What Are Your Holiday Traditions?

[WaLkAwaY]

My holiday traditions (not sure how long it has to be done for it to be a tradition) include:

• I will drive up around Lake Tahoe and go hiking the weekend before Christmas. Been doing this since I have lived in California. But have done it in every state around various mountain ranges.
  
• I will watch Aliens and Aliens 2 whilst making holiday dinner. Been doing this for as long as I can remember or as long at least as I have been making holiday dinner.
  
• I make a huge, I am talking HUGE holiday spread. I do this expecting my brother and some of the guys he works with to be home but more often than not I get stuck eating it alone.
  
• I go watch a movie in a theater. Usually xmas day or the night before. You would think they would be closed but it is actually a pretty busy night for theaters. Not sure of the title this year I have not looked.
  
• I get a Holiday card picture taken, with my dog. That might seem strange to some of you but she is my best friend.
  
• I go to San Francisco and watch the Nutcracker Ballet in the War Memorial Opera House. Been doing this every single year. Have only missed 7 I think.
  
• Myself and a friend (sometimes my brother) will go to the mall and watch people. We will sit across from each other and take a pad of drawing paper and colored pens and draw a picture of someone in the crowd that the other person has to guess which person it is. Like I will draw a Christmas tree and the other person picks out the person in the crowd who is wearing a green shirt and brown pants. It might sound stupid but it is fun.

My brother and I have a lot of friends that have died as the result of war. We used to visit their graves but out of practicality we decided that we should pick one place and then just read their names out loud reminisce about them. I visited the Arlington National Cemetery last year and this is something I am making into a tradition, I will either visit the Arlington National Cemetery in Virginia or I visit the National Cemetery located at the Presidio of San Francisco.

Well I think that is it. I might think of some more things that I have done but up until now I have not seen a pattern.

What are yours?

 

[JennyM]

Sounds awesome... apart from all the cooking you do for empty chairs.... it must be so gut-wrenchingly disappointing for you when your brother & friends can't come... I truly hope this year is different & you have lots of people with you for Christmas!.

For me its just a simple Christmas, my brother comes down Christmas eve, I make mulled wine with lots of cinnamon, we watch a movie, listen to music, get the kids presents all arranged - every year the pile gets smaller & smaller, no more toys, its dvd's books, pc games now, so its hard to make it look as exciting as it did when the kids were tiny lol! But yeah I'm excited nonetheless;

Christmas morning the kids Dad comes over to see the boys open their pressies & spend some time with them; I cook dinner for my mum, dad, brother & my kids. After dinner Mum & Dad watches the Queen's speech, while the rest of us play computer games then watch a movie or whatever else is on TV.

 

[SWAT_Glock]

I work almost every Holiday...but hanging out with one of you guys (gals I mean) sounds like some fun.

 

[JennyM]

Aww poor you! Will u get a nice Christmas dinner even?

 

[SWAT_Glock]

They catered Thanksgiving dinner so hopefully they will do the same for Xmas. The food was actually pretty good.

 

[DDuB420]

My holiday traditions are pretty much the norm, I think.
-Watch Christmas cartoons with the family (Grinch,Frosty...etc) Usually what ever show is on heavy rotation on TV.
-Get together with my entire family and have a huge feast.
-Fall asleep early from eating too much turkey.

 

[MattyB]

I will be back up at work as usual. Since I work 2 weeks on and 2 weeks off, my roster changes 1 day each year and 2 days on leap years. This pretty much means I will have the next 6 or 7 Christmas' away at work. The GF is coming up to visit for a few days this year but I will miss my sis, bro in law and my 2 little nieces coming over from Sydney for the holidays. Instead, I get to wake up at 5am to go to work. I think I'll let myself leave early on Xmas day though.

This year I went back to work the day before my birthday which means I have about 10 years of birthdays away from home unless my roster changes. Awesome tradition in the making!!

 

[JennyM]

Aww, you'd think they'd change the rota's a bit for christmas... poor you

 

[adityadragoniyer]

Nothing special just laze at home doing usual stuff. That post of yours makes me want to go somewhere too.

 

[AeonSoul]

Meh, pretty much the usual stuff:
On Christmas eve we'll go to my uncle's (my mom's brother) house in the countryside, spend time there with my grandparents and my unles and some other parents from the side of my uncle's wife family. We'll eat there till midnight, exchange presents, and afterwards I think I'll go back in town to hang out with my friends, play card games and stuff. And eat cookies.
On the Christmas day I'll go back to my uncle's place and pretty much do the same thing.
Then on the other holyday days we'll visit my father's family and my other uncles, eat till we die and then again hang out with friends in the night.
Nothing really special, it's not like we have some specific patterns, nor we ever had. Things also fell kinda apart since my grandmother died (my father's mom) back in 2006, and even more since my father passed away in 2009. We tend to spend more time with my mom's family now, but to be honest, I don't really care. I never liked Christmas that much, but that's probably because I don't like my relatives either D:

 

[JennyM]

You sure are gonna be spending a lot of time with relatives - kinda sucks that u don't like them lol! Is there no cousins u can game with, while the oldies do their thing?

 

[AeonSoul]

My cousins are all older than me, and I don't like them either D:

 

[JennyM]

In that case, I hope u enjoy the evenings with ur mates, lol!

 

[AeonSoul]

Yeah I'm counting on that too, at least D: