Holiday Traditions around the world

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Posted: Wed Jan 03, 2018 10:43 pm

Hope this is okay. Such a diverse group here I thought it would be fun to share the holidays that we celebrate and what our traditions are. Per forum rules no preaching or judgement. Just a way to learn about different beliefs and cultures.

I'm in Texas. Typical not really practicing Christian American. Thanksgiving is turkey and cornbread stuffing, green bean casserole, mashed potatoes, cranberry sauce, sweet potatoe casserole. Typical Stuff. Christmas my grandma would always make Prime Rib. I prefer a good ham. Macaroni and cheese, fiesta corn, stuff like that.

This year I had vegetarian spaghetti and garlic bread for Christmas. It was all I had.

What about y'all?

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

We play this song at noon every Thanksgiving.

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

Ontario Canada here....typical Christmas dinner here is stuffed turkey with mashed potatoes and gravy and multiple veggies. Dessert is Christmas pudding with hot lemon sauce or mincemeat pie with a thick slab of 5 yr old cheddar.
Boxing day is ham and the rest of the holiday is spent eating up various forms of leftovers.
This year I couldn't even keep toast down on Christmas so I missed out on a lot!

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 7:11 am

Our Christmas is as traditionally English as you can get living in mainland Europe. Roast turkey and chipolatas, roast potatoes and parsnips, sprouts and peas, with a traditional English Christmas pudding with cream and brandy butter for dessert.

Not managed to find anywhere here that does a real English Christmas cake, so we usually have Stollen and Panettone instead.

Also replaced the traditional tin of Quality Street with loads of real chocolate Smile

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 7:43 am

I live by myself, so I don't practice any holiday traditions. The only way I celebrate that may be unusual is that, during Sukkot, I pitch a tent in the front yard and sleep in the tent.

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 10:52 am

I grew up in the midwestern US. Our thanksgiving was nearly exactly the same as bearkat's... although we had stuffing made from regular bread and not cornbread. Sweet potato casserole, with added sugar and marshmallows melted on the top, which I can no longer stand as it's really over-the-top sweet. Pies were also an important feature of my trad family thanksgiving, which HAS to include pumpkin pie, pecan pie and sugar cream pie.

we used to all cram into my grandmother's house with all the aunts, uncles and cousins, all kids banished to a far-flung room or garage with card tables set up. It was a dry household but some of the menfolk (as we always referred to them) managed to get drunk somehow in front of the tv as the football games went on.

We did Christmas as separate families and there wasn't really a standard meal then (although ham often featured).

nowadays in the UK we get together for US thanksgiving with a mixed bag of American immigrants and other folks - still including some of the traditional dishes but not all. Can be hard to source a turkey that time of year around here and in any event several of us avoid foods that walk or fly. Also tend to avoid pumpkin and sugar pies which seem universally hated by folks over here.... although cornbread stuffing is much appreciated.

Christmas meal, Mrs fire and I don't leave the house and usually do something different every year. Sometimes we cook something a little more ambitious than usual but it can be hard to manage that when we start opening this sort of thing in the early afternoon.
This year we had shrimp & grits with greens and mushrooms (grits hand-imported from the US).
We also had plenty of stollen and pannetone this year for some reason. I'm not going to complain about that.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

Is the right of passage, from the kids table to the adult table during holiday dinners, universal? I was in my mid 30's and it took several family elders to slip the surly bonds before I made it to the adult table.

Posted: Thu Jan 04, 2018 3:20 pm

I never did make it to the main adults table, there was still one cousin ahead of me when my grandmother died and stopped hosting (in that order).

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

After years of separate tables, we ended up just adding butting tables together to make one huge community table. However, the kids always had one end and the adults another. But then again, I preferred sitting with my cousins rather than the "old people" and listen to them discuss their various aches and pains and meds!

Posted: Fri Jan 05, 2018 10:48 pm

My six siblings and I scattered over the Midwest after we grew up. We get together every Thanksgiving at my brother's place in Wisconsin. Usually we have family members show up from Ohio, Illinois, Minnesota, South Dakota, Nebraska, and Iowa. Everybody contributes something, and my contribution is a box of locally produced multi-layer brownies that pack about 900 calories each.

We have a simple code: under 12 - kid's table; over 12 - adult table.

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 12:39 am

West Coast USA here - for either Christmas Eve or New Year's Eve (whenever we have enough people gathered) we have Crab Louies. We'll spend HOURS cracking crab and cracking jokes, and then load it on a bed of lettuce & egg, asparagus, beets, avocado, etc. and top it off with thousand island dressing. The rule is: if you leave the table, your plate is fair game for everyone. I've seen siblings carry plates with them to the restroom, only to return to find the shells taking up table space where their plate sat. Everyone is expected to Sit For The Whole Time and talk. No electronics allowed, and no politics.

My grandfather started the tradition in the '50s, but back then it was discovered he was rowing out into the San Francisco bay and swiping crabs from the nets under the cover of dusk. My grandmother put a stop to that and asked family members to buy the crab directly, and stick around to be sure he wasn't supplementing with stolen goods. Obviously she was the moral backbone for that generation... but the tradition has lasted well into her great-grandchildren's lives!

This year was the second time in 30 years we skipped the tradition - gale force winds on the Pacific prevented the boats from bringing in their catch.

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 4:50 pm

Usually turkey and such here though I’ve been travelling over Xmas lately. This year I ate some slop in the British Airways lounge and the year before it was Burritos and Beers in Vienna.

sparky905 Wrote:

Quote:

Ontario Canada

How in the Holy name of Don Cherry do you handle the cold?

Baiting Guru Joined: 25 Jul 2017 Posts: 2107

Since you invoked the name of Don Cherry I have to respond in his manner "because I'm a good Canadian boy!" It was minus 15*F last night and only slightly better when I took my son to work this morning. All you can do is "layer up". Sure makes hot food taste better when you finally get back inside.

Posted: Sat Jan 06, 2018 8:03 pm

^^^Feel free to come south.

Baiting Guru Joined: 31 Jan 2007 Posts: 12237

sparky905 wrote:

Since you invoked the name of Don Cherry

You started it.

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