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.
some of the fucking freaks here actually like eggnog
I got two kinds of vegan eggnog this year and both of them suck. One was over-spiced and the other was slimy and weird although otherwise inoffensive and bland.
Yummmmm haven’t had any this year yet but you reminded me that i need to get some before it’s gone!!!
sounds like a waste of booze.
maybe boofing eggnog would be ok. improve the flavor anyway.
What are you thoughts on rompope? I've never had eggnog but I imagine it's the same, or maybe worse judging by the comments here.
The popsicle version is much better imo. If you can get your hands on bolis sabor rompope you shouldn't pass up the opportunity.
Australia has BBQ prawns at Xmas, weird huh?
Also, I agree, bring back the Scandinavian Xmas duendes
ShowMe 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."
These guys are like reverse Santas, instead of leaving presents they steal your smoked meats and lick all your dinnerware. I dig their energy.
Tag yourself I'm Yule Lad door slammer, fuck your door at 3 am
Gully Gawk, let's get that milk and have some cereal 🥣
you better get clothes for Christmas or the Christmas Cat will eat you!
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.
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.
Removing the decorations on twelfth night is customary in a lot of places.
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.
The other option is candlemas, but thats usually when you put the tree up on Christmas eve, Advent being technically not Christmas.
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.
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
I found YouTube links in your comment. Here are links to the same videos on alternative frontends that protect your privacy:
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I get it for the seniors mostly. Some of them have trouble chewing the candied fruits.
Alright, old uncle and auntie can have some chocolate chip pannetone as a treat, but if anyone else snags some it's on sight
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.
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.
Most of it is inflicted on them by the Dutch and Americans.
It’s a tie between the Nativity scene shitter and the Yule log you beat with a stick until it shits candy.
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
Is it any wonder they were the ones to try out large scale anarchism?
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.
Welp, I can see the need for a war on Christmas...
Edit: Now'd I think of it, isn't the war on Christmas itself a possible proxy conflict for the class war?
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.
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.
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.
idea is to make the fish feel clean for the first time
you've got me, this is genuinely bizarre. damn
Welcome to Czechia
Ive heard it's a holdover from pagan stuff but I haven't looked into it
Aww I'm just imagining little fishy wishy in the bathtub...
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.
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.
Pressies? Zooper duper ice blocks? What? What language is this?
Pressies just means presents. Likely a cask of VB from the bottle-o for the toddler.
Pav for the adults table, choc ripple for the kids. If the kids are lucky they can scrape the pav plate.
Some sangas maybe with hundreds and thousands. Bit average really but someone will whine like a pom if you leave em out.
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
Goon of fortune seems more like a birthday or end of semester party thing to me
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.
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.
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.