We had this set of four little nutcracker ornaments, and Dad used to hide them around the house while we were sleeping, and we'd run around and try to find them all when we woke up. I always loved doing that... too bad they're all broken now!

We have a few odd ones, but the strangest is gently bonking at least one wrapped gift on our heads before opening it. Let me explain:

One year, my dad bought my mom an iron garden ornament. I think it was a frog perched on a lilypad. Anyway, it was attached to a metal spike, which you shove into the ground. Dad had wrapped it in tissue paper, and my mom was utterly baffled as to what it could be. She kept feeling it through the paper, wondering aloud what it was, despite us all yelling "just open it!". Finally, for whatever reason, she picked it up by one end and clonked it on her head. Unfortunately, heavy metal object on end of long stick = not good for head contact. Ow.

So, every year, my dad and I select one present (usually a dvd or book) wonder loudly what it could possibly be, and then slap our foreheads (gently) with it.

We used to hide 2 silver bells each Christmas eve when we came home from church for Santa to find. The bells would be hidden anywhere from in the tree to on shelves and each year "Santa" would always find and ring the bells.

Of course the other major tradition revolves around southern food eaten on New Year's day. The meal is black eyed peas, fried hog jowl, stewed tomatoes and greens. Each of these things is to bring health and wealth in the coming year. It is a MUST in my family to have this on New Year's Day and is often the first meal we eat!

When I was a child my grandmother lit a candle on NYE...usually like mid-day and let it 'burn off' all the bad stuff from the year...and we blew it out at midnight with wishes for good things to come in the new year. Sort of an 'out with the old in with the new' tradition. The candle was in a specific glass/wrought iron holder (that I wish I still had)...one year, I remember we took it with us in the car (lit!) to my aunt's house...so as to not interrupt the tradition.

Also in the spirit of holiday fire hazards...my mother ALWAYS uses two strings of Noma bubble lights--they have been used every year since my grandfather bought them in 1946. Always a nail-biter when they are first plugged-in, and we never leave them completely unattended...but they are beautiful and sentimental, only 1 or 2 bulbs have burned out (we've carefully amassed some replacements). My mother is determined that they will go 100 years.

Katy-kate, I love your tradition!

We chant "try it on, try it on" whenever anyone gets a gift of clothing. It's especially funny/annoying with foreign aunts send underwear or nightgowns as Christmas presents. Last year my SIL ended up wearing a bra (she had asked for new ones and her mother obliged) Madonna style over her clothes for most of the present opening.

These are so fun! I love reading other people's stories! We have two traditions:

1. On christmas eve we do Wigilia (pronounced by my family as Valiah), which is a polish/lithuanian tradition where we break holy wafers with each other and wish each other Merry Christmas. After breaking bread, we eat dinner - no meat allowed, only fish and other non-meat products. Usually we have pierogies, mac & cheese, crab cakes, fish sticks, lots of un-fancy finger food. My mother says we have to make sure to eat 9 different things that night, but I can't remember why. Something to do with the apostles, I think. I love it, and even though the area I live in has a high number of lithuania and polish descendants, I don't know of any other families that do it! Makes it a little more special and fun to bring guests!

2. When my little sister was about 7, I teased her about being nominated as the "garbage elf" on christmas morning. I basically told her it was her job to put all the wrapping paper and bits of ribbon in the trash bag. She was SO excited to be "nominated" and did her job merrily. My siblings and I thought it very funny at the time. Her title stuck for the coming year, and every year after that - but now, at 16, she's not quite as thrilled about it anymore - we still toss all of our wrapping paper on top of her in a playful pile, though! It's all in good fun and she still plays along.

On New Year's Eve my grandma always shows up with a bowl of cold lentils, that we're supposed to eat right after midnight for good health and fortune, at least one spoonful each one.
Now it wouldn't be a big deal, except that this lentils are made just with water and not even the smallest pinch of salt or seasoning! so every year she ends up chasing every family member with her bowl and spoon, and in the end we always get to eat it...

my mom had a collection of creepy old elves that she hid around the house to watch us for santa. they really scared me when i was little.
my newest tradition that i started when i moved out west is that i get a tree permit and chop my own christmas tree down. then in the spring, i plant 10 new ones.

How has nobody made the obvious "hide-the-pickle" joke yet? COME ON PEOPLE!

@alphabear: Haha! I was just thinking the same thing.

@alphabear, me too -- and there is a True Story there, but it's somebody else's life so I can't share it! (Suffice it to say a local pickle packing plant once had squeaky-toy promotional items...) (TRY not to think about it!) ;^)

We put the wise men from the Nativity set off far away in a bedroom, and day by day through Advent we advance them closer and closer, from shelf to table to windowsill, until Epiphany, the 12th day of Christmas, when they arrive at the stable.

Since Santa brought everything, tree, presents, decorations, all, the night before Christmas, we children angsted a lot about whether he would show up, so his helpers put an elf doll (same creepy face as above) at the base of the stairs, so we could lean over the banister, see him and KNOW that Santa had been.

My sister and I (as well as all our cousins) always got new PJs under our pillows the night before Christmas. A tradition passed down from my mother's family. A few cousins were told it was from Santa's elves. I'm pretty sure it's just so we all matched in the pictures Christmas morning, but it was always nice to open something ahead of time.

I've got two traditions to share. One sweet and the other a hilarious story completely fitting for my father's family.
I'll start with sweet- while my sister and I were never overly spoiled, my mom loves the excitement of Christmas and didn't like that the exciting part was mostly over on Christmas morning so she started her own tradition of Christmas Tree Gifts. It was fun for my sister and I, but Mom'll tell you that she started it for herself. She would purchase small little treats in pairs, usually tailored a little to each girl (Ex. dog stuff for me, cat stuff for my sister) and would wrap each item in gift wrap. The pairs would be wrapped in coordinating paper and hung on the tree like ornaments. My sister and I would take turns picking a present in the morning, and the other girl would have to find the matching gift, then we were allowed to open them. I don't have kids, but my sister can't wait for her girls to get old enough to start the tradition in her house.

Now the silly tradition. It's since died out, but for several years my dad, his brothers and some of my boys cousins would have a "Belly contest". No one ever wanted to be the winner, as that meant you had the widest circumference... It was always measured at the family party on Christmas day, and there was a slightly offensive tank top for a prize which the "winner" took home until the next year. The contest eventually had to be cancelled due to repetitive cheating by slipping two fingers into the measuring tape while taking official measurements....

We are a pickle family. Though we do get an extra present, it's the bragging rights of being the pickle poo-bah that really sparks the competition!

My parents really did Christmas right; after putting me to bed, Dad would climb up on the roof and stomp around with jingle bells, leave a boot print in the fireplace ashes, etc, while Mom - I mean elves - would deposit small gifts (christmas socks, those Little Debbie Christmas tree cakes) in my stocking in the weeks before the big day. Though I think I always knew the "elves" were Mom, but Santa on the roof was...is... REAL!

We also always sing "Happy Birthday Jesus" post-stocking, pre-present opening, and give a "gift" to God for the year (think along the lines of New Year's Resolution, but with a bit more weight to it - usually a commitment to a service project for the year or the like.).

Man I love Christmas!

My family has this thing where you have to hold your hands above your head while the gifts are being handed out--depending on how many people are present, it can take a while and it doesn't matter if you're 4 or 50--hands above the head regardless. 10 minutes of holding your hands above your head most years. Then we do a big huge countdown and all open presents at once.

When we were little my brother and I would leave milk and cookies out for Santa (and dad would always grumble that Santa would probably prefer a beer), as well as carrots for the reindeer. My bedroom window overlooked the flat roof of our carport, and one snowy Christmas morning (a bit of a rarity in rainy Vancouver) we discovered that the reindeer had eaten their carrots on the carport roof and left the carrot tops behind.

We end up having a (funny) argument about how to open presents: a certain somebody wants a giant free-for-all, some want the kids to take turns handing them out, some want the gift giver to hand out their own gifts to each recipient... and nobody remembers that we have this same problem every year.

Katy-kate, your comment should be flagged as NSFW because I was laughing so hard while I was reading it. Not sure our library patrons appreciated that, but what a great Christmas story!

I live in the Netherlands, and we don't have a real tradition with Christmas presents.
We don't celebrate Christmas with stockings, elfs and reindeers, that's because there is another festivity, just a few weeks earlier, called "Sinterklaas".

It's celebrated on the 5th of december. Sinterklaas rides on the rooftops with his white horse and no Elfs, his helpers are called "zwarte piet" . He holds Sint's big book with all the names of the naughty and nice children, Also Sinterklaas has a big brown sack (like Santa's) with all the presents. It's tradition to scare children with this sack. When you're naughty, there is a change to be taken in the sack to Spain, the residence of Sinterklaas. The weeks before Sinterklaas, children can place there shoe near the fireplace with carrots, hay and water for the horse and Sinterklaas puts a little present in the shoe. It's a real children's festivity.

Nevertheless i remember that we had a Christmas tradition.
On the night before Christmas the whole family went to church, late in the evening and came home just before midnight.
My mother had set the table before we left, and after we returned, the lights in the Cristmas tree, as well as all the candles in the house were lighted the first time.
My father placed the tree topper, and than we all had a Christmas breakfast.
All kinds of sweets, chocolate, and a special Christmas bread, home made by my mother. And at the end of the meal we've got one present.

What's is this the CRYING GAME?

My two young cousins would tire me out playing and then whiiiine if I tried to take a break and eat some appetizers. So one year, I told them that we were going to play "nap" and that one of them was my pillow and the other was my teddy bear. I sat back on the couch with one of them behind me and one of them snuggled up to my side and they tried their hardest to be perfectly still. If they moved, I "fluffed" (tickled) them. When they giggled, I demoted them to footstool and chew toy (put them on the floor and tickled them with my feet, leaving my hands free for eating). They loooved this "game" and asked to play it every year.

Years later I finally told them that the point of the game was to make them sit down and shut up for 5 minutes, and they were shocked.

@Katy-kate, that sounds like the time that I carefully raised some herb seedlings for my mom. They were in three small ceramic pots on a tray together, and I wrapped it immediately before we opened presents.

As someone handed her the box, I told her that it was fragile and to open it carefully. I looked away for a second, and when I turned back, she had decided this meant that she should flip the whole thing upside-down in order to pry open the tape on the wrapping paper instead of ripping it open. No, mom, it's not the wrapping paper that's fragile, it's what's in the box! C'mon!

These are great. As for the "hide the pickle" comment. We in fact do hide the pickle in our family (courtesy of Crate and Barrel though, not my German heritage). One year, weeks after brining preemie twins home and moving within the same month, no one found the damn pickle and it was forgotten.. Until spring when the four plus feet of snow melted and it was found clinging to the sad skeleton that was our dead Xmas tree.

This year, we have not yet hidden the pickle, but every day, our six year old (oldest of the four) asks "Seriously, when is Daddy going to hide the pickle?". Whereupon, Joe and I exchange devious smiles and someone throws out the "hmm, maybe later when the kids go to sleep..." raunch that has become the sad under-sexed humor of two thirty-somethings with four kids six and under. Merry Christmas!

My grandma bought stacks of song books for us all to sing along together each year. We grumble about it it but do it anyway. Someone always hides them but she usually finds them.

My immediate family (actually just my brothers) always does an intentionally horrible job of wrapping presents. Duct tape, newspaper, string, whatever's around. And the to's and from's are always bizarre nicknames laced with obscenities. I love my family.

Growing up, my whole neighborhood did luminaries - little paper bags weighed down by cat litter with a votive inside - lining the streets for about ten blocks. And I mean every street - neighbors would pitch in for those who were out of town to make sure every peice of curb was lit, even if some years it meant carving holes in the snow bank to do so.
Our best holiday tradition was our after-dinner walk to go look at the candles. It usually also involved re-lighting random neighbors' candles and stomping out a few rouge bag fires. It's the one part of the holiday I truly miss - my childhood neighborhood stopped when the organizer moved away - and I wish it was more common.

For my boyfriend, who is from the Maritimes, it is eating a meat pie of Christmas morning. For me, the eldest of the family "blesses" us (we are Catholics) on New Year's Morning. I used to think it was so weird and awkward growing up but it is a tender moment.

I've had the pleasure of experiencing the full Lithuanian Christmas Eve dinner with my relatives, since my uncle is Lithuanian. We break the bread, and have about 5 herring dishes, lots of beets, and he usually breaks the rules and makes a rack of lamb for his meat-loving daughters.

In my family, we were allowed to open ONE present on Christmas Eve (and usually my mom picked out the present and it was pjs so we would match and not be wearing a ratty old teeshirt in photos in the morning.)

On Christmas morning, my family makes monkey bread and usually brings one to a neighboring family that has young children. We hand out the presents and then we go around and around taking turns opening them. My dad puts on every wearable gift he is given.

My family has a lovely tradition. My dad always purchases a beautiful ornament for my mom. It has to be "extra special"- something very striking. He hides it on the tree on Christmas Eve and my mom has to find it on Christmas morning. We kids always would discreetly look for it and loved watching mom's face light up when she found her special ornament.

I love reading all these traditions! At my house growing up, Hagrid started showing up as well. Santa left fancy candy in stockings, and the Hagrid left an assortment of Hagridy presents in front of the fireplace! It all started because my dad and I saw these REALLY gorgeous big glass bottles red birch beer that were shaped like barrels. We ripped off the labels and I made new ones from parchment paper that said "Hadrids Specel Brew Butter Beer (warnin keep outa reach 'o dragons)" . My younger siblings LOVED them, so we kept on doing it every year with a new label ( such as "Now less explosive! warnin: may still explode). My dad even made wizard christmas crackers a couple of years in a row. They were made entirely of flash paper and other extremely flammable substances and would erupt in a giant ball of flame for half a second before disappearing. Totally terrifying and dangerous christmas fun! He even got them published in Make Magazine :-)

Bowtruckle.Liz, you guys are awesome!! My boys would love some Harry Potter themed stuff, thanks for the great ideas!

My family had the pretty basic Christmas traditions: presents from family opened Christmas Eve, ones from Santa Christmas morning, pajamas and breakfast etc.

However, in our family, Santa Claus would return to our house New Year's Eve on his way back to the North Pole and that's when our stockings would get filled with the Christmas candy, discounted holiday trinkets, random MadLibs and whatnot that my mom would buy during the after-Christmas sales. It's kinda brilliant, really. We got another night of anticipation and excitement and my parents could shower us with more gifts at a more reasonable price.

I thought this was an accepted tradition all over until my husband huddled over with laughter when I told him, in all seriousness in a then-childless house, that we couldn't take our stockings down until after New Year's because Santa was coming back, duh.

OMG I love this :) I also LOVE Make magazine :) and crackers! and Harry Potter!

The fact that there is a local pickle packing plant anywhere outside a Dr. Seuss book makes me very happy. Just try and say it five times fast!

My grandmother always washes her hands with silver on New Year's Day to bring wealth in the new year. She also has a pickle ornament that my cousins and I would try to find, but there was no prize or extra present involved, just bragging rights. Being partly Dutch, we also hang our stockings up twice: once on Christmas Eve, and once the night before St. Nicholas Day (Dec. 6). And until a few years ago, Santa Claus himself would show up at my grandparents' house on Christmas Eve while my cousins and I were visiting, but my poor grandfather never got to meet him, since he was always in the bathroom when he arrived. :)

We had a similar "try it on" policy, but you kept on everything that was wearable until we were finished opening gifts. In addition, I took over the tradition my mother's sister started in their family growing up, decorating myself in all the bows and package trimmings.