S/O; How many of you consider yourselves as having an unusual Thanksgiving/Christmas

[Alyce]

At Thanksgiving my Dh's family all rent a beachfront house on one of the southern beaches of NC and spend the week there. We have a traditional dinner on Thursday which is served buffet style. We usually have about 20-24 people there that day and about 16 that stay most of the week. Been doing this for 15 years now. Some can no longer be with us do to help but others that have grown up &/or gotten married and have children are now joining us.

 

For Christmas we have home made Pizza. Several years ago kids told us they didn't really like turkey and it's not one of my favorites either. So we asked them what they wanted and of course kids being kids they said Pizza. So now our traditional Christmas meal is pizza. We make 2 batches of dough cut them so their is four batches. Each person gets to spread out his dough in any shape they want (one year Dd did a Christmas Tree). We fry some bacon,hambuger, sausage, have some ham, pepperoni, mushrooms, onions, green peppers and jalopeno peppers along with mozzerella cheese and sauce. We add what we want and how much we want and then we cook them. We usually have enough for at least one other meal for each of us. It's all gone in two days and it's fairly easy to clean. That has now become our traditional Christmas dinner. IF I even come close to suggesting anything else my two teenagers act as if they are 6 year olds and start having fits.

[MomOfOneFunOne]

maybe we do . . .

 

I guess we do for Thanksgiving. We go camping. We don't take traditional Thanksgiving foods but regular campfire food although we've been known to go into town for a "traditional" meal at a restaurant. Though how trad it could be with 2 out of 3 family members vegetarian, I don't know. ;)

 

It could be said that our Christmas is non-traditional but I actually think it's traditional. Either way, we are Catholic and honor and focus on Advent during Advent. We don't celebrate Christmas until Christmas day and through the Christmas season. Our tree goes up Christmas Eve. We make sacrifices, fast, and focus on the waiting aspect during the prelude to Christmas that is really when most ppl seem to be celebrating. Then, when everyone else seems to be winding down and taking down the decorations, we're just getting started.

 

The one weird wrench in this is Christmas music. We dont' listen to Christmas CDs, et c. until Christmas but on our instruments we have to be playing all through Advent to have our music ready for Christmas. Not too bad, I guess.

 

We like to bake a birthday cake for Christmas dessert.

[NanceXToo]

Not generally speaking (it would be Thanksgiving/Hanukkah for us), but a couple of years ago we did make a "suntanned turkey" much to everyone's amusement :D

 

When we baked it, we put an aluminium foil "bikini" on it so that when it's done and you take the "bikini" off, it has tan lines. We dressed it up some with a tiny piece of clean towel over one wing, a shot glass tucked underneath the other with a paper umbrella under it, and we found a little mini travel shampoo bottle that we wrapped with a label that said "Sun Tan Oil."

 

Everyone got a kick out of it :D

[MomOfOneFunOne]

:lol::lol::lol:

[JudoMom]

We typically celebrate at Grandma's house. That part's not unusual, but that after dinner Annual Skeet Shooting contest is. Once lunch is over, almost all the men (and a few brave women) take their shotguns to the back field and compete for the travelling trophy.

 

I also don't cook on Christmas. I fill the table with bowls of candy, plates of cookies, cheese & crackers, fruit, etc. My boys know it's the one day of the year that they can eat whatever they want, as long as they don't act crazy--otherwise they'll be cut off from the sugar.

[Peela]

Well here Down Under I am sure our various Christmas traditions seem odd- it is the middle of summer here and in most places in Australia it is stinking hot.

Over the years we have done various things. As a kid we would have a BBQ for lunch- often seafood. ("throw another prawn on the barbie" is a traditional Aussie saying. Peopel often cook outside because of the heat.) We would cut off a gumtree branch and decorate it instead of a fir tree (silly fir trees- not suitable for Australia at all, especially in the middle of summer). From my childhood I have memories of lots of laughter, extended family- and rather a lot of alcohol, but no nasty behaviour. Just joviality.

Dh and I only really celebrate Christmas for the kids- and we live too far from my family unfortunately, for those big family Christmases. His family are rather...staid and boring and conservative and not so fun.

We often go to the beach on Christmas morning (along with plenty of other people) and then open presents, then go to his mother's for lunch, or have it at our place, or one of his brother's. His family. Its ok. Not really fun but ok. We decided last year not to do it, to stay home...but the kids told us it was boring at home and they would rather boring granmas than boring home- at least its something different.

I miss my family for Christmas. We did it a few years back- all went across the country, as an uncle was dying and we wanted one last Christmas with him. But its a long way.

 

On Boxing Day we always have a pool party at our place- lots of friends. Thats the fun part.

[FaithManor]

Our Thanksgiving is fairly traditional but our large family Christmas Eve is not.

 

The adults do not exchange gifts and we've severely limited how much is spent on the children's exchange. We eat brunch instead of a traditional meal and it is served buffet style on chinette plates so that mom and I are not washing a hideous amount of dishes. We don't rush to get to the tree and play a lot of board and card games plus read Luke Chapter 2, and have a Christmas Carol sing. We all share what things we know will be coming in the new year that will be causing us stress and then have a family prayer time about them. We don't get together formally on New years but we may, out of the blue, have a Euchre tournament.

 

For our own family Christmas, DH and I fix a lot of scrumptious finger foods which are out pretty much all day and we just snack as we go. (Cinnamon rolls for breakfast). We will do stockings with the kids, each child (except dd the adult) will receive a science kit or project book, and then the main gift is a family one of games and add-ons we want for the Wii. DD will get something completely different because as a paramedic student, 12 hour shifts with EMS, etc. her life is just so different from her brothers. She is a sucker for Cashmere and usually KOHL's will run a sale on cashmere ladies' sweaters and socks (not the highest of qualities, but dd takes good care of them so they do last) and she will get a sweater for her main gift along with a Barnes and Nobles gift card, socks in her stocking and then some little things such as an eye shadow or her favorite snacks (dried blueberries and dried cranberries) also in her stocking. Dh and I do not exchange at Christmas but tend to be generous with each other at birthdays or this year, our trip to Chicago for our anniversary.

 

We do not exchange at all with Dh's side of the family except his mom. She is a prolific quilter so she usually gets a nice gift bag with a queen size batting, refill blades for rotary cutter, threads, and a couple of yards of white on white patterned fabric - she is always calling, "Faith, do you have any white patterned quilter's cotton, I only need a bit to finish this project?" Since my parents don't want us to spend money on them at Christmas, we are generous at birthdays and go in with my brother for their b.d. gifts.

 

This year there will be one special gift given at the big family Christmas. My very dear nephew (sophomore in college, junior next semester) got engaged this fall to an absolutely lovely young lady. DD is making them a lap quilt and I will be making them a matching set of pillow shams.

 

Faith

[mrbmom77]

Several years ago, I got tired of hearing all the drama from the marrieds and suggested we celebrate the holidays the weekend before the actual holiday. No more in-law conflict! It's great.

Thanksgiving is the traditional turkey dinner at my mother's house.

For Christmas, we spend Friday night at Mom's, and she gets up in the morning and cooks a big breakfast. The kids open their gifts. Then the extended family comes over and we have Gumbo that afternoon for Christmas dinner, along with whatever else people want to bring, and the traditional pumpkin & sweet potato pies.

This year, I graduate that Saturday. :D Merry Christmas to me.

[Parrothead]

Thanksgiving is fairly traditional, but I have cut down on the amount of food. No more turkey with 12 sides and 4 pies for desert. If it is just us, I do turkey breast, sweet potatoes to be different for the day and one other veg. One pie.

 

This year we are going to anther family's house. There will be enough of us that I'm going to make a few sides to go along with their turkey. Hopefully nothing traditional. I'm in the rebellious mood.

 

Christmas changed a few years ago for us. It is all finger food and grazing most of the day. I refuse to spend all day in the kitchen.

[FriedClams]

I think this year we're planning on camping out for Thanksgiving. Depends on the weather but I am really looking forward to it. We're actually going on vacation the week after Turkey Day, so I don't want a ton of food leftover. I'll probably do a traditional meal the following week - when everything goes on sale. ;)

 

For Christmas we ALWAYS go to Waffle House for breakfast on Christmas Day around 9. We eat pecan waffles - swear we won't eat there for another year (and we don't) then leave an outrageous tip for whatever waitress has to work on Christmas. It's a total blast and we all cherish it as one of our favorite parts of Christmas.

[Pretty in Pink]

I try to arrange going to someone else's home for holiday meals. If the meal is left up to me we do rolls, croissants, crackers, cheeses, sausages, cold cuts, a fruit platter, cocoa, coffee, sparkling juice, etc. and we just sort of pick at it all day long.

[Aggie]

When we lived in NY, we made our annual Plimoth pilgramage :) every Thanksgiving.

 

After seeing the plantation, the rock and the Mayflower II, we ate at a Mexican restaurant, Sam Diego's, in Plymouth. I always ordered turkey, but dh and dc always ordered enchiladas.:001_smile:

 

We stayed at the AF base in Boston for the weekend, and visited our favorite sites on Fri and Sat.

 

The weekend *before* Thanksgiving, we cooked what was probably eaten at the first Thanksgiving. We have a cookbook from Plimoth and used those 'recipes'. There was fish, a pumpkin soup-type dish, some veggies and bread. Very simple but tasty. Dh and ds wore buckskins that dh made, and my dds both made outfits like the women at Plimoth wore.

 

Now, since we're back with family, we do the traditional Thanksgiving.

[cin]

We always go to a local Chinese Restaurant after the Christmas Eve service. It started about 3-4 yrs ago when the soup I was cooking wasn't done. It was the only restaurant open on CHristmas Eve, at 8 pm. So now it's a family tradition :D.

[Jennifer in MI]

A

For Christmas we have home made Pizza. .

 

We do this for Christmas Eve!!! My dh is an Episcopal priest and we're just too busy to do a big dinner. It used to be a tradition that we'd order out. It was the one time a year we treated ourselves to a dinner out!

 

Then, as family started coming to my house for Christmas, the boys didn't want to give up the tradition of pizza on Christmas Eve. So, I make dough and freeze it way ahead of time. I have a TON of toppings available and everyone makes his own!!

 

Easy to put together after CE services and YUMMY!!!! The next night, we're more traditional though.

 

On Thanksgiving, we have spent the night at the church the night before. The next morning, the Detroit Christmas parade passes right by out church. So, we open the doors and sell hot cocoa, donuts, and coffee and watch the parade. Then, we drive 2.5 hours to my mom's where she has prepared a full dinner for us!!

[Mejane]

We always go to a local Chinese Restaurant after the Christmas Eve service. It started about 3-4 yrs ago when the soup I was cooking wasn't done. It was the only restaurant open on CHristmas Eve, at 8 pm. So now it's a family tradition :D.

 

Fa ra ra ra ra, ra ra ra ra!

[Rivka]

We go to Colonial Williamsburg every year for Thanksgiving. It's amazing how quickly I got used to:

 

- no family drama.

- a big delicious holiday meal in a hotel, with no cleaning up necessary.

 

We are all big American history fans, so it's a perfect vacation for us.

[SweetMissMagnolia]

we have more of a traditional holiday (both thanksgiving/christmas) but instead of going to other family's house like everyone else does in the family we stay home and have a quiet holiday with just us....I hate to travel on the hoiday--and I do go visit the family a few days before/after the actual holiday so it's not like we're overlooking them at the holidays....just going the more QUIET route.....

[Unicorn.]

I also don't cook on Christmas. I fill the table with bowls of candy, plates of cookies, cheese & crackers, fruit, etc. My boys know it's the one day of the year that they can eat whatever they want, as long as they don't act crazy--otherwise they'll be cut off from the sugar.

 

Love this idea- I think this should be our new tradition! :lol:

[Laura Corin]

We have coq au vin for Christmas lunch. My mother started doing it in about 1965 because no one in the family liked turkey breast. I like it because I can make it in advance - it makes my Christmas much more relaxed.

 

Laura

[eternalknot]

IFor Christmas we ALWAYS go to Waffle House for breakfast on Christmas Day around 9. We eat pecan waffles - swear we won't eat there for another year (and we don't) then leave an outrageous tip for whatever waitress has to work on Christmas.

 

:001_smile: That's incredibly sweet.

 

I'm a flight attendant, and usually work Thanksgiving and/or Christmas. I celebrate with colleagues, thousands of miles away from my family. We each bring a dish to share, heat it on the plane, then eat together on our layover. It's always nice when passengers acknowledge that we're spending our holiday away from family ~ some bring little chocolates, or Starbucks gift cards for us. It always warms my heart, the thought and consideration some folks have for others! Many people just call in sick, so those of us that do the right thing by showing up really appreciate the nod.

 

My eldest child will be celebrating his tenth Christmas this year, and has never spent a Thanksgiving or Christmas with both parents home at the same time. My husband spent many of those years deployed, in the field, or on hardship tours overseas. He's been home for two of the past nine Christmases. I've been home for five.

 

Our holidays are unusual compared to our mainstream friends, but not so unusual from those celebrated by our respective colleagues. Such is the nature of the military and travel industry, I suppose! My kids have a traditional celebration with family in our absence, and we do a secondary celebration once my husband and I are able to align our schedules -- sometimes weeks or months after the fact. The holidays are about the people, not the day :D