Family traditions

[Beth]

What kind of family traditions still bring back fond memories or which ones do you still keep? Have you incorporated any new traditions into your adult life?

One tradition that we have is to make a ham, corn bread, and blackeye peas or hoppin' John on New year. Even as a non-pork eater, I break my rules and keep tradition. We really did not know why we did this but it was passed down through the generations. I later found it was superstition to bring in prosperity and good luck into the New Year.

Another tradition I do is make a traditional Irish meal of corned beef, boiled veggies and Irish soda bread on St. Patty's Day. That is a tradition I incorporated into my family after I married since we were both Irish in ancestory and I wanted to bring back some of our culture. When I make this meal, I explain to my kids why and I talk to them about the legends and lore from the Emerald Isle.

[LadyShea]

I do make corned beef and cabbage on St. Patrick's Day, though neither of us is Irish. This is something we started when we got our first apartment together.

As per my dad's family, we play Cadillac at all family gatherings with that side of the family.

My husband's paternal grandparents both came here from Russia, but they were Germans (interesting history about the Germans living in Russia BTW). Anyway, those German communities in Russia had their own foods, their own dialect, and their own traditions...things that are neither German nor Russian from my research...and no longer exist. Though I hate butterball soup (basically balls made from bread crumbs and butter in a chicken noodle soup), it is a traditional holiday/birthday meal for them, so I learned to make it and have made it for Thanksgiving and Christmas. I also have the recipe for Couga (cherry coffee cake type stuff). The only lady alive who still knows how to make Vrenicks (sort of a pierogi and apparently my hubby's fave food) is 90+ years old, not too sharp, and can't give us the recipe in any useful form (she says "put a little...", "add 'some'"). I think it's sad that this culture no longer exists, and if we don't keep at least some of their traditions alive, it will just vanish.

Another tradition from my husband's mothers family is cold cucumber soup on Sundays in the summer. My family also had a "summer dinner" of fresh melon, tuna salad, and crackers. I have simply combined these two traditions.

We can no longer do the gathering part, but hubby's family traditionally gathers and roast Pinon Nuts in the Fall. Since we have no pinon pines hereabouts, hubby suffices with having them shipped to us.

My family has always done a big 4th of July where we would go to the parade and the the park all day, then watch the big fireworks at night. The first year we were together was the first time my husband had ever been at such a gathering or seen such a large display....his family apparently stayed home and did fireworks in the street. He absolutley loved it and now we try to find the best display with entertainment and food that we can.

As per my family, we open one present each on Christmas Eve. We never bought contumes for Halloween, they were always made at home...something which I have continued.

Hmm, hubby's family also makes popcorn balls whenever the mood strikes them. All their traditions have to do with food.

[Dingfod]

Aye, we 'ave traditions as well.

Openin' o' the gifts from me family on Xmas Eve. This one came about because my dad's sourpuss mom insisted we do Xmas morning and Xmas dinner at their farm and my mom's mom didn't care because she wasn't particularly religious (I wish I had been able to talk to her about what she really believed, I loved and respected her so.) so we celebrated the exchange of gifts on Xmas Eve instead. Fun for the kiddies.

Mixed tamales and corn at Thanksgiving. This one came be a tradition in tribute to my mother's only sibling, Uncle Bob, who used to take a can of tamales and a can of corn on his Boy Scout campouts, mixing them together in one pot, making all the other Boy Scouts jealous as they washed down their bologna sandwiches with canteen water.

Trimming the Xmas tree the Sunday after Thanksgiving. With few exceptions, like two years ago when the only Xmas display we put on was some red lights on the basket of eucalyptus branches, we have put up the artificial tree (some occupants of my house have allergies to real ones), I would wrap the lights around it, including my favorite, the bubble lights, my girls stringing popcorn while waiting, then all together adorning the tree with decorations, remembering what each one of them meant to us.

The little ceramic Santa cup on the mantle was an ornament that I got when I was little, from a grand opening of a gas station. My daughter Roxy dug it out two years ago, the time we only had the lit up eucalyptus basket, saying that it just wasn't Xmas without the little Santa cup. A tradition continues.

Blackeyed Peas on New Year's. I know it's supposed to be a superstition, but for us it's just tradition, we do it because we've always done it. Would it be a disaster if we didn't? Not hardly, we've skipped it before because I work shift work. Wait, maybe that's what went wrong. Ahhh, post hoc reasoning.

[wildernesse]

My family always did the ham, greens and peas on New Year's. Also, you can't wash on New Years--which somehow only applies to clothes. I'm pretty sure RA thinks I'm silly, but he likes ham, greens, and peas almost any day, so not a lot of complaints. (He just doesn't like me skipping around the house saying things like "You can't wash today, or you'll wash your family away!" I am such a hoodlum.)

When I was little, my mother made divinity and fudge during Christmas every year. Then we had a bunch of years when the humidity was out of control so the divinity didn't make, and so she hasn't done that in a while. But I like remembering the kitchen on cold days, with the promise of special sweets on the way.

[Beth]

When I was little, my mother made divinity and fudge during Christmas every year. Then we had a bunch of years when the humidity was out of control so the divinity didn't make, and so she hasn't done that in a while. But I like remembering the kitchen on cold days, with the promise of special sweets on the way.Honestly, I like it better when it doesn't take. I think it tastes better kinda gooey. But yeah, my family gets a different type of divinity every year. I make it for the moms every Christmas and for every Mother's Day. Except for either last year or the year before, I cannot remember which, anyway, we had a hundred years flood, my divinity sets hard in the winter and it is always soft in the Spring.

[Beth]

Another tradition that we have is to attend the Strawberry Festival Grand Parade (http://www.flstrawberryfestival.com/news.asp) every March and then buy a flat of berries and make tons of strawberry shortcake. This started when I was a child. My mother would give us a sick excuse to play hookey, but on this side of the county, the kids get the day off.

[seebs]

Well, my wife and I have acquired the habit of knocking on the roof of the car when going through a yellow light.

Our Bertrand Russell parties are certainly some kind of tradition, albeit a fairly new one.

My extended family on her side has a policy, not exactly a tradition, of militant inclusiveness. It's not that they do something at particular times; it's just that anyone who might be family is, and stays that way even if the original reason (say, marrying into the family) goes away.

In my immediate family, the word "ping" merits an "ack" response. This is partially geek humor, partially a reasonable response to a three-story house.

[livius drusus]

Openin' o' the gifts from me family on Xmas Eve.

We do this one too, but I think the reason may be how incredibly annoying my greedy little spoiled ass could be back in the day. Also, my mom just loves spending the evening around the lit tree, so I suspect that might have been a factor as well. It's just not the same in the morning.

We also have a New Year's Day pork-n-beans combo, but it's a fucking weird Italian pork product called Cotechino (http://www.italianmade.com/foods/subcat18025.cfm) with mostarda (http://italianfood.about.com/od/saucescondiments/r/blr0834.htm) and lentils on the side. The more lentils you eat the more money you'll make in the upcoming year.

[Dingfod]

Openin' o' the gifts from me family on Xmas Eve.

We do this one too, but I think the reason may be how incredibly annoying my greedy little spoiled ass could be back in the day. Also, my mom just loves spending the evening around the lit tree, so I suspect that might have been a factor as well. It's just not the same in the morning.Xmas eve, everyone in the household is in a festive mood, the children anticipating all the loot and candy they'll receive, adults getting a little giddy on the "real" eggnog, is a great time to go ahead and exchange gifts. Better than that 5:00 AM Xmas morning bedhead, sleepers in your eyes, in your jammies, robes and slippers, can't quite focus our eyes until we've had our caffeine because we had too much "real" eggnog last night stuff.

[Beth]

Openin' o' the gifts from me family on Xmas Eve.

We do this one too, but I think the reason may be how incredibly annoying my greedy little spoiled ass could be back in the day. Also, my mom just loves spending the evening around the lit tree, so I suspect that might have been a factor as well. It's just not the same in the morning.Xmas eve, everyone in the household is in a festive mood, the children anticipating all the loot and candy they'll receive, adults getting a little giddy on the "real" eggnog, is a great time to go ahead and exchange gifts. Better than that 5:00 AM Xmas morning bedhead, sleepers in your eyes, in your jammies, robes and slippers, can't quite focus our eyes until we've had our caffeine because we had too much "real" eggnog last night stuff.
Well, I won't squelch your tradition, but there seems to be something magical and special in the anticipation of those gifts. Waking in the morning, trying to get mom and dad up only to realize that you got them up at four, rather than six and you must wait two whole hours. Just sitting there, staring at the tree, touching the gifts and shaking them to try to guess. To me, the anticipation and the fogginess from sleep help add to the climax of the morning.

Oh, plus the Christmas dreams of Santa coming. Even when I was a teen, I still dreamed those special Christmas Eve dreams.

Plus, on Xmas Eve, Mommy and Daddy are tired from giving gifts to relatives and trying to get last minute affairs in order.;)

[Godless Dave]

Since time immemorial, Christmas breakfast has included grapefruit and this bread my mom bakes with caroman that she braids so it looks like a wreath. We were only allowed to open our Christmas stockings and one gift from under the tree before breakfast. (The last few years we have skipped the gifts and just gone straight to breakfast.) After breakfast, we take turns playing "Santa" (handing out gifts, one per person), oldest to youngest. Invariable one child gets more gifts than the others, leading to speculation on who is the favorite.

The dog also gets a soft-boiled egg every Christmas.

One year Mom didn't make the cardoman bread and we were very disappointed. Somehow she got the idea we didn't like it, even though we ate all of it every year. Mom gets weird ideas sometimes. We also learned that year that she had been using the same jar of cardoman for 30 years, which was probably why it didn't have much taste anymore. Not sure if she's bought more yet.

[Godless Dave]

Well, I won't squelch your tradition, but there seems to be something magical and special in the anticipation of those gifts. Waking in the morning, trying to get mom and dad up only to realize that you got them up at four, rather than six and you must wait two whole hours. Just sitting there, staring at the tree, touching the gifts and shaking them to try to guess.

We weren't allowed to shake the gifts or even come downstairs before 6 AM. I remember one year the three of us waited at the bottom of the stairs for half an hour, staring at my Timex watch waiting for 6:00 to come.

[wildernesse]

What is this "waiting" you're all talking about on Christmas morning? There's no waiting. If it's 4 am, you still tiptoe into the living room in the dark and whisper "MAMA" at the top of your raspy little voice (notice that it's Mama and not Daddy--Daddy, who probably just got off work at midnight) And then stand there waiting, while she gets her glasses and robe and scurries in to turn the light on. Of course, at 4 am or other such insane time, you are only allowed to ooh and ahh over the bounty of gifts and then you have to take your stocking back to bed.

When the sun comes up, you can get back up and go to the living room and even Daddy will get up and sit in the rocking chair and watch you open and look at every present.

But, these "waiting" stories remind me of a kind of tradition at our house. On Saturday mornings, you were not allowed to wake my mother up before 9:30. If the phone rang and it was for her, you could not wake her up. If we wanted to ask a question, we could not wake her up. We could run around and watch tv and fix ourselves cereal or whatever--as long as we were quiet. At 9:30, the howls of Mama!, Mama?, Maaammaaa. began.

My poor parents.

[Dingfod]

Don't get me wrong, up until a couple years ago, we still did the Xmas morning bit, but as I've gotten older and slower to wake up, I can see plenty of reason to "git 'er done" in the evening before instead. If, for example, we were to end up raising my grandson, we'd probably carry that Xmas morning tradition as we always have.

Funny story: One year, our daughters begged and begged to open a present a couple weeks early. I shrugged and said I didn't care if they opened all of them before Xmas. My wife told them they could open just one present that night, then one more each night that I was off through Xmas. By Xmas morning, there wasn't anything left except for the stocking stuffers (candy, fruit, nuts, fancy pens, and small gadgets). They were so disappointed, the next year you couldn't get them to even open any presents early, not even on Xmas eve. Nope, they wanted to wait until the next morning and open them all at once.

Question: Is Xmas morning orderly, everyone taking turns or almost a madhouse with everyone simultaneously tearing into the giftwrap?

[Godless Dave]

Funny story: One year, our daughters begged and begged to open a present a couple weeks early. I shrugged and said I didn't care if they opened all of them before Xmas. My wife told them they could open just one present that night, then one more each night that I was off through Xmas. By Xmas morning, there wasn't anything left except for the stocking stuffers (candy, fruit, nuts, fancy pens, and small gadgets). They were so disappointed, the next year you couldn't get them to even open any presents early, not even on Xmas eve. Nope, they wanted to wait until the next morning and open them all at once.

Wow! Way to teach a practical lesson!

Question: Is Xmas morning orderly, everyone taking turns or almost a madhouse with everyone simultaneously tearing into the giftwrap?

In my parents home(s) we each are distributed one present at a time, which we each opened at the same time. This is followed by showing everyone else what you got and seeing what everyone else got. Further presents follow in sequence.

Since my parents separated we have had xmas with Dad on Christmas Eve and with Mom on Christmas Day. My dad later married a Jewish woman with kids, so now in December they have a huge xmas tree surrounded by Hannukah decorations. Her kids get gifts on the eight nights of Hannukah so they do not join us for the xmas eve gift opening, but one or both are often present for xmas eve dinner.

[HelenM]

We open presents on Christmas Day by the Christmas tree, once everyone is up. My children like having the presents put out gradually in the days leading up to Christmas, when they're asleep - so the first thing they do each morning is check under the tree for new presents.

They also love going to choose a Christmas tree and then bringing it home and decorating it. (Except they were being very fussy this year so it took a long time to choose one - for example, my son said "If you buy that one, I'll leave home!" We didn't believe he'd really leave home before opening his Christmas presents but we opted for a different one anyway)

We have an Advent book (http://www.adventbook.com/viewadvent.asp) they like to read through each year - it's like an advent calendar but is a book instead, with each page having a huge door on it to open. The book was produced by a couple who live locally. They came to talk to the Mothers of Preschoolers group I was in some years ago, when the book was first published. It was a very funny husband-wife talk because the husband was giving the talk, but the wife kept interrupting and correcting things he said :D

Helen

[Beth]

Well, I won't squelch your tradition, but there seems to be something magical and special in the anticipation of those gifts. Waking in the morning, trying to get mom and dad up only to realize that you got them up at four, rather than six and you must wait two whole hours. Just sitting there, staring at the tree, touching the gifts and shaking them to try to guess.

We weren't allowed to shake the gifts or even come downstairs before 6 AM. I remember one year the three of us waited at the bottom of the stairs for half an hour, staring at my Timex watch waiting for 6:00 to come.Neither were we(allowed to touch the gifts, that is), but we were stealth kids. We pretended we were spies or ninjas and the goal was to try to surmise the contents of the packages.

But it was fairly common for me to lay under the tree, staring up into the lights, so I was allowed by the tree. My mom, misguidedly, trusted me.;)

[Beth]

Question: Is Xmas morning orderly, everyone taking turns or almost a madhouse with everyone simultaneously tearing into the giftwrap?
The kids are allowed the stockings until lazybones Daddy gets out of bed, poor guy. Then Mommy must get the camera and light a fire in the fireplace, unless it is just too freaking hot, some Christmases are rather sweaty here. Then I give them each a gift, they open them one at a time so IU can take picture of each gift they open. I send these pics along with the thank you note so the giver can see the expression on the kids face and then they go onto the next. The kids must stack their gifts around them, then if the family room becomes too cramped they must take some toys to their room and gather the papers up before doing more gifts. If not, mommy starts to panic, dunno why, but honest to got, I get a phobic anxiety attack. Then we unwrap more. That way, there is no fighting at all.

Usually Mommy is the Santa, but sometimes they take turns when they feel less greedy. Not all the paper gets picked up and they toys are scattered, but it is less of a fire hazzard and Mommy has less anxiety. Daddy just lays on the couch pretending to be awake,meaning, he lays with one eye open, the other eye shut with his hand over it. He'll open gifts every now and again and say, Wow! and then he'll wake up halfway through and take pictures of Mommy in her nightgown, hair sticking up everywhere, and no make up.

[Beth]

Tonight, we begin reading about the Maccabees. Usually we light the menorrah every year, but I cannot find it this yearso, I may have them each draw one and we'll glue candles onto the picture.

[Godless Dave]

Neither were we(allowed to touch the gifts, that is), but we were stealth kids. We pretended we were spies or ninjas and the goal was to try to surmise the contents of the packages.

I remember sneaking down early to check out the gifts at least once. It was pitch dark and I tried to feel around. I felt something plastic, with a moveable piece, but couldn't guess what it was. Turned out to be a spaceship from Space:1999. It was supercool and I'm sorry I lost it.

[Godless Dave]

Tonight, we begin reading about the Maccabees. Usually we light the menorrah every year, but I cannot find it this yearso, I may have them each draw one and we'll glue candles onto the picture.

Why do you celebrate Hannukah? Do you know of other Christian families that do this? I've never heard of non-Jews lighting a mennorah before.

[Beth]

Neither were we(allowed to touch the gifts, that is), but we were stealth kids. We pretended we were spies or ninjas and the goal was to try to surmise the contents of the packages.

I remember sneaking down early to check out the gifts at least once. It was pitch dark and I tried to feel around. I felt something plastic, with a moveable piece, but couldn't guess what it was. Turned out to be a spaceship from Space:1999. It was supercool and I'm sorry I lost it.Oh how awful! My mom never had the heart to do that. Except for one time. My mom bought us gifts and hid them in our huge garage/laundry room. We called it the storage room. My brother found the gifts. He got some eighties robot thingy and I had some cool stuff that I was not too interested in looking at. Well, Chris never found that robot under the tree. He hunted the storage room for months after. He never got into his gifts again.

[Beth]

Tonight, we begin reading about the Maccabees. Usually we light the menorrah every year, but I cannot find it this yearso, I may have them each draw one and we'll glue candles onto the picture.

Why do you celebrate Hannukah? Do you know of other Christian families that do this? I've never heard of non-Jews lighting a mennorah before.Yes. Alot of them do. I was part of a Messianic group, anyway, my family also celebrated Jewish festivals.

[Godless Dave]

Oh how awful! My mom never had the heart to do that.

Oh, my mom didn't take it away, I just lost track of it while growing up.

Why do you celebrate Hannukah? Do you know of other Christian families that do this? I've never heard of non-Jews lighting a mennorah before.Yes. Alot of them do. I was part of a Messianic group, anyway, my family also celebrated Jewish festivals.


That's really interesting. I'd never heard of that practice before.

[LadyShea]

There are entire sects of Christians who observe all Jewish holidays. Messianics or Messianic Jews I think they're called. I used to work with one such person. He was quite fundamentalist.

[Godless Dave]

I had heard of Messianic Jews (magus55 on II is one), but I had thought they were all ethnically Jewish people who converted to the "Jews for Jesus" version of Christianity.

[Beth]

Some people adopt Messianic tradition. Hubby did not so much, but I did with the kids and myself. I went to church with many Messianics and attended a Messianic woman's group. The church I attended celebrated many of the festivals and the woman's group hosted large gatherings of Messianics in the Tampa Bay area it participate in the feasts.