I put a call out a few weeks ago for readers to share their holiday traditions with me! It is quite funny to me when people assume that everyone plays white elephant on Christmas Eve in backwards pajamas (or whatever their tradition is) when every family and person typically has their own unique traditions. However, there are a couple of things that we all seem to have in common- food and eating, and time together with our loved ones. These are a few of the traditions and past-times that have been shared with me, I hope you enjoy getting to know more of my readers!
Food Traditions
If nothing else, food unites us. We all need calories in to sustain our glowing and witty personalities, and what better way to do that than with fat and sugar and the ones that you love?? (I mean, yes, you should eat everything in moderation but at this point, we are essentially the polar bears getting ready for winter hibernation. Eat the cookie.)
Karalee from Tales of Belle is an American who now lives in Denmark, and has an interesting split experience with the holidays!
“The food is different and for Christmas dinner in the US there will be turkey and mashed potatoes with pumpkin pie for dessert, but here it is pork, boiled potatoes and red cabbage and risengrød (rice pudding) as the dessert. Another popular Danish dessert is klejner (crullers).”
An Historian About Town
My family has a few food traditions- we have a nice meal with our cousins on Christmas Eve, and then turkey, mashed potatoes, roast carrots, gravy, and the works on Christmas day! I also make a metric crap-ton of shortbread, 500+ pieces for cookie exchanges, friends’ potlucks, and our own holiday open house. I’m a BIG fan of shortbread! It is the perfect dessert, as it’s still a treat but not too sweet.
Katelynne from Doing Yoga to Dubstep is one of my best friends, and is an American living in Dublin!
“Make eggrolls, since we always made them with my Nana around Christmas. This is particularly special to me and my mom now that my Nana has passed.
Eat leftovers/ready to eat food for Christmas, so my mom doesn’t have to cook on Christmas day. The big meal is Christmas Eve. We like mini tacos and mini quiches from Costco!”
CJ from A Well-Read Tart is one of my favourite new blogs to follow, and she has graciously shared some of her holiday traditions with me, as well!
“Another Christmas tradition that I absolutely love — and, in keeping with being A Well-Read Tart — is baking TONS of Christmas cookies for friends, family, and familiar faces around town. Each Christmas, I block off one weekend to bake 6-7 different kinds of cookies. (I may or may not start plotting in September what recipes to bake each year…)… I probably hand out about 20-25 tins of cookies each year. Of course, I love giving cookies to friends and family (and, often, it ends up being a cookie exchange with them), but I really love handing out cookies to the people around town, like the banker, the dry cleaner, the librarian, my Zumba teacher, my dentist, etc… New cookie recipients are always pleasantly surprised to receive a homemade gift at the holidays, and veteran cookie recipients tell me they look forward to Cookie Delivery Day each year. I think giving homemade Christmas cookies (or any kind of homemade gift!) is a great way to remind people that a friendly smile and greeting DOES make a difference, and that I appreciate their kindness whenever I happen to see them.
I’m also usually in charge of bringing desserts (big surprise there!), which I am more than happy to do. I usually make a big batch of chocolate covered pretzels to put on the table, as well as to hand out as hostess gifts, and other various treats and goodies.” You can find her chocolate-covered pretzel recipe here!
Family Traditions
Time together with our loved ones seems to be pretty common- some families like to be busier and others like to relax, but time together is what matters most!
Katelynne
“Watch It’s a Wonderful Life!”
CJ from A Well-Read Tart
” One of our favorite things to do in December is put on our Christmas playlist and drive around “light hunting,” which means ooh-ing and ahh-ing at people’s Christmas light displays. I’ll sometimes bring some hot cocoa in travel mugs to sip on while we drive. We also love to watch old Christmas movies, and I love to read Christmas books, which are usually a little “lighter and breezier” than the books I read during the rest of the year. Both the movies and books are a great way to get into the holiday spirit in a fun and relaxed way – which is definitely needed with all the craziness that comes with the season, too!”
Karalee
“For example dancing around the Christmas tree is something I never did with my parents and family in the US, but we do it every year in Denmark!”
An Historian About Town
We have a few family traditions! We go and cut down our trees together (nearly 30 and I’ve never had an artificial tree) on the Saturday, and then we decorate our large tree (12-14 feet together), and I decorate my normal tree (5-6 feet) myself with my dad’s ornaments from when he was a kid. This year Agnes will be coming along to help find our tree!
We are also very in favour of Hallmark Christmas movies (they are just so happy), so 9 times out of 10, the TV will have one on in the background. It makes for a cheery holiday soundtrack that has far more cookies than my life ever does!
Karalee
“For example dancing around the Christmas tree is something I never did with my parents and family in the US, but we do it every year in Denmark!”
Thank you again to everyone for sharing!! I’ve got some ideas of my own for traditions to start, and I will have another post up with my own personal Boxing Day traditions (because those are very separate haha).
What are your own holiday traditions?
Cheers,
The Historian
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Thanks so much for including me in this wonderful post!! It’s so great to learn about different traditions — and to learn about new bloggers! The idea of a “metric crap-ton of shortbread” sounds DELIGHTFUL. I love shortbread, too! I also love Katelynne’s tradition of NOT cooking on Christmas Day. 🙂 We host Christmas Day (with Big Cooking), but we do something similar for New Year’s Day — lots of ready-to-bake appetizers that are totally unhealthy but completely delicious. And, since I’ve been cooking/baking up the wazoo since December 1, it means little to no work for me, so I love it. A great tradition to embrace. 😀
Thank you for sending everything to me!!! I find cooking relaxing, so I tend to use that as an outlet. We all have our own meals that we carry a bit more of the weight on also, but it never falls on just one person to make a meal, thankfully! (And if it didn’t lead to a heart attack, I would just like on mozza sticks from now until 2019….)