I recently asked the BuzzFeed Community to share their favorite holiday traditions that are unique, funny, or heartwarming in the best way possible. Here are their responses:
1. "My family eats pie for breakfast over Thanksgiving weekend. Everyone who brings pie actually brings two: one for the holiday meal and one to eat as breakfast for the next three days. Nothing better than pumpkin pie or apple pie with coffee."
2. "Our rule growing up was that we couldn't leave our rooms on Christmas Day until our parents were awake. Their room was across the house, so my sister and I would get our boom box, put in our kids' Christmas songs tape, and sing along at the top of our lungs until our parents admitted they were awake."
3. "Christmas with my mom's family happens every year on Christmas Eve. Each year Grandma would make homemade chicken salad sandwiches. It was the only time of the year we had them, and they were so delicious. They were an unusual color of green from using pickling juice in the chicken salad. So, between the taste and the color, they were special. I thought everyone had chicken salad sandwiches for Christmas until I was a freshman at college. Our RA hosted a holiday gathering and asked what we were most looking forward to — I, of course, said chicken salad sandwiches with glee. You should have seen people's faces. I was so confused when I found out this wasn't normal."
—Anonymous, 47, Illinois
4. "Ever since I was a kid, after lighting the candles for Chanukkah and singing the prayers, my mom always had us sing 'Dreidel, Dreidel, Dreidel' before we could open any presents. Now, even though both her children are adults (late teens and early 20s, but still), we still sing it after lighting the candles even if there aren’t any presents to open."
5. "We have a massive Hanukkah party for our friends and family, and there is a latke eating contest — who can eat the most in 10 minutes? Oddly enough, a non-Jew has won the past three years lol."
6. "My dad would buy the biggest tree he could find and would cut it in half so it would fit on the display table. The table would be decorated with trains and all Christmas-related items but the tree was bare. We eight kids would go to bed, and in the morning, when we came down, SANTA HAD DECORATED OUR TREE. It was beautiful."
7. "When we were kids, my family had a tradition to shout up the chimney on Christmas Eve before going to bed to tell Santa what we wanted. We had many discussions before Christmas Eve to decide what we wanted, and my parents would always say it wasn't fair on Santa to not have decided well in advance of the shouting. So, no changing your mind at the last minute. Dear Reader, I was close to 30 when I realized no one else did this."
8. "My family has a tradition where we each get our favorite Pop-Tarts in our stockings so my parents don’t have to make breakfast! It started because when my dad was a little kid, his dad was always working on the railroads. Money was tight, and his mom was alone with four boys most of the time. Well, one year, my grandpa was going to be there really early on Christmas morning, and my grandma didn’t want to cook. When he came, he brought new stockings for all of them with their favorite Pop-Tarts."
9. "My family is Italian American. Traditional foods are a huge part of the holiday. Every Christmas Eve, we put out meatballs and a glass of wine for Santa instead of cookies. It's not a big thing, but it's one of those things that makes the holiday feel special."
—Anonymous
10. "Once we were too old for Santa, we started 'receiving' gifts from famous people. I've gotten a lava lamp from Bob Dylan, a fancy pen from Bill Clinton, movies from actors in them, and I've given gifts from famous people, too. It makes guessing what the gift could possibly be fun."
11. "Everyone in my family loves olives. My grandmother always set out a tray of things to nibble on at holidays. The olives were always gone the second they hit the table, so she started giving all of us our own can of olives each holiday. I still put a can of olives in everyone’s stockings."
12. "My family has a list of Christmas movies we HAVE to watch through the season: Jingle All the Way, Preacher’s Wife, The Santa Clause, and such. But we always watched White Christmas on Christmas Eve Eve and It’s a Wonderful Life on Christmas Eve. I thought every family watched these movies on these days until I met my husband who had never even seen White Christmas! Then I got to watch it brand new through his eyes!"
—Anonymous, 33, Georgia
13. "In my family, we celebrate Christmas morning with Bloody Marys, mimosas, shrimp cocktails, and cinnamon rolls. As I've become an adult, Santa gets Bailey's in a mug on Christmas Eve."
—Anonymous, 31, Kentucky
14. "My family didn't do Santa Claus when we were kids. Presents appeared throughout the month under the tree and they all had gift tags stating who the gifts were for. I never missed Santa growing up, but was grateful my folks did it that way. I never had to be devastated that my parents lied to me when I would inevitably find out Santa wasn't real. It made more sense, especially if a friend received more expensive gifts than I did. I really appreciated them doing Christmas this way."
15. "After making pies and cleaning the kitchen on the Wednesday before Thanksgiving, we would have Chinese food for dinner. Still do it, but now we do takeout instead of going out."
—Anonymous, 68, Oregon
16. "When I was younger, my Mooma (great grandma) would have me poke toothpicks through an orange while she would cook Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner. I asked her once why she did it, and she said it was the way her mother got the kids out of her way while she would cook. It makes a really tasty way to clean your teeth when you get ham or turkey stuck in them. I have carried this tradition on to my family."
—Anonymous, 32, Illinois
17. "We leave beer for Santa. My brother and I are the fourth generation that we know of to do this, so it's genuinely a longstanding tradition in my family. One year, I was scared Santa wasn't going to come because we didn't have the right beer. He came, and I was happy."
18. "I lived in the South for a long while, and every Christmas Eve, we went to a Mexican restaurant and then went to midnight mass. Fast forward eight years, and we've moved to the Midwest. When I brought this up, folks looked at me like I had three heads."
—Anonymous, 41
19. "My family has a gift exchange amongst the adults that we’ve been doing since I was six. At the very first one, my uncle gifted my dad one of those boxed fruitcakes, basically a gag gift. Well, my dad saved it for an entire year and then regifted it to my uncle. Thus starting the tradition of 'The Fruitcake.' Every year, the person who gets it writes their name on the box along with the year they received it. Then they give it to someone else the next year. You have to be over 18 to get the fruitcake, and it’s kind of a big deal. Everybody cheers for you when you open it, and it’s become an extra challenge to try and trick the person by disguising its shape in wrapping since everyone knows what the box looks like. This same fruitcake has been passed around for 24 years, which is most of my life, so I always thought it was normal. That is until I saw the confusion on my fiancé’s face when a bunch of people started clapping and cheering for a beat-up old fruitcake."
20. "You know those cheap Santa hats that say silly festive things on them you can find at the Dollar Tree? Like 'Bah-hum-bug,' and, 'Naughty.' My mom bought some almost 20 years ago for our whole family and pretty much forced us to wear them on Christmas morning. 20 years later and we haven’t missed a year of wearing the same exact silly, cheap Santa hats my mom bought back then."
—Anonymous, 34, Missouri
21. And finally, "My grandpa started the 'New Year's Moose' when my mom was little (1950s), and it has stuck in my household. Essentially, whatever Santa 'forgot' to bring you that just broke your little heart not to get, the New Year's Moose would deliver it on New Year's Day. I have no idea what started this, but I love it, and my husband and I use it to give each other fun, random, little things."
Do you have any unique holiday traditions that you grew up with? Let us know in the comments!
Some submissions have been edited for length and/or clarity.