Christmas is the biggest holiday for my family. Life can get crazy but Christmas is the one day a year that we know we will definitely all be together no matter what. Through the years we have developed a lot of different traditions. Some are nice, serious ones, while the others always get everyone laughing. Here are some of my family's Christmas traditions.
7 Fishes on Christmas Eve
Coming from an Italian family, we like to stick with the solid traditions. On Christmas Eve, we always have 7 different types of fish. While I love that we stick to the tradition of not having meat on Christmas Eve, I don't really like fish so this tradition is hard to keep up for me. I manage and eat all the pasta until midnight which leads me to our next tradition.
Midnight Prosciutto
This is something my family just recently adapted. Since we aren't allowed to eat meat on Christmas Eve, we wait until midnight every Christmas to eat a piece of prosciutto. Dinner is always a big, long process followed by a lot of relaxation and talking. By the time midnight hits, we get hungry. So as soon as it hits midnight, we yell "BUON NATALE! BUON PROSCIUTTO!" and crack out the prosciutto with some cheese and bread. It's a nice way to get Christmas off to a great start.
4-Course Meal
Our dinners on Christmas take HOURS. We have 4 different courses and take a half hour or so break in between each meal. It starts with the appetizers filled with soppressata, bread, cheeses and many other good foods. Then our second course is the lasagna. My mom makes the BEST lasagna just Christmas. It is safe to say it's the favorite course on Christmas. Then we reconvene at the table for the rest of the dinner. We have meat, potatoes, vegetables and salad. Then after an hour break, we have coffee and desserts. There are so many desserts, I have to not eat sugar for 3 days before Christmas so that I could eat everything on Christmas. So many desserts.
Christmas Crackers & Crowns
For as long as I can remember, we have had Christmas crackers. We put them with each table setting. When we sit down to eat our first course, we pop open our crackers as confetti from the insides of them, go all over the place. The crackers also come with little tiny prizes inside that we laugh over as well as little jokes that come on the inside as well. Also inside the crackers are little colored paper crowns. Everyone at the table puts them on their head as we eat. We love seeing who is on our "team" (who has the same colored crown as us, we never actually use these teams for anything).
Themed Christmases
In 2013, we had an Ugly Christmas Sweater themed Christmas. We got a kick out of that. We had a contest and the winner of the ugliest sweater got a prize. Ever since then, we have had a themed Christmas. It started with Ugly Christmas Sweater, then Christmas hats, then another Ugly Christmas Sweater Christmas, and this year our theme is Christmas accessories. All of the "kids" in the family have been trying to push a Christmas PJ's Christmas but haven't had any luck. Maybe next year! We go all out with themes and it adds even more fun.
Yankee Swap
This is another tradition that we most recently adapted. Everyone in the family is now at that age where it's too much for everyone to buy presents for each other. So, we decided to start doing a Yankee swap so that everyone could leave with a gift. Some of the gifts are serious and some are hilarious. Regardless, it gets rowdy as the room bursts into laughter with all of the chaos that ensues opening the gifts. This is one of my favorite traditions. I highly suggest this idea to all families! Lots of fun!
Family Photos
Every Christmas ends by each family getting together in front of the tree downstairs to take family photos. We go by individual families, then we take a picture with all of the cousins together. While some people dread the family photos after a day filled with drinking and eating, the pictures are great memories to keep and look back at for years to come.
Have a Merry Christmas, everyone!
