Christmas Traditions

Everyone has some sort of normal unique Christmas traditions.

For my family the best part of Christmas is the getting ready for Christmas...I bake. ALOT!

Gingerbread house parties that create gingerbread subdivisions...
Cookies and homemade truffles everywhere...
Of course the requisite tree covered in ornaments from the family reliquary.

Leaving Santa a plate of cookies and milk....but it might get replaced with leaving a pair of shoes, some cigarettes and a Twinkie for John McClain.

Anybody else have special traditions for Christmas?

well now for me its working late night in retail to be able to afford Christmas. lol

I'd bake too when i can...

Noche buena is a local tradition that my family hasnt been practicing much now... but we can drop my mom's place if we want to stay awake amidst firecrackers (now less than years before) before Christmas eve=). I'm happy enough with singing carols with my siblings.. but my children's generation, again, have different ideas and songs they sing these days!

Here's a story i quickly chose online on the noche buena of a family in Canada: https://www.readersdigest.ca/culture/noche-buena-holiday-tradition/

Some years I do not get leave around Christmas so I spend it alone or with a few friends (which I have been used to, since college). I watch a religious movie, even Easter-related, during these times (typically the The King of Kings).

Just a tad shocked....
I have a difficult time remembering the various presents I got from Christmas past...but ask about hunting down a tree to kill and I'm all there...ask about Christmas baking adventures and bingo...ask about Christmas choir specials...smile. all the decorating, singing Carol's, hay rides, snow, travels, baking, and various parties and I have a rich feeling from those....its not Christmas day itself...the opening of presents but all the stuff we did to get ready for the day. 35 years ago I remember my first dirty Santa/white elephant party....can't remember what I got but just remember the party itself.

I thought that maybe others would see that Christmas starts with me giving of myself for others...not so much with money but with time and memory making...

i was joking about the being able to afford christmas...but really, most people can not afford it. Parties are actually expensive. Organising gifts for everyone is expensive. Getting time off work means often you dont get paid. Baking is something you dont really want to in the height of summer. And hearing about people enjoy snow when it NEVER snows where I am also is weird. Hate killing trees too.

I do door to door carols every year (maybe not this year thanks to covid) and meet with extended family and eat but thats about it. lol

In winter in nz we are going to all have a public holiday in June called Matariki which is a better time of year to do celebrations, observe stars, bring in the new year etc.

There isnt any gift giving involved, it mostly involves having shared breakfasts, flying kites, honoring those whove past on, and telling stories.

I like the telling stories part.
Although round christimas I also like hearing Bible stories and the nativity. That never gets old.

i think most people are exhausted round christmas cos its end of year and they only get a day or two off to do anything. Many people work right up to Christmas eve and when its christmas day they are just way too tired to do anything.

I bake Christmas cookies and make candies. My son and I watch Christmas specials . We used to get together with family.But many has passed away or moved away.

Well for the Southern hemisphere things should be different...you don't have huge pine forests that you are trying to beat back from taking over. And loads of baking in the summer heat? Another "nada".

But the tradition of exchanging gifts stems from Boxing Day where gifts are given after Christmas....Otherwise known as St. Stephan's day...(the first Martyr) I happen to love his story...it really speaks to me.

But it isn't just about the presents...its about celebrating. It doesn't cost much to sing songs and the decorations are from years previous...slowly acquired over the decades...each telling a story about Christmas past.

If you think about churches you have been to in the past...not one sermon will come to mind but the relationships you have had will rise to the top every time...and that's for a reason...God made you this way!

The fellowship is the objective. And celebrating together, each in their unique ways, of what God has done for us is the best of the best stuff.

Time for some new people to be added to the cookie and candy list...I've adopted families with small children just to get them their own custom gingerbread house I bake... "Mr. John" is also known as the gingerbread man...or that candy man by some kids...creating Christmas magic and memories for the next generation...because somebody needs to and many people either dont know how or dont want the bother....but I do. It's up to each of us to not pass on just the stories but the magic and memories of good.

I love watching classic Christmas movies. My favorite version is A Christmas Carol (Scrooge) starring Alastair Sim. I lost count over the years how many times I've seen it.

I dont have many 'christmas' decorations this year, I think the ones we used from last year disappeared when room next to the library got cleaned out, and the kids werent allowed in the library cos of covid restrictions so I didnt have my decorators. (when kids decorate, they just tinselled EVERYTHING)

I just have a nativity that I had up year round but I have added some more scenes to it, taken from this years bible calendar. I found baby Jesus had fallen in the crack in the sofa so rescued him and put him back in the manger.

I am missing one of the wise men though.

some teachers did borrow christmas stories I have a box set aside for them and they could read them aloud before school finished.

in other schools when they do Bible in schools program its the year 6s that all get given a copy of the new testament to read and keep at the end of year.
My school I work in doesnt have it but I organise a summer reading for my book lovers. They all get given a summer reading pack they can do over the break, including free books.

In the UK the tradtion for elementary/primary schools is to have a christmas panto or nativity play.
The panto might be 'a christmas carol' taken from the Charles Dickens story, or a mash up nativity scene.

They dont really do that in nz schools I dont remember ever doing it. We did sing carols though, but in high school I dont remember them doing anything to acknowledge the holiday, I guess it depends on the school..? .

We have a few traditions. I start making candy the weekend after Thanksgiving, then I ship it all over the country to friends and family, and I make plates for all my neighbors, the postman, the people working at the nut and bolt place (they put up with my impatience all year) and local friends, and I make a giant plate of candy for Christmas eve. We get together with my late husband's family on Christmas Eve, then on Christmas morning we open gifts while drinking hot cocoa, I make eggnog french toast from the leftover eggnog from CHristmas Eve, and then we cook a ham and fixin's.

Starting Dec 1st I have my stereo on low playing of course Christmas carols, on a Christian station. I have 3 favorites this year 'I Need A Silent Night' Amy Grant/'Jesus Born on This Day' Mariah Carey/ 'Jesus The Light of the World' Lauren Daigle.
Then I start my ritual also of watching favorite Christmas movies a couple being 'A Christmas Visitor' and 'Cinderella Christmas'.
It is definitely 'The Most Wonderful Time of the Year'✨🙌✨

rereading http://www.sailthouforth.com/2009/12/christmas-memory.html

we always bake a LOT, it's always such a mess but lots of good memories. And every Christmas we watch "Home Alone" 1 and 2, and on Christmas eve we unwrap 1 gift (with lots of chocolate) after we recite (by memory) Luke 2:1-20, and on boxing day we do a Chinese Christmas with family. And we deep fry the turkey, makes it nice and juicy.

What kind of candy do you make?

Pulled sugar or taffy?
Or maybe some sort of chocolates?

Or maybe something akin to rum or bourbon balls?

Inquiring minds want to know.

Usually I make a raspberry jam star bread...(using seedless raspberry jam)

But I usually drizzle some white frosting on it....

Then there's the cookies...
Gingerbread houses....

But for Christmas eve dinner we eat charcuterie board and cheeses and cookies and candies and cocoa. It's the stuff that dreams are made of LOL.... because after eating that stuff the indigestion will cause vivid dreams.