Christmas traditions

Whatz your Christmas traditions?

After I got a divorce in order to enjoy as much time as I could with my children, I got set visitation for Christmas Eve so we could always do dinner and gifts for the day as a family. Now that everyone is all grown up we still continue that every year. Its changed locations and added some fun too.

My daughter hosts every year and as she is the only one with kids so far it works.
The day starts with brunch always chilli verde, eggs and fried potatoes. And if we can guilt someone into making homemade tortillas. This year a friend made some homemade tomales too.

Gifts are done about 1 or 2 in the afternoon then the kids can play while dinner gets finished.

Dinner is always the traditional turkey and trimming plus a rip roast and king crab legs. I'll smoke the prime rib and maybe the Turkey this year on the pellet grill. There will be 20 to 25 people with all the kids and her inlaws. Its a great time.

And one new tradition at least for the last 4 years is my daughter will have to go farrow at least one litter of pigs at some point during the day.

Hope Everyone on here has a merry Christmas and gets to enjoy those that make everything we work for worth all the sweet and tears.
God bless all


Ps Adam this year there are some of the peppers in my chilli from seeds you sent me. Thanks again.

Making potica

Christmas eve mv.s and myself always go spot lightning porcupines on a ranch we do control work for. And that last till about 0400, than knap a lil and open gifts drink some coffee to of course. Than go check a few traps , and we have a prime rib or ham for dinner with all the fixings. And always end the day with watching Christmas vacation lol. Been doing this now for close to 15 - 20 years.

Everybody gets in their pjs, the wife pops some popcorn and we ride through the subdivisions looking at Christmas lights and decorations.

Christmas Eve family and friends gather at one of my aunt’s for light table fair, beverages and story telling. Some old some new from the current year.

My great grandpa started morning breakfast on Christmas we have carried that on for over 40 years this year it’s at my house

You're welcome. Did you dry out the red Chile and roast the green?

Christmas tradition every year, go to the rez for the dances family and food. It's my favorite dance especially when it snows. Dancers are dressed as buffalo, deer, antelope and Bobcats.

When I was a kid, we would put up the Christmas tree and decorations on the Saturday after Thanksgiving. We used a live tree until I was around 12, when my parents switched to an artificial tree with fake snow on it.

On December 6th, St. Nicholas Day, we would get our stockings stuffed with candy and some coins. We also got a calendar for the next year and usually a pair of new pajamas to wear at Christmas. I always got a Tolkein calendar.

On Christmas Eve, we would go to evening mass. When we got home we had a gift exchange among our immediate family members and received one big, meaning expensive, present from our parents.

The next technical morning, my brother Kevin would wake me up around 2:00am to 3:00am and start pestering my parents to get up to check for presents. My dad would go downstairs to check for presents and tell us Santa had not been here yet and that we had to go back to bed. My brother Kevin would wake us all up many more times, until finally around 6:00am my dad would tell us where our presents are and let us go down. My brother Kevin would rush to his presents and open them in a frenzy. Kevin would not even look at most of them and sometimes even threw them away with the wrapping paper.

When my younger brother Nick and sister Jennifer were born and throughout their childhoods, Kevin woke them up repeatedly too and used then to try to get our parents up earlier. Later on our parents tried having us take turns opening presents, but usually quickly gave up.

We then drove an hour and 15 minutes to our paternal grandparents and bounced around from there to our paternal maternal great grandparents, our maternal grandparents, back to our paternal great grandparents, our paternal paternal great grandmothers, back to our maternal grandparents and then home with a vehicle packed solid with Christmas loot. We ate and opened and exchanged presents at every stop. They all lived just minutes driving from each other.

My paternal paternal great grandmothers often had well over 100 people present and well over 200 people over the course of the day. She had 12 children and 48 grandchildren. There are probably over 150 great grandchildren in my generation. She is still having great great grandchildren. Sometimes we would drive by without stopping because there was to many people and have to come back later. I am the second oldest in my generation and the oldest male. Everyone always knew who I was and I only knew maybe 30 some people when I was little. I made $106.00 dollars, back in the seventies, bringing drinks to the card tables. It's hard to describe the feeling off love I got being greeted by and appreciated by hordes of family friends and relatives.

The amount of food and drinks consumed at my paternal paternal great grandmothers was amazing. My paternal paternal great grandfather had a grocery store, a bar and a catering business. The bar and catering business were still going and full box trucks would pull up and be emptied into the huge larders by chains of relatives, to be emptied again.

Did any of the rest of you go to huge family get togethers on the holidays?

Keith

Adam
Roasted green chilies and diced and froze just for this dinner.

Mmmmm. You guys will be eating great

I was an only child. My grandfather lived with us. We had a small fake tree ,with about a dozen bubble lights. Everyone received one gift and we had a few wrapped presents. I didn’t know any different until I married into a family who really celebrated. Both were good, the simple and the over-the-top.

We used to have a big hoo rah for Christmas. Mama was such a champ bless her, I miss her so. I wish I could show you all, you couldn't see the tree for the presents. I still am blessed with six siblings but we don't get together for Christmas anymore, that died when Mama did. I'm that guy lol. Divorced, my babies are growed and I do what they wish. This year I won't get to be with them on Christmas day but we will have a great day with deer meat and noodles and tell stories. They are precious to me. I am the youngest and I do plan a prank on my siblings that are close. Few years ago my brother had a sign in his yard because they raised some cats. I snuck in his yard and put a sign over his sign that said I am gay, honk if you love gay people. Lol, this year will be better, I spent a fortune on cling wrap.

we have done Horsdoeuvrse for many years , make a meal out of it , everyone makes their favorite.

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What are you going to wrap. You should try to get some pictures.

While in high school, my brother Kevin and some of his friends, got a nearly full roll of clear pallet wrap and started wrapping their friend Tex's car at a a movie theater, where he was on his first date with a girl he had been pursuing for a while. When they had almost finished, a cop pulled up. He took their names and information, laughed when they explained what they were doing and told them as long as he did not find any plastic in the parking lot, when he checked later, they were good to go. Tex and the girl worked for almost 20 minutes to get in, until my brother and his friends, who were watching, finally started helping. They picked up every scrap of plastic.

Keith

We switched with my 5 brothers and sisters to doing a one day Christmas in July after our Mom passed away. Lot better driving conditions and we can spend much more time outside and spread out a bit and we don't wrestle with all the other family Christmas traditions. Some families are really set on how and when and who so we work to avoid that.

With our two children and their families we started a Christmas brunch gathering. We make waffles, French toast and eat about 10 ish and do gifts and gab after. We did this as the other families had their established big times, one on Christmas Eve and the other on Christmas Day for supper. Now one of those families leaves for AZ after Thanksgiving so they have a Thanksgiving Christmas and the other family picks the weekend before Christmas as their 3 other children have families now too. We have decided to stay with our brunch as we like it even though other options are now available. The one thing I do that I do for all Christmas's be it December or July is to make some lefse which is a Norwegian tradition that I and one of my younger brothers keep going.

Bryce

My oldest Sister and her old man just bought a brand new vehicle and I'm gonna go into stealth ninja mode and wrap the (This word is unacceptable on Trapperman) out of it, I'm so excited lol.

I grew up in a family with a big traditional Christmas. My mom was a great cook and we ate like kings.

My wife and I never had kids and in our stores December was always the second biggest month of the year. We worked 6 or 7 days a week and had lots of great customers who would bring us good wine, or scotch or fudge every year when they would come to the shop. So our Christmas was sort of with them in the shops. The dogs wore red bows on Christmas eve in the store.

But our tradition for many years was to close the store at 4 on Christmas eve, load up the dogs and go north to hunt ducks on Christmas morning. We'd stay in the same hotel eat in a Chinese restaurant and hunt the next morning. More often than not it would be one of the best hunts of the season because there were so few people in the rice fields and the birds were happy. After that we'd head home and stop to buy some Dungeness crab. The rest of the day was in front of the fire eating crabs and drinking a good bottle of wine while the dogs slept.

Now here in France, we go to the farm and do pretty much the same thing... except there aren't any Dungeness crabs or mallards.

Merry Christmas to all. Travel safe.

Pete

Bring a wood handle or piece of pipe to put through the rolls. You can put the wrap on quicker and tighter that way.

Keith

Christmas eve was always at my parents house ,an Christmas day is at our house we invite all family members ,an anyone else that we know are by them self's ,people will be coming and going all day ,playing cards ,and baseball darts ,

Catch that's awesome. Next time buy the plastic wrap from Costco for$15
We did that to a friend's car one night but used a costco sized cling wrap. We didn't use the entire roll even though we wrapped it up very good.

Oh yeah adam!

When I was a kid my grandma would make oyster stew on xmas.

Even as a 5 yr old I loved it.

Then it was my dads turn to make it for yrs.

Well now its my turn. Made it Saturday.

But the only people that eat it is my 14 yr old granddaughter and me.

Oh well, lots of leftover stew.

Brad

As a kid my family would all gather at Gramma Space's house for Christmas dinner. After dinner all the men and boys would go grouse hunting, coming back by 4 PM so Dad and I could milk the cows. Gramma Space died on my birthday in 1997, but the grouse disappeared 15 years before that when the wild turkeys that had been introduced in the late 1970's ate the chicks. Dad hunted with an Easter Arms double barrel 410. Many times he got his limit of 4 grouse with 4 shots. I used an Ithaca model 37 12 gauge pump, would load myself down with pockets full of shells and occasionally (probably by accident) hit a bird.

Correction: Eastern Arms

Catch if you used the entire roll it would probably take at least 30 minutes to unwrap

adam they have several little ankle biters that hear everything. So I will have to be in my best ninja mode and get in and out as quickly as I can. I hope I don't get busted lol. I think I have to camo my face and where moccasins.

Eating christmas dinner and listening to my oldest brothers bigfoot stories . He swears bigfoot is real and that UFO's are message ships from God. This years story is that the government funds major league sports so that the men are watching football instead of paying attention to what the government is doing behind our back.

Oyster stew. A tradition as far back as I can remember.

Lol
Give them a steak make sure it weighs more than them

Hopefully your brother in law is not the type to come out guns a blazin.

Keith

Jeff, I hope you are not busy picking out your brother in laws load of rock salt. How did operation wrap it up go?

Keith

Nvwrangler,
I posted this on fb earlier and thought of you. IDK about you but in the last 4 days I've had over a dz tamales. 4 today alone.

Bubble lights, now those were really cool. I hadn't thought about those for years.

Tripping for traps off Christmas eve for 1 day... it's a pain but something I just do...
Every family member gets 1 orange in their stocking.