Holiday Season Traditions
There are many ways that people spend their holiday season all over the world, whether it be that they practice the same holiday, or spend the same time practicing another holiday. My question to all of you is, how do you spend your holiday season? Whether you are of a different religion, place, region, (etc), What do you do this time of year? Do you celebrate Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, or any other celebration of this season? Do you celebrate with family? Do you have traditions for this Holiday?
14 Answers
My daughter and I celebrate Christmas/Hanukkah. We light the menorah and recite the traditional prayers for eight nights. We are not Jewish, but feel that it better connects us to the roots of our faith and keeps our focus on the purpose of the season by observing some of the Jewish traditions.
We have a tree, but not a traditional one. Because trees are so crucial to our ecosystem, instead of cutting one down, we find bare limbs that have broken off in the woods. Then we spray paint them gold or silver, secure them in a decorative container and hang simple hand painted ornaments from the branches.
For the couple weeks before and during Christmas, we hide small presents for each other around the house, sometimes in a sock drawer, a slipper, under a pillow, where ever we think someone might find them throughout their day. Then, since I usually work on Christmas Eve or Christmas Day, we plan our main gift opening accordingly. My sister and her family then joins us on a walk through the city park that puts up a tremendous light display each year.
Well, we have quite a funky family tradition I think. It's like 2 Christmas's almost; Me and my mum will have our Christmas on Christmas day, we'll get up ridiculously early and share our gifts, we doss (colloquial for laze) about for the whole day - well I will, my mum will be cooking the turkey hehe. Then we'll have our Christmas meal and chill out more.
Boxing day (the day after boxing day this year) My dad will come up and we go to my Grans, we share more gifts and I get to see my dad and brother etc. This is when most of the family meet up.
It used to be that my Gran would cook the dinner and it would be something like roast beef but since my Grandad died we go to a restaurant instead and have a meal
Then the next day I travel down to my dads for new year and spend a week or so there!
I celebrate Christmas and I must say it's probably my favorite holiday of the year! The entire house gets decorated and we usually go to my Grandparents house for Christmas, but this year they are coming to ours!! Then we'll go to a Christmas Eve Candlelight service at our church, and on Christmas day we just give each other gifts and have a good time, remembering the true meaning of Christmas as we open them.
We are actually in a tradition transition situation right now. For years, we celebrated Christmas with the grandparents, my husbands two brothers and their families. Now, sadly the grandparents are no longer with us and the nephews and one niece are marrying and starting their own traditions. The past two years have been sort of transitional, with Christmas dinner at my house, but I really do miss spending more time with the extended family.
Since my son will be getting married next summer, I would really like to initiate some new great traditions, so I will be paying attention to what everyone else is doing. The past was great, but it is time to create some new special memories!!
Feliz Navidad
I don't know when we first started it but one of our family traditions is to find time to watch a video or dvd of " A Christmas Carol " or the musical version "Scrooge" -altogether as a family a few days before Christmas Day. It means a lot to us . (We had to do this a little earlier, this year, as our eldest son has flown out to Canada to be with his girlfriend for Christmas. )
On "Reyes" we celebrate eating roscón de Reyes, some filled with cream
Children do not go to school until next year 11th of January!!!!! Holidays starting tomorrow!!!
Christmas here will be spent in the blazing sun - or trying to escape from it. We drink lot of liquids so we don't dehydrate (je je je) and our Christmas dinner now is seafood/salads/cold meats/cheese and fruit platters - not like when I was a child and my mother faithfully served a big roast meal following her parents' Engish traditions.
This year Christmas is at my place here with in the Blue Mountains. My grandsons will be here and there will be lots of fun and laughter. Hopefully the fire-bugs will be busy eating and we won't get called out to any bushfires...
For the faithful there will be Midnight Mass celebrated in the local parish churches and there will be special prayers offered to celebrate the announcement of Australia's first saint Mary Mackillop.
Other than than I wish all forum members a safe and peaceful holiday....
Annie.
My family celebrates Christmas. We used to exchange many gifts, because my mother adored Christmas and shopped all year long for presents. This made Christmas very stressful for me because I never seemed to have "enough" to give her in return. The past few years we have taken a week of vacation before Christmas in lieu of exchanging numerous gifts. This practice creates positive memories and helps us focus on the meaning of the holiday instead of on buying stuff.
Today we are going to visit relatives to go and open presents and feast. Tomorrow morning my family and I will open presents at our house in morning. Then later tomorrow we will go to my other relatives house to open more gifts and feast. Too bad that I probably won't eat much because of my throat.... 
Come on, write something about Christmas traditions in your regions or at your homes I really liked the aloshek's idea of joined celebration. Though I myself am agnostic, we celebrate Christmas as the day, when one of the greatest philosophers was born - everything that surrounds me has its roots in Christianity.
Well, we have quite a funky family tradition I think. It's like 2 Christmas's almost
Well, I don't know. There are many people who spend their holidays this way. But I bet that after spending a few days feasting, you'll be full to bursting!
Quiero compartir con vosotros los tradiciones de Navidad de Polonia. También, vos pide que contéis sobre vuestra tradición.
La fiesta que ocupa el lugar más importante en la tradición polaca es la Navidady, sobre todo, la Nochebuena. Con ese día están relacionadas la mayoría de las tradiciones, costumbres y creencias.
En la actualidad, los árboles de Navidad, tanto en la ciudad como en el campo, se adornan, sobre todo, con bolas de vidrio de color fabricadas en serie. Sin embargo, en muchas casas se pueden ver también árboles adornados con objetos hechos a mano de papel de color, trozos de paja, cascarón del huevo y oblea. Debajo el árbol hay los regalos.
La Navidad es una de las fiestas polacas más familiares. Hay que pasar este tiempo en concordancia y con tranquilidad. Desde el temprano amanecer se prepara la cena de Nochebuena. Hay que terminar todas las tareas de casa antes de la caída del sol, antes de la cena de Nochebuena, que era y es hasta ahora, el momento más importante en las celebraciones navideñas. A la cena navideña, que tradicionalmente empieza con la aparición de la primera estrella (todos los niños miran el cielo para verla), la precede una oración común y la lectura de un fragmento del Evangelio sobre el nacimiento del niño Jesús. Después, se divide una oblea (que es pan hecho solamente de agua y harina), como gesto de conciliación, amor, amistad y paz. Esto está acompañado de deseos mutuos.
La cena navideña polaca se compone sólo de comidas de vigilia. Normalmente son 12 platos, porque esa es la cantidad de meses del año, o según otra interpretación, porque esa cantidad de apóstoles se fue con Jesús Cristo. Es necesario al menos degustar, todos los platos para tener buena suerte en año nuevo. Siempre hay un plato más para un invitado inesperado.
Sobre la mesa se colocaba una serie de objetos-símbolos de la fertilidad, de la abundancia y del bienestar como el heno, la paja, el pan y las monedas para buena suerte. Comemos los platos preparados con productos del campo, del bosque y del agua, pero no comemos carne, puesto que el día de Nochebuena era obligatorio guardar la abstinencia.
El menú de Nochebuena constaba de platos hechos a base de pescado, granos de cereales, hortalizas y productos lácteos. De primer plato se toma una sopa de setas o una sopa de remolacha con ravioles platos de vigilia con col (por ejemplo, col con setas o ravioles de col y setas). De postre tomamos pastelitos, postres, sobre todo un pastel de semillas de amapola, una tarta de queso, un alajú de miel, y un postre de frutos secos con semillas de amapola dulces, galletas de jengibre, frutas, nueces y otros dulces, así como compota de ciruelas secas, peras y manzanas. A la categoría de platos más viejos en Polonia, pertenece la llamada “kutia”, que está hecha de semillas de amapola y trigo rallado con miel. Pero el plato principal es de pescado. La cocina polaca es conocida por las diferentes variedades de preparar el pescado: sopas, ensalada de arenque, pescado con salsa de crema, pescado en gelatina, horneado, frito y cocido. Un plato tradicional es carpa con una salsa gris hecha de un poco de verduras, almendras, uvas pasas, especias y vino o cerveza. A mi me encanta comer varios tipos de arenque.
Después de la cena, en muchas casas comienzan a cantar entre todos los villancicos y los niños pueden abrir sus regalos. La Nochebuena termina con la participación a medianoche en la Misa de Gallo.
Yo no voy a preparar mucha comida, porque cada año queda algo que no podemos comer. Y también, vamos a visitar nuestros familiares y tomar muchissimo ahí.
Finalmente, quiero presentaros el villancico polaco muy viejo y muy bonito, compuesto al final del décimo octavo siglo, El Dios es nacido. Podéis encontrar la transcripción inglesa aquí. Disfrutad de la canción.
Well, to start, I celebrate Christmas. I usually celebrate with the different family members. Every year for my dads side of the family, we rotate who's house it's at. And on my moms side we go to New Orleans or Baton Rouge to see the family (which I always love). However, every couple of years, on my mom's side of the family, the members from Spain come to visit. That's pretty much it for our Christmas.
Hi Sarah.
We celebrate Christmas with a tree and gifts. On Christmas day we have a large family dinner -- this years it's roast beef.
Happy holidays to you!
