Strange holiday traditions you have

[NovelNerd]

I'm sure we all have holiday traditions that are a bit different than most. The first one that comes to mind is that my sister and I watch Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas Christmas morning. My sister loves Depp, and I love the actual novel.  I bought the movie for her years and years ago. Despite no longer being a child my sister still wakes us up early at like 5 am to open gifts. That one year she woke me up at three, and we watched  the movie I got her. Now, every year when she wakes me up early we watch it. I had thought originally it was a way to entertain her and let my parents sleep longer. I never realized it would become a tradition.

What are some odd traditions you have?

[mlp4me]

Sadly our tradition is that we really don't have traditional things we do any more. The tree goes up around thanksgiving and stays up until easter... That's about it.

[Corona]

Every year we order Chinese food and watch the original claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the animated Boris Karloff version of the Grinch.

We're adding a dramatic family reading of a story; the Christmas special of the "stories of me wrapping Roy Orbison in clingfilm" website this year. I hope it sticks.

[wyndstar]

i dunno if it's strange but every year my sister and i would get to open a present on christmas eve... and it was pajamas! so of course we would wear them that night.
now that we're adult children... we still get jammies for christmas! lol!
my mom asked me this year if i still want jammies. uh yah!

my sister and i actually sleep over at my parents house christmas eve. we're both single and no kids so it works. my sister works in camp and usually has to go back christmas day (this year she might have to go back christmas eve ) so we have our christmas eve presents and dinner, open presents in the morning, have brunch with our aunt and uncle and then drive my sister to the airport.

[ashes]

I make home-made cinnamon rolls for Christmas morning.    My kids love 'em!  I guess that's probably not a strange tradition, but it's one we like. 

And while we decorate the tree, we eat popcorn and have Elf playing in the background. 

We do celebrate the Advent in the Sundays leading up to Christmas, then on Christmas Eve we read the story of the Savior's birth from the New Testament and sing Christmas carols. 

This year I would like to start a new tradition of doing something like donating to Toys for Tots or the Giving Tree - and having my girls involved in the process.  I think it's a great way to teach them about giving service and helping out other children and people.

[iluvponiez]

Corona, I actually get Chinese food too! My sister-friend, fiance and I all get together and eat Chinese food and watch movies and play video games.

[Keelee_von_Cupcake]

Oh! I've got one! (I think...) Every holiday season, I bring out the Very Scary Solstice Carols - traditional carols redone with Lovecraft-themed lyrics by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society.

They fill me with holiday joy. I also make sure that's what's playing when I open pressies. An example:
"It's Beginning to Look a Lot Like Fish-Men!" https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ij8__4mNa64

And here's the site of the lovely people who make them: http://www.cthulhulives.org/solstice/

My other tradition is a lot less strange, I think - I always marathon seasonal specials and movies this month to help get into the spirit. There's so much good stuff out there that I try to change up the list each time to give other things a chance, but three movies are permanent, and I absolutely must watch them every year:
1. How the Grinch Stole Christmas! (The original cartoon, of course.)
2. The Muppet Christmas Carol (I love this story! One year I swear I watched at least 6 different versions of it. But I suspect this version will forever be my favorite!)
3. Black Xmas (A wonderfully twisted holiday horror slasher movie. )

So those are my personal solstice traditions. I'd like to have more some day (like decorating a spooky tree and sending out Lovecraft-themed cards), because I think it's a fun way to keep the holidays interesting and enjoyable, but as a poor student living in an apartment with a roommate this is the best I can do right now.

[nollilols]

We open our presents just after midnight on Christmas Eve before going to bed. We also watch Star Trek: Generations every year as we're a big bunch of TNG fans and find that movie very Christmassy for some reason!

[Rosencrantz]

Pleasant family get-togethers, according to how television shows holiday family stuff.

[Marlin]

Fake, black, plastic flies.

Christmas falls in our humid summer here, which is when flies are rife. One year when I was a little kid, my dad stuck a couple of these tiny fake flies on my gramp's christmas dinner when he wasn't looking. His eyes not being what they used to be, he didn't realise that they weren't real and went on this violent tirade of cursing whilst frantically trying to shoo them off his much anticipated turkey 

It's become an in-joke ever since and a reoccurring prank 

[Beldarna]

In Sweden we exchange gifts and celebrate during Christmas eve. Every year at 3 pm there is a Donald Duck christmas special on TV and I think half the country sits down and watch it and has done so since the 1960's. Not very strange to us, but maybe for the rest of the world? There's also another cartoon around 7 pm which we watch. Inbetween those shows we eat dinner and after the late one we exchange gifts. When that's done we have to excersise to make place in our tummys for desert so the younger crowd go out to play in the snow. Mind we're all in our late 20's early 30's but we roll in the hills and have snowballfighs etc. It's a blast. Usually our christmascelebration ends around midnight.

[Kiwi]

I'm not sure if I have much for weird traditions, but definitely some that "it's not Christmas unless...".

- have to listen to Boney M Christmas
- have to go see the Santa Claus Parade
- have to wear my Santa hat all December (from the day of the parade until Christmas)
- have to make mom's shortbread cookies (we all love helping kneed the dough)

[NoDivision]

The tradition that I love the most and get the biggest kick out of is that my family always listens to Bob Marley during Christmas breakfast

[Aflame]

We open our presents just after midnight on Christmas Eve before going to bed. We also watch Star Trek: Generations every year as we're a big bunch of TNG fans and find that movie very Christmassy for some reason!

in the nexus picard has a family xmas with the nephew that died in a fire there is a big decorated tree and guinen  apperes on a merry go round !


i dont have room for a tree so i get the dream castel out and put lights and pipecleaner tinsel on it with merry treat ,stocking and scotts pine (a boy pony xmas custom )in with a pile of choc pressies  for the other ponys also when my OH charmer  gets the xmas radio times we both circle what we want to watch ,and with the snowman toystory3 and dr who xmas special (where he will probably regenorate ) i will be crying alot so tissues at the ready !!!! xaflamex

[Marigold]

Fake, black, plastic flies.

This is awesome!