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polson
Member
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# Posted: 6 Dec 2007 14:38
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Lots of people celebrate stuff this time of year. Christmas is probably the most famous one, but there is so much more to the season, especially with the fact that Earth is big and full of so many different cultures and beliefs and values. So, what's this time of year mean to you? What are your traditions? What do you love to celebrate most? Share! Tell us your traditions, tell us your favorite part of the holiday season, tell us what you love to celebrate most!
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polson
Member
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# Posted: 7 Dec 2007 20:06
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Well I love Christmas to freakin' death so I'll put what my Christmas traditions are.
Every other year we switch from the Johnson side to the Polson side for Christmas.
Johnson side: Mostly just a Christmas day thing, but since we usually have to travel for it, we end up spending a night or two at one of my cousins' houses. Christmas morning we get up and have breakfast and then it's a long agonizing wait until Gran and Papa (before he died) were ready for us all to sit down as a family, pray together, and trade gifts. We used to do the Chinese Gift Exchange, but it kind of died out. Prior to that we drew names amongst the cousins. At any rate, it's more for Gran and Papa to open their presents and us to get theirs. My mom and her sisters and my uncles trade gifts.
Then it's a big dinner and then we just lounge around chatting and hanging out, maybe watching a movie, going horse back riding and sleigh riding (when Papa was alive), sledding, snowball fights, and whatnot. Usually supper is left overs and then later us cousins end up playing cards.
Polson side: The festivities take place over two days. Christmas eve we get together and have soup for dinner. Fish soup or corn chowder, it's tradition. Occationally it get's changed up. Then we lounge around, talk, my dad wrestles my cousin Nathanael for the couch, and then eventually we all sit down and do a devotion together. Every year it's a different person leading the devo, so sometimes it's suuuuuuuuper long and sometimes it's short and sweet. When that's done, we pray together and open presents (and then we usually do the Chinese gift exchange). Then it's cards and roasted chestnuts (which I don't like) and my dad's homemade poppycock (which I also don't like). This can go on until everyone goes home. Some of my dad's family opens their immediate family presents that night so they go a little earlier.
Christmas morning, we open presents at home, at least mom and dad and I do. We pray together first and read the Christmas story, and share the highlight from the last year, and just affirm one another in love. Then we open our stocking gifts first and when we're all done, we get the ones under the tree. Then we have breakfast (Ami and I refuse to wait until after) and then we go back to whoever's hosting Christmas and chill out until dinner and then we plaly cards s'more and go quading, and then more food comes out and then people eventually start to disperse.
If my sister and I can, we talk mom and dad into opening presents Christmas Eve, or even a couple days earlier (and we're pretty good at it too!!!! and we never believed in Santa so they never had to explain that one away when we did it early). One year we had to wait until the 27th, it was TORTURE.
And that's what Christmas in my world looks like! Now tell me about yours! I'm curious!!!
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darth_balco
Member
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# Posted: 8 Dec 2007 07:01
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My Christmas has been pretty simple since my Grandma died four years ago, just a small together with family where we have dinner and open presents. Of course Christmas last year I spent by myself because I had to work on Christmas.
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kayana
Member
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# Posted: 8 Dec 2007 07:09
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Pols, that is an AMAZING Christmas celebration. Girl, you are lucky!
My family is small, I only have 2 cousins who are located halway across the world so it's not a very big celebration for me.
What I like about Christmas is the extra emphasis placed on self-reflection and though about the year ending and the new one ahead. Life can get so fast-paced and hectic sometimes that it's nice to be reminded that there's a bigger picture out there which is what I always feel around that time of the year. 
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polson
Member
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# Posted: 8 Dec 2007 07:33
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Kayana, yeah, *nods humbly* I know. i wish it could last forever, but as people grow up and get married, it gets harder to carry on tradition. But I'll always cherish those times.
And you're right, it is just the time of year to kind of pause, eh? After all the nuttiness of getting geared up for Christmas, just to slow down and appreciate life.
Pat  Work on Christmas? I would DIE.
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skevington
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# Posted: 16 Dec 2007 12:01
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Weeeeeeeeeell.... i am usually woke up early by people. I grumble a lot. Other people open their gifts like a bunch of crazy capitalist animals. Alas, the message of Christmas is lost on these people. I acknowledge that the world is a crappy place - i get drunk to compensate. We stumble about for a while and eat dinner, then usually fall asleep. Then we get drunk some more.
I love Christmas.
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polson
Member
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# Posted: 16 Dec 2007 13:35
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Lee, if you want to marry me, we're going to have to work on your Christmas spirit. 
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skevington
Member
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# Posted: 16 Dec 2007 13:46
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If you marry me i promise to work on it.
Dmitri
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polson
Member
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# Posted: 16 Dec 2007 16:03
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I can't marry you Lee. I'm allergic to everything about you. 
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skevington
Member
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# Posted: 16 Dec 2007 16:56
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Well that's good, i'd have been screwed if you really wanted to marry me.
Dmitri
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jaquaia
Member
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# Posted: 17 Dec 2007 04:12
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I love Christmas.
Every Christmas Eve I go to my cousins house and take gifts down for them all. I love watching her kids, the older one gets excited but not as much now, but the younger 2, they both have autism and learning disabilities, the youngest being much worse then the middle child, but they love Christmas. It's the lights and the tree for the youngest, he loves the lights, they stimulate him and he gets so excited. He enjoys the simple things and it's pure joy to watch his face light up when the lights and that are switched on. The middle child still believes in Santa and gets so excited on Christmas Eve, hell, he's excited now. It's just refreshing to see genuine excitement about Christmas rather then 'oh I already know what I'm getting'.
Christmas Day it's usually my Dad who wakes us up. We have breakfast while we open presents then just sit and try various things out. For the past 3 years I've cooked Christmas dinner and I'm doing it again this year, though my sister is helping this year. I love cooking Christmas dinner then sitting down as a family to eat it. And there's programs we sit and watch together every year without fail (by that I mean me and my sister commandeer the TV and our parents have no choice but to watch it too). We've watched The Snowman every year since as long as I can remember, it's become part of our traditional Christmas Day and I still love it as much now as I did when I was little.
Boxing Day we usually do a buffet and just sit and relax. This year we're having our neighbours in, they're wonderful people, and again, for me, it's the just spending time with people you hold dear that appeals to me.
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