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holiday traditions thread
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holiday traditions thread
holiday traditions thread~
what holidays do you celebrate in December-ish? (Christmas is the large obvious Western/Christian one, but of course there's also Santa Lucia & New Year's, & Hanukkah I think?) and how do you celebrate them? any particular foods, family traditions, etc?
we always celebrate St. Nicholas Day in the traditional chocolate-in-shoes fashion. & we've never done this, but my dad's family did Santa Lucia Day, where the eldest daughter dresses in white and a wreath of candles and brings coffee & buns to everyone in the early morning. this is far more prominent in Scandinavian countries, I believe, particularly Sweden, but I like the idea of it.
and then there's Christmas! we always have a dinner on the Eve, and on Christmas Day we go to church in the morning & come home for festivities & presents in the early afternoon-ish. also around Christmastime there's a plethora of movies we traditionally watch -- A Christmas Memory, The Snowman, A Matter of Principle, the old b&w Christmas Carol, It's A Wonderful Life, probably others that I'm forgetting. I like Christmas music too, although generally I prefer more traditional songs to the cheery festive pop you hear on the radio.
Christmas always feels nostalgic to me, perhaps because it's particularly exciting when you're a small child, and therefore memorable. Easter is my favorite holiday, but Christmas is the coziest.
submitted by Artemis
(December 2, 2022 - 7:42 pm)
(December 2, 2022 - 7:42 pm)
The one tradition that my family keeps is during Christmas, which is that everyone gets tortured by a singing Elsa ornament at random times of the day.
It used to be somewhat funny...before the batteries half-ran out and now it sounds like she's dying every time the button is pressed, like: "Let it Go, Let it bzzzzzzzzzzzz glitch bzzzzzzzzzzz..."
Oh, and we also have a Noah's Ark ornament that turns and displays all of the animals that is mostly broken and open presents of course.
(December 8, 2022 - 8:56 pm)
haha that sounds kind of amusing in theory but actually really annoying in practice. fortunately, my family hasn't any singing ornaments (so far as I'm aware). although we do have three separate Noah's ark ornaments, which I did not realize until now...
(December 10, 2022 - 1:25 pm)
MY FAMILY HAS A SINGING ELSA ORNAMENT TOO-
(December 19, 2022 - 1:14 pm)
One thing we usually do is, on Christmas Eve, we all have supper together (we have the Mexican tradition of eating the big meal of the day at about three o'clock in the afternoon, and then a light meal which our family calls "supper" at about seven o'clock), and my dad tells us about what he would do for Christmas when he was a boy.
And of course, as Amethyst said, we put up the "Nacimiento"... with painted clay figures (although really you can use anything, even Legos) and dry moss and a little cardboard stable. This year we still haven't gotten around to doing that and Christmas is only ten days away!! eek.
And we have American traditions too, like putting up a wreath outside the door, putting Christmas presents under the tree, hanging up stockings, having turkey and cranberry sauce, etc. We also buy a poinsettia plant (if any can be found) and put it on the table in the dining room.
(December 14, 2022 - 8:47 pm)
nice! i never before realized that presents under the tree + stockings were an American thing (or, by extension, English), but now that i think about it, it makes sense.
also, i feel you've said this somewhere but i don't quite remember: are poinsettias from Mexico? and are they Christmas decorations there, or no?
(December 16, 2022 - 6:02 pm)
Yes, to both questions! Every Christmas you see pots of poinsettias on people's doorsteps or in their houses. My grandmother (who's American, but has lived in Mexico ever since she married my Mexican grandfather) always buys some at Christmastime, so I still vaguely associate poinsettias with her and with her house. I really like the color and the shape of the flowers - it really suits Christmastime, for me at least. :)
(December 18, 2022 - 8:42 pm)
top!
(December 16, 2022 - 10:07 am)
On tradition my family has is on Christmas Eve we all give each a book and then spend the whole day reading. It's an Icelandic tradition and that's where my moms side of the family is from. Another tradition we have is the fairy calendar. It's sorta like an advent calendar but instead of small gifts, there are notes inside that tell you fun things to do that day like go to a play or bake cookies or something like that. Sometimes there are small gifts as well on certain days and the note tells you where it's hidden. We've been doing this for as long as I can remember so I don't even know how it started but it's one of my favorite parts of Christmas.
(December 16, 2022 - 12:16 pm)
oh, that sounds awesome! (both of those traditions, but particularly the books on the Eve :)
(December 16, 2022 - 6:06 pm)
My family puts up Christmas lights everywhere, and we buy a tree (ALWAYS a fir tree. Spruce trees hurt you, and pine trees are just kinda ehh.) we have two stars, a shiny silver one for a small fake tree we have, and a paper star I made thousands of years ago. We have more ornaments than we can fit on one tree, so we only put up the best ones. There is absolutely no overall theme to the ornaments, so there's a fancy glass sea turtle next to a talking Star Trek ornament someone gave us. It talks whenever you turn on the tree lights, and startles everyone in the house.
we also set up a Nativity scene thing my grandpa carved and my grandma painted. We listen to Christmas music, eat stuff, and play video games.
when me and my brother open our stockings and presents, we go to our grandparent's house and open presents and eat pie. Then, we go to out aunt's house and open MORE presents.
and we're repainting my room, but that probably has nothing to do with the holidays.
(December 19, 2022 - 11:32 am)
spruce trees do hurt you. and we have fancy glass ornaments and Star Trek ornaments too! no turtles unfortunately, but we have crosses and crowns and such, and a Starship Enterprise (unfortunately it does not talk. although that would be amusing.)
(December 19, 2022 - 10:30 pm)
we have a creche and a tree and an advent wreath and all that jazz. Something that we do that I think no one's talked about yet is Epiphany? It's kind of weird but you celebrate it on January 6 and it's basically the day the wise men came to see Jesus, and it's also kind of the conclusion of the Christmas festivities. Like that's when we typically take down our decorations, and also you write an equation on your door in chalk, and it's kind of like a blessing. This year the equation is:
20 + C + M + B + 23
CAPTCHA says heapy. That's... kind of a word. My CAPTCHA has learned to communicate! *celebrates*
(December 19, 2022 - 8:56 pm)
wait what's a creche? *googles creche* oh.
huh, i've never heard of that. Epiphany, I mean. I didn't know there was a special day for celebrating the magi (that is common (?) in the US, at least -- i think i've heard of three kings celebrations in other countries.) interesting.
(December 19, 2022 - 10:19 pm)
ooh my family does Epiphany too! only we do it slightly differently - the "three kings" brought gifts to my sister and me when we were younger.
(December 19, 2022 - 10:26 pm)