Winter Holiday Traditions

I have the TAS2R38 gene apparently. We tested this in my physical anthropology class years ago with PTC strips. Sprouts are pure nasty to me! 

At one time I spent the holidays in the UK as part of a previous bf's family and I always hated the stupid little sausages wrapped in bacon as a side dish.  Never got the appeal of brussel sprouts either.

My aunt and uncle lived in the UK in the 70s and brought back the whole christmas cracker thing, so my family has always more or less done that.  We also open Santa gifts in the morning, and family presents in the evening as a tradition.

Now, however, we have to take the Swedish bf's traditions into account, if we are in the US or Sweden.  My family asks him to make Swedish meatballs for the dinner table, and bake certain traditional cookies.  Krispbrod makes it to the table too.  If we are at his parent's home, then EVERYONE in the entire country sits down at 4.30 in the afternoon of the 24th or so to watch Kalle Anka (Donald Duck) and a bunch of racist old Disney cartoons broadcast on the primary state channel, before watching the King's address and then eating dinner before opening presents in the evening as well.  Dinner has to involve Jansson's frestelse on the side - some awful dish of sardines, potatoes, cream, and breadcrumbs.  Usually either venison or moose makes it to the table in addition to ham, though one year we also had wild boar.  Lots of sausage, cheese, chocolates, with pickled herring and boiled potatoes to start.  Special booze too - lots and lots of cold Swedish snaps taken in shots throughout the meal.  By the time we get to presents everyone is pretty hammered and frankly, I don't actually remember what we have for dessert.

This year we are on our own for the first time and its all a little weird.  So I am guessing we will mash everything together best we can.  Get in some beef wellingtons from the butcher.  Roast some potatoes and try some sprouts on the side.  Put out the special package of Christmas krispbrod and some pepparkakor and cookies and snaps from the Swedish bakery/shops in town.  Maybe I will get in a pudding, but I don't like fruitcake in general.  We will probably open gifts in the evening as usual and then after that who knows - maybe watch a movie.

We have a three day Christmas tradition, on Christmas Eve my husband and I join his childhood friends for a local Christmas pub crawl. Everyone gets roaring drunk except me because I like enjoying presents without a massive hangover... on Christmas we go to the in laws, who have giant rugby socks filled with useful stocking stuffers to last the year (and a clementine, which I always 'accidentally' leave behind). I just started a new tradition and bought some lovely stockings which can only be filled with gifts that don't exceed £15 total.

Christmas day is filled with the father in law, husband and brother in law cooking the family meal, which is mostly meat free, save for the main course of salmon. No television is allowed during the day (though I always sneak away to watch Wallace and Gromit), but allowances have been made over the years to watch the Doctor Who Christmas special and then complain about how terrible/maudlin/silly it is, followed by a film (last year it was Pirates in an Adventure with Scientists). Then board games are played until everyone is drunk/sleepy/irritated. On boxing day we have an afternoon roast and in the evening comes the legendary pirate feast! where I eat enough food to fill a small shop and soon after feel like dying.

Hubby isn't actually into Christmas, so I did my usual traditions, when we lived in the UK. We got together with his family for dinner and a gift exchange, but that was about it.

I had to have my usual huge tree, so I got a 6.5 ft one. All visitors who came over would exclaim about how enormous it was. All I could think was, in the States I always had a 7.5 ft tree that was much bigger around, so that one seemed small.

We did pick up an accidental tradition of Wallace & Gromit/ Cheese Day. We'd decided on a cheese board for lunch one day, and hubby happened to find Wallace & Gromit on tv, so we watched while eating. The next year we decided to do it again, and bought a DVD, and a tradition was born. Not quite Christmassy, but we do it at Christmas time.

DS reports he got a dwarf tree in a pot and put lights on it. See how long before the cat knocks it over (as he did with the full-size ones)

On boxing day we have an afternoon roast and in the evening comes the legendary pirate feast! where I eat enough food to fill a small shop and soon after feel like dying.

Sounds pretty awesome to me!

DS reports he got a dwarf tree in a pot and put lights on it. See how long before the cat knocks it over (as he did with the full-size ones)

I give it a few hours at most. I still have pictures of my cats scaling the full sized Christmas tree and knocking it over a few times. With one cat, one year we put a Christmas tree and had to take it down the same day. He would not stop climbing it - that was bad enough, but he kept chewing the light wires no matter how many times you'd yell at him and shoo him off. We figured just to forget about the tree rather than have it knocked over or the apartment burn down. 

I always enjoy a good pirate feast!