From the article: Christmas Menu for Two
When I was a kid we'd have Christmas Dinner on Christmas Eve, then brunch on Christmas morning after opening our gifts, and then my favorite part. We'd have an open house Christmas afternoon. The dining table would be loaded with turkey and ham, biscuits and bread, and, of course, my father's famous eggnog and my mother's bourbon cake. During the course of the afternoon 10 or more families would drop by to wish each other well and have a bite to eat and noggin to sip.
What are your Christmas traditions? What is especially precious to you either from your childhood or your own children's childhood?
What are your Christmas traditions? What is especially precious to you either from your childhood or your own children's childhood?
The Doors
- Christmas morning never official began until the double doors to the living room where opened.... Overnight the gifts had appeared under the tree, and best of all, HUGE stockings (and a lot of overflow) were waiting for each family member on their usual chair. After opening stockings and gifts, we'd then have a grand pancake breakfast. :-D
- —BethPete
Star Supper or Wigilia
- In my Polish family, the highlight of the Christmas season is the beautiful Star Supper or wigilia, which means vigil and refers to the vigil kept waiting for the Christ Child to be born. The Star Supper reference is tied to the proviso that not one morsel of the meatless 12 dishes be eaten before the first star is sighted in the sky -- symbolic of the star that let the shepherds (and Three Kings, by the way) to the Babe's manger.
- —Barb.Rolek
Carb Overload
- We have a great time creating our Christmas meal as a family. One person will tackle the green bean casserole, another will make the hashbrown casserole, another makes stuffing, etc etc. We have a lot of fun manning our particular dish preparation station while all in the kitchen together.
- —SurgeryRN
Turkey and cats
- I remember opening stockings and our cat pulling ornaments off the tree, sometimes pulling the whole tree down. We had turkey for dinner and always sweet potatoes with toasted marshmallows on top. I've never made the sweet potatoes with marshmallows and kind of stuck my nose up at it in later life. My mom came up for this past Thanksgiving and made them and they were unbelievably good!
- —Guest Kerry
Christmas Traditions are a Changing
- When I was a child for several years our Christian church and my family would "ingather" and send us children door to door asking for donations for missionaries while carols played from loudspeakers atop our car. We went to neighborhoods with the biggest and brightest Christmas decorations. Meanwhile at home we'd set up an artificial tree. While writing this I just realized it's just one more of the many things from child hood coupled with adult experiences which added up to my opting out of the holiday. We get together with our family when ever we can, year round and feast and gift. I can't see tying this to a particular day or event and narrowing it down to a once a year box with a label and stressing over it for weeks ahead of time. When it comes down to it I suppose stress is the one thing I most associate with the holiday :) Usually I bake and sometimes decorate cookies around this time of year, But I haven't felt inspired to do so, as we are all trying to whittle off pounds.
- —S_Khalsa
Santa Baby
- When we were very young, "Santa" put up and decked out the tree on Christmas even long after we were in bed. When we got a little older we started putting up the tree ourselves. Each year, one thing that never changed: we always got walnuts and tangerines in our stockings. These were luxury items for a family of 6 and to this day when I smell tangerines it always makes me happy.
- —Lahle.Wolfe
The Seven Fishes
- For Italians, the eating part of Christmas really happens on Christmas Eve, with the Feast of the Seven Fishes. My wife's family takes this VERY seriously. The morning of Christmas Eve, the men of the house go out to purchase all the seafood -- last year we actually had four generations on the trip. Once we get back to the house, the preparation begins -- and doesn't end until just before the guests start to arrive. My own contribution -- a fairly recent innovation -- is to prepare the baccala (salt cod).
- —Charlie_Zegers
The Tree
- When our kids came along my wife started giving everyone an ornament every year when we decorated the tree and as soon as they were able the kids put their ornaments on the tree (as you might imagine the tree was rather bottom heavy in the early years). By the time our oldest went off to college the entire tree was decorated with these special ornaments that reminded us of particular holidays past.
- —Guest Hank