What are your holiday traditions? I’m looking for some ideas.
I want to start a new tradition with my family the Christmas. It’s very hard with 2 teenage boys to get any ideas from them! I’m just at a loss. I want it to be meaningful and fun. Especially since my diagnosis this year, I appreciate life and family more and I want something that can be carried on after I’m gone.
Thank you 
So funny, my son & I were talking about things like this today! 
Now that I have 2 adult sons & 1 teenage daughter, we’ve had to change our traditions a bit. One thing we do is make a special kind of breakfast.
The rest is usually eggs, bacon, sausage, English muffins, pancakes, & those types of things.
The first person to wake up turns on A Christmas Story. I forget the channel, but it plays for 24 hours on Christmas Day. It stays on the TV until everyone has opened their gifts & the wrapping paper or other items from opening gifts are cleaned up. Then we will watch it in full afterward.
As people wake up & there are at least 2 people up, they can open their stockings while the rest of the house wakes up. No gifts 
under the tree 
are opened until everyone is up & in the living room.
Once everyone has put their gifts in their rooms or where they go, we eat breakfast and watch A Christmas Story & if someone received a movie for a gift, we will watch that movie while we eat or
after breakfast.
I can’t think of anything else at the moment, but if I do, I will let you know though! 
@Susurrus that’s so funny 
We watch A Christmas Story all day too! We also have a big breakfast. We stopped having a sit down dinner because the boys were too busy playing with all their new stuff.
I’m thinking of something with candles. I read about the origin of the Yule log. So maybe something like that with a candle. The details aren’t coming to me…ugh
For me, Christmas has lost some of the magic since the boys are older. There’s no more surprises because they tell me exactly what they want. Because oh no! Mom bought the wrong thing! It was so nice when they got excited over batteries 
@Sivonnah, I thought we were the only ones that did that I’m trying to think of other ones for the week leading up to & the day of Christmas. I know that we have others, but I’m completely drawing a blank right now 
I make a simmer pot or a diffuser blend, sometimes both with seasonal scents. We use seasonal-themed mugs; we have Christmas outfits or tops that we wear. I have a winter-themed onesie with a hood & a reindeer onesie that I wear. The second has a hood with little antlers & a red nose on it. My daughter has a onesie outfit best described as either a candy cane or an elf. My son has a suit type, but it has words that say, Merry Christmas, You Filthy Animal from Home Alone. My other son wears a Bob Ross Christmas sweater that lights up that day.
My daughter & I wear Christmas earrings. I have 10 holes that I put them in… so sometimes it’s reindeer, light bulbs, wreaths, bells, trees, red & green sparkly bulbs at the end of silver chains, red ball ornaments, snowflakes, stockings… I have quite a few. So I will put 4 pairs in & my daughter will wear a pair. I have Christmas-themed stud earrings, too… it’s a thing 
I know we have others that have to do with certain decorations or candles that we light. When I think of them, I will let you know, though!
I always hide their special gift (which is usually something they wanted but small enough for this) somewhere in the tree If I give them any gift or game cards, I had found these puzzle boxes that I put the card in & they have to solve the puzzle to get it out. So I can wrap them like a gift & put them in their stockings.
My oldest son, his fiance, & I are the only pagans. So I make a witch’s ball ornament each year that I hang on the tree & when we take it down, I hang it in my room for the rest of the winter. I also make an intention pine cone ornament that hangs on the tree. When I celebrate Imbolc by my fire pit, I put it in there with the past year’s Brigid’s Cross 
during that ritual/celebration.
@Susurrus That’s so fun and wonderful
My mom passed away almost 4 years ago. She loved Christmas and Santa. To her Santa embodied the spirit of Christmas. She was the glue that held our family together. This is the time of year I celebrate her. No sadness for me. I go all out decorating and baking cookies. I’m thinking of a way we might be able to honor her and all of our ancestors. It’s tough because no one besides me likes anything mushy or long and drawn out. My brain isn’t connecting the dots
We don’t do much we stay home I make a ham, turkey or chicken. Rolls, potatoes sweet potatoes and regular. Succotash of veggies a easy dessert. Some TV and napping other than opening gifts lol sometimes he has to work on Christmas. He’s a lab tech.
I have the same types of things. My mom & Nana passed away in 2003. My birth mother passed away in 2021. My mom & Nana were the same, so we’ve always done what we can. I have an ancestor altar now, so I do something special to honor them. I also put their ornaments on my tree or decorations from them. I make dishes or appetizers that they always had for Christmas. My husband & I watch Gone with the Wind each year, too. I did that with them each year for a very long time.
@Devenne It sounds lovely!
@Susurrus you don’t realize the traditions we already have in place until we stop to thik about it!
We are a pair of Grinches, so this is difficult to answer. 
Don’t believe me? Here’s some proof: We really dislike Christmas movies and songs. Would anyone who isn’t a Grinch dislike those things? Exactly. Our scientific name is Grinchosaurus Maximus Rex. 
Okay, enough making fun of myself. 
We do have maznik. It gets made with a coin in it, then cut up into slices. One slice is for the home, and one goes to each person in the family/attendance. If you get the slice with the coin, you will have good fortune and luck for the rest of the year, or something like that. 
It’s silly, but maznik is delicious, so, for once, I don’t complain.
For us, we watch Die Hard, the first one, every year! . I cook the meat the night before, so there’s only veg to do on the day, takes the pressure off.
On the day, we wake up, and open the prezzies (I’m up before the family so I can do my 5 minute coffee with Loki). Then it’s breakfast and munchies. We watch the telly, Christmas tacky shows, till lunch, then have a full lunch where we toast everyone from family, to ancestors, to the gods 
, then it’s games, silly games like charades. In the evening we share ghost stories. 
That’s really cool!
Nice! I like that!
I don’t really like Christmas music either don’t feel bad.
Watching “Gremlins” is my only tradition. Gives me a little of childhood back. My old cat was named Gizmo when I was little after the gremlin.
Awww…I love that movie! I like making my kids watch those movies
My view of Christmas changed a lot once my Mom & Nana passed away within 6 months of each other in 2003. I tried my best to have traditions, decorate, & things because I had 2 children at the time. Now I have 3. However, now they are all older. So in the last couple of years, very few traditions have continued. Each year 1 or 2 more seem to drop off actually. My husband & I will watch Christmas movies now.
The movie Violent Night is a funny & absolutely non-traditional take on a Christmas movie. Definitely a kind of mystery & action movie with a Christmas twist. As well, a different spin on Santa himself, how he came to be, that isn’t a normal portrayal of him. He is actually a past Viking warrior that ended up Santa. Throughout the movie it’s either a very prominent Viking or a representation of Thor, a bit up to the viewer to decide.
I didn’t even get to participate in the decorating this year. It was started while I was out running errands & more than halfway done when I got home. Our kids, I can count on less than 1 hand how many times they have been out here with us to watch any Christmas themed anything or suggest or do anything seasonal with us.
It’s been getting more & more lax as the years continue. So now, any traditions we still have I have kept going really or made newer ones, especially since I actively started practicing again. It’s meaning since my Mom & Nana when they drastically changed over the last few years… continue to have some kind of drastic change. I was just thinking the other day how it’s getting close to just another day except there is a gift or 2 to open before everyone goes their separate ways.
Let’s talk about neighbor countries We also have something similar to this but it is sweet. We call it vasilopita and it comes in two forms one like a round pound cake or tsoureki (easter bread? )
The “ritual” is kind the same but first you scar the pie with a cross so to be blessed, the first slice goes to Christ/Mary/Godetc, the second for the house and the rest for the attendes of the festive table.
That looks delicious! 
The recipe has me super confused, though. I don’t know what it’s referring to with the second and third mixtures. Any idea?
I will check the recipe in greek version to see if it makes more sense xD