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The last Christmas Traditions thread was four years old. I figured it was time for a new one.

As anyone who comes to chat probably knows, the month between Thanksgiving and Christmas is by far my favorite of the year. SO much fun stuff going on. So to kick off the season in terms of CoN (well, I consider the CoNtest to be kind of Christmas-y too), what are the things you do every year to celebrate?

I've started a new one this year: since my wife and I aren't going home for Christmas this year because the trip is BRUTAL, we decided to get our first-ever real Christmas tree in the six Christmases in which we've lived together. So last Saturday we made a trek around Westchester and Rockland counties in NY to find the perfect tree for us: a seven-foot Frasier Fir. We then spent four hours decorating it to be *just* right. I chose the thematic colors and she made it pretty; that's our new tradition.

Also on Saturday we went through one of our longer-standing traditions of finishing up our purchasing for a local Giving Tree. This year we happened to get a family who had fallen on hard times because their little girl was diagnosed with Leukemia, so we and Angie's co-workers all chipped in to get grocery gift cards, a small artificial tree, a bunch of purple ornaments for the little girl to decorate it with, and of course the requisite toys.

And that just leaves us with one left to do for the year, I think - our gift exchange. Every Christmas Eve we exchange gifts, and we go a little overboard if at all possible (especially this year since we don't get to see our families). So we sit in front of our tree, with cats buzzing around and claiming emptied boxes and discarded bows, with no lights but our tree and candles, and exchange gifts over a bottle of champagne and a couple Christmas albums in the home theatre. (This year I've chosen the soundtrack to "A Charlie Brown Christmas" and an Ella Fitzgerald disc - that could probably be a totally different topic).

So, yeah, what do you enjoy doing year in, year out for the Holidays? Hit us up, give us ideas!

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

I always go to my paternal grandparents every christmas eve and chill with family I see once a year.

Then I go home around midnight and get up at like 4-6 AM and do the christmas thing. Then we go to my other grandma's and have a feast.

I then go home and play on the computer.

This post has been edited by FraudulentTommah on 5th December 2006 16:55

One tradition we have that I've always loved is them opening of one present per person on Christmas Eve. It's a tradition that my parents and I did all of my life, and now that I'm married I carry it on in my family.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

My family has a tradition of giving a Christmas ornament and new set of pajamas every year on Christmas Eve. Since we weren't going to be in the same place this year, we did it when everyone was together for Thanksgiving.

Things are harder now that my dad has to work on Christmas and I have to take turns going home and going to visit my husband's family. A lot of the time, it doesn't really feel like Christmas.

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Veni, vidi, dormivi.

My sister and I open our presents to each other on Christmas eve, my dad and I play basketball at the hoop in front of our house together, we mix in some hamburger meat in with the dry kibble for my dog's dinner, and we watch It's a Wonderful Life and A Muppet Christmas Carol. That's about all I can think of at the moment.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Quote (FraudulentTommah @ 5th December 2006 11:55)

I then go home and play on the computer.

I play computer games with tom.

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I find your lack of faith disturbing...

This is my first christmas as a married person (though my wife and I have lived together for 2 years). This year we are going to visit my family in Indianapolis.

On christmas eve we each get to open one gift of our choice and then we watch an ancient video tape that has Charlie Brown Christmas, Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer, Frosty the Snowman and other claymation Christmas classics. The best part is that the tape was recorded in 1989 and the commercials are great (including one for the NES).

Then on christmas day we get up pretty early (when we were kids we would get up @ 5AM but now it's more like 8...) , open our gifts, eat some quiche, mess around with our newly acquired loot and then head to Birds Eye, IN to visit my grandmother and the family ranch. Which is exciting because my wife hasn't been and i haven't been in a few years...

Last year I had to go and visit my wife's family which was strange because they are fundamentalist christians (thankfully my wife is not) with very interesting traditions and the worst part: no drinking .

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"You broke my f***ing sitar, mother f***er."
-Anton A. Newcombe

"Yet another 'use your sword to magically deliver death from above' character comes in somewhere between the Living Cabbage and Milkmaid character options." -red_beard_neo

I myself organize a Christmas Ninja Squad - me and a bunch of friends wear scarves over our faces and Santa Claus' caps, make or buy gifts and go around town giving them to people on our list. Third year running .

I have a family Christmas Eve...ever smaller, since my maternal grandma is my only grandparent alive and how most of my aunts and uncles are getting too old to come.

Also, I love Christams for the food - food you eat once a year and you save making it for special occasions like this: Real (as in, NOT instant) Barszcz (Borsch, red beet soup), meat-filled noodles (dumplings? <.< Me and my sometimes-limited vocab ^^; ), fish in tomatoes...yummy ^^

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"I fell off the mountain of words at around the 10,000ft mark. Tell my family...they owe me money." -Narratorway

"If you retort against this, so help me God I'll shove any part of your anatomy I can find into some other part. Figuratively, of course." - Josh

"We have more, can deliver tuesday." - Del S

Good old CoN

Quote

Real (as in, NOT instant) Barszcz (Borsch, red beet soup), meat-filled noodles (dumplings? <.< Me and my sometimes-limited vocab ^^; ), fish in tomatoes...yummy ^^

I was ok with the beet soup... my mouth wasn't watering or anything, but it was ok.

The dumplings actually made my mouth water. It's too long since I've eaten last, I suppose.

Fish in tomatoes, though? *Hamedo yaks in the garbage can by his desk*

Seriously though, I enjoyed reading your traditions, and everyone elses in here so far. It's fun to read about what others do for the holidays.

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Join the Army, see the world, meet interesting people - and kill them.

~Pacifist Badge, 1978

Every year since before I was born, when the extended family gets together to exchange presents, we have a geography test. There are usually about twelve participants, give or take a few - whether or not one of my uncles is in Australia, for example, is a wildcard, and my sister was in Ukraine one year - and the winner of the previous year's test gets to make the test in the current year. It is a great honor to make the test. I've won it twice now, in 2002 and 2004 and I really need to start climbing the ladder to try to knock off the three most common winners - my mom, uncle, and grandpa.

To show how important this test is to the family, I'll mention that I received an email a couple days ago giving me the information on the areas around the world that I need to study. This year's test is out of 100 points, with 10 pages of map identification.

This post has been edited by Neal on 5th December 2006 20:48

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

Quote (Neal @ 5th December 2006 15:43)

Every year since before I was born, when the extended family gets together to exchange presents, we have a geography test. There are usually about twelve participants, give or take a few - whether or not one of my uncles is in Australia, for example, is a wildcard, and my sister was in Ukraine one year - and the winner of the previous year's test gets to make the test in the current year. It is a great honor to make the test. I've won it twice now, in 2002 and 2004 and I really need to start climbing the ladder to try to knock off the three most common winners - my mom, uncle, and grandpa.

To show how important this test is to the family, I'll mention that I received an email a couple days ago giving me the information on the areas around the world that I need to study. This year's test is out of 100 points, with 10 pages of map identification.

That. Is. Awesome.

In the most nerdy way ever, but that's how I like it.

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"To create something great, you need the means to make a lot of really bad crap." - Kevin Kelly

Why aren't you shopping AmaCoN?

Our Hanukkah traditions (it's fun being different) are borderline stereotypical. Every day up until they stop, my family complains about the ongoing Christmas songs. Christmas day we go to see a movie and eat Chinese food. It's fun being in a family that's quite comfortable money-wise; presents are awesome. My birthday is always within a month of Hanukkah as well (Hanukkah is usually late November to mid-January for those who don't know, and my birthday is December 29th) so I get lots of stuff all at once. And because it's over Winter break, I get plenty of time to use it all .

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Squenix games completed:

FFIII
FFIV
FFVI
FFVII
FFIX
FFX
FF Tactics: Advance 2
Chrono Trigger
Dragon Quest 8
Dragon Quest 11
Super Mario RPG

very nice tree R51. whenever i go home for break, i actually play the games i got for Christmas the previous year. i never have time to play them during the year since im working and in school, and in the summer i work full time. so my only dedicated gaming time is Xmas break! im looking to destroy the .hack series and finish up magna carta this time around. i guess thats my little tradition.

with the family, we all get together on Xmas eve and party lol. been like that since i can remember!

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"The answer is, of course, that it would be best to be both loved and feared. But since the two rarely come together, anyone compelled to choose will find greater security in being feared than in being loved."
- Niccolo Machiavelli, The Prince

Every Christmas Eve we get together as a family and watch the movie Christmas Vacation.

Yes, I'm serious Clark.

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The clouds ran away, opened up the sky
And one by one I watched every constellation die
And there I was frozen, standing in my backyard
Face to face, eye to eye, staring at the last star
I should've known, walked all the way home
To find that she wasn't here, I'm still all alone

-Atmosphere "Always Coming Back Home to You"

Every Christmas Eve, our family has our really good friends come over for dinner. Every year we have chinese for dinner, then four of us (me, older sister, daughter and brother of said family) go and play a round of mario party. That's probably one of my favorite traditions, we get pretty intense and every year it's really close. I don't think I've won in all the time we've been doing it but fun nonetheless. Then after that we open one present that our parents give us, which always ends up being pajamas for some reason.

On Christmas we get up at like 6, way before our parents are willing to get up. Then we turn on the tube and flip to playhouse disney and watch whatever crap they have running that year (las year it was "The Wiggles", how exciting), and laugh at that until our parents get up at 9 or whatever. Then we do the present opening thing, and mess around with those for a while. Then for Christmas dinner, we meet up with our family friends for the second straight night of feasting (though this time it's at their house and with the traditional turkey and such), and play charades and taboo.

We've pretty much been doing that for 5 years now, and every year it's awesome fun.

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"We're not tools of the government or anyone else. Fighting... fighting was the only thing I was ever good at, but at least I always fought for what I believed in." - Frank Yeager (a.k.a. Grey Fox)

Well Christmas traditions for me include; lemon bars (taste so good, my tongue goes into conniptions).
Torrones(spelling?) a wonderful Italian candy that just tastes so damn good, only the devil could have made it.

Annual showings of Elf, and other Christmas movies

and did I mention, sleeping in?

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"Have you ever seen a baby do that before?"

I tend to go on long walks in the snow to get away and enjoy the fresh air for most of the day, and eventually end up watching a Charlie Brown Christmas.

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"You know that feeling you get when you're on a merry go 'round, and you want to jump off to make the spinning stop, but you know it'll suck when you land? I feel like that all the time"- Keno

"I stab my girl until I fall down"
-Yukari
Do you like Horny Bunnies?

Quote (Rangers51 @ 5th December 2006 13:48)

That. Is. Awesome.

In the most nerdy way ever, but that's how I like it.

I remembered I've actually won it three times, but the first time doesn't really count, because my cousin, grandma and I formed a trio and won it on our combined strengths. So, I've really won it 2.3333 times.

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

When I lived at home (and when I was still forced to go to church), we would go to one of the later masses as a family, and then afterwards we'd drive around and look at the light displays. The hospital in particular always has a beautiful display, they put a lot of effort into it.

We also opened a present on Christmas eve, but I found that had mixed results. I never wanted to stop at one, especially if I happened to get socks or something. Then, in the morning, my dad would make breakfast and we'd open our presents.

Last year I was with my husband's family, and this year we're going to my parents'. We'll probably do close to the same thing, except while my mother and sisters are at church (my Dad doesn't go), we'll get to relax at home.

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I had an old signature. Now I've changed it.

Usually, on Christmas Eve, I go to my grandma's (this year it'll be at my aunt's house) to eat Christmas dinner and open presents with my family. On Christmas day, I wake up, go downstairs, and open the presents santa brought my brother and I.

A few hours after that, my dad usually picks my brother and I up, and we go to our aunt's house for another christmas party with the other side of the family.

Christmas...well, we generally go to church on christmas eve for Midnight Mass, then we open one present each. Christmas day we open our presents, go down to the cemetary and leave trees on the family plots. Kinda morbid, but it means alot to us.

The weeks leading up to christmas are usually a series of arguements, fights and general avoidance, cause we try to keep secrets and such, and we tend to get frutstrated with each other.

This is actually my first chirstmas home (as in not in some god forsaken country fighting some god forsaken war) in a loooooonnngggg time. I plan on hanging out with my special lady and starting a new traditon with her. But that's classified.

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This is a webcomic and gaming blog where I rant about nonsense. Enjoy.

I was a soldier, now I just play one in video games.

The only thing that is usually constant is Midnight Mass. The gifts are all unopened until Christmas Day, and we don't usually get a chance to utilize them that day, because we go to nearby friends houses to give gifts and greetings.

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Dead Winter. A nice comic.

Another tradition is that we can't open our stockings until all of our presents from under the tree have been opened. And one thing that has been in all four of our stockings every year since I was born? An orange. One year my dad forgot and my sister and I got so upset that he put stocking-opening on pause, went to the store, and bought four oranges.

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

I get together with the close members of the Italian side of my family, my grandmother cooks an obscene amount of food generally consisting of fish, chicken, lasagna, tortellini and various other things. My Dad, uncles and grandfather put on the hockey game that's always on and we complain about silly things like work, who's the biggest idiot in the family for this year, yelling at each other in our various italian dialects and such. We normally start eating around 6 and finish the meal, along with desert and after-desert snacks and fruits by 11. Then, the devout roman-catholic members of my family head to the church for the Midnight Mass while the rest of us stay and play Scopa or Brisk 5000 with the old fashioned Italian playing cards. When the rest of the family gets back home, we all open one gift each, then we head home or, if we're spending the night, to bed. I generally stay up with my cousins and grandfather watching cheesey christmas specials, making fun of how sappy they are. Christmas morning = the kids open gifts, the rest of us recover from our wine hangovers, eat whatever is left from the night before's food for a big family lunch and then head home to sleep some more.

Now, I generally can't stand the Christmas season, so a personal tradition of mine is to load of my paint ball gun and snipe any carolers or people in Christmas colors I see wandering about the streets. It's great fun for me.

New Years generally entails me and a whole bunch my friends renting a Hall or a Hotel room and drinking until someone gets hospitalized.

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Okay, but there was a goat!

Quote (Neal @ 6th December 2006 18:00)

Another tradition is that we can't open our stockings until all of our presents from under the tree have been opened. And one thing that has been in all four of our stockings every year since I was born? An orange.

Dude, that's nuts. Every year since I can remember my stocking has has an orange in it. I've never understood it, but honestly...I don't want to know. It's just right.

We don't have a lot of traditions in my family, and Christmas isn't really an exception. We used to go to my grandparents place every other year until they passed away, but since then, things have changed. We do try to get a big family Christmas in every few years, but it seems like it's starting to fade unfortunately. One thing that IS tradition is a breakfast casserole dish with eggs and a whole bunch of random yummy things. Technically it's an omelet, but it's cooked in a 12x9 pan, so...casserole!

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"My impersonation of an ordinary person was flawless." - Neal

"Don't cry because it's over. Smile because it happened." - Dr. Seuss

Every year, my family and I head out to my aunt 'n' uncle's place for a big X-Mas party. A years'-long tradition that somehow never goes outta' style. Every once in a while we'll go ta' church for X-Mas Eve and X-Mas midnight mass as well. And this year's the first year that I can actually afford ta' buy gifts the youngsters in the family!

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"Thought I was dead, eh? Not until I fulfill my dream!"
Seifer Almasy


"The most important part of the story is the ending."
Secret Window


"Peace is but a shadow of death."
Kuja

Every Christmas Eve I go to my Grandmother's house to have supper with my father's side of the family (that tradition's been stopped because she had a heart attack one year and a stroke the next). She always puts one present for me, my sister, and my three cousins under her tree for us to open. Then, I go home and open one present under my tree.

Christmas day, first thing about 6am I call my grandmother and grandfather up to watch me and my sister open our presents. We always open our stockings first. Then, we go to my aunt's house to show off our awesome new games, clothing, etc. and have dinner with my mother's side of the family.

We generally go visit everyone we can in the next days after Christmas so they can give us a tour of what they got for Christmas and vice versa.

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Why, hello guys! Haven't been around here in a loooong time!
http://dragcave.net/user/LadyTwi
http://www.backloggery.com/ladytwi

Over the past few years, I've taken to having a bath on Christmas morning and relaxing alittle before all the 'Oh crap, the turkey's burnt' and 'Grandad's had too many martinis and he's trying to do a handstand, oh, he's scuffed the bloody wall and broken that watch Aunt Gloria bought you, we'll get you another, that one was probably a knock-off anyway.'
Ever since we moved into our newer, nicer house, the family always ends up here for Christmas dinner and overstay their welcome. Me and my dad always go out for a drive then a drink on Christmas eve, too - it dates back to one Christmas eve years and years back when we did some last-minute gift-grabbing and ended up on the wrong side of the island trying to avoid the traffic coming out of town.
I'm like a little kid on Christmas day, I'm always up at like 7am, running about the hallway and waking up my parents, asking for my presents.

Quote (Neal @ 6th December 2006 19:00)

Another tradition is that we can't open our stockings until all of our presents from under the tree have been opened. And one thing that has been in all four of our stockings every year since I was born? An orange. One year my dad forgot and my sister and I got so upset that he put stocking-opening on pause, went to the store, and bought four oranges.

You know, it's the opposite for us. Nothing under the tree is touched until the four of us (my parents, sister, and I) open our stockings. Naturally, my sister and I have stockings that are like three feet long and my parents' stockings are about the same size as my tube socks. I love your oranges tradition, Neal. Classy.

My favorite stocking-gift ever? Three years ago my parents got a new car (a Subaru Outback) without telling either my sister or me. During the night, my parents go out to where my aunt was keeping it for us and bring it into our driveway. Later that morning, I find some keys in my stocking. I look out the window and start to get really excited...

But they were new keys to my dad's old car. "Oh no, the new one's for me. You get the Toyota." Thanks, Dad.

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this is a blog mostly about comics and videogames
END SPOILER

Every Christmas Eve, my dad reads The Polar Express out loud before going to bed (interestingly enough, none of us have seen the movie), and we all ring bells every time the word "bell" is mentioned. We've been doing this since we moved into this house in 1988. We finished reading that this evening, and now I'm studying for the geography test, which will be Christmas day...

This post has been edited by Neal on 25th December 2006 10:27

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me