Sarah wrote about holiday traditions on BlogHer. Her traditions are a bit more interesting (or “quirky,” as she calls them) than mine, but I thought I’d share a few things I remember.
Thanksgiving
When extended family gathered at our house for the feast, we’d take a walk through the woods behind our house. According to Bethany at That’s Fit, an after-dinner hike “is a great way to aid digestion, burn off those excess calories, and create memories that will be cherished for years” (not that we were thinking about that as kids). And we always did our hike before dinner. I haven’t been to dad’s house on Thanksgiving day for a few years, but I’ll be there next week — and I hope we can put that hike back onto the agenda.
Christmas
Dad would always find and cut down the Christmas tree himself, rather than buying it — no plastic trees for us.
My siblings and I weren’t raised to believe in Santa. On Christmas Eve we would read the story of Jesus’ story from the Bible and we’d each get to open one present in advance.
We would help mom make homemade sweets, like graham cracker balls. Crushed graham crackers, peanut butter, coconut, and who-knows-what-else, formed into balls by hand. Stick a toothpick in it, dip into melted chocolate, set on wax paper until it dries. (Edited to add: by request, I posted mom’s recipe.)
Easter
Technically this shouldn’t be included, as Easter isn’t part of the formal “holiday season.” But when I think of Easter, I think about dyeing hardboiled eggs…and how my parents, at least for a few years, would put our Easter baskets outside and we’d have to go get them when we woke up. There’s this one picture of me and my two sisters standing outside on one frightfully chilly Easter morning, wearing only our nightgowns, arms wrapped tightly around our shivering bodies as we smiled bravely for the camera.
9 Comments
ok those graham cracker balls sound delicious!!
we don’t have too many traditions either. we have the one present on christmas eve thing. and of course the signature dishes everyone brings to thanksgiving dinner. but not much else.
The graham cracker balls sound fantastic!
We would always have a tea ring–which is a type of breakfast roll formed into a wreath looking thing and covered with icing.
Traditions are weird. Most people don’t think they have any- but if you think hard enough you probably do. Like freezing at Easter in your nightgowns.
My family still has little kids, so we wake up really early on Christmas morning. And for some reason, we line up at the top of the stairs in age (formerly height) order, and then run to the family room to open presents (while staying in order). Weird, hey?
Yeah crazy enough; we still have someone who plays Santa to hand out the gifts from under the tree. I could probably think for more, but hey that’s what happens when family gets togehter.
That’s so funny what Teresa said, we do the same thing, we have one of us play Santa and hand each person a gift one at a time. Also, we do one gift on Christmas Eve as well. I remember growing up with my brother and I would always wake up first and go in and excitedly shake him and wake him up. A few years ago when he was still living at home, I arrived early on Christmas morning to find him asleep, and yes at the ages of 24 (me) and 22 (him), I went in and woke him up.
Yes, down with fake Christmas trees! My husband and I have made it tradition to buy a fresh tree the day after Thanksgiving…that’s how excited we are about celebrating Christmas.
Hmmmm Graham Cracker Balls. Sounds like a recipe TW needs for her Retro Food blog
By the way, when we were asking the little kids what they thought our family traditions were, to figure out what was quirky, the littlest one immediately started talking about Easter. That was really interesting to us and I’m glad you included your Easter tradition in your post.
Can you divulge the graham cracker balls recipe? Sounds delicious and probably not too hard to whip up. That’s always something I support!
I wish we could do real trees. Allergies have always nixed that possibility =(
The Easter traditions died HARD in my mom’s world. I spent one Easter at my parents’ when I was 26 and my mother HID an easter basket for me & actually put dyed eggs around the house! I guess this response can tie in well with your Random Friday post today in I took out quite a bit of pent up “let me grow up” frustrations on her that morning. I mean, I was 26 here people!!!