What is the "most unique" holiday tradition that your family has? Please post a comment and share yours; everyone who enters will have a chance to win a package of hand-stamped cards AND a fun "mystery gift"! I will put everyone's name who enters into a basket and then have my very able assistant, Dave, The Stamp Slave, draw out a winner. Comments must be posted by Friday, November 20 at midnight and winner will be drawn over the weekend and announced on the blog by Monday morning, Nov. 23rd!
My family had a tradition that did not start out to even BE a tradition…Dave has always been the cook on Thanksgiving and when our kids were younger and we lived in California, he always went to Williams-Sonoma, picked up their annual menu planner and set about preparing our feast. For about five years, he would invariably, slice some part of his body that was not SUPPOSED to be sliced (one year it was when he was crafting rosettes out of radishes and the knife slipped!) and would end up in the Emergency Room at our local hospital. What made this even more amusing (he never ended up REALLY permanently hurting himself; just a few stitches and he was good as new!), is he was a Paramedic and ran an ambulance company so he always knew the ER doctors who were attending to his injury…they found it quite entertaining!
So, c'mon everyone and share yours!
Our family has always had Christmas Stockings as part of our traditions. When we were little my grandmother would give us those plastic mesh pre stuffed stockings. They would always be hanging on her mantle and they had our names written on them. We got to open them on Christmas Eve. On Christmas morning, at home, we were allowed to open our regular stockings as soon as we woke up. It was our entertainment until mom and dad woke up. Now, as adults we still get the whole family together and open stockings. They have morphed into 3ft long stockings and we put all of our gifts into them. It is fun finding small things through out the year to stuff into everyone’s stockings. I am using a stocking on the front of our Holiday cards this year because it is part of our yearly traditions.
My family name is “Wright”, we came up with a right/left game some time in the 70’s where each one has a small token gift ($1 – $5 value) and we all sit in a circle. Our family is now so large that some sit in chairs and some on the floor. 🙂 We then read a story using lots of rights and lefts in it. As the word right is read we all pass the gift to the right. As the word left is read we all pass the gift to the left. Whatever gift you have at the end of the story is what you get. We have since taken turns within the family since my Mom passed away to write the story. Sometimes it is simple “Twas the night RIGHT before Christmas and all through the house. Not a creatures was LEFT stirring….” Sometimes it is happenings in the family during the year. It is always a great time of laughing as we never get the right or the left correct. We all look forward to it and it starts our family Christmas off just “Wright”!
Christmas Eve, 2003, we had no idea that our Christmas Eve Tradition was about to change for the rest of our lives:
Every Christmas Eve the family would gather at my Dad’s house to munch, gossip, giggle, and rejoice around the fireplace. You could never make it through the dining room without tripping over a present…there was so many. Dad would sit back and take it all in, especially watching the grand-children when it was time to open presents. You could see the glisten in his eye, when one of them would yell: Poppy look what I got! And he would touch them on their head, with a tear in his eye, as there was always love in Daddy’s hands.
After losing Dad in 2004, we thought our Christmas Eve’s would never be the same, but my sisters and I were determined to carry on the tradition. We continue to gather on Christmas Eve night to munch, gossip, giggle, sing, dance, and cry. Our family has grown since we lost dad, but our tradition will continue, and hopefully will continue for many many years. There may not be as many presents, but there is still plenty of love.
They say it takes a minute to find a special person, an hour to appreciate them, a day to love them, but then an entire life to forget them….and we will never forget our Dad!!!!