Holiday Season Traditions

What are some traditions you and your family do this time of year?

I always get a live Christmas tree the day after thanksgiving, we all load up and go pick it out.

I have a friend in pcola who puts a pickle ornament on her tree and has Christmas parties and whoever finds it gets a prize. fun..

care to share something you and your family does?

Family gets together on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Turkey on Thanksgiving.

Duck or goose, with orange sauce on the side, on Christmas.

*****SMILE*****

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2mh5zPj7Lc

 

Turkey for Thanksgiving and Turkey and Ham for Christmas.

Will have about 20 for Thanksgiving. Oldest daughter and her family will be in Ft. Myers for Thanksgiving.

Wrap a couple presents, leave them in front of your own door, tie a fishing line to them and attach the other end to a Christmas bell in your greeting room(living room for you people). When the bell rings, a burglar get his wings. Baseball bat works fine for making the "angel" get his wings after the bell rings.

gulfbeachbandit wrote:Wrap a couple presents, leave them in front of your own door, tie a fishing line to them and attach the other end to a Christmas bell in your greeting room(living room for you people).  When the bell rings, a burglar get his wings.  Baseball bat works fine for making the "angel" get his wings after the bell rings.

 

as a teen we used to tie fishing line to a purse and toss it in the road and hide in the woods. when someone would stop and bend over, we would pull it towards us out of their hands and laugh and laugh lol

one guy chased us one day lol

Sal wrote:We used to go get our tree, and then a sack of White Castles while we decorated it. 


No White Castles down here. 


The frozen microwaveables are no substitute.   


 

Bush and I thank you for your contribution. Which explains why it's not in commie central. The I-4 lefty central.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/lauriebennett/2012/07/23/red-plate-blue-plate-fast-food-by-political-persuasion/

Chrissy wrote:What are some traditions you and your family do this time of year?

I always get a live Christmas tree the day after thanksgiving, we all load up and go pick it out.

I have a friend in pcola who puts a pickle ornament on her tree and has Christmas parties and whoever finds it gets a prize. fun..

care to share something you and your family does?

Welcome back Chrissy --Now bring the sun with you im cold   I usually put a tree up the day after Thanksgiving -- depends on my mood at the time .

For Thanksgiving, we'll have the usual --turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, cranberry sauce...  Son's birthday is Thanksgiving week, so we'll celebrate that on Thanksgiving.      

We like to go to a tree farm and cut our own Christmas tree.  I've found a place in Middleburg (Chrissy will know where Middleburg is!) so that's where we'll go for the tree.   Not the day after Thanksgiving though...probably sometime in the first week of Dec.

It was always my job to put the lights on the tree. I had to have them spaced correctly and the wires hidden. In my effort to reduce stress years ago....I bought an artificial tree with lights. No hassle, just plug it in and add some scented pine cones for the aroma of a real tree.

When I was a kid, we put the tree and all the decorations up about a week before Christmas, and took it all down on New Year's Day, and everybody I knew of did pretty much the same.

The first time I saw a family putting a Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving, I thought, "those people are insane".

Now it's commonplace, and some people leave all that stuff up until February.

lol

I despise Christmas . . . .

Sal wrote:When I was a kid, we put the tree and all the decorations up about a week before Christmas, and took it all down on New Year's Day, and everybody I knew of did pretty much the same.

The first time I saw a family putting a Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving, I thought, "those people are insane".

Now it's commonplace, and some people leave all that stuff up until February.

lol

Taking a tree down is depressing....unless it is a real tree that is losing needles at record speed.

Joanimaroni wrote:It was always my job to put the lights on the tree.  I had to have them spaced correctly and the wires hidden. In my effort to reduce stress years ago....I bought an artificial tree with lights. No hassle, just plug it in and add some scented pine cones for the aroma of a real tree.

We had an artificial tree in Japan, with the lights in it.  It is easy, no doubt.  No stringing the lights on the tree and trying to get them just right. I obsess about that kind of thing too, lol.    But I missed a real tree the entire time.  When we were newly married and living in the great State of Washington, on our first Christmas together we went to a Christmas tree farm and chose our own tree.  It was the neatest thing to me.  They had Christmas songs playing, Santa Claus was there, they were serving hot chocolate.  It was GREAT!  Christmas tree farms  were not popular in Florida at the time and I never even knew there was such a place where you could go and cut down your own tree (legally, lol).  And of course, in WA State, they have GREAT trees.  That experience...our first Christmas together and choosing our tree and hubby cutting it down has remained with me over the years.  In Florida, we will have to settle for whatever they have on the farm.  Florida isn't known for growing great Christmas trees.  The ornaments will probably be falling off.  Cats will love that, lol.

knothead wrote:I despise Christmas . . . .

We have a real, live Grinch on our forum?

Joanimaroni wrote:

Sal wrote:When I was a kid, we put the tree and all the decorations up about a week before Christmas, and took it all down on New Year's Day, and everybody I knew of did pretty much the same.

The first time I saw a family putting a Christmas tree up the day after Thanksgiving, I thought, "those people are insane".

Now it's commonplace, and some people leave all that stuff up until February.

lol

Taking a tree down is depressing....unless it is a real tree that is losing needles at record speed.

It is!  I hate taking the tree down.  First week of January...holidays are over and it's  just cold and dreary and depressing and you still have weeks of cold weather left.....at least it's not as bad in Florida.

Nekochan wrote:

knothead wrote:I despise Christmas . . . .

We have a real, live Grinch on our forum?

For a fact neko . . . . at least I don't deny it. It's such a relief after it's over!

knothead wrote:

Nekochan wrote:

knothead wrote:I despise Christmas . . . .

We have a real, live Grinch on our forum?

For a fact neko . . . . at least I don't deny it.  It's such a relief after it's over!

You know they say that depression hits people hardest at Christmas.  I'm not talking about you...I understand that you just don't like it for whatever reason.   But people often have such high expectations of the holidays and they often don't pan out.  For some it's just a memory of better times in the past that they will never be able to have again....because people they love have died or moved on.   I have to admit that I do like Christmas, not just the religious aspect of it, but the decorations, and just the spirit of it.  But I'm with Joani...taking the tree down is depressing.  I HATE January.  And February isn't much better.  But this year we're back in Florida so hopefully it won't be so cold and dreary for me.

All of my family traditions growing up sorta went out the window when I married a MidWest farmer's daughter and moved to Iowa.  One of the Impette's family traditions is Oyster chowder and chili for Thanksgiving.  After 10 years, I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that one.

Family traditions I miss when I was growing up are Gin Fizzes with Thanksgiving breakfast. Yah, it may be a bit weird but, they sure were good.  Going up into the mountains and cutting our Christmas tree.  We always made a whole day out of it.  It always ended with a meal at our favorite greasy spoon in Mt. Shasta before we would head back down the mountain with the tree.  I miss the smell of fresh cut pine trees in the house.

The gin fizzes were similar to this but with a dash of nutmeg on top: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/emeril-lagasse/ramous-gin-fizz-recipe/index.html

ImpishScoundrel wrote:All of my family traditions growing up sorta went out the window when I married a MidWest farmer's daughter and moved to Iowa.  One of the Impette's family traditions is Oyster chowder and chili for Thanksgiving.  After 10 years, I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that one.

Family traditions I miss when I was growing up are Gin Fizzes with Thanksgiving breakfast. Yah, it may be a bit weird but, they sure were good.  Going up into the mountains and cutting our Christmas tree.  We always made a whole day out of it.  It always ended with a meal at our favorite greasy spoon in Mt. Shasta before we would head back down the mountain with the tree.  I miss the smell of fresh cut pine trees in the house.

You're from Northern CA?

Nekochan wrote:

ImpishScoundrel wrote:All of my family traditions growing up sorta went out the window when I married a MidWest farmer's daughter and moved to Iowa.  One of the Impette's family traditions is Oyster chowder and chili for Thanksgiving.  After 10 years, I'm still trying to wrap my brain around that one.

Family traditions I miss when I was growing up are Gin Fizzes with Thanksgiving breakfast. Yah, it may be a bit weird but, they sure were good.  Going up into the mountains and cutting our Christmas tree.  We always made a whole day out of it.  It always ended with a meal at our favorite greasy spoon in Mt. Shasta before we would head back down the mountain with the tree.  I miss the smell of fresh cut pine trees in the house.

You're from Northern CA?

Born and raised.

I've only been through that area of CA a couple of times--driving to and from WA State.  But it's a beautiful part of CA.  And there are not all the loony tunes up in that area, are there?  That is, until you cross over into Oregon.  lol.

Nekochan wrote:I've only been through that area of CA a couple of times--driving to and from WA State.  But it's a beautiful part of CA.  And there are not all the loony tunes up in that area, are there?  That is, until you cross over into Oregon.  lol.

I admit, aside from the blistering heat in the middle of summer, it was a great place to live if you enjoyed the outdoors. Within 30 minutes from my home in Redding, I could be fishing for monster trout in one of the largest lakes in CA, trail hiking up in the mountains, fly fishing in one of the best trophy trout rivers in the nation, or snow skiing down Mt. Shasta in the winter. If I wanted to drive West for 2 /12 hours, I could be doing a myriad things on the Pacific Coast.

Unfortunately, the lack of good paying jobs North of Sac, the politics and bureaucracy, and the outrageous cost of living made leaving not very painful at all.

Oh, and to answer your question... No, not a lot of loony tunes but, when I left, there were too many meth heads and too many pot farms up in the hills for my liking.

ImpishScoundrel wrote:

Nekochan wrote:I've only been through that area of CA a couple of times--driving to and from WA State.  But it's a beautiful part of CA.  And there are not all the loony tunes up in that area, are there?  That is, until you cross over into Oregon.  lol.

I admit, aside from the blistering heat in the middle of summer, it was a great place to live if you enjoyed the outdoors.  Within 30 minutes from my home in Redding, I could be fishing for monster trout in one of the largest lakes in CA, trail hiking up in the mountains, fly fishing in one of the best trophy trout rivers in the nation, or snow skiing down Mt. Shasta in the winter.  If I wanted to drive West for 2 /12 hours, I could be doing a myriad things on the Pacific Coast.

Unfortunately, the lack of good paying jobs North of Sac, the politics and bureaucracy, and the outrageous cost of living made leaving not very painful at all.

Oh, and to answer your question...  No, not a lot of loony tunes but, when I left, there were too many meth heads and too many pot farms up in the hills for my liking.

Chili for Thanksgiving? I have an Iowain coming for Thanksgiving and he is not getting chili.

We put up the outdoor lights and yard decorations starting the day after Thanksgiving. Then we decorate the inside of the house. We get our fresh tree the following weekend. We spend all weekend decorating the tree because of have hundred of ornaments and I cannot stand to leave any of them off the tree. We start taking decorations down January 2nd.

We have so many decorations it looks like someone just vomited Christmas all over our house and yard.   But I love it!