Christmas traditions

[vox nihili]

What are your Christmas traditions? Do you do anything perhaps a little "odd" on Christmas that other families might not do?

[K888]

Now that everyone in my family is an adult, we have a designated nap time on Christmas Day

[sweetiepi]

I don't have such odd traditions but-
*Watching the carols on the TV with my youngest sister waving her paper candle (she insists every year)
*Watching the boxing day test and having lunch either on Boxing Day or the 27th at my grandpa's out near Belgrave (this year it's a brunch. It's a 2+ hour train trip for me and we have to be there at 10 on Boxing Day. -cries-)
*Inviting our closest family friends over for lunch Christmas day
*Playing some Jewish game I can't remember what it's called with a spinning dice thing and ending up with chocolate money at my grandma's (typically closer to New Year)

Now that everyone in my family is an adult, we have a designated nap time on Christmas Day

Will suggest this to mine on Boxing Day. Thanks for the idea fam <3

[Chelsea f.c.]

Airings of grievances... displays of strength... and an aluminium pole =)

[jazcstuart]

Our extended family has lunch togethet every year and we do a Christmas tombola. Everyone has to bring some things they don't want from home and we all buy raffle tickets. The raffle tickets are drawn until there are no more items left, and we donate the money raised to Fred Hollows Foundation, which my Grandma regularly supports. The items people bring range from kitchen wares, shoes and books which people actually want, to silly things like old school uniforms, out of date biscuits and obscure antique items. It is absolutely hilarious because everyone is excited to win at the start, but as the good prizes are taken people start to dread being called and forced to take a dodgy prize.

All round it is a fun time, and we all get a good laugh out of it, plus we raise some money for a charity and get rid of some old stuff (even if we then have to get other people's stuff instead). So yeah that is my family's quirky Christmas tradition 

[angewina_naguen]

On Christmas Eve, my family drives to this house in a suburb I can never remember pumping Buble's Christmas album to see their lights display. We get through the whole discography to and from the place  My sister and I also binge watch all our childhood Christmas movies which gets us into the festive mood  I'm spending the Christmas this year at my partner's house so I'm excited to see what traditions they have 

[Aaron]

(In the lead up) Avoiding supermarkets and shopping centres, primarily due to the horrendous christmas songs but also the high volume of people. Thank god for online shopping.

In terms of christmas day - I have a small family so it usually involves a day-long gathering. Still involves those dorky christmas hats, lame jokes on paper and cheap toys that you get in the bon bons. I used to go down to the surf coast for a week (inc. new years) when one of my family members lived down there. Sold up, so no more holiday.

[aspiringantelope]

Have a tradition Christmas dinner

[PhoenixxFire]

(In the lead up) Avoiding supermarkets and shopping centres, primarily due to the horrendous christmas songs

My family used to have a lot of Christmas traditions but they’ve all sort of disappeared as we’ve gotten older (oldest sibling is 21, youngest is 13). We haven’t even gotten a photo with Santa this year which is something we’ve done since my (oldest) sister was a baby.

One thing we still do is make a list of all our favourite foods and that’s what we eat on Christmas Day. It normally ends up being a really weird bunch of food. Breakfast this year is waffles (with ice cream of course), hash browns, and croissants.

It’s just immediate family on Christmas Day, we always have to go over and see dad at some point, but otherwise we just muck around at home and eat way too much food.

[kauac]

On Christmas Eve, after church, we go with a bunch of people walking around the streets of our neighbourhood looking at Christmas lights. It is usually a pretty popular event for our area, since there is a Santa parade and lollies involved. 

Another inevitable (but nice) tradition: my Dad's birthday is actually on Christmas Day, so we give him his presents and celebrate before starting anything Christmas-related.

[katie,rinos]

- My band does heaps of Christmas events so around Christmas we do Santa marches (marching Santa into shopping centres), and different school carols. They are normally pretty fun except we start practicing early November and I'm sick of Christmas songs by December.

- Each year, we go to see the Christmas lights. Theres a street in our area where most of the houses are all lit up!

- We've had Santa photos every year except this year (with my siblings, and my cousins).

[Erutepa]

(In the lead up) Avoiding supermarkets and shopping centres, primarily due to the horrendous christmas songs but also the high volume of people. Thank god for online shopping.

In terms of christmas day - I have a small family so it usually involves a day-long gathering. Still involves those dorky christmas hats, lame jokes on paper and cheap toys that you get in the bon bons. I used to go down to the surf coast for a week (inc. new years) when one of my family members lived down there. Sold up, so no more holiday.

Pretty good description of my Christmas as well, only my family member still has the house up the surf coast. Holiday for me. 
Also, I too share your despise of shopping centers and owe my sanity to online shopping.