How Do You Celebrate Christmas?

[Hattuchili]

How Do You Celebrate Christmas?

Let us all know!

 

Hey everyone,

I wrote a little Photo TR, where I told you how we in Germany celebrate Christmas! Here you found my PTR: Sören´s christmas eve ! Now I am curious how the rest of you are celebrating this special day? Let us know your personal story!

 

--Sören

[Chris Benvenuto]

Basically, my family and our exchange student (from China our 11th one!)

 

With the exchange students, we've had: 4 germans, 2 ukranian, 2 russian, 2 koreans and 1 chinese (currently).

 

anywho, we all wake up and open up our presents with each other.

and get the christmas feast ready as well after the presents are done.

[coasterdude5]

Yeah, we wake up wait until all of our family arrives, then we open presents. Pretty much the same routine every year. But it's a nice routine!

[Token Yankee Guy]

We keep to tradition in our family. It starts off on Christmas Eve when we go to the evening church service at our church which gets out after midnight. Then the next morning when we all wake up and had coffee, we sit in our usual places in the Green Room (Living Room), and we open presents one by one by going in a clockwise direction. After that my parents, sister, and I get our stockings and check out what's in there. After that we have breakfast close to noon.

[coasters 4 me]

Well, it starts by waking up at like 7:00am. Then open presents. I go out and see friends after. Then I have to go to Church (It sucks), then get home, go see granny, come home and get dinner, relax and then go to cousins for a good night. Come home at about 12, then go to bed!

 

So far, this Christmas has been really good!

[DerekRx]

The usual tradition was get together at my grandmother's on Christmas eve, have dinner, go to church, then open gifts. Christmas morning I would wake up around 8 or 9, open my gifts, have my step-brother try to steal them all. After opening gifts, I'd go play with them or set them up, then eat dinner. Afterwards, I'd end up getting stuck with clean up duty while my step-brother did nothing or retreated to another house. Then my family would fight and wouldn't talk to each other for the rest of the year.

 

Then I went off to college in Florida, so I didn't always come home for Christmas. Usually I'd work for more money, or if my mom would come down, we'd go to Disney.

 

This year we all got together at my Grandmother's on Christmas eve, exchanged gifts and ate sloppy joes and macaroni salad. I decided it was warm out, so I went to wash my car. Then I went home where I sat on the computer for the rest of the night.

 

Christmas day I woke up at 11, ate breakfast, and went on the computer. At some point today my mom will come over and we'll have some ham and exchange gifts, and then I'll most likely watch some DVDs I got for the big day.

 

The tradition has changed a lot since I was a kid, and probably in the future I'll be like the Alveys and decide to just travel for the holiday. I hear Hong Kong and Japan are nice this time of year

[niiicolaaah]

+Church and dinner with the 'rents

+My dad tries to make my mom drink more and more wine

+My dad tries to overindulge on dessert but we keep reminding him he's diabetic and he stops lol

+My dad breaks out the x-mas 1990 tape where he plays guitar and i sing.. it was recorded on the 4-track and i put down a harmony track too... parents marvel at how i was able to harmonize at age 7

+I give ice cream/whipped cream/some form of dairy product to the cat, who later barfs and/or has an accident somewhere

 

I'm not all about the big family stuff on Christmas. I know I sure as hell won't be cooking any crazy big dinners for MY family! lol.

[Wes]

The family tradition of sacrificing babies and pissing on nativity scenes.

[sfmmFREAK]

i got up at 6 and out of a bet, went around the block in just my boxers. then watch my family guy DVD's until my brother comes, and my sister wakes up. then we rip apart all the gifts. i got family guy season 3, simpsons season 6&7, nolimits, Need For Speed most wanted, American Pie: bandcam unrated, a SONY cam-corder and See's Candy. my mom got a pair of Ugg boots, my brother got dukes of hazzard, my sister got a few things from victoria's secret, and my other brother got a bike.

[stingrock23]

On Christmas Eve, my mom's side of the family usually gathers somewhere. This year it was at my parents' house. Christmas Day is usually just the immediate family. My grandma(dad's mom) usually comes over, but it's pretty laid back.

 

This year on Christmas Eve, my brother got engaged, so it was more exciting than normal Christmas Eve's are.

[dj snow]

At the crack of dawn, everyone piles into the car (even Plinky the dog) and we head down to the convenience store. There, we gather the traditional Christmas breakfast burritos and biscuits, and eat it in the parking lot, washing it all down with some ice-cold Clamato.

 

Then we get back in the car, headed down to the touchless automatic car wash. After inserting the $8.00 for a Deluxe wash, we drive in and watch the show of lights, suds and spray. The baby wakes up and cries, and Plinky is always nervous in the car wash, so she makes a mess on the carpet. We can't open the windows because we're in a car wash, so the smell gets to be a bit thick inside.

 

Mercifully the car wash ends, and with hands covering noses, we exit the car wash and immediately open all the windows for some fresh air. The wintry air fills the vehicle, and we all burst into song. Christmas classics like "One-Two-Three-Four-Five-Six-Seven-Eight-Nine-Ten-Eleven-Twelve" and "Rock and Roll McDonald's" float out the windows and into our neighbors' appreciative ears, spreading the spirit of the holiday.

 

Back at home, it's time to exchange the Christmas minerals. This year I got zinc. Plinky got a chew toy made of sulfur. She doesn't seem to like it very much.

 

The rest of the day is mostly spent snacking on calamari and fresh strawberries, drinking buttermilk and watching The Weather Channel by the fire.

 

That's our holiday tradition. I wouldn't trade it for anything.