Let’s hear 'em. The drink that must be served on Christmas Morning, the menu for International Lasagna Wednesday, the matching Thanksgiving Eve pajamas–tell us about it!
We’d have dozens of people traveling in for Thanksgiving so frozen lasagna the night before for the out of towners was a tradition. (must be frozen. no effort allowed before the giant production the following day)
Christmas morning donuts. When one of my kids was 4 she asked Santa for a magic wand so she could have donuts whenever she wanted. Santa compromised by leaving donuts under the Christmas tree. It’s become a tradition in our house and the places we order donuts from love hearing our story and making special Christmas donuts for us
We do takeout ramen the day before thanksgiving. One bowl from our favorite place feeds all three of us for dinner, so no trying to fit things in the fridge,and it’s about as different from Thanksgiving flavors as you can get.
Banana Caroling. Replace all of the lyrics of traditional carols with the word “banana[na]*” using as many extra “nas” as needed to achieve scansion. My daughter and I came up with it 20-ish years back. Next year, I an hoping to go to a local early-December outdoor Xmas lighting celebration in full Minion costume with accomplices to walks the streets while Banana Caroling.
Back around college some of us went caroling for beers at the Natchitoches Christmas Festival (as seen in Steel Magnolias). We were not good (banana-na-na was probably better than some of our lyrics!), but we were successful. But it wasn’t repeated so it never became a tradition.
We do a beer tasting party. Everyone has to bring a six-pack of a seasonal beer brewed in the western hemisphere (read: nothing from Europe). We make scoresheets, we taste everything, we tally the scores. The winning bottle (or, more recently in past years, can) goes on top of my friends’ Christmas tree, and whoever brought it gets the honor of climbing the ladder and sticking the bottle up there.
Side story: said hosting friends’ kid is now 24. When they were in kindergarten, the teacher asked the class who had a star on their tree, who had an angel, who had a Santa hat or whatever, and so on. The teacher noticed this kid hadn’t put their hand up for any of the options and asked “what’s on top of your tree?” “A beer bottle!”
Playing the carillon for a certain church for 3 services on Christmas Eve. I always play christmas carols in a way people can stand outside and sing along if they want, rather than doing it in an artsy fartsy manner. Been doing that since I was in high school - we won’t discuss how many decades. The only time I miss is if I am not in that particular state at christmas. On occasion I’ll play for the Sunday church services on either side of Christmas depending on how close they are to christmas.
My entire family comes. They used to all come up the tower with me (many, many flights of stairs ending in a spiral staircase) although as my parents aged, they’d stay in the car to listen.
Thanksgiving I send the youngest kids with dad to the movies. The oldest one stays home to help cooking and setting up. We watch “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles “ the only truly thanksgiving movie! We celebrate Christmas dinner the Japanese & Jewish style…KFC & Chinese cuisine! Christmas mornings are cinnamon rolls & hot cocoa. Our oldest when 4yrs old; grabbed my arm, looking at me with surprise in her eyes as we walked in the mall saying,”Mom! It smells like Christmas!” We were standing in front of Cinnabon! Happy holidays everyone!
In order to buy time Christmas morning we would put the kids stockings out with a note in the top that started a treasure hunt around the house for one of their presents. Each clue led to another and another, until after half a dozen or more stops, they were rewarded with some gift. As small children it was pictographs, then rhymes, then riddles as they got older. This bought us enough time to pop open a bottle of champagne and make a coffee cake to have while opening the rest of the presents.
We always open them one at a time taking turns so we could do it and oooh & ahhh over all the gifts. Present opening took a long time, but was very chill. No flurry of flying wrapping paper that ends after 15 minutes of mayhem.
Since my in-laws were divorced when the kids are very small they’d have a metric shit-ton of presents. We would set back a dozen items which they would then open during the 12 Days of Christmas until Epiphany. It helped to space out the joy and make the season special for longer. Since we homeschooled our kids there was no back to school issue so it was very pleasant.
Making mac and cheese and sobbing during Jumanji because Robin Williams was such a good actor.
@mossygreen I have a new recipe for Mac and cheese and will be making it on Wednesday. My movie of choice is Thanksgiving, no sobbing allowed.
International Lasagna Wednesday is real.
We’d have dozens of people traveling in for Thanksgiving so frozen lasagna the night before for the out of towners was a tradition. (must be frozen. no effort allowed before the giant production the following day)
I have an apron about it.
Christmas morning donuts. When one of my kids was 4 she asked Santa for a magic wand so she could have donuts whenever she wanted. Santa compromised by leaving donuts under the Christmas tree. It’s become a tradition in our house and the places we order donuts from love hearing our story and making special Christmas donuts for us
@mbersiam I like that!
We do takeout ramen the day before thanksgiving. One bowl from our favorite place feeds all three of us for dinner, so no trying to fit things in the fridge,and it’s about as different from Thanksgiving flavors as you can get.
Banana Caroling. Replace all of the lyrics of traditional carols with the word “banana[na]*” using as many extra “nas” as needed to achieve scansion. My daughter and I came up with it 20-ish years back. Next year, I an hoping to go to a local early-December outdoor Xmas lighting celebration in full Minion costume with accomplices to walks the streets while Banana Caroling.
@werehatrack That sounds like fun!
Back around college some of us went caroling for beers at the Natchitoches Christmas Festival (as seen in Steel Magnolias). We were not good (banana-na-na was probably better than some of our lyrics!), but we were successful. But it wasn’t repeated so it never became a tradition.
@djslack @werehatrack
Lends new meaning to Banana for scale
@djslack @werehatrack I always get lost on this are there too many na’s or just right?
/youtube banana ba na na na na gwen Stefani
@pmarin not nearly enough
@djslack @pmarin How about this?
@djslack @Kyeh @pmarin
Lotsa “na na’s” in both the title and the band name!
We do a beer tasting party. Everyone has to bring a six-pack of a seasonal beer brewed in the western hemisphere (read: nothing from Europe). We make scoresheets, we taste everything, we tally the scores. The winning bottle (or, more recently in past years, can) goes on top of my friends’ Christmas tree, and whoever brought it gets the honor of climbing the ladder and sticking the bottle up there.
Side story: said hosting friends’ kid is now 24. When they were in kindergarten, the teacher asked the class who had a star on their tree, who had an angel, who had a Santa hat or whatever, and so on. The teacher noticed this kid hadn’t put their hand up for any of the options and asked “what’s on top of your tree?” “A beer bottle!”
/showme a Christmas tree topped with an upside-down beer bottle instead of an angel
@kostia
My kinda tree!
Playing the carillon for a certain church for 3 services on Christmas Eve. I always play christmas carols in a way people can stand outside and sing along if they want, rather than doing it in an artsy fartsy manner. Been doing that since I was in high school - we won’t discuss how many decades. The only time I miss is if I am not in that particular state at christmas. On occasion I’ll play for the Sunday church services on either side of Christmas depending on how close they are to christmas.
My entire family comes. They used to all come up the tower with me (many, many flights of stairs ending in a spiral staircase) although as my parents aged, they’d stay in the car to listen.
I always liked watching Trading Places (Aykroyd, Murphy, Curtis) after Thanksgiving/before Christmas.
@pakopako definitely. And then Die Hard! ( let the debate re-begin )
I used to do Christmas season late night runs through the snow with my dogs (when I had cold tolerant dogs).
Might try it this year.
Thanksgiving I send the youngest kids with dad to the movies. The oldest one stays home to help cooking and setting up. We watch “Planes, Trains, and Automobiles “ the only truly thanksgiving movie! We celebrate Christmas dinner the Japanese & Jewish style…KFC & Chinese cuisine! Christmas mornings are cinnamon rolls & hot cocoa. Our oldest when 4yrs old; grabbed my arm, looking at me with surprise in her eyes as we walked in the mall saying,”Mom! It smells like Christmas!” We were standing in front of Cinnabon! Happy holidays everyone!
@jkawaguchi
“They” say the sense of smell is the one that triggers the most memories.
In order to buy time Christmas morning we would put the kids stockings out with a note in the top that started a treasure hunt around the house for one of their presents. Each clue led to another and another, until after half a dozen or more stops, they were rewarded with some gift. As small children it was pictographs, then rhymes, then riddles as they got older. This bought us enough time to pop open a bottle of champagne and make a coffee cake to have while opening the rest of the presents.
We always open them one at a time taking turns so we could do it and oooh & ahhh over all the gifts. Present opening took a long time, but was very chill. No flurry of flying wrapping paper that ends after 15 minutes of mayhem.
Since my in-laws were divorced when the kids are very small they’d have a metric shit-ton of presents. We would set back a dozen items which they would then open during the 12 Days of Christmas until Epiphany. It helped to space out the joy and make the season special for longer. Since we homeschooled our kids there was no back to school issue so it was very pleasant.