Christmas Traditions
What are yours?
So it’s nearly Christmas. My tree is up. Some of my decorations are as well. I have all my gifts (I’ve been very unimaginative and just got gift cards) so I think I’m pretty much set.
Christmas at my home is now kind of like the Americans with Thanksgiving LOL. My mum forbids talk of politics and religion as my views differ vastly from my very Left wing brothers.
Anyways This will be my last article until after Christmas……..maybe. If something occurs then maybe I’ll put down a title in the draft menu.
The main point of this article was to ask about your family traditions if you had any? We would open our gifts, one at a time and actually read the label so we could then ring the relevant person to thank them. I remember my top gifts being the original Power Rangers Megazord and the VHS boar game Atmosfear.
I remember mum would get a gift from the husband (died pre Covid of cancer I think) of one of her work colleagues but it would always consist of two gifts. An object and a hilarious poem to go with the object. Her favourite was a pair of yellow washing up gloves and accompanying poem.
Dad was always grumpy during Christmas Day. As I got older I soon learned the reason for this. Mum would force him to work Christmas Eve night as he would get triple pay for working it. He would get in a 4 in the morning, fucked, and then be up 2 to 3 hours later to open gifts. He still received one of the best gifts from me.
Hell yes he owns that sword.
Anyways we would then go and see Nan who loved down the street and then it would be Christmas Dinner time. Oh how I loved Christmas dinner at home. I help now as it’s unfair on mum which I know she appreciates a lot.
Dad also makes Victorian style Christmas cakes (less now as the people he baked then for have slowly died over time over time) which were nice.
This is only going to be a short post.
Please comment below telling me about any little traditions you might have. I love Christmas and I’m now settling down to finish the Hallmark movie I’ve been watching (Lacey Chabert is very beautiful) and then watch a programme called FROM which has Lost vibes about it.
Merry Christmas to you all.
I hope I find you happy and healthy.
Vulkan
That sword, though... pure fire! Love it :-)
Been building new traditions over the last few years. I get together with friends, which includes several children and a whole zoo's-worth of domesticated animals (dogs and cats LOL). Food (ham and fixins - yep, that's a word here), fellowship, and watching the kids open their gifts. 'Tis a good time, indeed.
Thanks for sharing this, brother - hope you enjoy your Christmas!
That sword!!
In my family we don't really have Christmas traditions, it was only special when we were small kids: both my father and later my brother used to be firemen, so they would often be on duty during Christmas - sometimes they were pulled from the dinner table, when some idiot had set their tree on fire.
When the Grandmas still lived, we would visit them. That was great, meeting relatives, playing with the cousins. Oh, and all the nice food!
Later, Christmas tree and presents for the sake of my son. Now when he is already a grown-up, he spends Christmas with the remaining of his father's family, and there he always has much more food than what I could provide, myself never been a great cook. And I meet my son another day.
This might sound cruel, but I also don't visit my Mom for Christmas... Her birthday is a few days before, so if I am able to travel, I schedule it for that date.
Most times I am working through Christmas: singing. (And that would be long to talk about, what experiences I have when I sing in the streets on Christmas Eve, for example)
Also, the Christian context has never really meant anything for me, except when a small child I believed that the Baby Jesus would bring the presents 😌 That's how it is here in Hungary.
However, despite of my loose Calvinist background, since a few years I love to go to a nearby Midnight mass of the Catholics, because listening to all those people singing together is very uplifting spiritually.
And this year's Christmas was absolutely different from anything else I have ever done, I still need to put my thoughts in order about it.
I rather figure out my own winter solstice story and celebrate in a spontaneous way.