# Holiday Traditions for December



## Jules (Dec 17, 2022)

Do you have any holiday traditions?  Christmas? Chanukah? Other?

I pull out a few old Christmas decorations from my childhood for the window display.  I’ll try and take a picture of a couple of them.  

The one tradition I have is a turkey dinner.  I do this even if we don’t have company or are travelling.  Often there’re better things on the menu, but somehow it feels wrong not to have it.  My husband was raised as a vegetarian so he doesn’t understand this.


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## RadishRose (Dec 17, 2022)




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## RadishRose (Dec 17, 2022)




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## DebraMae (Dec 17, 2022)

This has been with me since my first Christmas.  I wind it up and it plays Silent Night.


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## Jules (Dec 17, 2022)

That’s beautiful, @DebraMae


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## RadishRose (Dec 17, 2022)

DebraMae said:


> This has been with me since my first Christmas.  I wind it up and it plays Silent Night.
> 
> View attachment 256718


OMG that looks SO familiar!


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## RadishRose (Dec 17, 2022)

Another Dec. celebration is Krampus, originated in Germany. Horrifying!


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## Jules (Dec 17, 2022)

All these are nearly as old as I am.  The candle is younger; it’s only about 65.



Frosty can have a light inset in his back.  The Christmas tree he carried disappeared years ago.



The pepper shaker had a Mrs. Santa.  She must have run away with an elf.  

A family friend brought this home from Germany.  Every year on Xmas eve, I’d burn it for about 10 minutes.
It finally gave up and split in half.  I probably could add wax.  No point, as I intend to give it to my two daughters at some time.


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## Sassycakes (Dec 17, 2022)

_*I grew up with the tradition of eating 7 fishes on Christmas eve and I continue the tradition*_


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## Paco Dennis (Dec 17, 2022)




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## caroln (Dec 17, 2022)

Sassycakes said:


> _*I grew up with the tradition of eating 7 fishes on Christmas eve and I continue the tradition*_


7 fish sticks or do you really eat 7 whole fish??


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## Jules (Dec 17, 2022)

This was the first year I remember ever hearing about the Feast of Seven Fishes.  Now I’ve heard it several times.


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## caroln (Dec 17, 2022)

caroln said:


> 7 fish sticks or do you really eat 7 whole fish??





Jules said:


> This was the first year I remember ever hearing about the Feast of Seven Fishes.  Now I’ve heard it several times.


I guess I've never heard of it either.  What does a person do for this tradition?


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## NorthernLight (Dec 17, 2022)

December? Mostly I hide and wait for it to be over.

This year I drove around and took photos of decorations, lights, and sNOw. I thought friends in warm/foreign countries would find them interesting. And they did!


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## Sassycakes (Dec 18, 2022)

caroln said:


> 7 fish sticks or do you really eat 7 whole fish??


Usually we have crabs,shrimp,muscles,Flounder and what ever fish my son in law likes like haddock etc.


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## caroln (Dec 18, 2022)

Sassycakes said:


> Usually we have crabs,shrimp,muscles,Flounder and what ever fish my son in law likes like haddock etc.


I'm with you on the crab and shrimp.  Then I'd add in a lobster tail or 2!


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## palides2021 (Dec 18, 2022)

Growing up, because my father celebrated his name day on Christmas, my mother and us five girls would be baking all day and have company for dinner. Lots of good food, commotion, beautiful scents, music, laughter, and wonderful feelings overall. After my father passed away, it wasn't the same. One other consistent tradition has been to sing Christmas songs on Christmas Eve or go caroling in the neighborhood with our church choir when I was young.


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## RadishRose (Dec 18, 2022)

caroln said:


> I'm with you on the crab and shrimp.  Then I'd add in a lobster tail or 2!


Throughout my young adulthood, I always had Christmas Eve dinner at my friend's home, big Italian family. The 7 fishes is an old Italian tradition. No meat since it's always "fast before feast", hah! Some fast..... 

We never did make it to 7 I don't think. Whole lobsters, shrimp cocktails, white clam sauce for the pasta, clams casino, red calamari sauce, some kind of baked fish.

Of course, there was spaghetti, tomato sauce, vegetables, a casserole or 3, baked potatoes, desserts and steak for those who didn't want lobster.

It was a huge dinner.


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## Jules (Dec 18, 2022)

That would have been so much fun, @RadishRose


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## Bella (Dec 18, 2022)

Sassycakes said:


> _*I grew up with the tradition of eating 7 fishes on Christmas eve and I continue the tradition*_


Oh, yes!  On Christmas Eve, it's an Italian tradition to prepare the Feast of the Seven Fishes. I have fond memories of enjoying this traditional dinner every year at my grandma's house before we went to midnight mass. These days, I don't prepare a seven-course fish dinner, but I do hold with tradition and always have fish on Christmas Eve. I'm not sure what I'll have this year, it depends on what looks good at the market. I'm thinking fried calamari and clams or mussels in a garlic-herb white wine sauce with pasta.


caroln said:


> *I guess I've never heard of it either.  What does a person do for this tradition?*


Everything you Wanted to Know About the Feast of the Seven Fishes > https://www.nonnabox.com/feast-of-the-seven-fishes/









Christmas Day dinner is a roasted boneless leg of lamb with currant sauce, sautéed portabella mushrooms, scalloped potatoes, and a fennel, red onion, and mandarin orange salad with oil-cured olives. For dessert, individual molten chocolate cakes with raspberry coulis and Christmas cookies... and espresso, so we don't fall asleep after all that, lol! 

Bella


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## RadishRose (Dec 19, 2022)




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## RadishRose (Dec 19, 2022)

Polish Christmas scenes


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## jujube (Dec 19, 2022)

We never had a set menu for Christmas. Sometimes ham, sometimes turkey. One year we cooked a goose (and never did THAT again, what a mess!)

Now for New Years, we do have the traditional pork, black-eyed peas, and collard greens.


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## Jules (Dec 19, 2022)

jujube said:


> Now for New Years, we do have the traditional pork, black-eyed peas, and collard greens.


For NY day, I do black-eyed peas, cornbread and greens.  There’re no collard greens around here.


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## Jules (Dec 19, 2022)

@RadishRose Is the sheaf of wheat symbolic of food/bread in the New Year.


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## RadishRose (Dec 19, 2022)

Jules said:


> @RadishRose Is the sheaf of wheat symbolic of food/bread in the New Year.


@Jules, it's very old. Straw on the floors, too... very old. The best way is to paste this:
"The Magic of Straw​   Grain sheaves are the most ancient ritual adornments of the Vigil Supper celebration. (Christmas Eve) Over a period of time the sheaf evolved into other decorations, such as the dziad, the Vigil cross and star. Straw was an abundant, easily available, and naturally beautiful material used to make decorations for the Vigil Supper.

After the Vigil Supper, the children crawled under the table in search of the silver coins amid the golden straw. In other districts children rolled in the straw found on the floor to protect themselves from measles. These customs portray a belief in the magical quality of straw, an extension of the ancient ancestral sheaf."

*LOL, no one in my known family ever did this....    But there was a song about it*.

"The sheaf of grain (snopek) is a central symbol of the Polish Christmas Vigil. It combines hopes for good fortune, bounty, and memories of departed family members with Christ, the "bread of angels" who comes down from heaven. Placed in one or all four corners of the Vigil Supper room, the sheaves are a vivid reminder of the ancient character of this celebration."​


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## Jules (Dec 19, 2022)

Thanks for sharing the importance of the wheat.  It’s nice to learn of other customs.


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## Capt Lightning (Dec 21, 2022)

How about some 'Wassailing" - this refers both to the ancient custom of visiting orchards in cider-producing regions of England, reciting incantations and singing to the trees to promote a good harvest for the coming year, and to visiting houses (and pubs) to wish good fortune on the inhabitants.  

An old print  of Wassailing the apple trees.  The firing of guns and making a noise was to scare off evil spirits.


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## Marie5656 (Dec 21, 2022)

Jules said:


> This was the first year I remember ever hearing about the Feast of Seven Fishes.  Now I’ve heard it several times.


What Is Feast of the Seven Fishes?​The Feast of the Seven Fishes is an Italian-American Christmas Eve celebration that brings families together the same way Thanksgiving does with traditions that span generations, decades and oceans. Known in Italy as La Viglia, which translates to The Eve, as in December 24th, Christmas Eve, The Feast of the Seven Fishes isn’t a religious celebration (unless your religion is worshipping at the altar of amazing food). It really is just a big fish-forward holiday meal that traces its roots back to Italy


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## debodun (Dec 22, 2022)

When my dad was young and healthy, he'd get a tree (buy or cut one in the woods) and set it up and put the lights on. I'd hang the ornaments and mom would put on the tinsel. When dad got older and less able to do it, I bought a 4 foot table-top artificial tree and decorated it myself. It seemed we always ate the "big" meal on Christmas eve and it was a roast of some sort. My parents said it was too close to Thanksgiving to have turkey again so soon. We always took down the decorations on New Year's day.


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## Jules (Dec 22, 2022)

One of our traditions was new PJs for the kids on Christmas Eve.  My kids are still doing this and it’s likely happening for the GGs.


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## caroln (Dec 22, 2022)

I don't know if this would be considered a tradition exactly, but when the tree came down my mom would take all the tinsel off one by one, flatten it in a nice package and use it again the next year.  Obviously she grew up during the depression.  I learned from her and my dad to be very frugal!


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## Jules (Dec 22, 2022)

@caroln, my mother did that too. So did I for a few years and then when tinsel became inexpensive we quit.  Forgot about that.


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## hearlady (Dec 22, 2022)

Mine did too! And always cut the good pieces off the used Christmas paper to use next year. 
I do that too if it's a big piece.


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## Capt Lightning (Dec 23, 2022)

Weather permitting, we usually go for a walk along the beach on christmas day.


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## caroln (Dec 23, 2022)

hearlady said:


> Mine did too! And always cut the good pieces off the used Christmas paper to use next year.
> I do that too if it's a big piece.


I don't save paper but I do reuse bows!


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## RadishRose (Dec 23, 2022)

Tinsel (or icicles) when we were very young were made from lead. I remember rolling some up into hard little balls. Then it became plastic and never hung straight.


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## caroln (Dec 23, 2022)

RadishRose said:


> Tinsel (or icicles) when we were very young were made from lead. I remember rolling some up into hard littles ball. Then it became plastic and never hung straight.


Lead???  That's scary!  I thought they were made from aluminum.  Actually, never thought about it before now.


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## squatting dog (Dec 23, 2022)

Time to put up the decorations again I suppose.


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## RadishRose (Dec 23, 2022)

caroln said:


> Lead???  That's scary!  I thought they were made from aluminum.  Actually, never thought about it before now.


Lead foil was a popular material for tinsel manufacture for several decades of the 20th century. Unlike silver, lead tinsel did not tarnish, so it retained its shine. However, use of lead tinsel was phased out after the 1960s due to concern that it exposed children to a risk of lead poisoning.[5]

This Wiki article talks of silver and aluminum, too.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tinsel


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## Jules (Dec 23, 2022)

RadishRose said:


> Tinsel (or icicles) when we were very young were made from lead. I remember rolling some up into hard littles ball. Then it became plastic and never hung straight.


I had a vague recollection that we quit saving tinsel for some reason.  Thanks for telling us about it.  As I recall, again a distant memory, we kept saving what we had because ’what did the experts know’ theories.  Eventually the current tinsel became so inexpensive that we didn’t want to bother with saving the old stuff.


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## Blessed (Dec 23, 2022)

Our traditions were always being with his family Christmas Day.  We stayed home for the most part on Christmas Eve.  At my inlaws, it was always hearty wonderful breakfast and bloody mary's, not my thing, so I would have cocoa or tea with a little baileys.  Dinner was always a prime rib with all the trimmings. The son's fussing the whole time, make plenty of gravy, Mom, that is not enough gravy!! The one BIL who always had his own salt shaker by his plate. Hot homemade bread that FIL always gave me the end piece, my favorite.  I always got the end cut of the prime rib as liked it a little more well done than the others.

I married at 20. That was the year that his parents were able to buy their first home.  We were married there, in front of the fire place in November and their first christmas in their own home was in December.   Mom (MIL) was so happy.  She really did it up.  That first year she had the stockings from the past years for each of the kids and my new one that got added. 

Over the years as the kids married, started having grandchildren, she had to hang a string wider than the mantle to fit us all in.  I always got a beautiful ornament in my stocking, that was our little thing.  Lord, did I love her, she always made me feel loved and part of the family!! FIL too, everytime, which was once a week, when came over. 

He would come and give me a big hug and kiss and say come let me show what I am cooking for you today.  He was in charge of cooking the meat and MIL did the sides. It goes without saying that once we had the first grandson, the only grandchild at that time, my husband and I took a back seat to the baby love they had to give to out to our little boy!


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## Jules (Dec 23, 2022)

What lovely memories, @Blessed.


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## OneEyedDiva (Dec 23, 2022)

Not anymore. After I accepted Islam, the same day I married my Muslim husband, I stopped celebrating Christmas. My son had already accepted Islam years before so he doesn't celebrate either. When my husband was living we used to go to the Kwanzaa celebrations every year. One year he was even honored. He's been gone for 4 years (as of yesterday) and I don't drive (wouldn't be able to at night anyway) so I haven't been to a Kwanzaa celebration in 5 years. 

After I met my (half) sister and brothe4r...that whole other part of my family in 1998, we bonded well. My sister always insisted my husband and I come for holiday dinners. Even though he had lots of family with good cooks, he always wanted to go to dinner at my sister's house. She, her son and daughter are fantastic cooks. Now that she no longer owns her home and is living with her son, she doesn't host big dinners anymore.


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## debodun (Dec 24, 2022)

caroln said:


> Lead???  That's scary!  I thought they were made from aluminum.  Actually, never thought about it before now.


It's like radium they used to put on watch faces. They just didn't realize at the time how dangerous it was. Asbestos in insulation and lead paint abounded.


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## Marie5656 (Dec 24, 2022)

*OK, a fun tradition my brother started...we were all adults at the time.  Very spontaneous.  As he opened his first gift at our parents house, he pulled the bow off his present and pitched it at the tree, from where he sat. So, it turned into a competition between us and our parents as to who could connect the most bows.*


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## debodun (Dec 24, 2022)

caroln said:


> I don't know if this would be considered a tradition exactly, but when the tree came down my mom would take all the tinsel off one by one, flatten it in a nice package and use it again the next year.  Obviously she grew up during the depression.  I learned from her and my dad to be very frugal!


My maternal grandma would save wrapping paper that way.


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