New holiday traditions

[LoveDaisy]

Have you started any new holiday traditions with your friends or family? If you have why are they? I think traditions are fun and enjoy adding something new to our current traditions.

Four years ago a group of friends went to dinner and to see the first year of the lobster trap tree. We have done it every year since and are planning our trip for this year.

Lobster Trap Tree

 

[DanceDisney23]

We go out for breakfast on Christmas Eve morning. Nothing fancy, just a diner in town, but we’ve been doing it for years and I’m looking forward to it. We don’t go out for breakfast often otherwise.

We also open our stockings on Christmas Eve.

 

[fla4fun]

Since we don’t have any children around waiting for Santa, we open all our gifts on Christmas Eve so we can sleep in on Christmas morning. We also open our stockings last, because there are often clues to larger gifts in the form of cables or batteries that would ruin the surprise of a larger gift.

We always put up our tree on Thanksgiving day while the parade is on. Growing up, my dad was a department store manager and Thanksgiving was his last guaranteed day off until New Year’s Day. Since the Christmas decorations were in the attic, he was the only one who could reach them to get everything down (mom was too short) so he had to be home for us to do it. We took it down on New Year’s Day during the Rose Parade for the same reason.

One thing we started doing a few years ago was having at least one box of Kinder Happy Hippos in each stocking. It started with that song I Want A Hippopotamus For Christmas and a random sighting of the Kinder Hippos at Epcot. I thought it would be a funny stocking stuffer, so I bought a box for each stocking (there are five hippos in a box). We like them so much that now I get a case of ten boxes to split between Thanksgiving weekend and Christmas.

 

[PollyannaMom]

We don't really have any new traditions we've started just lately, but some from when DS was little:

Going to the same place every year to see Santa, have cocoa, and buy an ornament

Choosing an evening a few days before Christmas to drive around and look at lights

Opening one present on Christmas eve

And one that started before he was born, and I still keep up to this day:

A special mini album that has a photo of our tree from each year we've been together - The opposite page is a favorite photo from that Christmas season that somehow represents the year.

 

[tvguy]

This will be the first Thanksgiving in over 30 years that we are celebrating ON Thanksgiving. Because Thanksgiving (and all holidays) were normal work days for my wife and I we shifted Thanksgiving to the Saturday after. We retired 3 years ago, but our daughter had to work Thanksgiving, so that continued. She has moved to Germany so just DW and I and we will be doing Thanksgiving ON Thanksgiving, a NEW tradition for us. Also allowed friends from out of town to have THEIR Thanksgiving, the drive down and join us for ours. But due to health issues, they are no longer able to travel.

 

[DisneyHardin]

A few years ago, we became somewhat estranged from DH's parents, so we no longer to go their house on Christmas Day. Now, we just stay home, have a big breakfast and lounge around watching Christmas movies. It's so much nicer than rushing out the door to get somewhere.

 

[neverlandsky]

We wanted less stress this year after last year. Pretty excited about the holidays now.

Saturday before Thanksgiving aka today, decided we're going to have our minimalist holiday homemade meal. I'm actually loving this because there's no fighting the crowds to get parking, fresh produce, easy selection for grocery items needed, etc. Dinner today is instant pot slow cooker pineapple & cherry ham, slow cooker veggie stuffing, and Dutch oven mushroom broccoli casserole (aka green bean casserole), olives, and cranberry sauce.

For Thanksgiving Day, we're eating out for lunch and then we'll have desserts, coffee, & tea for dinner at home. Looking forward to actually relaxing in the morning and watching the parade, not being tired, not being tied to the kitchen all day, and not having leftovers for days.

The other day put up outdoor our Christmas lights and indoor Christmas tree. They are both staying unlit. On Thanksgiving Day, we're going decorate the tree and turn on the Christmas lights after we have dessert.

Yesterday I asked DH if the Sunday before Christmas Eve, can we drop off gifts at relative's house. This way, for the first time ever, we don't have to scramble, play Jenga in the vehicle, and carry-in gifts plus food on Christmas Eve since everyone is working. It's always a mad dash home, we change, grab and go. DH said smart.

 

[barkley]

we still hang on to the old school tradition of new pj's to open up on Christmas Eve (thank goodness for my oldest they make Bluey in adult sizes ). once the kids were old enough we established a 'do not disturb until' time for Christmas morning and they were reminded that mom/dad are much more easily awoken to the smell of fresh coffee (so we would preset the pot the night before and they just had to push the button). Christmas stockings can be attacked while mom and dad's coffee is brewing.

 

[PollyannaMom]

they were reminded that mom/dad are much more easily awoken to the smell of fresh coffee (so we would preset the pot the night before and they just had to push the button). Christmas stockings can be attacked while mom and dad's coffee is brewing.

Awww... my brother and I used to do that too! Thanks for the bit of nostalgia

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

We go to the movies on Christmas Day.

 

[E&Cmom]

We go to the movies on Christmas Day.

We go on Christmas Eve.

 

[dreamer17555]

As my kids are older we have changed our yearly ornament making into making really (really) messed up ornaments. We get one of those foam sticky craft kits that are supposed to make say 6 reindeer ornaments, except now the goal is to use the same parts and make it different (example last year ones of those reindeer now looks like a bird carrying an egg). Yes it makes no sense, yes we roll with it. This year's kit is Christmas themed dinos so I'm excited to see what everyone ends up making.

Same for Xmas cookies. We make so many 'Mom-Approved, traditional cookies' and then it just goes off the rails. My favorite cookie last year was my daughter's Cthulhu one.

Basically I let them be their naturally silly, creative, wonderful selves without worrying anymore about what people will think if my son decides his gingerbread house should be covered in candy eyeballs. We laugh more, I worry less about what others think, and we are all happier.

 

[texaslover]

We have started doing some sort of "tasting" on Xmas Eve, For years we have had apps on Xmas Eve but for the last 3 years I've brought a type of food or beverage in addition to the apps and we tasted and ranked them. We've done chips, candy, and cheeses for food. Last year was the best bc I brought 14 beers and we all took sips and ranked them. My nephew who was 15 at the time did the swish and spit technique and had us in stitches with his reactions. Will probably go back to food this year as to not totally corrupt the now 16 year old . Maybe dips or crackers.

 

[Mrs.Reese]

We decorate cookies. Now, unfortunately, due to Uncle Greg's inappropriate influence, all gingerbread cookies have appropriate male anatomic structures.

 

[AlohaNow]

A newer holiday tradition in our house is a lottery scratcher advent wreath. I made the first one three years ago and it was a big hit. Everyone gets an even number of turns in the 24 days. We haven’t won big, but have come out ahead most years! This year there won’t be much under the tree because we are going to Hawaii in January. Since we are ‘experience’ people and not ‘stuff’ people, I was trying to come up with something fun to do on Christmas. I’ve put together a treasure hunt with clues leading to various places, some in the house and some that they’ll need to drive to for the next clue. They have to gather numbers along the way that will provide the combination to open a cryptix that will contain the prize. The clues are all written in rhyme and contain some family in-jokes. I have had an absolute blast putting this together and I cannot wait for my adult sons to experience it!

 

[KPeterso]

We had a couple bad Christmases in 2016 and 2017, so in 2018, I said we would start a new tradition. Just the 3 of us (my parents and myself) and we would go to Benihana on Christmas for dinner. And it has been a lot of fun and no cooking! Only exception was 2020 when we got the Benihana as take out since the restaurant was still closed for Covid. Our reservation is already made for this year.

 

[Eeyore daily]

My husband's father is from England and since he's passed, I've tried to incorporate more British holiday items like Yorkshire pudding or crackers.

 

[soccerdad72]

A few years back, a group of our neighbors decided to start a new holiday tradition and do a progressive dinner. This year will be our fourth or fifth year, I think (we also do it occasionally for 4th of July as well). Three or four houses host different courses and we spend an hour or so at each house.

My neighbor across the street also just started a new tradition last year - a bourbon advent calendar. There's 10-12 of us that go in together and everyone buys a couple different bottles, then we get together the Saturday after Thanksgiving and assemble it. 24 2oz. bottles for everyone.

 

[CdnCarrie]

No not really. We both have several siblings with nieces and nephews. And our aging parents. Christmas still revolves around all of them plus our own kids.

 

[Boopuff]

When we moved to a new state, didn't know anyone other than our family. Our adult children had a few friends with nowhere to go. So we started including anyone without family to come over. Makes for a fun Thanksgiving as the invite list changes year to year. Of course we love the company, but I"m always happy to hear that our young friends get to go home to their families.