What are your holiday traditions?

[Welkamo]

So November is upon us, and I've been thinking of the holidays (the season, for me, starts on November 1). For personal/familial reasons, this year is going to be... different. So I decided to ask you all about your traditions (because Bulbagarden is sort of a second home to me). What holiday(s) do you celebrate? Who do you celebrate with? What foods to you eat? What activities do you do?

As for me, I celebrate Christmas. Here are some of my traditions:

• Watching obscure Rankin Bass movies
• Lights. Everywhere.
• Kraków szopka

 

[Hydrogenium]

I celebrate Christmas with my family. It involves christmas tree, listening to and sometimes singing christmas carols, shopping at the christmas market, baking some gingerbreads, watching some christmas movies, eating: vánočka, potato salad, mushroom soup.

By the way, we're getting a new christmas movie this year, ehmm, I'm not sure what to think, and they are preparing christmas market already

Spoiler: some pictures

 

[Welkamo]

@Křišťál Vánočka looks so good! I also love potato salad.

What's the new movie about?

 

[Hydrogenium]

Well, I haven't seen the movie yet, but it's feel-good romantic comedy about a married couple taking care about a girl who has escaped from children's home.

 

[Welkamo]

I watch a lot of Hallmark movies. They all have basically the same plot, but it's still really fun.

 

[Aulos]

I'm non-religious, and celebrate Christmas as Winter Solstice (which I celebrate because I love winter). I love it, too, and can't get enough decorating! I look forward to it every year not just because I love the time of the year, but because decorating makes my room and house look so fun compared to the rest of the year. I love decorating trees and have quite a few of them. It's a joke in my family that I need a new tree every year. lol.

Also lights are great. I adore them so much. And candy canes are one of my favorite candies, they're also really fun aesthetically. =D (I have a tree that is themed with peppermint ornaments/ribbon lol)

A lot of family traditions have kinda broken up as everyone gets older and I don't have any grandparents anymore. =( There is a non-family tradition that's kinda fun where local bassoon teachers put together a group of bassoon players of all ages and skills and do a performance of Christmas songs in the mall. lol. It didn't happen last year due to the pandemic, but I have done it every other year for like 12 years or so now. (I'd love to put one together that is all bass clarinets [and lower]! I want an excuse to get out my bass clarinet lol)

 

[Hydrogenium]

I watch a lot of Hallmark movies. They all have basically the same plot, but it's still really fun.

The most important thing in a christmas movie is the atmosphere... also, we watch Home Alone every year since my mum likes it. And every year, there is a new low-budget fairy tale movie, usually without christmas themes, on TV.

 

[Welkamo]

There is a non-family tradition that's kinda fun where local bassoon teachers put together a group of bassoon players of all ages and skills and do a performance of Christmas songs in the mall. lol. It didn't happen last year due to the pandemic, but I have done it every other year for like 12 years or so now. (I'd love to put one together that is all bass clarinets [and lower]! I want an excuse to get out my bass clarinet lol)

Bassoons and clarinets are super cool.

Also lights are great. I adore them so much. And candy canes are one of my favorite candies, they're also really fun aesthetically. =D (I have a tree that is themed with peppermint ornaments/ribbon lol)

Candy canes! I love them so much.

I'm non-religious, and celebrate Christmas as Winter Solstice (which I celebrate because I love winter). I love it, too, and can't get enough decorating! I look forward to it every year not just because I love the time of the year, but because decorating makes my room and house look so fun compared to the rest of the year. I love decorating trees and have quite a few of them. It's a joke in my family that I need a new tree every year. lol.

The "vintage Christmas ornament and warm lights" aesthetic is an immaculate one. I love decorating.

 

[Beth Pavell]

I re-read Hogfather and rewatch Grumpy Old Men at Christmas, to remind me that I'm not insane; the rest of the world is

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

I'm not religious at all, but I just like hanging out with family that I don't see often, and getting gifts and stuff, eating really good food that I often get leftovers of.
I also watch a lot of the holiday related episodes of cartoons like South Park and American Dad in the two weeks leading up to Christmas.

 

[Tood]

I usually spend my Christmases with my father, brother and grandmother. Usually we end up making a lot of Eastern European food, since that's what my grandmother usually likes to make. I don't have a lot of close family, and the ones that are close aren't festive in the slightest.

But one thing we have started to do in recent years is to try to give each other really bad stocking stuffers as a joke. I've given out salt and ketchup packets from fast food places before, and I've got some weird stuff in return, like really cheap/cringy toys from the liquidation section of a pharmacy, or random samples of shampoo or napkins from hotel bathrooms. I have a lot of plastic utensils and chopsticks saved up in my room that I'll probably use for this year. We give each other actual gifts too, but the ironically bad ones are always fun.

In terms of actual cultural customs, we usually just buy a yule log cake or a panettone or something.

That's about it, really.

 

[colours]

i feel odd in that i don't think i have any specific traditions. what i do during the holidays greatly depends on whenever my external family wants to hang out and do stuff, etc. of course, as the pandemic is still a thing, that makes this a bit complicated. i think this year will be more of the same in that, unfortunately, aside from the holiday spirit, christmas itself is more or less going to be a regular day for me.

 

[Okido]

Christmas is easily my favorite holiday, so basically as soon as December 1st hits I start blasting music and decorating the whole house with tinsel lol. I've basically only ever celebrated it with my parents, but once it's a little bit less scary to travel, I would love to spend it with my friends someday.

Seasonal food-wise, one of my favorite things is making hot chocolate with coffee in it (optionally with whipped cream/festive sprinkles on top). When I was a kid, my family used to have taai-taai every year, which are spiced Dutch cookies sort of similar to gingerbread - except they're extremely tough and chewy, and I don't really remember liking them all too much lol. I also love panettone and I wish I could eat it more often.

As far as other traditions I've made for myself, I always watch the SpongeBob special "Christmas Who?" every single year. And I listen to the Pokémon Christmas Bash album, because it's hilarious and actually the best thing ever.

 

[Welkamo]

as soon as December 1st hits

Starts November 1st for me lol

Seasonal food-wise, one of my favorite things is making hot chocolate with coffee in it

THAT IS THE BEST DRINK EVER

 

[Kung Fu Ferret]

Sometimes I wish eggnog was made all year round, but then I'd be even fatter than I already am.

 

[Welkamo]

Sometimes I wish eggnog was made all year round, but then I'd be even fatter than I already am.

I've never had eggnog lol

 

[airmail]

Well, I've never really gotten to go all out celebrating Christmas, but I do have a couple little things I like to do this time of year! Most of them are just old traditions my Grandpa and I used to do, but I do have to watch the old Rudolph and The Island of Misfit Toys movie considering I would wear the VHS tape out every holiday season!!

The staple of the holidays, though, is my Grandma's pumpkin bread! She starts to make it early as November and we've always got a loaf or two around, and I swear, it's the absolute best thing I've ever eaten in my life! Just recently she passed the recipe down to me, and while I can't make it quite as good as her, it's still a great thing to be able to share with everybody. . Plus we get twice the amount with both of us baking!

I would love to spend it with my friends someday.

Me, too! I can't wait to make you incorporate all the glittery deer decorations I have . .. and to steal the hot chocolate coffee

 

[Okido]

^ I love eggnog but it absolutely does not love me back. It's kind of like drinking a cup of melted ice cream. It's so heavy that I feel like I take about two sips and immediately need to lie down.

I can't wait to make you incorporate all the glittery deer decorations I have . .. and to steal the hot chocolate coffee

NOOOOOO!!!

 

[RavenRaziel98]

I hate holidays (probably not the biggest surprise I guess), but it's less worse since I've gotten rid of my family. I'ld like to start celebrating Festivus but my wife won't let me. We don't have real traditions or stuff like that, my wife plays games and enjoys a drink or two (I hope I was allowed to say this, if not I'll edit it) , I do more or less the same. Overall rather unspectacular.

 

[ToxicWhiskers]

Christmas in my house is always nuts, though we couldn't really do what we usually do last year because of Covid, but we made it work.

To be honest, I didn't mind it being quiet last year as I usually find the whole season overwhelming, which my family are very accepting of. However, I do try to make an effort to join in.

We usually have the family round or go to my aunt's or grandparents' houses for a big lunch. Also, we plan a few trips out, such as a pre-Christmas Day drive into London to check out the lights on Oxford Street and this year, we're going to the West End to see The Magic Show That Goes Wrong, which I'm looking forward to.

Then there's my brother's birthday on New Year's Eve, so he'll probably come back for that and have some friends round.

One thing I'd really like to do is more charity-based work around this time.