Re: Holiday Traditions You Just Can't Do Without?

[Biggus Dickus]

For my family the one tradition we enjoy the most is "Hanging the Stockings". When we were kids growing up my mother made all of us our own socks, and we had these for years, she even made smaller ones for our dogs.
(These were really nice socks she made, very detailed, and each person's sock had a little emblem on the front, so for example mine had a horse because I was really into cowboys as a kid, and my father's had a baseball and glove because he loved to play baseball (He was really good, played minor league for the White Sox until he was hurt and ended his career, which he had to put on hold during WWII)
As kids the last thing to do before going to bed was for all of us to hang our socks from the fireplace, mom and dad included, and then put out the cookies and milk.
In the morning we would wake up, run into the room and see the tree surrounded by gifts from Santa as well as each one of our socks stuffed with goodies, which included, nuts, candy, cookies, an orange (Always a big, fresh orange at the bottom) chocolate, and several small gifts for each of us.

We would all open our socks first, while mom and dad made coffee and hot chocolate, and then we would open gifts, but opening our socks was always the best part.

Anyway as we got older my mom would make new socks for additions to the family, such as a son-in-law, or my other sisters partner, or my wife Socorro, along with our kids etc.

Each sock was different, and each matched the person they were made for in some way. Mom passed away several years ago, and now my oldest sister has taken over making a sock for everyone in the family, and each year makes a couple new ones to replace older ones or for new members of the family.

When all of us get together to celebrate Christmas we all bring our socks with us, and the first thing you do when you arrive at whomever's house we are celebrating at is hang up the socks on the fireplace mantle.
Then we go around and put gifts in everyones socks that we have purchased (These gifts are separate from the regular Christmas gifts we exchange with each other)
We refer to these as the "Sock Gifts", and they are usually smaller, personal gifts that we pick out for each other . It's gotten so we are looking out for "Sock Gifts" to give each other all year long, and we all put a lot of thought into each gift and sock. (We also make or buy small, delicious eatables to put in each sock as well)

Once everyone has arrived and the socks are stuffed, we all sit down together and take turns opening our socks. This can take a couple hours, but it really is our most enjoyable time of the evening; as we sit and laugh, and drink and eat and share stories about the different things we have gotten for each other.

When someone is not able to be present, we will mail them their sock stuff. (Not the actual sock, just most of the goodies and gifts)
When I was in the army, or living away from home and not able to make it home for the holidays I still always received my sock stuff in the mail.

I would hang a sock in the apartment and put my stuff in it, and then wait until christmas morning to open it.

Hopefully this tradition continues in our family for a long time; if we have family visiting during the holidays we have extra socks that we hand out, and everyone will bring a little bit extra stuff to put inside it.
So when Socorro's family has visited us throughout the years during the holiday's they are always pleasantly surprised to find a sock hung just for them filled with goodies.

My mom (Elizabeth) made my Mother-in-Law (Martha) a Christmas sock years ago when we first got married and she was visiting at Chrismas, and she took it back to Honduras with her, and every year she hangs it up on the wall of her home.
After my mother died she hung a picture of her up on the wall, and now at Christmas she hangs the sock below it, and fills it with goodies.

[Icarus]

A beautiful tradition Bruno.

[Essie Mae]

That's lovely Bruno.

My daughter and I used to take my mum Christmas shopping one day in November every year, and we always had to go for gin and tonic at some point.  Now my mum is no longer with us, my daughter and I toast her with a gin and tonic each year on our Christmas shopping day, even though neither of us ever drank it when Mum was alive - we used to have wine.  She had rheumatoid arthritis all her life, and never complained. She was severely disabled in later life but for some years she was able to hire a mobility scooter for our shopping trips.  One year, my daughter and I were looking round a store when we heard a massive thud.  My mum had driven the scooter into a mannikin and knocked it to the ground.  We did look for an assistant to apolgise, but there was no-one around so my mum whizzed away and my daughter and I just ran.