Family Traditions

[Dipper]

I know not everyone has a tradition unique to their family, or one at all, but for those of you that do; this thread is for you.

When I say family traditions, I mean going on vacation to the same place every year with the same family members each time, or celebrating holidays in a very particular way. Sometimes traditions are smaller, like those weird before-dinner rituals some people do (the one with the napkins?).

My family heads to the mountains every christmas. Every. Damn. Winter. Same town. Same cabin. Same ski equipment.

I'm not complaining. I just wish my family could make something other than hot chocolate for breakfast.

Your turn.

 

[Vars]

We eat Shrimp on new years eve. Not sure how common that is now, but it was pretty weird at the time the tradition started.

 

[Elle Joyner]

We usually a pretty chill for family stuff... But we have a longstanding family tradition that if we get together, we MUST play Apples to Apples :)

 

[Kitti]

My mother's grandparents used to do this (I think that's who, anyway, it's been every year as long as I can remember so I guess I haven't questioned it much) and my mother still does it. You put a box with a few things outside the door on New Year's Eve and then just after midnight on New Year, you bring in the box. It has things like money in the box, for good fortune throughout the year, bread for abundance of food, and salt for... health?

 

[Applo]

Every year for dinner on Christmas Eve we have Hawaiian Toast.

Its basically cheese on toast with a slice of ham and a ring of pineapple underneath the cheese. My Grandmother started it all back in the 60's after seeing the recipe in a magazine and its stuck ever since.

 

[Greenie]

Every Eid festival, there has to be something called Sheer Khurma in the house. It's basically sweet milk with vermicelli and nuts/dates. Delicious and a must otherwise Eid was all wrong and we need the shame bell.

I'm totally going to the store tonight to buy some vermicelli.

 

[Quetzal]

My family doesn't have very specific traditions. We just get together if there's a holiday. Although since my brother moved out. My parents have taken to the tradition of eating dinner with him and his family on Sunday. I join them once in a while.

For us it's just about being there for family. No traditions necessary. Though it certainly helps to have an excuse to fry up some carne asada or throw some patties on the grill. Often both. The important thing is just being around each other. But having social anxiety and depression. I often find myself sequestered away from everyone else. I still try to make an appearance though. Put on a smile, laugh at a joke.

I guess my mom's insistence on rocking and singing to baby Jesus is the only tradition I can think of. I do it. It makes her happy and everyone is usually cheery about it.

 

[Temet Nosce]

Not sure if alcoholism counts as a tradition, but for all I know, heavy drinking has been a thing in my family since like... Ever.

 

[PoetLore]

When I was a kid, my whole family would bundle up and head out in search of the PERFECT Christmas tree. This was something that only my mother could choose, and she was the ONLY one who actually knew what a perfect Christmas tree looked like. We lived in western Pennsylvania, the Christmas tree capital of the world so they are EVERYWHERE! There was always this guy named Joe, who would set up his trees at the bottom of the hill he lived on, and we'd always go there first. He used to pick a tree just for my mom and set it aside til we got there. My mom would look at it, and then say, "It's nice..but we need to check around and make sure....this is the one." My dad would secretly pat for it and we would start our 'search'. We would go to tree farms where you cut the tree down yourself, and walk for miles in snow up to our knees. Eventually after roughly 20 different places, we'd go back and get the first one from Joe, then we'd head home and have Hot Chocolate (because we were all numb and suffering hypothermia). Looking back, it is one of my favorite memories and so when I had children we did the same, except I like IMPERFECT trees...so we looked for that.

 

[Sidhe]

Chinese food on NYE. Unfortunately the place we used to get food from for over 20 years closed down two years ago, so we now order from a different place. It's good, but not quite the same.

My brother and I are allowed to open exactly one present each on Christmas eve. The rest have to wait for the morning.

Speaking of Christmas morning - and this is a recent one: mimosas. Mostly just my mom and I. We're the only ones who do that.

Every single Christmas since we were infants, my aunt gives both my brother and I a teddy bear. Apparently one year when my brother was around 12 she decided to stop giving them to him, and he was very very upset. So now we each get them!

My mom and I watch Forrest Gump together once a year.

There's probably more but I can't really think of any
Especially since we're now all adults and my brother lives in another province. My brother and I used to get a Christmas tree all to ourselves to decorate, but that tradition has long since passed lol.

 

[Razilin]

my wife and I got to anime central in Rosemont IL every year; if she doesn't come, one of my "second family" goes with

 

[ᴛᴏᴄᴋᴀ]

Every birthday I do the same thing for my kids and my hubby. They pick their birthday dinner and birthday cake, which I make from scratch. When it's time to cut the cake, it goes birthday person, then the next in line (Except for me because I'm always last). It used to be easy because my kids wanted simple things, now they're asking me for mirror cakes and dinners that take hours to make, but I still do it. Everyone has to sing 'Happy Birthday' and whoever tries just mouthing the words has to wash the dishes. My kids used to do the whole punch in the arm for every year thing, but that got banned two years ago when my son got a little overzealous and punched my daughter in the eye by 'accident'.

 

[Gwazi Magnum]

Blaming Gwazi everytime the freezer breaks

 

[Nemopedia]

We play dumpling roulette. First we fold dumplings together and put weird stuff in the filling. Things like a coin (cleaned of course), wasabi, a piece of pepper, lemon, etc... then we throw them all together in the hotpot and watch each other's faces. It is great fun!

Lemon stands for good health, the coin for wealth, and other symbolism we don't really care about and rather have someone else bite in. Everyone has to participate, except from the kiddies and we aren't allowed to open the dumplings before taking a bite first. XD