Jake Epstein: I come from a family of very talented musicians and crazy South African uncles. Every year, my fam has a Hanukkah party. But the rule is , if you want to eat, you have to get up and perform a skit for everyone. It started as a tradition to entertain all of us youngsters, but as we've gotten older we're now the ones who have to perform. It makes for a really hilarious night.
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Kimiko Glenn: Every year, my family opens one gift on Christmas eve that they've been eying under the Christmas tree. We usually end Christmas night with a walk through our neighborhood which is notorious for getting together and decking their houses with the most beautiful, outrageous Christmas decorations. Then we settle down with a rented movie around the fireplace. I can't wait!
Krystina Alabado: I love Christmas!! It is my most favorite holiday and season! Like, I'm obsessed haha. Anyway, my tradition back at home with my family is a little different than most. We actually open our presents from Santa on the Eve not the Day! While we go to church "Santa" makes an early pit-stop at our house and drops off all our presents, and then when we get home, we pump up the X-mas tunes and pour the eggnog and we open them like most families do on Christmas morning! Then we all jump in the car and head to my grandma's house where we celebrate Christmas with all my aunts and uncles and cousins! There is lots of music, and pictures, and amazing food! Then, on actual Christmas morning, me and all of my cousins wake up super early, and wake up our parents and we all eat my Grandmas homemade posole (an amazing Mexican stew) and gather around the tree and open up presents from each other...my favorite memories come from those Christmas's with my huge crazy family!! And I cannot wait to go home and do all this! Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!!
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Marques Walls: Every Christmas Eve, my mother and I watch the movie "Jingle All the Way" while eating caramel popcorn and egg nog.
Matt Shingledecker: I play the piano for my whole family every year, and at some point in the day I make up lyrics to popular songs roasting various members of my family. My Mama also makes the best Mac and Cheese ever!
Sarah Hunt: In Portland, Oregon there's a street called "Peacock Lane" where all of the tenants are required to decorate their houses and property for the holiday season creating a street full of regurgitated holiday cheer. My favorite family tradition is going to Peacock Lane every year on Christmas Eve and getting hot apple cider, freezing my ass off, and seeing all of the decorations- somehow the experience never gets old and never ceases to bring a happy nostalgia to my heart.
Krista Pioppi: I have a HUGE Italian family, so on Christmas Eve we celebrate the Vigil with the festa dei sette pesci, or the Feast of the Seven Fishes. It's a meal that typically consists of seven different seafood dishes, and since I am a pescetarian (I dont eat meat, only fish), I really enjoy this tradition that fits my lifestyle! Just being home with family is the best part of the holidays :)
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Steffi D: During the holiday season, my entire family gathers for a huge, old fashion, loud, Italian dinner. After we are nice and full, we sit around the dinner table and take Ouzo shots. (This liquorice flavoured Greek liquor. Yuk!) We pour a shot glass full for a family member and scream "Ouzo! Ouzo! Ouzo!" until they take it. (Thankfully, the drinking age in Canada is 19) Then, we gather in the living room for dirty jokes told by my uncle Angelo and bad karaoke songs.
We'd love to hear your fun family traditions as well! Please leave a comment below. There will not be a blog post this Friday, the 25th.
In this season of giving thanks for those who love and nurture us, the Spring Awakening family wants to thank you, our fans, for giving us so much inspiration and love along the way. Wishing you and your families warm, bright and joyful nights this season.
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15 comments:
I love all the different ways you guys celebrate the holidays! My family's tradition is kind of (or very) Filipino. The night of Christmas Eve like 40 people are crammed into the house and we don't have a sit down dinner rather than a giant buffet style dinner. The buffet can feed about 3 or 4 times the amount of people who are actually at the house and it's filled with a mix of american and filipino foods; Ham, turkey, mashed potatoes, lumpia, pancit, puto, kare-kare, etc etc and the head of the buffet is topped off with lechon (a giant filipino version of a suckling pig). So we eat the whole night we are there and laugh, play games of both electronic and non-electronic alike. We are like this when it reaches midnight where it's technically Christmas Day and we start exchanging gifts. We then proceed to eat and laugh and play and everyone in the house passes out around 3 or 4 in the morning. And that's my family's Christmas!
My family is Jewish and Christian. My tradition is fondue on Christmas Eve. My favorite year was when the power went out at my house and we cooked fondue by the light of our menorah.
My family loves to sing. On Christmas Eve, my mom, my sister and I drive to the Women's Prison in my town and meet up with about 20 other people. Many of the women inside stand at the windows while we sing them Holiday songs! I've been doing this since I was three and I look foward to it every year. It's a really fun tradition and it's nice to know that the women enjoy it too. My favorite part is when they call down requests for us to sing!
Every Christmas Eve my family goes to my grandparents who live in the neighborhood. That's where we exchange gifts with my dad's side of the family. On Christmas Day, we have a huge party at our house. There's usually around 25 people - family, friends, neighbors. There's lot of craziness, lots of food, and lots of fun.
And we always watch "A Christmas Story" because TBS has a 24 hour marathon starting on Christmas Eve at 8PM.
We have our big Christmas family crazy time on Christmas eve. And then Christmas morning me and my mom hang out and every single year we make this disgusting/delicious breakfast thing. We take Pillsbury Cinnamon rolls and like completely unhealth-ify them up. It's so bad for you probably. Anyway, we unroll them and put about 69 thousand chocolate chips in each one and brown sugar and craisins and pecans and then roll them back up and bake them and thennn when they come out of the oven there are these hershey cinnamon chip things (like chocolate chips, but cinnamon... hence their name) and we melt those on top thennnn put the frosting on. And whip cream. FAT ASSES. I know. Needless to say its bomb. And sort of really gross at the same time. Like, when you eat them its pretty much a food orgasm. But then afterwards you feel like maybe you should never eat again. But you do. Every year. So it goes.
EVery year my grandma sends our family an "Open on Christmas Eve" present which always contains new PJ's that we are required to wear that night and on christmas. On Christmas morning we all get up and open presents, but we stop half way through for about 45 minuets so we can eat my moms homemade cinnamon rolls. Nummers!
The Holidays are always super fun here at our house! Every year my grandparents come from Belgium to visit us for a month, they usually arrive at the beginning of December, so the holiday festivities begin very soon. With all this excitement, decorating, Christmas shopping, and food preparations, it's no wonder why we are all so ecstatic by the time December 25th rolls around. This year, my aunt, uncle, and younger cousins are coming from Belgium... this years' tradition is going to be different, but just as fun!!!
Happy Holidays everyone!!!
On Christmas Day, we wake up and open our stockings, eat blueberry muffins, and go to church. Then we usually spend the rest of the day watching movies (occasionally we'll go to the theatre) and just enjoying one another's company. Also, my family celebrates all twelve days of Christmas, so the presents and the decorations don't end on the 26th. They keep coming all the way through Epiphany on January 6th!
There's a street in my town that pretty much does the same thing that Sarah Hunt described. It's the same decorations every year but they're so cool to look at.
On Christmas eve, my small immediate family joins our large extended family in a nearby town and family friends' house. We watch movies and talk about the other things that we've missed about each other over the year. Then on Christmas morning, we get up, look in stockings and open presents and then zoof over to my grandmother's house, open presents with my dad's side, then my grandfather's and open presents with my mom's side. It's crazy, but it's wonderful! Merry Christmas everyone!!
every christmas eve, my family and i get to get together at my grandmas house and celebraite christmas the mexican way. the day before christmas my grandma, aunts, mom, cousins, sister, and me make tamales. i just started learning how make last year, and the came out crapy... but o well i tried. when christmas eve finally comes my family and i pray and eat dinner, and wait until midnight or 11 o'clock to open present while the man sits and play cards, the women sits in the kitchen and talk, and the children goes are in the living room playing and being loud. then we finally open present. and thats me christmas tradition. MERRY CHRISTMASS SPRING AWAKENING
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A lesson that no matter the time families can stay the same or more together and making the traditions that have made them even more to join. I hope to put it into practice with my family!
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