Did you grow up with any family traditions?

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Any peculiar rituals of your family?
Any long-running jokes?
Birthday, holiday or family gathering traditions?
Family recipes you only cooked on holidays?
Things that would start with, “We always...” ?

[KamaAina]

1. Rug spotting

well, actually, it started after I grew up, when Grandma and Grandpa were spending their declining years in Florida, and watching way too much teevee. If a newscaster or someone came on sporting an obvious piece, one of them would turn to the other and say, "Now you know that's a rug!"

After a while, it began to dawn on Mom and me that they were right: there are an awful lot of rugs out there, and some of them are pretty bad. So we've kept the tradition alive, although Grandma and Grandpa went to the place where there are no rugs many years ago. That makes me a third-generation rug spotter!

[marzipanni]

38. LOL- I thought maybe you were a family of food & drink spillers

and the pets could join in in the rug spotting, much to the delight of the local carpet cleaning company.

[Xyzse]

2. Quite a few:

Did you grow up with any family traditions?
-Not sure.
-We cook a ton for Christmas, Thanksgiving and New Year. Uh, we open gifts after Christmas Eve's dinner at midnight.

Any peculiar rituals of your family?
Any long-running jokes?
-My father using a hose and spraying the side of the house with water because it's hot. He heads back inside the airconditioned house and of course says "See? It's cooler."

Family recipes you only cooked on holidays?
-Asparagus Soup with pork loin
-Chicharones (Which I will never cook by the way. Forget that, it is like swimming in a tub of lard. It is like a semi-permeable wall of fat, as soon as you get in a room.

[a la izquierda]

3. Ravioli on Christmas and lasagna on Easter

The only two days I'm not vegan.
Also, my mom and I give each other ornaments every year. She's given me an ornament every year since birth. I have 37

[Arugula Latte]

35. We always eat latkes on Xmas Eve

We're neither Jewish nor Christian -- purely secular peeps who love fried potato pancakes.

[dr.strangelove]

4. PUMPKIN BOWLING!!!

This is a neighborhood thing. My folks live at the top of a very slightly inclined and curving road. Its VERY rural, with huge plots of land and lots of woods. Each of the 5 houses near us had kids about the same age, now we former kids have kids of our own close in age. So as many of as can, return for this tradition. Since we are close, we go every year, but each year someone we have not seen in a while is there.

Each family gets 10-12 pumpkins each year to decorate their yards and such. One or two get carved, but many just adorn mailboxes or sit around trees or in gardens. So we all gather at my house, the top of the block with all of our pumpkins. I think the high total one year was 112 pumpkins, or various sizes from fist sized to "how did that fit in the truck." Someone at the bottom of the block gives the all clear sign and we bowl the pumpkins, down the curving road to see who can get the farthest. The event has evolved into a day with lots of drinking and eating. Its always the day after Thanksgiving. After the pumpkin bowling, we all have some sort of re-imagined Turkey based mean using leftovers, then drink a lot more and talk about how old we have all gotten. I look forward to it every year.

[orleans]

19. i love that! it sounds completely wonderful. i hope people continue to go for

years and years to come!

[dr.strangelove]

21. I have pictures of me doing it with my dad in the late 1970s

I am not sure when it started and this has been a topic of many alcohol aided discussions. Each of the original homeowners are positive it was all their idea. a few years ago we re-created the phot of my dad and I, with a photo of me and my son. Its a total blast. Some people decorate for christmas on the day after thanksgiving, we get drunk, eat turkey and hurl large orange veggies down the street. Thanks for the nice words/thoughts. I hope we keep it up too.

[yellowdogintexas]

45. that sounds like fun... also like a story Ted might tell his kids on How I Met Your Mother

[begin_within]

24. Fun!

[Callmecrazy]

5. During the holidays Dad would make fresh dough for homemade ravioli...

He'd roll it out on the kitchen table and cut it into about a hundred squares while we 4 kids would spoon ricotta cheese on them and then fold 'em. The sauce has been slow cooking for about five hours on the stove. Good times.
Then mom would start barking out orders to us on how we were doing it wrong somehow and we would start yelling at her that we had everything under control and then a couple of us ended up making her cry and ruining her holiday.
By the time dinner was ready at least one of us got an ass whuppin' and would be sittin at the table stuffing our face with ravioli while sniffling back tears and not saying anything.
This is why I joined the Army.

[femmocrat]

6. Of course.

We were a large ethnic family with lots of extended family who got together on the holidays. We ate lots of Eastern European dishes and baked goods that were only made for the holidays.

When I was a little girl, we celebrated two Christmases and Easters-- "American" and "Russian" (Orthodox). We always fasted on Christmas Eve and when we came home from midnight mass, had a feast of ham, kielbassa, etc.

None of these traditions have made it to the next generation. Most of my aunts and uncles have passed away and my cousins are scattered across the country. I have lost touch with most of them, unfortunately.

Wonderful memories, though.

[LiberalEsto]

7. Sauerkraut, boiled potatoes, depression

Stuff like that.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

8. Egg smashing on Easter.

Two people hold their eggs with the pointier side out and smash them together Only one egg will crack. The winner takes on the next contender until there is only one champion left. My uncle cheated one year and brought a marble egg.

[DamnYankeeInHouston]

9. Ice cream when it thunders.

We loved thunder storms because we could get out of bed, come downstairs and eat ice cream.

[Aristus]

10. Chinese food on Christmas Eve.

Don't know why...

[jmowreader]

14. Was this before or after "A Christmas Story" dropped?

[Aristus]

17. Before.

We were doing that in the mid-70's.

[Skittles]

11. no

[yellowdogintexas]

46. no ass kicking?

[fizzgig]

12. birthdays are usually the only time we go out to eat

my birthday is the day before my dad's, so we have a combined dinner out for that and my sister's birthday is nine days later, so we go out again.

coffee is always drunk with honey and half and half.

we used to get ornaments from mom every year and we'd open them on christmas eve, but we don't put up trees, so she stopped. but we still get to open one small present on christmas eve. we still get up early on christmas day. what cracks me up about the christmas stuff is that my dad, sister and i are all atheist or agnostic cultural jews.

we don't say grace, but on thanksgiving, everyone at the table must name three things for which they are grateful.

and we're a volvo family. we almost always had them growing up and it's what my sister and i drive now; the mileage on our three cars combined tops a million miles.

[DFW]

13. Only one, really

For Thanksgiving, we always used to drive up to New York City from Virginia, where I was born and grew up. My grandparents had been born either in New York or South Carolina, but by the time I was aware of anything, they all lived in New York City. It was a strange and fascinating world to someone who only knew Virginia.

I don't know if that was a start of cultural enlightenment, but my parents decided early on that exposure to different environments was a good thing for me and my siblings, and they scraped up the money to make sure we spent time far away from home. My brother went to Nevada (later on to Japan, but he was working by then), I went to Spain, my sister to Belgium and England. My brother and I have seen the wisdom in this expansion of horizons, and our kids have been to (in his case) Japan, Jordan, Tunesia, etc. My daughters have been to Spain, Italy, Sierra Leone (with the UN war crimes tribunal), Tanzania and Kenya. These were obviously not weekend jaunts. But their view of the world is one that is not limited to one place or point of view, and we feel that this was started by our parents with us.

[mucifer]

15. We are Jewish. Every Christmas Eve we would light a fire in the fire place

to remind Santa not to come to our home or he'd burn his toochas. (We got a little tired of all the Christmas hoopla).

As far as food for Passover the matzoh, and there was also kiske and chopped liver. On Chanukah we have Latkes. Apples and Honey on Rosh Hashanah. This is all traditional food.

[KamaAina]

39. Real-life DUzy!

[KG]

16. My mom and dad didn't decorate the xmas tree till after we kids went to bed on xmas eve.

[LynneSin]

18. Yes to avoid having any family traditions

Although a running joke my grandfather would always have - anytime I said there was something I wanted to watch on television he always said that was when he wanted to watch 'Buck Benny Rides Again' which I have no fricking clue what that show was.

[orleans]

20. it was a 1940 movie with jack benny, 84 minutes long

"Jack Benny (as himself) tries to make good his fictitious boasts about roughing it in Nevada, in a spoof of Western cliches."

"Radio star Jack Benny, intending to stay in New York for the summer, is forced by the needling of rival Fred Allen to prove his boasts about roughing it on his (fictitious) Nevada ranch. Meanwhile, singer Joan Cameron, whom Jack's fallen for and offended, is maneuvered by her sisters to the same Nevada town. Jack's losing battle to prove his manhood to Joan means broad slapstick burlesque of Western cliches."

tagline: ""Imagine that tenderfoot on a horse! If Benny ever gets on a jackass, you wouldn't know who's riding who!" Fred Allen's Voice"
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0032289/taglines?ref_=tt_stry_tg

and this:
"Per the title, Buck Benny was Jack Benny's western counterpart and character that was used on radio and in the movies."

and in 1952 it was a tv episode for the jack benny program (season 3, episode 2) that was 30 minutes long
http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0613539/?ref_=fn_al_tt_2

your grandpa must've liked jack benny

[KamaAina]

40. Is that the one he made when he was 39?

[shenmue]

22. Nativity scene under the Christmas tree

Which was always the cause of fights between my brother and me.

[IrishEyes]

23. Money Cake

My grandmother would bake a cake with foiled wrapped coins in it.

Since I have been to New Orleans for work many times. I have collected dozens and dozens of mardi gras beads over the years. Every year for the past few years, we would throw mari gras beads at the christmas tree. They make fun decorations.

[steve2470]

25. you know, I never really thought about this before...

Go to church every ***** Sunday morning ? That's one reason I no longer go to church, although I remain a very liberal Christian, far removed from the other end of the spectrum.

[eShirl]

26. If something came in the mail too late for "Santa" to deliver

or if "he" just plain forgot something, the New Year's Baby picked up the slack and left it on New Year's Day.

[gvstn]

30. Hey, that is both clever and convenient. I'm going to remember that one.

[MADem]

31. The Three Kings could also be tasked--then you'd have until Jan 6!!! nt

[madamesilverspurs]

27. Danish aebleskives

for breakfast on Christmas and Easter (from Mom's family); Cornish pasties for Dad's birthday (Dad's family, of course).

We still enjoy both, but don't limit the enjoyment to just a couple days a year . . .

[pipi_k]

28. The Saturday night

hotdogs and beans with brown bread (blech. puke. ugh. yech)


Fish and chips from the seafood store for Friday night supper.


Ribbon candy every Christmas


And loads of mixed nuts to shell and eat on Thanksgiving while mom cooked the turkey dinner

[KamaAina]

41. You must be from New England

hotdogs and beans with brown bread (blech. puke. ugh. yech)

[trof]

42. Brown bread? The stuff in a can?

I'd forgotten about that.

[trof]

43. B&M Brown Bread!

[applegrove]

29. My mom always put oranges in our xmass stockings to remind us of the depression and

how a rare orange at Christmas was all the sugar they saw.

[mackerel]

32. Omgeee our parents did that too! An orange or a tangerine.

We also celebrated advent the whole Christmas season with the candles and the wreath. My father would tell us the story a little bit every night and then we would sing Emanuel. On Christmas eve we would sing a bunch of songs after one of us lucky kids got to put baby jesus in nativity scene. My mother would play the piano.

[lunamagica]

57. Sounds lovely! nt

[mackerel]

59. I tried to do the same with my kids but they weren't having. LOL

[Arugula Latte]

36. We did that for our kids ...

can't say they were too thrilled with it or appreciated our little lesson every year.

[orleans]

44. i remember buying my parents special, boxed & wrapped

lumps of coal one xmas

(it was a joke)

my parents loved it--they thought it was funny & a very original gift

i found my mom's in her dresser drawer after she died--she kept it for 25 or 30 years!

[yellowdogintexas]

47. same here. we always got an orange, apple, tangerine and some nuts

sometimes hershey's kisses.

[SammyWinstonJack]

56. So did we and a big barber pole candy cane. Also a coloring book and a box of 64 caryons.

[adirondacker]

33. Pizza EVERY Sunday night!

The only dinner we ate in front of a TV. Wild Kingdom, Disney and Pizza (with anchovies )
and SODA, which was reserved for Sunday pizza and special occasions.

[onethatcares]

34. only one

move away from the family as soon as possible...................and as far away.

[Arugula Latte]

37. On Halloween my mom always dressed up as a witch, sat on the porch,

and scared the hell out of unsuspecting little kids.

[yellowdogintexas]

49. my secondgrade teacher lived in a creepy old house and

her mother and sister would dress up like old witches and she had a cauldron on the porch too. You would walk into that creepy house and Mama would be sitting in the rocking chair like the mother in Psycho just rocking back and forth never saying a word, all 3 of them were dressed in black from head to toe.

As a kid I though it was pretty wild as an adult I have decided that Miss Walker and her mother and sister probably were a riot; I imagine the fun they had planning for Halloween.

we also had a lady that these killer homemade popcorn balls and her house was always where you went first because she ran out early

another lady always gave us 2 bags of candy: "this one is yours, and this one is for your daddy" When we got home my dad would ask if Miss Jessie gave 2 bags of candy... yes... this one is yours. Come to find out, the daddy candy was bourbon balls.

In our small town, the older boys would lurk in the shrubbery to scare the bejeebus out of the little kids

[Arugula Latte]

50. Ha ha. Fun memories.

I love Halloween. It's my favorite holiday by far.

[yellowdogintexas]

48. many of ours center around the food, good Southerners that we were...

My dad's family would all get together for a big family meal usually a couple of days after Christmas. We all brought food, and everyone had a particular special dish. My grandmother made peas with pearl onions, my aunt did the country ham, my mom made this wonderful egg dish of a thick cheesy sauce with hard boiled eggs and pimentos and asparagus casserole. Granny made this amazing chocolate cake full of ground Brazil nuts with 7 minute frosting. Someone made mac and cheese someone made green beans, there were always homemade hot rolls and a frozen fruite salad with whipped cream in it. Oh yeah there was usually a coconut cake served with ambrosia and boiled custard to drink.

Now we had this gathering every year as we were growing up. My sister and two of our cousins still live where we all grew up; their kids all went to school together. They still have the Cousins Christmas every year with all their children and for one of them grandchildren. I think it is wonderful that they still have this party.

[wyldwolf]

51. Inside joke in my family since 1978

Watching the original Battlestar Galactica - there was a scene where the Colonials were walking among the Egyptian pyramids (the planet Kobol on the series.) My oldest brother remarked, "ya know, that part was filmed on earth."

My other brother said, "ALL of this was filmed on Earth."

Since then, the line is repeated often when watching sci-fi movies. 'This part was filmed on earth.'

[geardaddy]

54. LOL

sounds like my family.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

52. Lighting candles on the Advent wreath at dinner during the four weeks before Christmas

An evergreen wreath with four candles, three purple and one pink. The first candle is lit on the fourth Sunday before Christmas, two candles are lit on the following Sunday, and so on. The pink candle is for the third Sunday, because the Bible readings appointed for the day are about rejoicing.

Advent has always been my favorite season of the church year. It counteracts the commercial hoopla of the outside world and has some uniquely beautiful music associated with it.

[kwassa]

55. We do that in our household now.

Every Advent season.

[geardaddy]

53. Baked bean sandwiches

for lunch the day after having beans and weenies for dinner.

Putting out a can of Campbell's soup for Santa and carrots for the Easter bunny.

The dictionary game on Thanksgiving.

[shenmue]

58. We used to put the Nativity together under the Christmas tree

That was pretty good.

[DavidG_WI]

60. not anymore...

They all died with my grandprents, the family all fractioned off after that even though they all live in the same area.

[rurallib]

61. every place we went had to have alcohol