What are your Holiday traditions?

[CottonTALE]

As the title says, what are your traditions you and/or your family follow around the holidays?

My husband and I are Pagan so we celebrate Yule and the Winter Solstice however, I grew up Catholic and most of my extended and immediate family is still Christian... So we still celebrate Christmas with them, just not in the religious way (We partake in giving gifts and having food with family.)

There isn't many pagan traditions for Yule that we follow, but every year around the 20th of December we cook up some fire-roasted seafood (I am ascociated with water, and my husband is ascociated with fire. Thus bringing them together and reminds us of our unity )

For the rest of my family, they usually open their presents at their houses on christmas morning, go to church, then they come together for christmas dinner at my grandparents house. My hubby and I are semi-ostrisized for our religion at family gatherings (escpecially ones revolving around christian holidays) so we usually just talk amongst my brother, his family and my mom.

[kaoskat]

Hubby and I are still working on establishing traditions. We do watch Christmas movies, listen to Christmas music, decorate, and go look at Christmas lights though.

[tikibirds]

Nothing anymore, everyone died off over the years 
Its just me, my mom and sister. My dad is alive but he stays in NYC. And I spent the last 12 years in Alaska and with the price of airfare, seldom came home for christmas.
But when I was younger, we used to have the big family get together on christmas eve because my grandparents and aunt/uncle had other places to go on X mas. SO i got to open pressies at midnight 

[Beldarna]

We're not a religious family and never has been. Christmas for us is about family and getting together. We just hang around each other and talk and eat lots of treats, yummy food and exchange gifts on the christmasevening (called Jul in Swedish btw). Two TV-shows are essential; Donald Ducks christmas special and Karl Bertil Johnsons Julafton (Karl Bertil Johnsons christmas). It's a very old show about a boy from a rich family who dreams about being Robin Hood and steals presents sent from the rich in the post office and hand it out to the poor. Very neat. We also sleep a lot between eating and go out for walks.. and play in the snow Giftopening takes us hours and usually we're not in bed until after midnight. ^^

[shockponie]

Our Christmas plans are... a-typical. I'm celebrating Christmas with the in-laws the Sunday before Christmas and then celebrating it with my family on the Sunday after. We're doing potlucks for both. In-laws will have a ham & a more traditional Christmas dinner while my family will have a BBQ. We're doing Secret Santa with both families. On Christmas day, I'll just see a movie with my MIL & SIL.

[Eviecorn]

I'm non-religious but I do Christmas with the fam.  We do a Dirty Santa since there's so many of us.

[Thrice]

My boyfriend and I get Chinese takeout on Christmas Eve!

[NinaMarie]

My family has developed a few traditions over the years. The first was after my sister and I got old enough to have jobs and our own money we decided to have the Christmas stockings be  filled secret Santa style instead of the parents (aka Santa) fill them all. We draw names from a hat (which can get frustrating with only 4 people) and then fill that stocking so everyone gets surprised.
The next tradition is that we get new pajamas every year. We have always done the thing where we open 1 gift on Christmas eve and do the rest in the morning. We just decided that the Christmas eve gift should be the PJs and then we can wear them that night.
Then our traditional movies are Holiday Inn on Christmas Eve and White Christmas on Christmas Day. I don't really know how this one got started but we do it every year now.

[nollilols]

I'm down at my parents for Christmas. We don't have much in the way of unusual traditions, but we open our Christmas presents after midnight on Christmas Eve.

[Thunderwing]

We have several traditions, but we don't get to do them all every year. This year, we will only be doing the most 'important' one: Getting together with immediate family at Mom's house for a meal, talking, and present-exchange. Usually there are also two large extended-family get togethers, but we can't get to them this year. My mom tends to be funny about gifts, she needs it to all be very organized and drawn out as long as possible. Even stockings have to be opened one gift at a time, one person at a time, I usually open several on the sly just to move things along a little faster. I like to mix things up a bit and tuck a gag gift into a stocking or two. Cute things like 'snowman poop' (little snowballs). 

[Loa]

We hang out with family on Christmas day and usually have either a picnic or a BBQ!

[foalpatrol]

I'm looking forward to Christmas Eve.  It's been my own tradition to spend the day alone, unplug the phone, clean my house, play my cello and then have something amazing for dinner.  Occasionally I will go to the midnight church service by myself.  Despite being an atheist, I was raised in a Christian family so it's nice to remember why we celebrate it.  Not that fussed about Christmas itself - the food is great but I don't like being surrounded by people and having to share a room - nowhere to escape to by myself. 

[Loa]

I'm looking forward to Christmas Eve.  It's been my own tradition to spend the day alone, unplug the phone, clean my house, play my cello and then have something amazing for dinner.  Occasionally I will go to the midnight church service by myself.  Despite being an atheist, I was raised in a Christian family so it's nice to remember why we celebrate it.  Not that fussed about Christmas itself - the food is great but I don't like being surrounded by people and having to share a room - nowhere to escape to by myself. 

That sounds WONDERFUL.

[Haruna]

Every year my mom's side of the family gets together at my aunt and uncle's farmhouse in a semi-rural part of Tennessee. It's fun -- fifteen of us together in a the house, which thankfully has six bedrooms but only two bathrooms. We're pretty close, obviously. Today we just had our Christmas dinner -- tons of arguing in the kitchen, and defrosting turkey, and preparing the stuffing and mashed potatoes and stuff. We also have a tradition of opening gifts the day before Christmas since some of us have to visit our other family on Christmas day, but this year because of schedules we're opening gifts tomorrow (!). We always have my mom wear a Santa hat and hand out gifts one by one, so it can take a while. And we'll go to church tomorrow, too. Always a blessing to spend some time with Jesus, especially this time of year. And another tradition is that we watch the Muppet Christmas Carol . . . best Christmas movie ever.

[minamarie]

when i was little, we celebrated hungarian/christian. Now that i have a family of my owwn we still spend those days with my parents and brother. My parents are leftover 68er so we celebrate with all friends of my brother and me who dont have a family, drink, play singstar and boardgames and eat raclette and salads
I think sharing it with all those lonely people is more in the spirit of christ than any oldschool tradition could be so i hate it when people say its not christmassy enough