Any Weird Christmas Customs in Your Family?

**forHISglory** · 12-06-2008, 01:33 PM

Our family has a few customs around the holiday that might be considered "unique."

1. When we get the tree decorated, we all get up really close to the round ball ornaments, which distorts the reflections of our faces, and then we make faces and strange noises. Yeah. Guess you'd have to be there to see how much fun it is.......

2. We drive around looking at the decorated homes and yards. We yell out "Tacky!" or "Tasteful!" as our judgment on the decor.

3. We throw all the wrapping paper into the middle of the room as we open gifts, and then the children "swim" in the paper and make a huge happy mess.

Now, we have other customs which are more sane and logical, like having a birthday cake for Jesus, or moving the wise men closer to the nativity each day before Christmas. But I'll have to admit we have a few family holiday customs that defy reason.

How about you? Any strange customs that you will own up to?

**Bournecrazy** · 12-06-2008, 01:43 PM

haha i did number 1 but with the hamster instead a few years back. i shall have to think about others...

**forHISglory** · 12-06-2008, 03:15 PM

We have some weird food customs, too. Well, they aren't weird to us, but outsiders find it strange, even repelling. My family is Swedish in origin, so at Christmas we eat lutefisk. This is a white fish, cod, that has been soaked in salty brine and then dried. When we buy it, it is a stiff white board. Then we soak it for several days, changing the water each day. This starts to hydrate the fish and gets the salt out of it. When we are ready to eat it, we boil it until it turns into a jelly, and then serve it with white gravy. I'm not wild about the gravy, but I could eat lutefisk everyday. It's awesome! Some family members, notably those who married into the family, find it disgusting. But that just leaves more for the rest of us. We have several other Swedish dishes during the holidays, but this one is my favorite.

**Terri** · 12-06-2008, 04:43 PM

My kids started a tradition when they were young. The oldest was probably and the baby 6. Dh and I told the kids they couldn't wake us up until 6:30 but if they all woke up they could go downstairs together and open their stockings. I put a favorite beverage and snack next to their stockings and they always had a little party and a great time hanging out together. Last year was the first time our oldest didn't spend the night on Christmas Eve and the other two really missed their middle of the night party.

**forHISglory** · 12-06-2008, 05:12 PM

My brother and I used to save all the candy that we received from the whole year and stuff it into Hershey's cocoa tins. All those peeps, marshmallow eggs, conversation hearts, ribbon candy, and so forth were all in there together. On Christmas Eve, when everyone was asleep, my brother and I would bring out the tins, sit down and eat all the candy. My mother says that she always wondered why we were so sick on Christmas Day!

**pat in east texas** · 12-06-2008, 09:14 PM

My girls, when they were little left beer and cookies out for Santa. This, of course, was DH's suggestion.

**LuvMyHubby** · 12-06-2008, 10:43 PM

I love reading all of these.

Swimming in wrapping paper I love that one. As kids we used to put all the wrapping paper on the floor and also when we lived with my Aunt. I always took for granted who picked up until I started spending Christmas at my in laws....let's just say that the wrapping paper does not go on the floor it goes into a boy or garbage bag. My FIL especially likes order and wrapping paper all about is not condusive to order.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 12-06-2008, 11:13 PM

Ok, these ones are totally weird to me because we didn't do them in my immediate family. DH's family does them:

1) There are these Christmas crackers...they're like tubes with twisted ends that have fortunes, paper crowns and toys inside of them. They crack one open at dinner and the sound makes me plug my ears.

2) Everyone guesses what's in their present.

3) DH and SIL are given one last gift that they can ask up to 20 questions on. If they guess it correctly, they get $20.

4) There's a Chinese gift exchange thing where everyone brings something that's $10 or less, a number is drawn out of a hat, and the person who draws the number can either pick a new gift or pick something that someone else already has. We get as many chances as we want to steal someone else's gift until the last person has opened a gift.

**forHISglory** · 12-07-2008, 12:11 AM

Yeah, we've done the "rob your neighbor" type of gift exchange, too. I always end up with something like "Spray On Hair Restorer" or something equally as festive.

**madhen** · 12-07-2008, 12:23 AM

I'm no good at the gift exchange thing. I can always tell if someone hates their gift, and I end up "robbing" it from them, just so they can go get something they like. So every year, I end up with the present someone obviously grabbed on the way to the party. Karma is funny, though. One year, I picked out a really pretty Greek demitasse cup and saucer. It got stolen from me, of course, but then I inadvertantly "took" a really crappy present from the person who had brought the cup and saucer to begin with. (She also happens to be one of my vets.) She was so grateful, on her next visit (yes, she makes house calls, too!! I love my vet!), she brought me TWO cups and saucers!

The weirdest tradition we ever had was eating nothing but plain hot dogs for dinner on Christmas Eve. We were told we couldn't open presents until the kitchen was cleaned up from dinner, so my mother would boil hot dogs in a pot and we would eat them on paper plates. The kitchen would be clean in about two minutes.

ForHisGlory, I understand what you mean. We don't do lutefisk, but my mother has some pretty disgusting Korean dishes that I love. My significant other, back when I had one, loved chitlins. Nothing like the smell of not-yet-cleaned chitlins simmering on the stove in their own juices.

**mmy2grls** · 12-07-2008, 12:55 AM

I blow up lots of balloons so it covers the floor and we can't see where we walk.

**annertak** · 12-07-2008, 01:27 AM

Originally Posted by forHISglory

My brother and I used to save all the candy that we received from the whole year and stuff it into Hershey's cocoa tins. All those peeps, marshmallow eggs, conversation hearts, ribbon candy, and so forth were all in there together. On Christmas Eve, when everyone was asleep, my brother and I would bring out the tins, sit down and eat all the candy. My mother says that she always wondered why we were so sick on Christmas Day!

I think that is so cool that you made your own tradition with your brother!

I didn't know until a couple of years ago that my DS (now 22) wakes up really early each Christmas & Easter morning & wakes my DD up (now 18), because he just can't wait to open stockings and Easter baskets. LOL! He's been doing it since she was about 3! That was the funniest thing I had heard, because I had always thought it was her.

**MomToTwoBoys** · 12-07-2008, 09:18 AM

Originally Posted by madhen

I'm no good at the gift exchange thing. I can always tell if someone hates their gift, and I end up "robbing" it from them, just so they can go get something they like. So every year, I end up with the present someone obviously grabbed on the way to the party. Karma is funny, though. One year, I picked out a really pretty Greek demitasse cup and saucer. It got stolen from me, of course, but then I inadvertantly "took" a really crappy present from the person who had brought the cup and saucer to begin with. (She also happens to be one of my vets.) She was so grateful, on her next visit (yes, she makes house calls, too!! I love my vet!), she brought me TWO cups and saucers!

The weirdest tradition we ever had was eating nothing but plain hot dogs for dinner on Christmas Eve. We were told we couldn't open presents until the kitchen was cleaned up from dinner, so my mother would boil hot dogs in a pot and we would eat them on paper plates. The kitchen would be clean in about two minutes.

ForHisGlory, I understand what you mean. We don't do lutefisk, but my mother has some pretty disgusting Korean dishes that I love. My significant other, back when I had one, loved chitlins. Nothing like the smell of not-yet-cleaned chitlins simmering on the stove in their own juices.

We actually ended up with a couple of awesome gifts last year. I ended up with two coolers for cans of pop/beer that had poker stuff all over them, and then we also got a cow ice cream scooper. It was stuff we actually made quite a bit of use out of this past year.

Our gifts for this year's exchange were up to $10 and included no candles, no booze and no consumables. I got this compact grill thing that we decided would be pick #1 and a baster/flavor injector for pick #2.

I love the gift exchange thing because you always get something you really want and you don't have to kill anyone in Wal-Mart or Toys-R-Us for it.

**Patty A** · 12-07-2008, 09:46 AM

I love the exchange idea.....never done that one before but it sounds like lots of fun.
I also like that it little neat things that are really wanted, not big spendy ideas.
Thanks guys, I think we will try this one this year. It really sounds like fun!

I love that people share this stuff! I for one am always looking for new things to start as traditions! Thanks!

**FrugalWitch** · 12-07-2008, 10:32 AM

I'm not sure if it's really weird but we always have quiche for breakfast Christmas morning. (we cook the ham on Christmas eve)

The cats always get stockings and presents from "Sandy Claws"

The snake gets a new piece of cage furnishings.