Kwestion #59 - What does your family do for Christmas?

What traditions does your family have for Christmas?  Do you swap gifts with all 10,000 members of your family from grandma down to extended cousins and their kids?  Do you draw names?  Play Dirty Santa?  Have game nights?  Do you have large get-togethers or smaller, more intimate gatherings?

We are all spread all over this big ol' rock we live on and we have different traditions not just in the USA.  Our culture may determine some of those things, and sometimes families just get sick of the same ol' same ol' and create new ways to bring their family together.

How does your family celebrate together?

I'm glad you started this kwestion.  I wanted to do a similar one but had a hard time getting around to it.

We swap Christmas presents with our (now adult) children and also with our parents (although both of our fathers have passed away).  My wife always eschanges a present with her sister too.  I don't exchanges presents with my half-brother & half-sister because we didn't grow up together and we don't know each other that well.  We generally have as many of our 3 children and their spouses & kids as we can get to come over for a big Christmas dinner.  This year with moving to Arizona we won't be able to get all of them (because most of them are in Washington).  We have a big dinner, with a turkey or ham (maybe both this year, going to try and smoke a turkey breast on my pellet grill....thanks to MikeinFla's suggestion) and all the fixings.

This year we have a wedding the day after Christmas!  My youngest son (who is in the Army) is going to marry his girlfriend at our clubhouse, and we will have the reception in our house.  So fortunately we will have the both of them for Christmas, also my daughter and three of her kiddos are coming down for a few days as well.  My adult nephew and his fiancé are coming for the wedding and will be here for Christmas dinner as well.  My mother is flying in from Texas, and my mother-in-law lives down the street (my sister in law is also less than 15 miles away). We could have as many as fifteen people for Christmas dinner, and up to 45 people for the wedding reception in our house the following day!  It's going to be quite the experience.

Typically we also try to make a Christmas eve service at the church.  Sadly we will be picking people up at the airport during Christmas eve and won't be able to make it this year.

Wow! That's cool that you'll be able to see so many people around Christmastime. Their reception could be Christmas themed 

With having so many people having passed away, both sides of my family have small gatherings.  We are going to do breakfast at Cracker Barrel with my brother and his wife on Christmas Eve.  There isn't much family left since our parents are both gone as are all grandparents.  My sister's kids moved to New York state a few years ago so we probably won't see them, either.

We will have a service at church that afternoon as well.

We will get together with my wife's family on Christmas.  We will exchange gifts, but there will only be about 5 people there.  My wife, her mom (since it is her house we go to, me, my wife's sister, and her husband.  One of my wife's nieces lives in Iowa and only comes in for Christmas every few years as it is a big ordeal to bring herself and 4 kids across the country.  One year we should probably all pile up and go there just for giggles and grins.  My wife's other nieces are less predictable.  One doesn't come around since she is married to a trans-gendered person (aka female) and thinks everyone will judge her.  The other got mad at everyone for only God knows why a few years ago and wouldn't speak to anyone.  She has started talking a little on Facebook to my wife and has texted her grandma, but she won't speak to her mom at all.  So, unless that changes, that niece and her husband probably won't come.  If she can't get along with her mom, I wish she would come to see her grandma on a different day or after everyone else has gone home.  Holly's mom is 81 and is getting slower every year.  She won't be around forever.

My wife has lost her dad and two siblings already.

For us, Christmas isn't as fun as it looks on Hallmark movies, but we at least do try to keep from making other people miserable during the holidays.  LOL

We open gifts on Christmas Eve.  For the past few years we've ordered Chinese for Christmas dinner.  Not sure what we're doing this being we strangers in a strange town.  Since Tori's folks live with us it's usually just the 4 of us.  We'll watch Christmas movies and snack on goodies.

We've changed a few things this year as well. The standard all these years has been having the kids over late Christmas morning and we make and eat what are called Doughboys (a tradition of fried bread dough), then we go out to my parents and have a huge get together of family galore. This year we're doing my Mom's place tonight with most of the family, then Christmas morning we're having the kids and grandkids over in their PJs. Gonna be a casual Christmas this year (still having doughboys though)

We're giving one another gift cards.  My dad, my younger bro, and I  plan on getting together Christmas Eve Day.  Back to work Christmas night.

As far as Christmas church celebrations go, not much in the mood.  Still processing Mom's passing (seven years ago).  If my church held a Blue Christmas service,  I  might consider going.  But I'm not really feeling too happy or shiny these days.

We go to a Christingle service at the local church (not our normal church) on Christmas Eve, and and have a drink and a mince pie after the service.  On Christmas Day we travel across to mother-in-laws church and see her and her son.  After that we go home and the 4 of us open presents, and eat food and try and have a chill day.  On Boxing day mother in law and brother in law come across for the day.  We go and see my side of the family sometime before New Year.

Really for us it is just the 4 of us. My wife likes to stay home at Christmas. Our folks are getting too old to travel here. So we just stay home, reheat a smoked ham and have Christmas dinner. The kids open their gifts first thing and we do our later in the day. 

We used to drive back to Tennessee every year but haven't in over 5 years. I enjoy the large crowd but my wife doesn't and I am ok with staying home.

MikeInFla wrote:

Really for us it is just the 4 of us. My wife likes to stay home at Christmas. Our folks are getting too old to travel here. So we just stay home, reheat a smoked ham and have Christmas dinner. The kids open their gifts first thing and we do our later in the day. 

We used to drive back to Tennessee every year but haven't in over 5 years. I enjoy the large crowd but my wife doesn't and I am ok with staying home.

I'm not a big fan of large crowds either.

Me neither.

Strewth, we should never have a CHM get together.  We'd all just sit in the corners and nod at one another every few minutes.

Fundy wrote:

Me neither.

Strewth, we should never have a CHM get together.  We'd all just sit in the corners and nod at one another every few minutes.

Oh no, I would force myself to talk to everybody. 

My wife's family gets together on Christmas Eve for dinner and exchange presents amongst all of us. My wife and I will usually go to the Candlelight service at our church late that evening (9 PM this year). On Christmas Day, my wife and I will exchange presents between us and then have a steak dinner that evening 

The tradition is to go to the Christmas Eve service at night.
But that wasn't possible this year.

We love to eat with 3 kids, 3 kids-in-law and 5 little men.

But because two of my little men have corona the were in quarantaine with Christmas.
I made a dessert for them and put it for their frontdoor.

We didn't swap gifts with Christmas.

On December 5th we swap gifts with each other.
Then we celebrate the birthday of Sint Nicolaas.