Your Unique Family or Cultural Traditions

[~Natsumi Lam~]

Well, what are your unique cultural or family traditions that you like the most?


For me,

My family hands out weapons as gifts on christmas and birthdays [sometimes].

My family watches the Grench every year at christmas.

We used to go to our cabin every year/// now we go skiing every year.

My in laws give red envelopes with money in it. And they have drinking card games.

~Natsumi Lam~

[Lady Macbeth]

I'll inherit my mother's (formerly my grandmother's) cast iron cookware and cookbook.

The oldest of my two brothers will inherit my dad's (formerly my grandfather's) .22.

The women in my family cook the meals and serve the meals; dad gets served first, then the brothers, then mom and sister. My husband, however, hates this tradition and is trying to break me of it before we have kids.

Fishing, hunting, gathering and growing crops are a part of life. The kids know about guns and gun safety from the time they're born. When they're big enough to stand, they're big enough to put seeds in the ground. When they're big enough to reel a fish in, they're big enough to fish. It's something I'm having to teach my husband, because he's never had to do any of the above.

Otherwise, we don't have any particular traditions. All of us kids try to be home for Thanksgiving and Christmas every year, but that fell apart when my mom had to start working every other holiday and my brother shipped to Afghanistan and spent the holidays there. I still go home to help my mom with holiday baking when I can, but between our jobs' schedules conflicting and the price of gasoline, that's also something that has started to fall by the wayside.

[Myoti]

I'd be better to show just you some of our home videos, which I unfortunately can't at the current time.


Let's just say that if our family (extended) was a TV show, there'd be no need for any other show (and don't forget the holiday special Reunions! XD ).

[Lynx]

my family always celebrates summer holidays with (i know it sounds weird) grilled burnt potatoes. they're soooo good! (not burnt burnt but black)

[mitsuki lover]

Nothing I can think of.

[soul alive]

My family always opens gifts from people who aren't there on Christmas Eve. And on Christmas Eve we have a Cajun shrimp feast. Yummy.

My dad's b-day is the 4th of July, so we always have his favorite cake - cheesecake - then.

[FarmGirl]

We torment those we like (shaggy dog stories, sarcasm, pranks), we barbecue in winter, we duct tape the windows in summer, the only time we really get the extended family together is for funerals (and, I'm told, weddings- I'm one of the younger ones, they're waiting for me to marry so they can get away without saying "I wish this was under better circumstances"), etc.

[Fionn Fael]

My four cousins on my mom's side always come to visit during the holidays(we're really close, as far as cousins go). The traditions we carry out while together are as follows:
My brother and oldest male cousin have an all-out brawl with the youngest boy in the family. We call this tradition "Killing Bo", and it's quite enjoyable to witness.

One of our iron-clad holiday rules is to watch as many Disney movies as possible while all of us "kids" are together.

We open presents from Nanny(our grandma) on Christmas Eve night, after eating Christmas Dinner. A specific order in opening gifts is followed(oldest to youngest or vice versa), and afterwards, we kids have a vicious wrapping paper fight, and attach bows to random places on our bodies.

Those are just a few of my family's weird rituals. We're a bit unorthodox, eh?

[~Natsumi Lam~]

My four cousins on my mom's side always come to visit during the holidays(we're really close, as far as cousins go). The traditions we carry out while together are as follows:
My brother and oldest male cousin have an all-out brawl with the youngest boy in the family. We call this tradition "Killing Bo", and it's quite enjoyable to witness.

One of our iron-clad holiday rules is to watch as many Disney movies as possible while all of us "kids" are together.

We open presents from Nanny(our grandma) on Christmas Eve night, after eating Christmas Dinner. A specific order in opening gifts is followed(oldest to youngest or vice versa), and afterwards, we kids have a vicious wrapping paper fight, and attach bows to random places on our bodies.

Those are just a few of my family's weird rituals. We're a bit unorthodox, eh?

na ... all my cousins... uncles, brother, my dad and me always have to spar of it is not a family get together... one usually walks away all hurt haha

~NL~

[Little T-chan]

My family is Korean, so they should have a lot of cultural traditions...But my parents are too busy to follow them. So my mommy will make "dduk guk" for New Years and sometimes we'll do the "saehae jul" [New Years Bow] to our elders...but yeah. We don't even celebrate Christmas properly, if at all. =(

[EricTheFred]

My brother and oldest male cousin have an all-out brawl with the youngest boy in the family. We call this tradition "Killing Bo", and it's quite enjoyable to witness.

Somehow, your choice of avatar makes this easy to believe...

I have a Norwegian ancestry, and certain traditions have stayed with us, such as making and serving lefse and various cookies at holiday time (sandbakkles, rosettes, almond bars), and keeping an Advent wreath. Every Advent Sunday, we hold a special devotional, in which we light one of the four advent candles (plus the candles lit on previous Sundays,) say a prayer and read a prophecy verse, and sing an Advent hymn. You see this same tradition done during the church service in some churches.

My Filipino wife has brought a couple traditions into our family, as well. One is the displaying of "Parol" during Christmas. Parol are the Filipino evolution of the Chinese or Japanese festival lantern. They build the same sort of structure, but in the shape of a wildly decorated star, representing the Star of Bethlehem. You see these all over the place at Christmas time in the Philippines. We put one up as part of the Christmas lights, and a couple more indoors. (And, my wife made a special miniature one to act as the star on top of the tree!)

I don't know know if it counts as a tradition, but I and my brothers and sisters have all at some point in our life had the nickname "Fred" hung on us. (As in my online name, EricTheFred.) This comes from our family name, "Fretheim." If you heard it pronounced, you would know why it gets turned into "Fred".