

Russ and I play Santa and get everything out, which usually takes us until about 2am. We are lucky tho, the kids usually don't get up much before 10 on Christmas morning, so we aren't zombies. Ummm...but once they do, it's utter pandamonium. It is so much fun tho. After presents, we do Christmas Omelettes, then the younger ones all scatter while the girls and I get the Christmas ham cooking for dinner. The day is spent singing, playing, watching football and family videos, and for poor Russ putting things together...hehehe. When dinner time comes, we take the video camera and go around the table and say what we were most thankful throughout the year, and our hopes for the year to come. Then we eat, clean up, have pie, and just enjoy each other.

And that...is Christmas on the mountain.

[danlo]

I have to crash...but I must come back and tell you about the beautiful Luminarias (called Farolitos in the North: both known as: the lighting of the way for the Christ child) displays and tours in New Mexico: one of which is right on our street (!) not to mention the Tamales and Posole traditions...yum! We also listen to much Ottmar Liebert Xmas music, such as: Poets & Angels and Christmas in Santa Fe.

[Avatar]

Look forward to it danlo. Beautiful post Furls.

And yeah HLT, actually, 90° is not that bad...it's rarely less than that, and often more. Christmas is the middle of the summer holidays here.

--A

[Alynna Lis Eachann]

Nice one Syl, and Jay!

Christmas in my house has been degrading from a tree-decorated, fancy dinner thing to... well, last year the extent of the decorations was to put a Santa hat on the cardboard Legolas stand-up my college roommates got me for my birthday one year. We won't have to go to the trouble this year, though, since we never took it off. My mother sees Christmas as a traditional thing, still, so we exchange presents on Christmas Eve (that's the way it's done in Poland, and we stick with it). That's pretty much it. No dinner, not much of anything.

Oh, and we spend the months of November and December thinking up good lies as to whose house we've been invited to for the holidays this year, so we have a ready "So sorry, can't make it" excuse when people call and say, "Hey, come to our house for Thanksgiving/Christmas."

[danlo]

Luminaria
1. A votive candle set into a small, decorative (most people here use a plain)
paper bag weighted with sand and placed in a row with others along a walkway, driveway, or rooftop as a holiday decoration. Also called Regional farolito. 2. New Mexico A bonfire built in front of each house in a pueblo to celebrate Christmas Eve.
ETYMOLOGY: Spanish, from Latin lminria, pl. of lminre, lamp. See luminary.
REGIONAL NOTE: In recent years it has become commonplace to see entire American neighborhoods decorated during holiday seasons with luminarias lining driveways, sidewalks, or rooftops. A luminaria is a votive candle set inside a small decorative paper bag weighted with sand. The bags are usually colored and often perforated with designs through which the candle inside shows as bright pinpricks of light. The custom of luminarias comes from Mexico and was practiced in New Mexico for many years before spreading throughout the United States. It derives from a similar holiday custom of the Pueblo peoples in New Mexico. On Christmas Eve they build a bonfire, called a luminaria, outside each house

[High Lord Tolkien]

Luminaria
1. A votive candle set into a small, decorative (most people here use a plain)
paper bag weighted with sand and placed in a row with others along a walkway, driveway, or rooftop as a holiday decoration. Also called Regional farolito. 2. New Mexico A bonfire built in front of each house in a pueblo to celebrate Christmas Eve.
ETYMOLOGY: Spanish, from Latin lminria, pl. of lminre, lamp. See luminary.
REGIONAL NOTE: In recent years it has become commonplace to see entire American neighborhoods decorated during holiday seasons with luminarias lining driveways, sidewalks, or rooftops. A luminaria is a votive candle set inside a small decorative paper bag weighted with sand. The bags are usually colored and often perforated with designs through which the candle inside shows as bright pinpricks of light. The custom of luminarias comes from Mexico and was practiced in New Mexico for many years before spreading throughout the United States.

That's something I've never heard about before.
Sounds very pretty!
I wouldn't want a burning candle on my rooftop though!


I enjoy white lights in the windows and on the roofs of houses in my area.
It's crisp and clean looking.
But I do like the houses that have colored lights as well.
The last few years I've seen those very large colored bulbs, like what was used back in the 50's, start to make a comeback too.
I thought it would look horrid but if you use enough of them it looks awesome!
I don't want to think about the electric bill for those bulbs though!