What traditions do you usually do every year?

I am usually laid back, while this year will be a bit *complex* for me... We did used to go to the movies every Christmas eve before, that was fun!

Merry Christmas!

Going to both sets of grandparents' houses.


Merry Christmas to you too, tgl.

Christmas eve is the in-laws. They're about 2 hours away. Christmas day is my mom and step-dad. They're in town. The day after is my fathers which is about 3 hours away.

I really hate all the driving that comes with this time of the year...

Christmas Day is just hang out at home all day. No point in going out.

Christmas Day is my birthday, so it's always been a special holiday in the family. After one year where my parents and brother forgot about my birthday we decided to celebrate my birthday Christmas Eve. Every Christmas Eve we order chinese food, then watch A Christmas Carol (1951) with Alastair Sim. By far the best film adaption. Then we hang out, drink, eat and have a good time. Christmas Day we exchange gifts, eat leftovers for lunch, and cook a nice Christmas dinner.

All our extended family lives out in Ontario, and I haven't seen them in over a dozen years, some of them i've never seen in my life. So there is no huge family gathering, just my parents and brother. A nice, fun break at the end of the year.

A family dinner is our tradition. Most of us still live in the same small town so it isn't a logistical nightmare either. Well, except for my brother that lives 300km away and has two less than 5 year olds

No real traditions for Christmas Eve, although I'll probably stick on a Christmas film or go to the pub.
Christmas day will be started off with a Baileys coffee when I wake up, followed by me walking to my Mums' house for giving presents and lots of eating and drinking and playing. I've got one nephew who's too young to care but the niece is old enough now to be all exited so it should be fun!

Contemplate the ways of how to off my siblings.

I work Christmas Eve. Party is at my house christmas day.

My family is really set in how it goes through X-mas. The better part of the day is spent either staying at home receiving gifts or driving around the city delivering gifts to other family members. Dinner is the best thing ever since my parents make the best lamb-chops ever on X-mas, takes them hours to make them and they use like 3 different methods to make them ready but when you've got some good lamb-chops with melted butter and some rhubarb jam and it feels like it's melting in your mouth it's all worth it. Really when I was a kid the opening of the gifts used to be my favorite part of X-mas but as I've grown to appreciate good food better dinner has become my favorite part of X-mas by far.

A part of dinner which ties it in with the gift opening is eating rice pudding with no milk but added raisins in bowls that are identical to one another. Some member of the family will put a stripped almond in one of them and then we scramble the bowls. We always buy and wrap something up to be the first gift of the evening and whoever ends up with the stripped almond in his or her bowl gets to open that gift.

Then comes the whole opening the gifts thing but after that we dress up and the whole family in my mothers leg of it goes to visit my grandma, who BTW had 7 children who each had a few children of their own (my own mother had 4 including me...) so it's a lot of people visiting her house late in the evening.

Our family also used to go to church before dinner on X-mas when I was little but raising 3 boys who each turned out to be atheist they stopped doing that and now with the 4th kid who is influenced quite a bit by his brothers they see no reason to pick that tradition up again.

I think it's fairly relaxed, there are families with less traditions and there are families with more traditions.

I come home a few weeks before xmas. Don't really do much on xmas eve, just a normal day. Xmas day I'll give my dad his birthday present first, and we'll do all his birthday things. Then me and my parents swap presents. Late morning both sets of grandparents and my uncle come round and there's more swapping of gifts. They all leave before lunch and are replaced by my dad's best friend, who lives alone and at my mother's insistence always comes round for xmas. It's nice and quiet. One of us will always have a DVD as a gift and we'll watch it.

Christmas eve is always spent going to church with some family friends - despite the fact I'm not religious. It's always fun and we go for a pizza afterwards.

Come Christmas morning, I normally awake at about 11, and Mum will make me and my sister a fry up.
My Grandparents usually arrive about 1pm and dinner is served by 2 or 3. After which we spend time sharing presents before settling down to watch TV until they head home at about 8pm.

It's a simple tradition really, but one I've had since my sister found out that Santa wasn't real

On Christmas eve morning, our family has riisipuuro complete with an almond ("rice porridge" in English, I suppose... Finnish Christmas tradition ) and then exchange gifts. Then, in the evening, we have cousins, grandparents, aunts and uncles over for dinner and presents (my cousins are still young enough for there to be a Santa Claus giving out the presents).

Christmas day is just eating leftovers and watching new movies we've gotten on Christmas eve.