Sunday GTKY: Favourite Holiday Traditions?

Re: Sunday GTKY: Favourite Holiday Traditions?

• LitlePrety member

  November 2015

  I don't have a lot of traditions from growing up that stuck (mostly because my family lives halfway across the country and my inlaws do things very differently) but one thing I insist on continuing to do is put up my Christmas tree on Black Friday.  My husband would wait until the week before Christmas and then leave the tree up halfway through January.  That's so weird to me.  Christmas is like the big event and come Dec 26, it's over.  I do not understand leaving the decorations up when the holiday has come and gone.

  
  

  So another tradition I do is take everything down on December 26!  I also insist on watching the holiday collection of Charlie Brown for each respective holiday.  

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• nwshay member

  November 2015

  I think our traditions are pretty standard- Thanksgiving we go around and say what were thankful for, my grandma cries when she does the prayer and me and all my cousins have to hold back our chuckles, even while were all in our 20s and 30s now. That night we pick a xmas movie to watch, usually Home Alone or Xmas Vacation, then we spend the night (now that were all out of the house). Xmas we have a big family party on the eve, and we do a big white elephant game which is always a blast. Everyone competes to bring the best gift and no one follows the $25 minimum rule. The cousins always stay the latest and get drunk together and catch up. We open 1 gift xmas eve night at my folks, spend the night, watch xmas movies and drink wine. In the AM we all eat sausage bread, drink coffee and open our stockings while we wait for my grandma to come over, then we open gifts together 1 person at a time. My parents then hose a xmas dinner, but my husband an I head out early afternoon to go to the in laws Sorry for all the detail... Didnt realize how freaking excited I am for xmas!! 1 thing my sister and I started doing is making stockings for my parents. Its really fun to find little trinkets, ornaments and games for them. 

  
  

  I LOVE XMAS!

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• pourmeanothermocktail member

  November 2015

  My family never had any real Thanksgiving traditions other than eating, but my in-laws organize a huge Christmas cookie baking day on black friday. Now that we live across the country from them, I'm hoping to do our own cookies that day. I do like to put up the tree that weekend, and then take it down right after new years. I'm not usually a huge Christmas person, but this year is our first year far away from everyone. We're hoping to organize a visit up to them in Chicago, or a visit down to us in Florida. I am excited for Christmas this year, because that's when we're going to tell everyone the big news, assuming I can keep symptoms in check enough to wait that long!
  

  _______________________________________________
  

  Me: 33
  DH: 32
  Married 7/18/15
  1st born at 35+4 on 6/6/16
  Team green turned BLUE!
  2nd born at 38+6 on 8/30/18 
  Team green turned PINK!
  Due with #3 on 6/6/20 Team Green
  

  
  
  

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• RunBooRun member

  November 2015

  LitlePrety said:

  I don't have a lot of traditions from growing up that stuck (mostly because my family lives halfway across the country and my inlaws do things very differently) but one thing I insist on continuing to do is put up my Christmas tree on Black Friday.  My husband would wait until the week before Christmas and then leave the tree up halfway through January.  That's so weird to me.  Christmas is like the big event and come Dec 26, it's over.  I do not understand leaving the decorations up when the holiday has come and gone.

  
  

  So another tradition I do is take everything down on December 26!  I also insist on watching the holiday collection of Charlie Brown for each respective holiday.  

  The Christmas holiday isn't technically over until January 6th, Epiphany. Hence the "twelve days of Christmas".

  
  

  One of my favorite traditions for Christmas is how my family passes out gifts. My dad dons a santa hat and the little kids wear elf hats. My dad pulls the gifts out from under the tree and the elves deliver them to the appropriate people. It's a big deal to be "Grandpa's helper". Also, my family gets together and does presents on Christmas Eve. My mom's family always did that and my mom decided to continue this so that we could have one less family that we had to worry about visiting on Christmas day.

  Team Green turned Pink!
  Samantha - 4/5/2017
  
  

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• ska8471 member

  November 2015

  Christmas is always everyone's favourite! 

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• Lysta85 member

  November 2015

  We only celebrate Christmas here (although every year a couple of people start to celebrate Halloween, but more just the scaring part not trick or treating (we have another holiday that allows kids to go by every house and ask for little treats).

  We get the Christmas tree with my dad a couple of weeks before Christmas and I love decorating it. When I was little we always did this together with the whole family and decorating the house a bit.It was a night filling event and it had to survive until January the 6nd. Going to church on christmas eve and eating soup and pie. On the actual Christmas days we went one day to my grand-mom and aunts on my dads side and the other day to my grandparents on my moms side. And a lot of eating lol. 

  Now we stay home at christmas eve (since it's the only holiday we are with just the two of us) and I make some special dinner. On one christmas day we visit my parents and the other day we visit my SO parents. Our sibling will be there too with their SO and if they have any also kids. My granddad is also present (the others passed away) and I'm glad he's still alive. Every year it could be the last (he's 87). We don't do presents (we get them when celebrating Saint Nicholas). It's about being together with the families, eating and doing games or watching movies.

  

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