What are your favorite family Christmas traditions?

[Carol Dee]

Our family traditions have stayed the same and changed. We still have *Saucjisebroogies* a.k.a. pigs in a blanket. But the oyster stew has go to tomato soup for the kids and chili for the adults! Not enough oyster eaters. We still gather as at my Sister Christmas eve for the meal and gift exchange. It was at Grandma's, then Mom's now Sis has the gathering. The gift exchange is now more of a game. Gag gifts. This is our 1st Christmas without Mom AND Dad. Son's divorce is final and he only has our Grandson's part of the day on Christmas so we will have them all here on Christmas day. Plus older son and girlfriends and their kids. That is why there are so many stockings on the mantel!

View attachment 5685
I can't open the link on this computer.
Will have to wait till I can get to the one at church.
Is it a hippo for Christmas? (love that song)

 

[Carol Dee]

View attachment 5685
I can't open the link on this computer.
Will have to wait till I can get to the one at church.
Is it a hippo for Christmas? (love that song)

Yes it is Enjoy.

 

[baymule]

Eggnog. My mother remembers her grandmother making it for breakfast Christmas morning. Everybody got some, even little kids. Then my Grandmother made it (my Mom's mother) Now I make it. Funny, my Mom never made the eggnog. It packs a punch, too. Even in a bunch of almost non drinkers like us, we knock back the eggnog!

Mamma Wall's Eggnog

12 eggs
12 heaping tablespoons sugar
12 jiggers (or shot glass) whiskey
1 pint whipping cream
a little milk

Beat the cream until stiff. Careful! Don't make butter!
Separate the egg whites from the yolks into 2 different mixing bowls
Beat the egg whites until they will form peaks when you lift the beaters
Beat the egg yolks, add sugar, beat well. Keep beating the eggs,
S-L-O-W-L-Y add the whiskey, (Keep beating with mixer) one jigger at a time. If you add all the whiskey at one time, it will curdle the eggs.

Pour egg yolk and whiskey mixture in a punch bowl. With a spatula or large spoon, fold in the whipped cream, then the egg whites. Add a little milk, maybe 1/2 cup.

Ladle into a cup, sprinkle with nutmeg or cinnamon.

Since we are not what you would call drinkers, I use half the whiskey. Half the amount still cooks the eggs and it is not as strong.

 

[buckabucka]

I don't see my only living family members for Christmas, as they are thousands of miles away. One very strange tradition we started when we were young was a toast to lord Beasley. It is a direct quote from a silly Gilligan's Island episode. "A toast to Lord Beasley. Long may his butterfly net wave!"
My dad was a serious and somewhat stern person, but even he began proposing toasts to Lord Beasley with a big chuckle.

 

[thistlebloom]

My family always opened gifts on Christmas morning, my husbands family on Christmas Eve so when we married there was at least one holiday when we didn't have to feel like we were slighting anybody.

Now we don't have any family closer than several days drive (except for my oldest brother now, but he's playing Scrooge this year )
so it's just us and we make the most of it! Kid#1's girlfriend has been joining us for the last 2 years. We love her, and she adds a sparkle to our gatherings.

Cinnamon rolls have been the biggest family food tradition, other meals change depending on what the consensus is, but the cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning are keepers.

 

[Nyboy]

A few days before Xmas my mother would make cookies that had to be cut out.She had a large collection of cookie cuters. After they where baked my sibling and i would frost them what family memories !

 

[bobm]

This year it will be my wife and I at home everyone else is out of state or at Disneyland. My wife is baking a ham ( a real ham... NOT the spiral cut imposter that dries out when cooked) and yams . Apple pie. Hot buttered rum ...

 

[valley ranch]

If I may join in. We celebrate Christmas on the 25th and exchange gifts, than began counting the 12 days of Christmas with a small gift each morning and a theme from the Advent calender. Until January 6th, which is a Holy Day: Christmas.

 

[ninnymary]

Valley Ranch, do you celebrate Dia de Los Reyes? Do you make any special foods?

Mary

 

[valley ranch]

Hi, Mary, that's my mother's name {Maryam} The Day of The Kings, it is one of the days, as you know in honor of The Three Wise Men, The Three Kings.

Richard