Holiday Traditions.
#127964 - 12/06/04 05:11 AM
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BarbaraS
Reged: 02/12/03
Posts: 1939
Loc: Wisconsin
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There a plenty of us who come from different religious backgrounds. It will be fun to read how we all celebrate the holdidays.
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You know I don't think we have any!!! The only thing I can think of is everyone gets to open one present Christmas eve and it is New PJ'S!! Been doing that since I can remmber. Oh and I buy a dated ornament every year one for me and one for Kenna!! My mom did that with me to!!
I don't if those count as tradtions realy!!!
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Heather7476
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we always make sure to be together for candle lighting... and up till this year anyone at the house- jewish or not, child or adult... lit a hanukiah (tradition from my folks, but as our collection of hanukiot grows we can continue it!)... this year with the house on the market I'm not removing the curtain from the center window and putting a table there to light on with all the chanukiot, just getting down one for me to light....
we normally have tons fo dreidles- have them, may not get them out this year... and play all kinds of games.. we open fun gifts- not a huge gift thing, but we always try to have soemthing for each other at some point during the holiday- mostly gaggy stuff that the other will use.. and same from mom... and once a year we go to the havurah's party - pot luck dinner with tons of chanukiot nd lots of kids and fun for all...
As to Christmas (DH;s family does this...) we do a gift exchange with his mom, bro, sis and their families on one day- either new years day... or this year on 12/18.. just family dinner and gifts.. no religion... resolves the Jews, Christians and mormon's under one roof thing...
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Dietetics Student (anticipating RD exam in Aug 2010)
IBS - A
Dairy Allergic
Fructose and MSG intollerant
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I have bought a Christmas ornament for my children every Christmas. That way when they get married, their tree won't look all empty like ours did waaay back in 1986!
We also have a "Happy Birthday Jesus" cake every year.
This is the first year that our kids don't believe in Santa anymore which is kind of sad but I think we will still put out milk and cookies for Santa and carrots for the deer!
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My family has sorta bizarre traditions- every Christmas Eve we go out and get Chinese food and then go to a movie. I guess a lot of Jewish families do this too- so I've heard from many friends who ask me if we're Jewish when I mention that (we're not, I don't think). Then Christmas morning we have two breakfast casseroles, both made safe for the vegetarian. 
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Our xmas is on the 24th, when we open our pressies under the tree after dinner and a buche de noel (yule log). Then we put out our shoes the night before the 25th, and pere noel fills them up with sweets, trinkets, and cash in the morning. We have a family dinner at 1pm, then we relax and go out to see a movie around 7pm.
Epiphany is on the 6th of January and that's when we exchange more gifts and have a turkey and a special cake (a "gateau des rois" aka King Cake)with a trinket hidden inside of it. The one who gets the trinket (usually a baby or a fish) is the king or queen for a day.
~nelly~
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Hmm....
#128023 - 12/06/04 08:45 AM
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atomic rose
Reged: 06/01/04
Posts: 7013
Loc: Maine (IBS-A stable since July '05!)
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I had a lot more "tradition" going on when I lived closer to my parents and spent every holiday with them. It started with always going to the same tree farm and picking out the family tree in October - yes, October! - then picking it up 2 weeks before xmas and decorating it, all of it a group activity. Christmas Eve was always spent with my father's side of the family - my great-aunt would throw a party and put out a HUGE spread of Lebanese food, yum. Then I'd go back to my mother's, where my stepfather would stick a glass of wine in my hand and "make" me wrap all the gifts he bought for my mother, because he claims he's spastic and can't wrap. (Gee, I have no idea who does the wrapping now!)
Christmas morning, of course, is all about tearing into the presents, usually with coffee/hot cocoa and cinnamon rolls. Then breakfast, usually ham and eggs and mimosas. Then the rest of the day is spent lounging around in pajamas.
This will be the second year in a row that I'm not going "home" for the holidays. Adam and I don't really have any traditions yet, beyond putting up the tree the day after Thanksgiving... but we will, eventually.
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I did this for many years too- especially the decades when I was doing a church gig and usually had a 4pm and a 10pm or midnight service; went out for Chinese between services. I remember a few years ago was the first C'mas eve in about 25 years that I didn't have to do church; 4pm rolled around and I got confused. I didn't really know what people do on C'mas eve!
Another holiday tradition that I love is going with my school's madrigal singers (I'm a music teacher) to a retirement home for Franciscan nuns. We sing for them and then at the end the gals raise their hands and sing (in their tremulous 90-year old voices) a blessing to the kids. We try to tell the kids how moving it is; they always go "uh-huh, sure", and then sure enough, all of them have tears running down their faces when it happens. It's a very sweet holiday moment that I cherish every year.
"That's what Christmas is all about, Charlie Brown."
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When I was little at home still, I also got to open one present christmas eve also and it was also fuzy, warm PJ's!! I'm going to do this for my kid, hopefully by next christmas, I'll have a baby to start more traditions!!
Since I got married 5 years ago, we always travel 4 hours up north to my husbands parents. We usually arrive x-mas afternoon. We usually have some wine and catch up since we don't get to visit too often because its such a long drive. I'm not religious but I go to his families little country church on x-mas eve and sing songs. Christmas morning, Wills parents, two brothers and us get up and someone will play santa and pass out the presents. We sit in abig circle and drink coco or coffee and open the presents one at a time. Wills parents usually make a really nice meal for christmas afternoon and we just sit around and visit!
Will and I usually have our "christmas" the weekend before at our house and exchange our gifts. Later in the day we usually have our frinds over for a nice dinner to celebrate.
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Taking it one day at a time.....
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On Christmas Eve, we get in the car (except my brother since he's a spoil-sport) and go for a drive through the local neighborhoods looking at Christmas lights. We started doing this as a family a few years ago cause my mom wasn't feeling well and wanted to go to bed early so my dad had to get us out of the house so she could wrap all the presents. While my brother didn't really enjoy it, my dad and i did (we have very little in common and lots of issues) so we keep doing it just to spend some time together. The last few years, I've wrapped everybody's presents when we got home from this excursion (and by everyones' I mean my presents to my family, their presents to eachother, and their presents to me). It sort of takes the surprise out of Christmas morning (but since my mom wont buy anything unless I'm with her it really doesn't matter) and if I didn't do this, there wouldn't be any wrapped presents under the tree. Usually, by the end of the night I'm going senile from all the wrapping so I start making funny tags for the presents (To: Chris From: The Dust-Bunnies Under Your Bed). I must say, no one else appreciates my sense of humor  .
Meg
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