Holiday Traditions

[Gutmutter]

A Christmas tradition that goes back to my childhood (and probably before) is baking and decorating shaped cookies... trees, angels, stars, santas, reindeer - our cookie cutter collection is quite extensive. The process was quite tedious when I had 3 little ones, but I've never gone a year without doing at least one batch. Making the dough from my mom's recipe, rolling it out and cutting the shapes. Making the different colored frostings, getting out the colored sugars, cinnamon red hots, and other edible decorations, teaching the kids how to do different design variations with a toothpick drawn through the icing, etc. Giving assorted plates to friends and the postman. Fun!

[SuperBrat]

Ah one more tradition of mine... I need to dig out the recipe cards my grandma gave me, so I can get my great grandma's sugar cookie recipe. I was the only one my grandma would let make the cookies, because I would always decorate them so pretty like.

Also, every year, we make rudolph candy canes. We use pipe cleaners for horns, and glue red pompoms and googly eyes to the candycane.

[Gutmutter]

I'll post mine over on recipes in case you can't find it SuperBrat.

[bbnbama]

Oh and I almost forgot, this one dates back several generations in my family and I thought we were the only ones to do it until I read a book by Ferrel Sams Called: Christmas Gift!

On Christmas morning, as soon as you see a family member, you must shout out CHRISTMAS GIFT! We do this on the phone and in person. And its gotten to be a competition to see if you can "get" the other person before they "get" you. Even my husband who never did this before, now joins in. I am so into it, that I get disappointed if someone gets me first. The number of us that do it has dwindled way down. But I found out its a very old practice in some locations in the South that goes back hundreds of years. I actually think this is my favorite one as I have memories of being woken up to this as a child!

OMG..you mean this is something that other families do??????? When I was married, my husband and his mom would both break their necks to try and be the 1st one to call each other and say it! Even now that we are divorced, he still calls me and tries to be the first one to tell me and if nothing else, he tries to carry on the tradition with our son! How funny...I'll have to remember to tell him that there are others that do that crazy tradition!!

[MRD]

bbnbama, That is so funny that you guys do it too. I always thought we were the only ones until I read that book.

The original tradition stated on the Plantations and the slaves and later sharecroppers after slavery was abolished, would go to the "Big" house on Christmas morning and stand on the lawn and shout "Christmas Gift". The Plantation owner or landowner would give each person a set of clothing, a coin like a silver dollar and usually a bag of sweets. I read all this in that book and found it so interesting that this is where it started.

I have read all of Ferrel Sams books and I highly reccomend them. But Christmas gift is one of my favorites. All his books remind me of my parents stories about growing up in the rural south during the 20's and 30's.

And Gutmutter, we ALWAYS do cutout sugar cookies every year. This year my extensive cutter collection is hanging on a small tree in my kitchen and Lucy and I will make cookies probably next week. I have ALL my baking ingredients already and this is something we have never missed doing.
We used to make gingerbread houses too, but that got really expensive buying all the candy you needed and then no one ever ate them. But they were fun to make.

Later when I have time, I will have to recount the story of the flying turkey on Christmas eve, the EMT's arriving, the dogs getting the turkey and my dad disrupting the VERY religious neighbors family gathering by cussing a blue streak in the back yard after falling and sending the turkey flying and his yelling until the EMT's arrived. It was horrible at the time (we ate sandwiches for dinner), but then it got to be funny and one of those family stories you never forget. That's also the year we lost Lucy's main gift and spent 2 hours at midnight searching my house, my mom's house and the storage building for it. And then having to put the damn thing together. She was about 3 or 4 at the time.

[femme fatale]

Hey, I'm glad you liked my thread, I like hearing what others do

One of my family's tradition is taht every year we go to the cemetary to remember and honour those that are no longer with us. Some of my friends (including Mr. Fatale) thinks this is weird that we bring in death to our Christmas celebration, but in reality it's not like that. It's ´not a sad moment really, more a quiet moment for reflection. When I was a kid, i didn't find it weird, first we vistited my dead grandma than my living one, why should we leave one of them out?

My dad has done this since 1954 (when his grandma died) and we still go every year. I guess it's really not so much about the cemetary, but it's nice to get a moment to reflect and think about your loved ones. I feel (but I am very objective) that this made me and my sister more humble towards Christmas unlike our, roughly same-aged cousins. Sure we like gifts as well, but we were not as frantic (maybe a bit harsh, sorry cousins) about it.

Stargazer your tradition is beautiful, maybe that's something I'll do when I have kids (my parents just moved so most of my old toys and clothes that I did not keep went to goodwill in August). Plus you get to clean out the space and make someone else happy.

MRD and bbnbama I have never heard of this (and I have relatives in the South, LA.) but it sounds like fun. I guess I won't be starting it though, my family'd think I'd gone crazy . I think my family has lots of quirks (not holiday related though), but who knows maybe others do them as well.

[misskitty]

myrosiedog and bbnbama I have never heard of anything like the yelling of "Christmas Gift".... my family already thinks I'm crazy so I don't think I shall include it.

Gut and SuperBrat: My mom used to make shortbread cookies with the cookie dough press. I see that those are appearaing once again in the stores. We got to place the little cut up piece sof red and green cherries into the middle of the cookies. Yum, were those every rich and good cookies. We could only sneak one when company came. I wonder who has that old cookie press now? Hmm.

Veruka: I like the idea of casual with tacos. That makes things more relaxed.

femmefatale: Thanks for starting this up. It's really interesting to see what everyone does! I think it is really respectful for your family to visit the cemetery to include those who cannot be with you any more. They are certainly not forgotten.

[queenb]

rosiedog, Ferroll Sams and his wife Helen were my doctors when I was a kid; I'm pretty sure he's still alive, and Helen is still doctoring, though semi retired in her 80's (!). The sons are still my Dad's doctors...
Oh yeah, this is a Christmas tradition thread! Since my family never all gets to Mom's house together, most of the stuff we did when younger has unfortunately mostly gone away except for our traditional holiday foods, which are all our old favorites plus maybe a couple of new ones someone has found.
For myself, for about 15 years I've been making a big box of cookies and taking it to work Christmas Eve, just because I hate that we're required to work that night.
Also, I always support a child through the Empty Stocking Fund.

[marybethp]

We get together at my brother's house for Christmas Dinner, which is the house we grew up in - he and his family have made it such a lovely home (not that it wasn't when we were growing up, but it's nice that it's still in the family).

Anyway, we play a thing called the "dollar game" (I know there's lots of variations of it). Everybody brings a wrapped gift worth a dollar. They go on the table. Everyone playing gets a number. Number 1 picks a gift from the pile and opens it. Number 2 can either open a new gift or STEAL the gift that number 1 has. This goes on until the end (the highest number we've played to is 17 - we generally don't let the kids play). It is hilarious to see a bunch of normally well-mannered adults fighting over a $1 backscratcher.

One year I ended up with a can of chicken (sorta like the underwood deviled ham if you know what I mean). The ingredients actually said "mechanically separated chicken" It was gross. Anyway, I ended up with it because my SIL stole my gift and 6 months later, I wrapped up that nasty can of chicken and gave it to her for her 40th birthday

We end up having the most laughs over the stupidest little trinkets (of course my favorite was the gift I did 2 years ago which was a magnet with a picture of me in it that said "I love my sister" LOL!!!!!!!

[ScoutMom]

We play that game at work, marybethp. But we call it Dirty Santa and the gifts are worth $15.00. We get a lot of bottles of wine, candles, and then the junky stuff that nobody wants and ultimately gets re-gifted. Each gift can only be "stolen" twice (otherwise it would go on forever).