I'm the most Kkkrackkkers of Amerikkkans so my tradition is just getting drunk off mulled wine and re-watching bad holiday movies with relatives I only kinda like.

I'm sometimes a little jealous of people who have weirder shit going on, like gremlins who slam doors and steal sausages or shitting Christmas logs. We need to bring back weird ass half-pagan shit.

    • @Great_Leader_Is_Dead
      hexagon
      hexbear
      34
      5 months ago

      Me and my ex discussed the Yule Lads, and she had the theory they were just a bunch of weird Hobos in Iceland, but because you're supposed to be kind and generous on Christmas the townsfolk just made up cute little personas for them at Christmas to teach the kids to be kind to the less fortunate. "Oh honey, the weird man who smells like beer is actually a Yule Lad! That's sausage swiper, that's why he's eating all our sausage at 3am after peeing in the corner of the kitchen."

    • Rom [he/him]
      hexbear
      19
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      These guys are like reverse Santas, instead of leaving presents they steal your smoked meats and lick all your dinnerware. I dig their energy.

    • Mardoniush [she/her]
      hexbear
      13
      5 months ago

      This is just the average group at Nora Head on Christmas Day

  • Red_Sunshine_Over_Florida [he/him]
    hexbear
    33
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    My father said that when he was a kid in Sicily, they would have a witch deliver presents around this time of year. We don't really practice it here but, many Americans can't believe it when you first tell them.

    Other than that, pannatone, which has become Americanized with the addition of chocolate chips.

      • Red_Sunshine_Over_Florida [he/him]
        hexbear
        21
        edit-2
        5 months ago

        It's connected to Catholic feast days. More connected to the feast of the Epiphany on January 5th, which my mother's Irish-American family referred to as "Little Christmas." According to my grandaunt, that would mark the time when the family would take down the Christmas tree.

        https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Befana

        • Mardoniush [she/her]
          hexbear
          9
          5 months ago

          Removing the decorations on twelfth night is customary in a lot of places.

          • Red_Sunshine_Over_Florida [he/him]
            hexbear
            4
            5 months ago

            I did not know that until one year when we took down the tree in a hurry the day after Christmas and my grandaunt was upset because it was contrary to established custom.

            • Mardoniush [she/her]
              hexbear
              4
              5 months ago

              The other option is candlemas, but thats usually when you put the tree up on Christmas eve, Advent being technically not Christmas.

    • theposterformerlyknownasgood [she/her]
      hexbear
      14
      5 months ago

      La befana. Supposedly she was a woman who was offered to go see jesus when he was born hut was too busy, and has spent all eternity making up for it since by handing out presents and candy and sweeping people's floors.

    • joaomarrom [he/him, comrade/them]
      hexbear
      14
      5 months ago

      Oh man, we have panetone here all year round, I love that shit, and not the one with chocolate, give me the one with candied fruit and I'll be happy

        • LaGG_3 [he/him, comrade/them]
          cake
          hexbear
          5
          5 months ago

          Alright, old uncle and auntie can have some chocolate chip pannetone as a treat, but if anyone else snags some it's on sight

          • Red_Sunshine_Over_Florida [he/him]
            hexbear
            3
            edit-2
            5 months ago

            I was looking forward to sharing some at the nursing home's Christmas party for the seniors last week but, it was called off because Covid came back. I still got to share it with a few people today, which was good. I think that's the best part of this holiday, the idea of sharing and giving to others.

  • AernaLingus [any]
    hexbear
    26
    5 months ago

    Nothing particularly weird comes to mind--only thing notable is that it's common in Latin America to stay up until midnight on Christmas Eve to open presents.

    Not my culture, but it tickles me that where Christmas is associated with family in most of the world, in Japan (where only ~1% of the population is Christian) it's associated with couples. More pointedly, there's a common pun on the word for Christmas Eve (聖夜 seiya, lit. "holy night") which swaps the character for "holy" with the homophonous 性 (sei, "sex") because it's the #1 night for couples to bang--even more so than Valentine's Day.

  • Beaver [he/him]
    hexbear
    26
    5 months ago

    You gotta leave grass and water out for the three king's camels.

    • GinAndJuche [comrade/them]
      hexbear
      15
      5 months ago

      Other mentions of faeces and defecation are common in Catalan folklore: indeed, a popular Catalan saying for use before a meal is menja bé, caga fort i no tinguis por a la mort! ("Eat well, shit heartily, and don't be afraid of death!")

      Amazing lol

  • Commiejones [comrade/them, he/him]
    hexbear
    20
    5 months ago

    This is how my culture does christmas: We start thinking about christmas in mid September. We make lists of all the people we have to buy gifts for and try to decide what to get them as well as starting to try to save a bit of money for the gifts.

    By mid november we have still bought nothing and saved little to no money but we are starting to get anxious. We put up decorations and lights which is harder than we remember and costs more because most of the lights and decorations are broken.

    By December 1st we are in debt and have maybe a quarter of the gifts purchased. We are very stressed. We are too busy finishing up end of year stuff at work, going to work christmas parties, and making a schedual for out holiday "break" to do any shopping until the last week before christmas.

    We go shopping 5 of the 7 days before christmas and get gifts for everyone on the list. Most of the gifts are not really great gifts so we overspend our budget by 30% hoping that the expensiveness makes up for the lack of inspiration. We go to 2-5 family dinners with way too much food. We get a bunch of mediocre gifts that we don't want or need and maybe like one or two really thoughtful gifts that we were thinking of getting for ourselves on a boxing day sale.

    3 times in the week after christmas we go return the gifts we got that we wont use and end up buying a bunch of things that we were hoping we'd get as gifts. This adds more debt meaning we will be paying it off till may.

  • Frank [he/him, he/him]
    hexbear
    20
    5 months ago

    Associating the patron saint of pirates who once beat a political and religious rival so badly that the man shit out his guts and died with being jolly and giving kids presents.

  • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
    hexbear
    20
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    Summer Christmas and Dezemba (slang for December holidays, it's the longest holiday break) parties everywhere. Pool parties, lots of braais/grilling/BBQ, party music and atmosphere everywhere. Lots of drinking.

  • kristina [she/her]
    hexbear
    20
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    Big fish in bathtubs, you are supposed to pamper them, give them daily massages, and then eat them (some people just release them now). The water must be super clean, our rivers are kinda muddy so the idea is to make the fish feel clean for the first time.

  • Mardoniush [she/her]
    hexbear
    17
    edit-2
    5 months ago

    We're Australian, so most of them, but goon (cask wine) of fortune comes to mind.

    Otherwise fairly standard, go to a beach away from the tourist ones, bbq, pressies, zooper dooper ice blocks. General states of drunkeness.

    • aaaaaaadjsf [he/him, comrade/them]
      hexbear
      11
      edit-2
      5 months ago

      South Africa has similar in general, when we're done with the cask wine you blow up the empty silver bladder into a balloon lol.

    • PointAndClique [they/them]
      hexbear
      11
      5 months ago

      Pav for the adults table, choc ripple for the kids. If the kids are lucky they can scrape the pav plate.

      • Mardoniush [she/her]
        hexbear
        11
        5 months ago

        Some sangas maybe with hundreds and thousands. Bit average really but someone will whine like a pom if you leave em out.

        • PointAndClique [they/them]
          hexbear
          10
          edit-2
          5 months ago

          Bowl of cheezles that one of your cousins stuck their fingers in, licked them, and then put back in the bowl. That you end up eating anyway by the end of the day

          That cousin is 29 now, I swear he still probably does it. Its tradition after all

    • keepcarrot [she/her]
      hexbear
      9
      5 months ago

      Goon of fortune seems more like a birthday or end of semester party thing to me

  • SoyViking [he/him]
    hexbear
    14
    5 months ago

    Having the main Christmas celebrations the night before Christmas and spending Christmas day relaxing while constipated and slightly hungover.

    Making offerings of porridge with butter on top to minor pagan household spirits that lives in the attic. These pagan spirits are far more popular as Christmas ornaments than Christian symbols.

    Dancing around the Christmas tree while singing a mixture of hymns and secular Christmas songs, then dancing through every room in the house while singing a nonsensical song about Christmas lasting until Easter.

    Drinking mulled wine with raisins and chopped almonds. Often spherical pancakes are served with this.

      • Egon [they/them]
        hexbear
        6
        5 months ago

        They're called "æbleskiver", which means "appleslices" because we used to make them by battering slices of apple in a dough that would raise a lot. They're made in a specific pan, which you can get shipped to you from the town Elk Horn apparently, which was founded by Danish immigrants. They eat it as breakfast, which strikes me as odd, but Americans eat pancakes for breakfast so it makes some sense. They're traditionally served with jam and powdered sugar.

    • Egon [they/them]
      hexbear
      6
      5 months ago

      Hey Christmas doesn't last until easter, there's a fast in between! The song even says so.

    • @Jorgelino@lemmy.ml
      hexbear
      3
      5 months ago

      Can confirm the first one is true for Brazil (At least northeastern Brazil) as well. We all celebrate on the 24th at night and the 25th is largely ignored.

  • Satanic_Mills [comrade/them]
    hexbear
    14
    5 months ago

    Mari Lwyd

    People don horse skulls and white sheets and go door to door to engage in musical combat with the occupants - if the occupants relent the horse comes in for food and drink.