Now that the "holiday" season is upon us, I was thinking about traditions we may have for the holidays.  I came from a family that did not have a lot of traditions, and the the few we had I was not necessarily able to carry on once I married.  Since adulthood, I have not lived in the same town as any family, so the big family dinners have never been much of an option without having significant travel.

What kind of traditions do you have?  This can include any holiday traditions, not just Christmas.  It might be certain foods are prepared (and eaten ;) ), it might be using special dishes/silverware, putting up certain decorations, going somewhere special.  Tell us!

My X-mass tradition is to watch "A Christmas Carol" at 12:00 on x-mass eve with all the lights out and just the tree on and lots of snacks.  And it has to be the Alister Simm verison in B&W. http://smilies.sofrayt.com/1/j/xmas.gif And there was a sweet treat my Mum use to make called "struveles" (sp?) it's an Italian pastry that shaped like little balls and is drizzled with honey, colored sprinkles and chocolate chips. Another is to place a little red bow on the grill of my 1987 Volvo on x-mass as she was a x-mass present three years ago.

On Easter we would visit family at the cemetery and bring flowers.  I cannot do that anymore as they are in another country but I do remember them in my prayers.

A tradition on my wedding anniversary is for hubby to sing "Happy Anniversary" to me like the police did on an episode of "The Flinstones"!  LOL!  Oh that is always fun!

Lisabelle wrote on Nov 15^th, 2006 at 7:38pm:

A tradition on my wedding anniversary is for hubby to sing "Happy Anniversary" to me like the police did on an episode of "The Flinstones"!  LOL!  Oh that is always fun!

LOL!  I'd love to see that!

Our anniversary tradition is to go camping and have 1" thick Iowa pork chops grilled over the campfire.  We have stuck to the camping tradition even for our 25th anniversary, when we invited 50 people to come camping with us!

I'm sure that this Christmas we'll begin a couple of traditions- just because we have room to do so.

But, here's what we have now.

Our Christmas time follows usually the same pattern: on Christmas Eve, we'll visit T's relatives. The presents are given on Christmas Eve too. They are usually quite small. Hand/homemade gifts are always highly appreciated.
We'll come home for night and spend the Christmas day at home enjoying the peace and on Boxing Day we'll invite my mother for a Christmas lunch.
Because our last home was so small, we have very few decorations. Some lights to put in the windows, some flowers, candles and an angel that always goes to "supervise" our Christmas from on top of a certain cupboard. I don't know if we'll get a Christmas tree this year though. If we do, it will be rather simply decorated, as is traditional.
    In Finland, nearly everyone eats traditional Christmas dishes. All Christmas time meals are huge, and according to tradition the food should be left overnight to a cool porch so anyone who wants to can easily to fetch some food during the night. There is always a baked ham (sometimes turkey), Christmas casseroles (potato, swede, carrot), rice porridge, fish, gingerbread biscuits and lots of other dishes, more or less traditional. There is usually so much food that people eat it almost until New Year. That's ok though because Christmas dishes are never eaten at other times of the year.    

Our family traditions might seem rather silly...and we don't do them every year, but we try.

One of which is somewhere between Thanksgiving and Christmas, my mother, sister and I will get together with my aunt & her children (either at our house or theirs) and make zillions of cookies. Every kind you can imagine. From scratch - none of that prepackaged nonsense. It's great fun, both for the hilarity that ensues while making everything (oh the stories we have of burned batches, sparking, smoking, vintage hand mixers, long hair getting caught in the beaters, etc.) but also for the conversations we have in the process.
   Usually, right as we're finishing up, the dads from both families will "suddenly" show up and start lifting cookies for themselves.  ::)  But it's alright because there's always plenty more where that came from.
   When everything is done, we divide the cookies evenly between the 2 families, keeping some for ourselves and giving the rest out to friends, family, co-workers, etc.

Another little "tradition" we have is just before Christmas, when everyone has their lights up, my father will fire up my mother's 1964½ Mustang convertible and take as many people will fit into it around town to look at lights. Naturally, the ragtop is down & the Santa hats are on.  ::)  
   Usually, it's only my parents, my sister & her friends that fit into the Mustang, so I'll follow them in my own car...with the heater on, thank you, and no embarrassing Santa hat.  ;)

Angel:  Those traditions sound wonderful!  When my boys were little, we used to go around the immediate neighborhood for a "light walk".  I remember one year my son, who was about five at the time,  stopped dead in his tracks in front of one extravagantly decorated house, opened his arms and
said in a hushed voice "That is just LOVELY!!"  I don't know where he got that expression, but it cracked me up.  My husband and I still like to go for a "light ride" every year.

lol silvermayne...that's too cute.

Our Thanksgiving traditions have changed over the years.  Initially, my husband would be gone the week of Thanksgiving since that is deer hunting season in Wisconsin.  I would usually fix myself a peanut butter and jelly sandwich for my Thanksgiving dinner.  We would then feast on the venison tenderloins once he returned from hunting, having a delayed Thanksgiving dinner.

Since moving to Minnesota and hubby is hunting here, the season is before Thanksgiving and he is no longer gone for the holiday.  We still don't have a big dinner, but we do reserve the tenderloins from his most recent deer to eat for our Thanksgiving dinner.  Along with with the venison, we have sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce and apple pie served with ice cream.  It is a simple meal, but one we always look forward to.