The Holidays are approaching and I simply love the various holiday traditions found throughout the world.
What do you love most about the holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.)? What are some of your family traditions?... Cultural traditions? … Religious Traditions?
What do you love most about the holidays (Christmas, Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, etc.)? What are some of your family traditions?... Cultural traditions? … Religious Traditions?
5 comments:
Thanks for adding in a summer Christmas picture Emily, reminds me of home, Toby and I will have to try Santa Surfing one year, wink. It's funny how snow is depicted as being a Christmas thing hence Snowmen, I would say most people want to experience one white Christmas in their lifetime.
I see Christmas as family time we get to think of other people instead of ourselves, be of good cheer, eat lots of nice food, and sit and enjoy our loved ones.
Lets see some traditions:
* A nice hot Christmas Eve Dinner all fancy and decked out
* Sleep over so everyone wakes up under the same roof, and if they aren't awake then we wake them. First one up wakes the rest.
* Each year we have an assigned Santa that wears the Santa hat and passes the presents out one at a time.
* Getting to watch everyone open their gifts
* Breakfast comes after the gift opening!!!!!
* A nice big breakie, eggs and bacon and sausage whatever else makes the cut for that year.
* A big Christmas lunch usually cold meats, salads etc....
* The afternoon is spent playing with the new gifts and possibly watching a Christmas movie.
* One year we had a music sound off, everyone got an instrument and we had two teams, it was great to see my brothers get right into it, singing and playing etc....
* Boxing Day the day after Christmas is normally spent going to my grandparents or now Aunts or Uncles and all the extended family getting together for a big shindig to catch up with everyones year etc.... it's normally a good day to sport ones new clothes!
* Swimming normally comes in somewhere in there, since it's normally a scorcher over Christmas in Australia.
* I did enjoy ATVing (4 wheeling)last year in the snow with you Emily and having a family snow fight.
It's late and that's what comes to mind at this moment.
Have a Merry Christmas Everyone.
Christmas Morning we always have waffles with ice cream and wet strawberries on top, we decorate a Christmas tree the first Saturday after Thanksgiving, we have an elegant dinner Christmas Eve.
Those are all fun traditions!
I remember a few years my parents tried to have us sit though the Christmas story in Luke... BEFORE opening our Christmas presents. And one Christmas we had to go to 3 hours of church before we could open presents (because Christmas fell on a Sunday that year.) That was a killer, especially since I was only 9 or 10 at the time.
One of the things I love best about Christmas is all the Christmas lights. I love how the lights glow all through the house in the evening. I love going sledding or skiing and then coming home all wet and cold to a cup of hot chocolate!
Growing up, we often traveled off to see family - one set of the grandparents or the other, or wherever we were all gathering that year. After we moved across the continent, though (from the SW to the SE), the traveling turned into phone calls and we started developing our own traditions! A few that I can think of off the top of my mind were:
- we got to each choose a present to open Christmas Eve
- Midnight service, especially in our church in Georgia, where we would light candles during the last hymn and light the way out into the world :)
-Like Sharole, someone got the Santa hat and got the role to go with it!
-Big Christmas feast!!
-In my husband's family, Christmas feast means Tamales!!!
-A recent tradition - instead of gift giving, donation giving (to an org of the givers choosing)
-Watching A White Christmas while decorating the tree (with my mom)
-Taking down the tree on Three Kings Day, Jan. 6th
-Always fresh mistletoe!
-My father always liked(s) to give me a gag gift, usually some sort of body spray from the dollar store :P
-Stalkings are always checked out first, then presents!
I'm sure there are more that I'll think of, but those are just some of the things.
This year will be spent picking up new traditions in Maramures, one of the most celebrated traditional areas in Romania. I'm looking forward to developing our own traditions throughout the years (we've only been married 2 years, both of which have been in RO!).
Craciun fericit si sarbatori fericit! La multi ani!!
From my heart, I wish all women around the world Happy Holidays and a Happy New Year!
The Holidays represent the best time of the year! A time when we need to try to become better and more forgiving.
13 decembrie 2008 05:45
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