17th shards christmas 17th Shard's Christmas: Christmas Stories/Traditions

[Truthless of Shinovar]

36 minutes ago, Ookla the Groovy said:

We also usually decorate our grandparents Christmas tree together. And I forget Truthless, do you all do Christmas traps?

No, our family doesn’t, though I’ve always wanted to give it a shot...

[Experience]

3 hours ago, Ookla the Groovy said:

We also usually decorate our grandparents Christmas tree together. And I forget Truthless, do you all do Christmas traps?

You can't just leave us all hanging? What are they?

[The Windrunner Supreme]

5 hours ago, Ookla the Telekinetic said:

This isn’t on Christmas, but anytime from Thanksgiving to a week before Christmas, we do gingerbread houses! If we’re with my mom’s side of the family, it gets pretty intense. We have tables full of decorating candy and it usually takes the whole day to finish our houses. It’s super fun! It’s fun with just my family or my dad’s side too, but we pretty much just use the stuff in the kits haha.

Same!

[Rosharan A.C.]

3 hours ago, Ookla the Shadowed said:

You can't just leave us all hanging? What are they?

Ok ok. They’ve declined a bit over the years, especially now that my siblings and I are older, but basically on Christmas Eve we all sleep in a room that’s far from the tree (and thus the presents), and my parents will set up “traps” or obstacles between us and the Christmas tree.  Things like putting wrapping paper over door frames, making us crawl through cardboard box tunnels, etc. One year they even taped the light switches so we couldn’t see, and covered the floor in pots and pans filled with cold water. That was one of my favorites.

[Knight of Iron]

My family being religious, we separated Christmas into two holidays:

Xmas, the day we open all the presents and fun times and such. Usually one week before vvv

 Christmas, December 25th. All about Christ. Putting the “holy day” back in “holiday”.

[Channelknight Fadran]

Our Christmas traditions:

1. Youngest child is impatient
2. Oldest child wants more sleep

[Scarletfox]

13 hours ago, Ookla the Knight said:

Xmas, the day we open all the presents and fun times and such. Usually one week before vvv

Actually did you know the reason they shorten it to Xmas? X originates from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Christós, so sometimes in history they would... 

nevermind, sorry for geeking out for a second 

@Ookla the Shadowed My family has the same pickle tradition! There was one year that we actually lost the ornament, so we hid a real pickle. Ours is also much more competitive (because this is what my family does to everything). Usually it's a couple dollars is the prize, or something from dollar tree, but we will fight for that pickle! As most of my family are adults now, the pickle gets more and more... extravagant every year. Last year it took us three weeks to find the darn thing.

We also make sugar cookies and have a big decorating party sometime during the December month.

Every single year, a big argument goes down about whether we should but the angel on the tree, or the star on the tree, though at this point we've had the argument so many times that it's not a real argument. I think only once or twice have people gotten upset, usually it's just humorous stuff. The funniest part is that the main argument is "what we did last year", but no one can remember what we did the year before. The people arguing for the angel usually say, "We totally did the star last year, we've given in to you guys a couple times lately!" and the star people always say, "we never do the star! We always do the angel! The last time we did the star was when we lived in Colorado!" As you can probably guess, the angel usually wins.

We hide our presents for most of December, and then the night before Christmas we set an alarm for the middle of the night, and sneak out and put our presents under the tree so that when we wake up, the presents are all underneath. We are very very very sneaky.

All of us girls make Cinnamon Rolls with our great-grandma's recipe the night before, and let them rise overnight. On Christmas morning we stuff ourselves with those cinnamon rolls as we wait for the family to gather. 

My Dad always tells the christmas story right before the gift giving.

We have a very organized way of opening presents, most Christmases in our house go into the afternoon. We all open our stockings at the same time, announcing anything that is really cool, and then we get to the bigger gifts. We start with the youngest in the family (me), but instead of getting presents for me to open, I get one present that's for anyone in the family but me or the next oldest sibling (for efficiency reasons). I deliver it to them, and while their opening it, the next oldest sibling (my brother) goes and gets the next present. Again, for anyone in the family but him or the next oldest. He holds the present in his lap while the person who just opened their gift announces it to the family, who it's from, maybe tells a story about why they got that gift, and then thanks the person who gave it to them. Then they throw the wrapping paper at our TV which is playing a video of a fireplace (this is a very vital part of our traditions). It keeps going like that, with people getting presents for each other from under the tree. Normally we take a fifteen minute break at lunch to clean up all the wrapping paper, put away the presents we've gotten, and put out the snack bar - little sausages, cheese, crackers, and black olives. Then we finish opening the presents in the afternoon.

[Chasmgoat]

5 minutes ago, Ookla the Sly said:

We have a very organized way of opening presents,

we are too, however, since my brother is a single month older, but was adopted when I was two, there are disputes on who should open it first...

[Channelknight Fadran]

32 minutes ago, Ookla the Sly said:

Actually did you know the reason they shorten it to Xmas? X originates from the Greek letter Chi, which is the first letter of the Greek word Christós, so sometimes in history they would... 

nevermind, sorry for geeking out for a second 

@Ookla the Shadowed My family has the same pickle tradition! There was one year that we actually lost the ornament, so we hid a real pickle. Ours is also much more competitive (because this is what my family does to everything). Usually it's a couple dollars is the prize, or something from dollar tree, but we will fight for that pickle! As most of my family are adults now, the pickle gets more and more... extravagant every year. Last year it took us three weeks to find the darn thing.

We also make sugar cookies and have a big decorating party sometime during the December month.

Every single year, a big argument goes down about whether we should but the angel on the tree, or the star on the tree, though at this point we've had the argument so many times that it's not a real argument. I think only once or twice have people gotten upset, usually it's just humorous stuff. The funniest part is that the main argument is "what we did last year", but no one can remember what we did the year before. The people arguing for the angel usually say, "We totally did the star last year, we've given in to you guys a couple times lately!" and the star people always say, "we never do the star! We always do the angel! The last time we did the star was when we lived in Colorado!" As you can probably guess, the angel usually wins.

We hide our presents for most of December, and then the night before Christmas we set an alarm for the middle of the night, and sneak out and put our presents under the tree so that when we wake up, the presents are all underneath. We are very very very sneaky.

All of us girls make Cinnamon Rolls with our great-grandma's recipe the night before, and let them rise overnight. On Christmas morning we stuff ourselves with those cinnamon rolls as we wait for the family to gather. 

My Dad always tells the christmas story right before the gift giving.

We have a very organized way of opening presents, most Christmases in our house go into the afternoon. We all open our stockings at the same time, announcing anything that is really cool, and then we get to the bigger gifts. We start with the youngest in the family (me), but instead of getting presents for me to open, I get one present that's for anyone in the family but me or the next oldest sibling (for efficiency reasons). I deliver it to them, and while their opening it, the next oldest sibling (my brother) goes and gets the next present. Again, for anyone in the family but him or the next oldest. He holds the present in his lap while the person who just opened their gift announces it to the family, who it's from, maybe tells a story about why they got that gift, and then thanks the person who gave it to them. Then they throw the wrapping paper at our TV which is playing a video of a fireplace (this is a very vital part of our traditions). It keeps going like that, with people getting presents for each other from under the tree. Normally we take a fifteen minute break at lunch to clean up all the wrapping paper, put away the presents we've gotten, and put out the snack bar - little sausages, cheese, crackers, and black olives. Then we finish opening the presents in the afternoon.

You texans are crazy.

[Bearer of all agonies]

1 hour ago, Ookla the Channelknight said:

You texans are crazy.

You wouldn’t want to know about Vermont. 

[Channelknight Fadran]

2 hours ago, Ookla the Tortured said:

You wouldn’t want to know about Vermont. 

Well, now I do.

[Bearer of all agonies]

1 minute ago, Ookla the Channelknight said:

Well, now I do.

Nyehehehehehehe. 

Spoiler

You have fallen into my trap  

 

[Channelknight Fadran]

New tradition: ugly christmas masks

[Ookla of Colors]

...

Why?

Nice and Chaotic tho...

*approves*

Edited November 30, 2021 by Ookla of Anarchy and Chaos

[2EmLee2]

I have an Ugly Christmas mask!

[Robin Sedai]

My sibs and I have a tradition: we complain that it's unfair that we don't get presents, and then forget about it until after Christmas, when somebody says "Hey, Christmas was X days ago!" I actually didn't know Christmas was on the 25th before this year, I thought it was on the 31st.

[Marukka]

1 hour ago, Robin Hatter said:

My sibs and I have a tradition: we complain that it's unfair that we don't get presents, and then forget about it until after Christmas, when somebody says "Hey, Christmas was X days ago!" I actually didn't know Christmas was on the 25th before this year, I thought it was on the 31st.

Well, Christmas Eve is on the 24th. Here in Germany we get all of our presents on the 24th after dinner. Might be different in other families but I have not met anyone who does it the "american way". Usually this is a very big family thing, but this year (and the last one) we celebrated only in a very small group. 

The 31st is the last day of the (western) year, here we call it Silvester. There are no presents on that day, people just get drunk, play with fireworks and get their fingers blown off. So fun! 

My sister in law is from Shenzhen, she once said that there are some stores that start some Christmas thingies because it's a reason to get people to spend more. But it seems not to be very much. How is it where you live? 

[Robin Sedai]

Yup, some stores put up trees and play music. I just never noticed the date.

[2EmLee2]

For me, who lives in America, my family doesn't put presents under the tree until my parents do it when we're asleep during the night of Christmas Eve, so we can wake on Christmas morning with a magical surprise. And on New Year's Eve (December 31st), we stay up till midnight and eat cake (cuz it's also my birthday) and drink soda and hang out with family. Sometimes we shoot off fireworks - but only sometimes -  when we're with family on my dad's side.

[Condensation]

We do Christmas insanely. I love all of the Christmas spirit! 

However, I do have one story. 

Our family's tradition is to cut down our own tree every Christmas. There are permits you can get, and you go up into the mountains where the trees are and play in the snow, pick a tree, eat soup and drink hot cocoa... the last bathroom before you go up the snowy canyon road is at a large parking lot, there's usually a good bit of snow. We all get it and stretch our legs and use the bathroom, just like any other year. At first, I think I don't have to use the bathroom. But as we wait, it gradually builds until I think I need to go to the bathroom really badly. I get out of the car and go use the bathroom...

But while I'm in there, my entire extended family loads up and drives away. I get out of the bathroom and realize this, and I panic. There's no one around, I have no idea where my family will go, and it's getting cold - I left my coat in the car, although I brought my snowboards, gloves, and such. I sit on a big rock where I'll be easily visible if my family comes back, and I kind of have a panic attack? I don't really show it - I'm crying a little bit but nothing big - but inside I'm freaking out, doing all the things a little kid does when their family leaves them behind. I'm watching for cars, and I decide to say a prayer. I pray (a really fast one while still looking out of one eye at the road) and a gray minivan pulls into the parking lot. A family spills out, parents and a good many kids, and the mom notices me and comes over. She's worried, I tell her about what happened, and she... well, she's a mom. She wants to help me out. So she takes me over to her husband (normally I wouldn't have gone with her except I felt the Spirit plus she had a bunch of kids) and she explains to him what happened. He decides to drive up the road looking for our family's cars while she stays with me. And apparently, as they're driving up, they pass my grandparents' car and get them to pull over, then they drive down together. Everything ends up well, and now I can tease them about how I'm apparently so forgettable to them.