do you do any culture specific Christmas things?

[kimmee]

The kids and I have a couple that we do  - we use to go look for ideas in the library about different Christmas customs from children arond the world (I had Aimee's Daisy scouts and Brownie scouts troops do them too but I don't know if any of them still do it.)

We do the Christmas spider - I think it is either and old swedish or german tradition - cute story: a lady spends days cleaning her little cottage for her family's Christmas and the tree barely has any decorations on it , but it is a cute treee. On christmas eve the lady heads fo bed and a little spider climbs onto the tree and is so delighted by it that she spins little webs all over it to help decorate and show her appreciation. When Santa comes that night he sees what the spider has done but doesn't think the lady will understand so he wiggles his nose and turns all of the webs to sparkling silver ( this is where Garland origionated)

We do the Christmas Pickle which is green and hidden in the tree and the first kid to find it gets a little goodie.

We do the King's cake - a little crown is baked into the cake and who ever gets it (and doesn't choke to death!) gets a little prize.

We also do English Christmas Crackers though I make them - A lady from yorkshire bought me my first set and I have copied them every year.

Finally we do Boxing day - which is the day in England when all servants get a gift - we do the newspaper man, the trash man, the mail man, etc. (not always on the 26th though!

[guest2]

We have birthday cake for Jesus each year. We use an angel food cake and frost it with whipped cream and stick a big white candle in the center.

[AmyMCGS]

Originally posted by kimmee

We do the Christmas Pickle which is green and hidden in the tree and the first kid to find it gets a little goodie.

We do this, too~ it's a German tradition.  My parents still hide a pickle in the tree on Christmas Eve and all us "kids" push each other out of the way trying to find the pickle to win the prize. 

 

 

[Early Bird]

Do your Christmas crackers pop! when you pull them? If so, how do you manage that?

[Ellise]

Our Holidays are full of excitement and flair. Since we do Hanukkah begining on the 7th at sundownand ending on the 15th And since I am part Italian & Spainard we also do Virgin of Guadalupe on th 12th. The Christmas of course. We have several traditions we do. But I think the ones you've named are really neat

[kimmee]

My crackers pop cuz I cheat - I use the party poppers - one in each end for Christmas and 4th of July! I just stick the strings out the ends and then each person pulls and pop! confetti and a prize!! Its alot of fun ( party poppers go for about 10 cents )-man you guys told me how to make a cents sign and  I forgot! heehee good thing I'm Blonde!!

[duckduckgoose007]

Nothing specific here...but when I lived home, my Grandma made English plum pudding & put silver coins in it.

Of course she srubbed the coins first.

We were always excited to see who got the Silver Dollar!!

[duckduckgoose007]

Oh almost forgot:

On New Years Eve, my Dad would always go for a walk around the block, just before midnight.

He had to be the first one to enter the house on New Years Day!

He always brought my Mom & Grandma a little gift.

Have no idea if this is an "English" thing or not.

[sunshine]

We bake a birthday cake for Jesus-- I have no idea what culture this is from, but we've done it for years.

Ingredients


1 chocolate cake mix
1 white cake mix
white frosting
yellow, red, and green liquid food coloring
3 round cake pans, 8 or 9 inches
large red candle taper
box of small birthday candles
red and yellow piping gel
plastic Christmas decorations (optional)

Directions

Mix and bake chocolate cake mix according to box directions. Cool & flip out both. Wrap 1 chocolate layer and freeze for later use.

Mix white cake according to box directions. Divide batter in half. Add several drops of red food coloring to the first half and mix; pour in cake pan. Add green food coloring to the other half of the batter and stir; pour in cake pan. Bake, cool, and pop out. Stack the chocolate layer first and frost with white frosting. Add the red layer next, frost, and finish with the green layer. Frost whole cake with white frosting.

Decorate with plastic decorations or red and yellow piping gel, adding a gold star on top (representing the Star of Bethlehem) and the red candle in the center.

Light the red candle and read the Christmas story. Light each person's small candles from Jesus' candle and carefully add them to the cake. Sing Happy Birthday to Jesus.


Since we are of Native American descent- we also celebrate Winter Solstice with a party, feast day foods, and a rememberance of our ancestors.

I bake German sugar cookies (old family recipe passed down through the generations on my father's side- and no, we don't give out the recipe, only the finished product as gifts).

[pkellyc]

At midnight on Christmas Eve we open the door to let the Christmas spirt in. I don't know how much it has to do with our culture, (my family has been in the U.S.A. since the revolutionary war) but I know my mother and grandmother always did this. We also leave one Christmas decoration up all year long to keep the Chrismas Spirt in our home throughout the year. (I have a small angel ornament hanging from a lamp from last year) We are descendants of the Irish and English.

[Dixie]

We have a birthday cake for Jesus,too. Wouldn't seem like Christmas without it.
Growing up, my daddy always had Oyster stew for breakfast on Christmas Eve. I guess that's a part of redneck culture.