What is your Christmas tradition?

[Just Gina]

My tradition is that I have no tradition! Merry Christmas to you Gina!!

Thank you, and Merry Christmas, Andrew!

 

[Philip Glass]

Hunting here at the ranch with family and cooking prime rib!

 

[BeeMaa]

Christmas Eve is dinner with friends and/or family, followed by the 1966 version of The Grinch Who Stole Christmas. Then the ladies get together to watch Love Actually while the men retire to the den to talk hunting and look at firearms.

Christmas it's just my bride and I. Coffee and a pastry for breakfast followed by presents. Typically don't leave the house or even get out of our jammies. Just relax and snack all day. Follow it up with phone calls to family and of course look at AH for a while.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

Every Christmas Eve my mom and sister make a dozen or more pans of cinnamon rolls. (in the foil pans) Then we go around and give a pan to all our friends and family so they have a pan for Christmas morning.
I watch all my favorite Christmas movies at least once before Christmas.
I always help make the Christmas candy, especially fudge or anything that requires a strong shoulder.
Finally, it’s a personal tradition of mine to put on ten pounds.

 

[Wyatt Smith]

Speaking of candy, Mom just made a batch of caramels. These are everyone’s favorite. All I can claim credit for, however, is cutting the wax paper wrappers.

 

[Just Gina]

View attachment 507314
Speaking of candy, Mom just made a batch of caramels. These are everyone’s favorite. All I can claim credit for, however, is cutting the wax paper wrappers.

I. LOVE. CARAMELS!!! They do not love me back though!
I am having coffee with my sweetheart and then once I have done nothing for a bit longer, I am going to start in on cooking and baking!!
My sister in law swears if you touch a spoon or dish that you helped make it! I think the wrappers count in this situation!

 

[Rem700stw]

Tonight we will continue a tradition my family has carried on for well over 100 years. We will gather at the family farm where my 92 years young mother still lives. We will have as the centerpiece of the meal a white sauce made from salted cod fish over potatoes.

It is the finest meal I will ever have. I cannot decide if it truly tastes as good as I believe it does or if it is just such a part of my life and so entwined with memories of family members and Christmases past.

I pray the tradition lives on long after I am gone.

Merry Christmas all.

 

[Just Gina]

Tonight we will continue a tradition my family has carried on for well over 100 years. We will gather at the family farm where my 92 years young mother still lives. We will have as the centerpiece of the meal a white sauce made from salted cod fish over potatoes.

It is the finest meal I will ever have. I cannot decide if it truly tastes as good as I believe it does or if it is just such a part of my life and so entwined with memories of family members and Christmases past.

I pray the tradition lives on long after I am gone.

Merry Christmas all.

This sounds lovely! I hope the tradition lives on for generations to come!
Merry Christmas!!

 

[Inline6]

I honestly do not know what the elf on the shelf is exactly, or how it works. It was not a thing when my kids were little. Our little granddaughter, Lilly, is 8 and she still believes as well so I totally get it and love it! I know they do elf on the shelf at her mom's. Bob and I were talking about gifts from Santa the other day. Santa brought his kids the really cool stuff. With mine, all their cool gifts came from me and Santa brought the stuff they needed. I raised Lilly the first 4 years of her life. She is my 3rd child in my heart and mind and always will be! This year her Gigi and Grandpa Bob brought her the big stuff and Santa brought her power cords and batteries for the cool stuff we got her!

He hides in a different spot every night to be found the next morning. Sometimes he gets into a little mischief, to drive dad crazy. BTW, no one is allowed to touch the elf, they will have to return to the north pole if you do. Yesterday a bet was placed between G and I, we are both going to make cookies. We are going to set 5 out each, whoever Santa likes the best wins. So I bought all the good ingredients Yesterday when we were shopping. Baked a batch lastnight, told G I was going to win hands down! Woke up this morning to this:

 

[Kevin Peacocke]

Here in Zimbabwe Christmas leans towards the British traditions, so pre-Christmas there are several Carols by Candlelight evenings and we attend one or two. Christmas eve is spent wrapping presents, having friends over for drinks and snacks and the outside mopane wood fire is going even though it is sweating hot - there just has to be that smell. Christmas morning bright and early coffee is put on and the presents are given out by a nominated 'santa' who wears a red hat. Then we go to church for a brief service followed by tea and mince pies. Then back home to start cooking the dinner. Chores are divvied up, one does starters, I do the glazed ham and turkey, another the sides and two of the daughters to dessert. One person decorates the table, flowers everywhere and crackers. It pretty much takes the whole day so after an evening night cap to 1930's type music we all turn in.
Boxing Day is totally relaxed, just laze around, snack, mess around with your prezzies.
It's the same every year.

 

[SFRanger7GP]

We kick off Christmas celebrations the day after Thanksgiving with decorations and watching Christmas Story. Piolin (our Elf on a Shelf) makes her first appearance. Somehow, she managed to get to our home in Colombia.

Here in Colombia, our town is illuminated on 7-8 December (Night of the Candles) and we begin the Novenas on 16 December. Novenas are rotated between the homes of family and friends and everyone has at least one Nativity scene. Traditional foods are buñuelos with natilla, pork in different forms (chicharron, lechon), roast chicken (instead of turkey). Parrandero music is played loudly everywhere, fireworks and of course, lots of aguardiente and rum.

Happy Christmas
Feliz Navidad

 

[Hunter-Habib]

Wishing you and your loved ones a very Merry Christmas, Madame.

For the Habib family, we make a donation of money to two local Christian churches (one Catholic and one Protestant). We also typically hold a barbecue at a Christian orphanage, where we grill up an entire Axis stag and some greylag geese, bar headed geese, mallards, pintails, whistling teals and common sheldrakes (which are hunted by us) to feed 40 Christian children.

On a more personal level, the entire family (my parents, myself, my children, their spouses, my grandchildren) spends the whole day together. My father typically take responsibility for roasting the greylag geese for lunch. I typically roast an entire tenderloin of either Axis venison or Muntjac venison or Nilgai for lunch. My mother bakes the finest blueberry, apple and lemon meringue pies. My daughter enjoys baking gingerbread cookies that are shaped like dolls or Christmas trees. My son and daughter-in-law typically bring the mashed potatoes and huge jars of fruit punch or lemonade.

My son-in-law is Protestant Christian, and we are typically invited to his family home for dinner. At night, we typically watch a film together. My grandchildren love watching the “Home Alone” series or “Baby’s Day Out”.

 

[WebleyGreene455]

My personal Christmas tradition begins tonight and extends tomorrow as well. It's nothing particularly grand, just a little movie marathon. A Charlie Brown Christmas, the original Grinch, the Muppet Christmas Carol, the George C. Scott Christmas Carol, and lastly the animated adaptation of Beatrix Potter's The Tailor of Gloucester. Tomorrow in the afternoon I'll put on the BBC adaptation of The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe, POSSIBLY the adaptation of The Silver Chair, and round it off with Terry Pratchett's Hogfather. I may add one or two of the Doctor Who Christmas specials, perhaps The Husbands of River Song.

 

[Just Gina]

Merry Christmas to all of you! I am loving reading the different Christmas and Holiday traditions each of you do! It is fantastic to read how so many all over the world have traditions that they look forward to each year. So wonderful! Thank you all for sharing with Bob and I how you spend this time. I look forward to reading more!!

 

[Newboomer]

I bet your tree is beautiful! I cannot have a real tree. I am allergic to everything. My sister-in-law wanted me to decorate her tree last year. I sneezed the entire time and my eyes were red and swollen like I had been crying for days. We had a real tree twice when I was a kid. Mom decided she would go with a fake one once she was told the real tree was the problem.
I see some trees and tell Bob "if we could have a real tree...." there are really beautiful ones. I guess I could find my 2-story tree easier if I could have a real one!

Get your real tree and decorate it outside in the front yard. You can see and enjoy it without the allergy consequences. And you won't have to be concerned with size.
Merry and joyous Chtistmas.

 

[Pheroze]

For years we have made a formal dinner for Christmas Eve. Just my wife and three kids. We put on traditional dress and have a grand dinner. Then the kids open a gift of new pajamas before bed. Now that they are adults, everyone is relaxing after a feast with fresh pajamas and a beverage of choice. We thought they had outgrown the pajama ritual last year but have been told it has to continue Tomorrow the extended family converges at my parent's house for my mother's waffles for breakfast. They are followed by gifts, a toast to absent family, and the King's speech.

Over the last few years I have lost a few people I deeply cared for. Maybe the loss allows me to feel the season's blessings in a very pronounced way. I am blessed with the gift of family, friends, and colleagues. AH is a part of that. It's an absolute joy to wake up to a world with such blessings. There are those who we meet that add so much to life. I will take a moment this year to ensure they know they are valued. Merry Christmas.