I love to hear about different people’s holiday traditions, especially at Christmas time. Some traditions are pretty basic, like putting up the Christmas tree, but I love to learn about other cultures and even just other families’ celebrations.
I’d never heard of king cake until we lived in Texas. I didn’t know people could buy their own portable snow blowers and engine block heaters until we lived in Minnesota (and snow is almost always a part of the holiday season there!).
I’m sure most of you would be surprised to hear that one year my family put the litter box under the tree. It wasn’t a tradition we WANTED to keep… but the cat kept leaving “presents” beneath the tree and it was easier to clean up that way!
What I really find fascinating is how people might celebrate the holiday season in outer space. If you were stranded on an ice planet… I suppose you’d probably be pretty sick of White Christmas. Aliens might think it’s strange to put a live tree in your living room and hang lights on it. Or maybe not. Maybe they live IN the tree and always have lights hung…
The “what ifs” send my writer brain buzzing. So tell me, what wonderfully bizarre holiday traditions can you think of — or just tell me about one of your traditions. Commenters will be entered to win a $20 gift certificate to their choice of online book retailer (B&N, Amazon, Samhain, Carina, etc.)
Lots of prizes are available – find the other sites here!
My holiday tradition is to spend more time with my family & friends. With day to day living we usually don’t have time for each other, so we make time during the holidays. Thanks for the giveaway. Merry Christmas to you & yours. leann
leamei1981@yahoo.com
For me, the biggest thing is visiting friends and family. I live in the Netherlands, but my family’s in California and most of my friends are in London. My husband and I always spend Christmas with one of our families, so I love the opportunity to spend time catching up on what they’ve been doing.
Thanks for the giveaway!
Hi Joely, oh my goodness…the litter box under the tree! Holy moly. Well, I did used to have to tether my tree to the wall after my cats rode it down onto my sleeping uncle on our couch one year. My favorite family tradition however isn’t too strange. My hubby’s family make tamales every year. Everyone has their own job, like cook, stuffer, folder…and then there’s my job…tie-er. If you’ve had a tamale in the style where the ends are tied together with a thin piece of corn husk, that’s my part! I’m hoping to someday be promoted to stuffer because I want to be the one to hide the olive inside. Anywho, Happy Holidays! Happy Hopping everyone!
One of my favorite traditions is reading a beautiful Advent book that has a door you open each of the 25 days till christmas, and it contains the story of Jesus’ birth. Another tradition I enjoy is making boiled custard with my family every year.
Have a Merry Christmas and keep writing your fabulous books! 😛
One of my favorite tradition is going out to a tree farm and picking out our own Christmas tree.
usignolc(at)yahooDOTcom
Nothing crazy here, really– we put up the tree, watch Christmas movies, eat dinner with the family… Nothing insane, and, hey– THAT’S what makes it crazy! The non-craziness! We’re usually going crazy everywhere! 😉
Happy Holidays, everyone 🙂
I use to watch “White Christmas” with my mom. She has passed now but I will not give up the Tradition. I will still be like we are there together I just have to eat the popcorn for two.
Judy Peterson,
strawberryrose@earthlink.net
I live in Australia so our holiday tradition is to cook the turkey on the BBQ so the house doesn’t get to hot to eat dinner in.
Writing Christmas cards to family and friends while watching Christmas movies.
Merry Christmas!
We have 5 children and every year on christmas eve we will either go to chuckie cheese or to the movies! the kids love it no matter which one they choose there is almost no one their and it’s like we have the place to ourselves:)
ajcraig77@comcast.net
I don’t know of any weird ones and the only ones we have in my family are the normal ones. Decorating, getting together, and exchanging gifts 🙂
Thanks for the awesome giveaway!
cassandrahicks1989@yahoo.com
Bwahahahaha @ the cat’s presents. We put the “cat bait” ornaments at the bottom of the tree..(by cat bait, I mean ornaments that can take a beating when they’re yanked off the tree by our 2 intrepid kitties)
Every Christmas Eve, we cram together in a small house with 15-20 people and have an excellent meal. We also have crazed animals running around begging for scraps and kids of all ages making furtive attempts to see what they have under the christmas tree. We go for a walk around the neighborhood to look at the christmas decorations and then end the night by playing music and opening gifts.
Thanks for the generous giveaway! 😀
Christmas dinner with my family is my favorite holiday tradition.
Thanks for the giveaway!
by.evie at yahoo dot com dot br
Our family “tradition” of having a fake tree began after the infamous Tree Snake Incident of 1972. We were visiting my parents at Thanksgiving and would not be back for Christmas so they decided to decorate early for their only grandchild. Evidently when Daddy brought the tree in from the cold and into the warmth of the living room a snake that had been hibernating in the tree woke up and made its presence known. I heard my daughter scream TREE SNAKE and went running. Not ordinarily brave I got the snake with the broom and flung it out the front door. My child would not calm down until that evil tree was gone. It was replaced with a fake one that very day and thus is born a great family story and tradition.
Happy Happy Holidays! Thanks for the great giveaway!
My fav thing about the holidays are the awesome sparkly lights! We drive around on Christmas Eve and see them all while singing along with carols on the radio! My fav holiday memory is doing this with my grandpa!
grapeapril75(AT)gmail.com
Ha! Better than litter box, but the year my youngest (now 13) was a month old his ‘crib'(one of those portable carriers) was pushed to one side of the dresser so the Christmas tree could be squeezed into our studio apartment.
Hard times have been a close, if unwanted, friend to me and my 3 kids over the years, but this year has been a blessing in the fact that I am now renting to own our own home!! No more mini spaces and roommates! ‘Santa’ is only going to ‘peek’ in on the 25th(stockings maybe) and make a bigger return after tax returns this year, but thankfully they are teens now and more understanding.
Can’t think of anything bizarre , we just have ordinary Christmas’s for the exception when our cat decided she didn’t like presents under the tree it was her spot and moved them .
vampiremistress2010(at)gmail(dot)com
we don’t do anything bizarre for Christmas, but do enjoy our town’s Christmas Eve Carole sing around the green.
sallans d at yahoo dot com
My family doesn’t have any unusual traditions, just the normal tradition of spending time with family.
I don’t think I have any crazy holiday traditions. I do a tradition with my daughter every year. I call it The 12 Days of Christmas Grab Bag. I fill a Santa Bag with little novelty presents and she gets to grab one a day till Christmas Eve. We both have a ball with this.
koonie2888 at yahoo dot com
We don’t really have any traditions except baking a lot. I’m mean hundreds and hundreds of cookies, cheesecakes, and brownies.
planterofhope at aol dot com
I really don’t have any Christmas traditions.Happy Holidays.
dragonkeep62(at)gmail(dot)com
No crazy traditions that I can think of. We always do presents on Christmas Eve now that there aren’t any small children in the family, but I don’t think that’s too odd.
JYL22075 at gmail dot com
My family has a feast (usually a lot of desserts) after midnight mass.
bituin76 at hotmail dot com
My absolute favorite Christmas tradition actually happens the day after Thanksgiving. We get the tree out and decorate it and the house. Once this is done, we gather around and watch White Christmas. And depending on how much holiday cheer we have had, we will sing and dance along with the movie. It is great fun, year after year.
Merry Christmas and thanks for the blog stop.
Bookworm (dot) judy (at) gmail (dot) com
Our crazy tradition is to have 12 dishes on the table on Christmas Eve. It’s not mandatory to eat them all, but at least taste each.
spamscape [at] gmail [dot] com
We do Santa Jammies… You get a new set of pj’s every christmas eve which you open… Someone else buys them for you so you don’t know what they look like… They are so Santa can find you and knows that your sleeping… I buy hubby and boys… Hubby and Boys by mine. Grandma did this for her kids… Mom did it for us kids… I do it for my family.
j.m.platt83@gmail.com
nothing bizarre here, but my fav tradition is the big holiday dinner, look forward to it ever year!
Hello, thanks for the giveaway!
I love spending time with my family during the holidays. 🙂
skizzles_22_hju@yahoo.com
We always decorate the tree together.
Happy holidays!
bn100candg(at)hotmail(dot)com
A new tradition could be to track Santa Claus in his Space Shuttle, being pulled by reindeer with space suits and jet packs.
One tradition is the stockings I do every year even if we use our socks because we’re moving(military).
z
seawitchreviews at yahoo dot com
Our tradition was to go to our cousin’s home for Christmas Eve after church. I thought it was cool as they were all older than me. They had a big home on the lake with a fireplace. There was lots of food. An older cousin would play piano or guitar and we sang carols. When I was a bit older I got to play the piano for some songs also. There was a gift for each of us kids. We stayed until about midnight. I wonder if it made the kids sleep in later in the morning or was just a burn the candle on both ends event all around.
Our tradition is Christmas Eve dinner, games and then we open presents.
I build a Lego Christmas Village every year. It’s my favorite thing every year.
smurfettev AT gmail DOT com
What an awesome hop!! And a fantastic giveaway! Thank you!! We dont do gifts anymore. Some of our extended family ruined the holidays and caused too much fighting. Now, we make dinner, grab a bunch of snacks, we watch movies, tell stories, play games, listen to music and tell family stories. I love how we celebrate! 🙂 Happy holidays to you all! Best wishes and many blessings!
shadowluvs2read(at)gmail(dot)com
hanging your stockings next to the fireplace and having treats puting them dosnt sound bad but in olden days they used the stockings they wore i would not want to eat any candy that was in my socks
kaholgate at ymail dot com
I love the white elephant gift exchanges. I love seeing the priceless treasures people end up with. My family lovingly calls these gift exchanges Christmas crap, but I do love them!
Thanks for the giveaway!
joderjo402 AT gmail DOT com
I don’t have any unusual holiday traditions. We do like to listen to holiday music and decorate the house. 😉
I also love to bake cookies!
I hope you and your family have a wonderful holiday season!
Thank you for the fabulous giveaway.
trb0917 at gmail.com
Using the pick giveaway plugin….
Diane Sallans, you’re the winner!
Thank you to everyone who entered – happy holidays!