I love the holidays! Personally, my family celebrates Christmas. We like to get together and eat a nice big delicious dinner and give gifts to each other. There?s not really any religion to it at our house but it?s still a fun holiday to celebrate because we get to see family members who don?t live close by. As for tradition, we always celebrate with the entire family on Christmas Eve and then with our individual households on Christmas Day.
I just like hearing about other people?s holidays and traditions. Do you do anything special for the holiday you celebrate?
I myself do not really celebrate aside from the gifting nowadays, but while I lived with my relatives we celebrated it in basically the Christian form even though they were of different faith. When I was younger we attended church on Christmas Eve; that was always one of my favorite parts since I got to dress up! Last year I got to experience what Yule was like for the first time as that is what my in-laws celebrate; slightly different but interesting!
We do Christmas Eve, since the rest of my family celebrate Christmas. We have dinner at my sister's and exchange gifts. They all head to church after that.
The next day, I hang with my cats, stay in my pajamas, and catch a few family members on the phone. Low-key, quiet, and no fuss.
In the past my immediate family would get together to open Christmas presents on Christmas Eve, but my parents are split up now, and also both incredibly poor, so we have been keeping things low key. I always go to some Christmas Eve services at my local church and try to spend time with friends and family
On Christmas Eve we celebrate with my mom and her dad, and on Christmas Day we celebrate with my dad's side of the family. Nothing extravagant, just presents and turkey dinner. My sister's birthday is also on Christmas Day so on Boxing Day (December 26) we always take her out.
The "family get-together on Christmas Day" part of the holidays is honestly meh for me because we don't really do anything fun (just sit around and watch T.V. barely talking to each other....we're not very close), but I love the holiday season in general. It's so joyous and exciting
I generally go to my grandma's house for Christmas. I haven't really bought gifts in the past, but I'm definitely gonna do it this year, of course within my limited budget. We usually go to a Christmas Eve service at their church, and then we go home and have lasagna for dinner, among other activities. We also always watch that 24-hour broadcast of A Christmas Story lol
I'm hoping that my mom can come with us, though I know it's a three hour drive and her health isn't great...
cry during family gatherings.
bake food with siblings, always pillbury cookies though.
buy presents for family and friends, throwing in my little debbie cookies and christmas edition scented candles
cry during family gatherings.
go on vacation.
do a secret santa with my friends (i always have the worst gifts lol)
No real traditions for Christmas Eve or Day aside from the gift exchange on Christmas and a special dinner later in the day.
My "traditions" are moreso in the preparation for the holidays themselves, like baking cookies for people, listening to holiday music, and browsing around and trying to determine for gifts for people.
Honestly, most of my family's Christmas traditions went out the window when I grew up and got married. As it stands now, we have 3 or 4 different celebrations that we have to work in.
There's one gathering with all of my husband's extended family. It's a pot-luck where everybody brings food and eats together. There's not really a present exchange for that, but sometimes people bring toys or candy for the kids. It used to be on Christmas day, but now it's on whatever day suits the most people and is within a week of Christmas.
Then, we have to find out if/when my husband's sister is coming into town with her kids and figure out when we can see them and give our niece and nephews their gifts. She's always waiting until the last minute to make plans, so we never know what we're doing until right before Christmas. Even if she plans to come in, she might have to change plans, so I can't count on anything until we get word that they're actually here.
Depending on whether or not my sister-in-law comes in, we may have to make separate plans to celebrate Christmas with my husband's parents. When we celebrate will depend on the timing of the other two things I listed above. We usually have a small gift exchange with them and sometimes eat dinner.
My family is smaller and more flexible, so they unfortunately get worked in last every year. I try to see them either on Christmas Eve or Christmas day if I can. We do a gift exchange and my dad is obsessed with having Christmas breakfast, regardless of what time we meet up. My family probably has the strangest Christmas meal tradition. My dad makes ham, sausage, fried oysters, shrimp, and biscuits. My mom makes potato salad. Then, they try to make me take home all the leftovers even though I only eat the potato salad and plain biscuits.
So, basically I never know who we're seeing and when until about a week before Chistmas each year. And my husband and I try to find an hour or so in the midst of all that to have a little private time for our own gift exchange, too.
Every year my mom, dad and I put up the Christmas trees right before Thanksgiving weekend. We like to have Christmas up early and enjoy it all month long in December and a little after Thanksgiving. We have two trees, a really beautiful green tree with fake snow and a white one with bright little lights. My mom always loves the one with the fake snow. Even though it's fake, it looks pretty real to us. ^-^
When Christmas Eve comes around my family and I have our traditional Christmas dinner together and then we watch Christmas movies, like Rudolph the Red Nose Reindeer. Then when Christmas morning comes around, we all take turns opening our presents. That's pretty much it.
Our family gets together for a regular meal (usually roast meat), then we do the gift exchange since out country does it Christmas Eve and then we watch the same black & white movie we watch every year. Very lowkey, but comfortable. c:
i usually go either to the town where my father's side of the family lives or stay with mom, sometimes both. i don't really like spending them with mom, though. her one mistake is not accepting i follow no religion but i don't have the heart to spend the christmas eve with anyone else though. it just means too much for her that i'm there.
eh. but other than that it's fun; she cooks a special cut of pork that's only in stores during this time of the year, with a honey-based gravy. we decorate the apartment together and stay in to watch films. where i live it's actually summer in december so no snow though. when i'm with my father's side of the family, i sleep in my aunt and play with my cousin and his friends. he opens a lot of presents, his family sometimes feels guilty that i just watch and i usually get something too. i bring a lot of books to read. we enjoy the heat in his house's pool and go out to the nearest city.
-My mom and I light the tree and my siblings and I decorate it
-We watch A Christmas Story on Christmas Eve
-I love shopping with my mom, dad and sister
-Christmas present wrapping stations!!!
-Making homemade cheese ball
-All the Christmas baking
-Waking up at 8am to open gifts!
-Waking up at 7am to open stockings with the siblings!
-Toronto Christmas Market!
-Oven finger foods
We decorate the Christmas tree the weekend after Thanksgiving, usually. The rest of the decorations go up around December 1st. We have our main meal on Christmas Eve, which is more of a bunch of food on two tables where everyone can help themselves. There's always way too much food, even though my household consists of 7 people and we invite my aunt's family, which is 5 people. Christmas Eve is fun because we open up a few presents and me, my siblings and my cousins get a pair of pajamas to sleep in. On Christmas Day, we open our stocking presents first, have breakfast, and then open the presents under the tree. Christmas dinner is usually something simple because my mom is too tired to cook after pretending to be Santa most of the night before.
At the beginning of December, we'll set up our Christmas tree as a family. Then, throughout December, gifts will gradually be added to the tree. On Christmas day, we eat breakfast and open the presents afterwards together. At lunch or dinner, we have a feast with a turkey. My brother and I used to watch Christmas movies together when we were younger as well.
