Christmas is Coming

  • Thread starter Thread starter deogratias
  • Start date Start date
Status
Not open for further replies.
D

deogratias

Guest
I know summer is barely over. But I thought an interesting thread might be for us to post what customs and traditions we have in our family for Advent and Christmas, both the religious and non-religious ones.

It is a season so rich in both religious and cultural customs that it should take until Christmas for us all to post here.

Anyone want to start?
 
Unfortunately too many secular “Santa Claus and reindeer” traditions have entered our congregation’s celebration of Christmas. It’s a Baptist congregation which my husband is minister of. I would like to see more emphasis on CHRIST…

It’ll be interesting to see what type of traditions Catholics have 😃
 
One of the most beautiful traditions that my Catholic parish honors is having a Christmas pageant. The kids in the K-8 parish school perform one for the school and the teens in the high school youth group put on another for the whole parish. (The teens also put one on for the Passion during Holy Week.) They do an awesome job and it is a good reminder of what Christmas (and Easter) are really about. Unfortunately, neither event nor the Stations of the Cross (during Lent) are as well attended as they should be. Over the years, these “performances” just keep getting better–better costumes and better scripts. The teens really seem to be inspired by their involvement too. A great teaching device for Christians of all ages.
 
Since my son married, we added a new tradition. His wife is Ukranian. On New Year’s eve it is the custom to have a meatless dinner- there are several meatless courses and all have some meaning.

The Christmas Eve Supper or Sviata Vecheria (Holy Supper) brings the family together to partake in special foods and begin the holiday with many customs and traditions, which reach back to antiquity. The rituals of the Christmas Eve are dedicated to God, to the welfare of the family, and to the remembrance of the ancestors.

A kolach (Christmas bread) is placed in the center of the table. This bread is braided into a ring, and three such rings are placed one on top of the other, with a candle in the center of the top one. The three rings symbolize the Trinity and the circular form represents Eternity.

A didukh (meaning grandfather) is a sheaf of wheat stalks or made of mixed grain stalks. It is placed under the icons in the house. In Ukraine, this is a very important Christmas tradition, because the stalks of grain symbolize all the ancestors of the family, and it is believed that their spirits reside in it during the holidays.

After the didukh is positioned in the place of honor, the father or head of the household places a bowl of kutia (boiled wheat mixed with poppy seeds and honey) next to it. Kutia is the most important food of the entire Christmas Eve Supper, and is also called God’s Food. They tell me the father would take a spoonful of this and pitch it toward the ceiling and if it stuck, the year’s harvest would be plentiful - needless to say we don’t do this in my daughter-in-law’'s house LOL.

After all the preparations have been completed, the father leads the family in prayer. After the prayer the father extends his best wishes to everyone with the greeting Khrystos Razhdaietsia (Christ is born), and the family sits down to a twelve-course meatless Christmas Eve Supper.

There are twelve courses in the Supper, because according to the Christian tradition each course is dedicated to one of Christ’s Apostles. According to the ancient pagan belief, each course stood was for every full moon during the course of the year. The courses are meatless because there is a period of fasting required by the Church until Christmas Day.

The first course is always kutia. It is the main dish of the whole supper. Then comes *borshch *(beet soup) with vushka (boiled dumplings filled with chopped mushrooms and onions). This is followed by a variety of fish - baked, broiled, fried, cold in aspic, fish balls, marinated herring and so on. Then come *varenyky *(boiled dumplings filled with cabbage, potatoes, buckwheat grains, or prunes. There are also holubtsi (stuffed cabbage), and the supper ends with desert a stewed dried fruit compote

Generous plates of various cookies are passed

Then we open one gift each before going to Midnight Mass
 
Well, I’m not Catholic (not yet, at least-I start RCIA later this month!) so I’m just starting to learn more about the season of Advent and traditions many have. I love Christmas, though. 🙂

I grumble about how early Christmas things appear in the stores (Wal-mart had a few things out in the garden center this week!) but I can’t help but walk the aisles as soon as they’re up. I used to go all out with decorating, but cut back alot when we moved from NC to CA. Anyway, I usually end up buying a new Christmas CD or two before Thanksgiving rolls around. I love Christmas music- I have about 30 or so, all different styles, from 50’s tunes to country and pop to classical. The day after Thanksgiving has become our annual ‘torture materialism out of our kids’ ritual. My husband started it a few years ago, sort of an anti-virus against shoppers addiction. We go out, EARLY in the morning, to all of the ‘Black Friday’ sales, hardly buying a thing. It’s working- my kids HATE shopping- even my 13 year old daughter. 🙂 Sometime in the week after that we put up our tree (a bit early, I know.) Each year we each pick a new ornament. By the time the kids are old enough to leave home, they’ll have a nice ‘starter set’ of ornaments that reflect their tastes and interests over the years. A couple of years ago we started with an Advent wreath. Sometimes at night we read Christmas stories or sing carols. We always end with ‘Silent Night,’ because the kids decided that it was appropriate. 🙂 We go to Christmas Eve services at our church, then the kids are allowed to open one gift each. We used to get them tons of gifts, as much as we could afford (sometimes not all that much) but they would get so overwhelmed with it that a few years ago we started limiting the number of gifts to three each from us. They still get a lot from the grandparents though, no matter how much I suggest they cut back just a bit. 🙂

Well, that’s the basics, for us. My husband is military, so sometimes the details change as his deployments and our moves change. We used to drive up from NC to VA to visit my parents, but we moved to CA 6 years ago, so it’s a bit far now. This year I hope to videotape the kids reading stories and performing Christmas skits and such- I’m going to take the tape to Walmart, get it transferred to dvd and get a couple of copies for the Grandparents so they can see them, even if it’s not in person.

Well, this got kinda long. I’m eager to hear the traditions others have.
 
I love my family’s traditions. My mom decorates the house with a few touches of Christmas colors here and there (ribbons, flowers, paintings). We also have a tree which looks great every year. My favorite part is Midnight Mass. I loved it just being there, but it’s even better now since I joined the choir. When mass ends we stay for a while to talk to friends in the parish. Then we go home and have a big dinner. After that we open presents. Some people may think we’re being impatient opening it that early but it’s really a lot better that way. The people in my family are not great morning people. We all look half asleep and pretty ugly in the morning. The next day, we wake up at about noon, and head off to a cousin’s house and have yet another gift opening (they’re tradition is similar to ours).
 
Deogratias, I saw the thread title, and the next words in my brain were “…the goose is getting fat!”

:rotfl:

DaveBj
 
My best Christmas present this year is that it will be my first ever as a full-fledged Catholic and I’m at a parish where they do everything so liturgically significantly that it’s going to be wonderful to experience (last year I was just too scared about the process to enjoy it and now I just appreciate what I’ve been given just so much more!!!). My second best present is going to be a brand new nephew. So I don’t know that there are going to be many “traditions” going on, but I sure am looking forward to it 😃 .
 
the goose is getting fat!"
Click to expand...
please put a penny in the old man’s hat
if you havn’t got a penny
a half penny will do
and if you havn’t got a half penny, God Bless You.

I learned that in Kindergarden nearly 10 years before you were born LOL and when I came home and recited it to my parents they died laughing.
 
Another Christmas memory I have is Grandma’s Christmas Cookies - it was both an act of charity but a bit of vanity too for she loved the praise and gratitude that came with their distribution. The people she gave them to started to expect them every year and so even when it became difficult for her, she felt obligated.

She would begin baking them soon after Thanksgiving, making the ones that kept the best first and then continuing right up until the week before Christmas. That was the week she called on me to help because it was when she would make the sugar cookies and my job was to decorate them. Being a budding artist, I used icing as paint and made the lovliest Santas, and Angels, Christmas Trees and Stars. I can still see those cookies loving spread out on the dining room table, (with all the extension leaves in it to make it very long) after covering it with waxed paper.

Then she would bring out the boxes and tins from previous years (that was a condition to getting her cookies, you had to return the containers if you wanted them again next year).

Then we carefully loaded them with cookies, always putting the decorated ones on top (so I think I became a little prideful about them too come to think of it LOL).

As I grew into a teenager I started to hate making cookies though and to this day, “I don’t do cookies”.

But I sure love it when some other kind soul like grandma gives me a plate of lovingly made Christmas Cookies.
 
40.png
deogratias:
But I sure love it when some other kind soul like grandma gives me a plate of lovingly made Christmas Cookies.
Click to expand...
Deogratias,
I had a similar experience with making cookies w/ my grandma too… and I still love it when someone gives me a gift of Christmas cookies…
Thanks for sharing, Annunciata:)
 
40.png
deogratias:
please put a penny in the old man’s hat
if you havn’t got a penny
a half penny will do
and if you havn’t got a half penny, God Bless You.

I learned that in Kindergarden nearly 10 years before you were born LOL and when I came home and recited it to my parents they died laughing.
Click to expand...
1936? You really are a senior member!!! 😃

My favorite version is from the Muppets/John Denver Christmas special.

DaveBj
 
I was born in 1933. So maybe it was only 9 years before you were born that I was in kindergarden LOL
 
Caroling, caroling and more caroling. I go every chance I get, even if its just me, the wife and kids. I may have to pass on that this year since my wife will be right at nine months pregnant.

Our church offers the hispanic tradition of the mananitas, several times during Advent. This is where a group will go from house to house (about three times) singing songs back and forth, asking for a place to spend the night (like Mary and Joseph). They get turned down, of course, until the last house. There the whole gang enters for a time of food and fellowship.

The last mananitas always starts out at the conclusion of the Christmas vigil Mass.
 
The manitas - that is a great custom and many parishes in the SW have adopted it.
 
What a wonderful thread!! When I was young, we always lived out of state from our relatives. We would travel to be with my grandparents, aunts, uncles, and cousins. My grandparents would have a HUGE Christmas Eve party, with most of the adults getting “extra happy”. We would go to Midnight Mass, then come home and open our presents.
We later moved in state, my grandparents passed away, and the oldest daughter continued the tradition of the Christmas Eve bash. As a child I loved it, but as an adult, I began to become discontent. It seemed the what should have been a reverent and holy night, had become nothing more than an excuse to get drunk. With many getting upset when Christmas carols were played, because they prefered dance music. The tradition of Midnight Mass, had all but disappeared. With only myself wanting to go. After a few years of surreal versions of “YMCA” being the model of music, and adults getting absolutely sloshed, my husband and I decided to do our own thing Christmas Eve. Fortunately, the party was at my mom’s, and the changes made have benefited all. My mom decided the crowd that came, was more in a New Year’s Eve mindset, so she now has a New Year’s Eve party instead. I can justifiably decline because I have small children. It has been fun, choosing family traditions from both sides and making our own. I will share these on my next post.
 
Well, we have the Advent Wreath. We use the wreath as well to discuss with our children the attributes of God. The evergreen … unchangable, the circle … no beginning and no end, the candles … Jesus being the light of the world.

We also have a manger, this Christmas it will be set under the tree sometime during Advent. It will be empty. The children will be encouraged to perform good deeds and acts of kindness. They will tell no one, but get a piece of yellow yarn and place it in the manger. Hopefully, when Christmas day comes, they will have made a nice bed of good deeds to welcome the Christ child.

On Christmas Day, we will have a nice dinner at my home with the grandparent’s. Then Six 0’clock Mass. Afterwards, my husband bakes cookies, while the children string popcorn and decorate the tree (which until this time, only had lights), with Christmas Carols playing in the background.

The children go to bed, we place the Christ Child in the manger, the gifts under the tree, and “hide the pickle”. The next morning after we open the gifts, we go to my Aunts for a Champagne brunch, then for dinner we go to my other Aunts where we will sing Happy Birthday to Jesus over a Christmas cake, and exchange gifts with the rest of the family.

As someone else posted in another thread, I try to keep the gifts small in quantity, but the grandparent’s have other ideas.:o Although they have improved, instead of fifty gifts a piece, they have brought it down to about twenty five!:rolleyes: I’m still working on them.😉

May everyone have an abundantly blessed Christmas!
 
Okay - what this “hide the pickle” thing LOL

I think that is how customs evolve. Your family and your spouses family may have different customs, especially in the last 100 years of mixing cultures. Then you add a few of your own and a new family tradition evolves. Probably no other season is so culturally rich in custom as Christmas and hopefully all will still be centered around the birth of Christ which is indeed a time for joy and festivity so long as we remember whose birthday we are celebrating and why.
On Christmas Day, we will have a nice dinner at my home with the grandparent’s. Then Six 0’clock Mass
Click to expand...
I read this as you meaning to have typed Christmas Eve ? Correct?.
 
40.png
deogratias:
But I sure love it when some other kind soul like grandma gives me a plate of lovingly made Christmas Cookies.
Click to expand...
Grandmas are terrific, aren’t they?

This will be our first Christmas without my Grandma- she went home to the Lord in May. She had spent almost every Christmas Eve with my parents and I, so we’ll all really miss her. She wasn’t a Catholic until very late in life (she attended Catholic Mass exclusively in her senior home during the last year of her life), but she always loved to come to Christmas Eve Mass at our church.

She wasn’t much for baking cookies, but her fruitcake is legendary. A few years ago when she decided that she’d done enough cooking over the years, she passed her special pans and recipe on to me, because I loved to bake and had always helped her with the cakes. I didn’t get around to making it the last couple of years- just before Christmas 2002 she had a stroke so everything got put on hold, and last Christmas DH and I had just moved into our new house. This year I think I’ll have to make up a large batch and pass it around to all of the family. According to Grandma, my fruitcake is “almost as good” as hers (said with a wink, a little smile, and the sneaking of a second slice off the plate when she thought no one was looking).
 
Our Christmas traditions begins with the day after Thanksgiving when we go off to a Christmas tree orchard where we cut down our own tree. Later that day we have a Tree Decorating Party with the children and grandchildren. 🙂
 
Status
Not open for further replies.
Back
Top