Any family Christmas traditions??

I had one as a kid and it turned into a funny story......

Every Christmas we would set out cookies, carrots and scotch for Santa. The cookies were if he got hungry, the carrots were for the reindeer and the scotch was b/c Santa would be cold and it would warm him up.....I figured this was a tradition in every household...

Well, about 4 years ago I found out differently...My brother was in college and they were talking about Christmas and traditions in one of his classes. He told his story and the ENTIRE class was freaking out saying 'what are you trying to get Santa drunk?'etc.......

He called me the next day and said 'Beth do you know people don't give Santa scotch on Christmas' I was like 'yeah they do' and he told me the story. We were HYSTERICAL laughing with my whole family b/c we thought EVERYONE did this



Thanks for letting me share a piece of my nutty childhood Merry Christmas

That was cute Betty!!! I don't think I have any traditions, I'll have to think....

That is really cute. Thats what Xmas is about.

Well we used to leave Santa a cup of expresso and biscottis. We did it Italian style.

Beth, we never gave Santa scotch, but at my house he ALWAYS had a beer waiting!

When i was a kid we couldnt go downstairs until my parents were awake and my father had to film us coming down the stairs to see what Santa brought!!! Only he had this HUGE light on the top of the video camera.. me and my sis were like BLINDED!! LOL..

(when we were real small my parents slept downstairs and us upstairs so we used to SCREAM on the top of our lungs from the top of the stairs.. 'MOM DAD MOM DAD MOM DAD MOM'... thinking of it now i would kill me if i was my mom!! LOL

Suzanne my house was the same way. You never went down without my parents!

My Dad was the best at Christmas! He did so many wonderful things!! He used to go up on our roof with bells and his steel tip boots and make a ton of noise which of course would wake us up and he would be Ho Ho Hoing up on the roof and me , my bro and sis would be freaking out. One year I remember it was pouring and he was up there, when he came in to tell us to calm down, we would be screaming SANTA'S HERE SANTA'S HERE and he would be like not if you don't go to sleep and he was soaking wet. Kids so gulible!! Because of my Dad I'm proud to admit I believed in Santa till I was like 13

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYONE!!!

Betty

Santa in my house got cookies and Guiness.

Surprising coincidence that my dad also drinks Guiness

Really Dubliner?! What a coincidence!!
I have a feeling that all the dads need a drink in order to have the patience to put all of those doll houses and bicycles together.

Yeah Dubliner...my dad drinks scotch

Those stories are the best! I can totally relate suzanne--my dad shines the star of david @ us every Christmas morning with the video camera! It was and still is the best feeling--we would run down the hall and peak around the corner but we would be like inprisioned until he set the camera up and my brother and I would be dying to just run in! The worst would be (this sounds sacreligious) but my dad would always pray with us before we ran in to the gifts so that we didn't forget the true meaning! We would be like COME ON ALREADY LOL Now I feel bad about that lol hahh
Then my parents would scream MERRY CHRISTMAS and we would tear into a bizillion gifts!! Now my brother is married but it's still fun with FH in the morning and with my parents! We have so many traditions I'd be here forever listing them!! This thread was a good idea!

Stacey-that is the best story of ur dad on the roof!!
Beth-that is so funny! my brother and I still think everyone was @ wacky as us on the holidays!!

Let me tell you guys, by the time I got down to Stacey's tradition I was tearing up with a huge smile on my face. So funny.

I remember when my bro and I were young we'd talk to my grandma by phone on Christmas Eve right before we had to be in bed. We'd be all excited because she'd tell us to hurry and get to sleep because she just saw Santa leave the Bronx and he was headed for Queens and would be there in no time! Well we'd hang up and RUN to bed! LOL

Treasure all your memories and keep making new ones!

Okay, well I don't know if this is tradition, but my mother still to this day shakes her hand when she writes our names on our packages you know, as if 'Santa' wrote out the gifts, the writing is shaky because my Mom told us Santa is old. LOL! Also, we still do not see our gifts until Christmas morning....

I know, we're geeks! LOL!! I mean me and my bro's are all over 20!

My youngest brother was like you Stacey, believed in Santa until he was like 13!!

LOL Stacey, I'm sorry in my post right before yours I said Suzanne, I meant to agree with you... STACEY! Sorry! I edited it!

Oct bride. I still sign the gifts from Santa. Im 30 yrs old. But I just love the whole fantasy.

These stories are great

That is hilarous about the tags!! LOL My dad signs some SANTA and he always gives us hints-like if he got us a book--he'll write something on the tag and totally give the gift away! We don't see the gifts either unless we see them in someone's room--but this year for the first time I put some gifts under tree today and my dad came home from work and freaked!! hahah i was sick of having them by my bed in a pile lol i couldnt' put all of them out though because FH is IMPOSSBILE to surprise! he will guess every gift!! LOL

Wacky, my dh does that too! There are a bunch of gifts under the tree as we speak, from Santa, to me and Arnold (our dog)!

This is actually a weird tradition, every year my dad would put the lights up on the tree and we must have had about 4 sets of lights, but none were the original. He would lay out all the lights of course they were all tangled, then mix and match lights. Taking bulb from one stran of lights, the cover from another, things like that. I think after a few years we had a long string of lights that were completely all broken lights and dead bulbs. And every year my dad would say 'next year we're getting new lights' and we never did.

Another thing we did was every year my dad and I would get my mom a new dancing santa. She looks forward to that gift.

For santa i always left homemade cookies and milk and would be greatly amazed of how such a messy eater he was. LOL..

I would also sit by the window in hopes i would see him. My parents would be falling asleep and i was wide eyed and staring into the sky hoping to get a glimpse. One year i fell asleep next to the tree and placed traps around the tree this way santa would have to climb over me to place my presents and would hit one of my traps and I would wake up. It never worked.

HAHAHAHA! That rules Chippatrid!! I'm surprised I never thought of that--to set traps!!! My parents would force us to go to bed so they could put the presents out-- I used to wake my parents up @ 4AM to open presents-then they would send me back to bed till 6AM at which point I would lay in my bed and literally watch every minute go by on my clock!! haha
o to be a child @ christmas again!!

I am an only child, I had to amuse myself someway around christmas time.

When I was 3 or 4 i woke my dad up at 3am because i wanted him to put together my barbie pool. He also cut his finger putting it together. Something he has never let me live down. I am sure on my wedding day he'll remind me about that time i was little and the barbie pool. Ever since, the rule of the house became presents will only be put together between the hours of 10am and 2pm, Saturdays and Sundays.

Another rule my parents formed was 'he who buys it, puts it together' because one year my godfather gave me a gift that took my dad a week to put together.

I dont want to say this is a tradition but its the one gift I look forward to every year, my calendar. My dad has bought me a calendar every year since I was 5. He's gotten me Ziggy, Garfield, new kids on the block, curious george, winnie the pooh, and so many others i cant even remember. I moved in with my FI this year and I gave my father a 20 minute lecture on just because I dont live with them is not an excuse to not get me a calendar. He's done this since I was 5 and this year is no different.

What great times it was to be a kid around christmas