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There’s a reason why people call Christmas the most wonderful time of the year—it’s one of the very few occasions when we can press pause on our hectic lives and enjoy spending time with our loved ones. Whether it’s setting up the tree, decorating gingerbread houses, or sending festive cards to your relatives and friends, everyone has their own rituals.
Reddit user hellotintin100 asked people to share interesting or fun holiday traditions that they follow, and almost 46K Christmas enthusiasts replied. Just to warn you, some of the stories are so wholesome and adorable, your heart just melts a little bit while reading them.
Bored Panda took some of the most heartwarming comments from this post for you to enjoy. Continue scrolling and share your favorite holiday rituals in the comment section below, we would love to hear them!
Reddit user hellotintin100 asked people to share interesting holiday traditions that they follow and thousands of wholesome comments started pouring in
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#1
My brother and I stay at my mother's house on Christmas Eve with our families every year. We still sit at the top of the stairs on Christmas morning until my mother tells us we can come down to the living room to see what "Santa" left us. We're both in our 30s and our wives and kids now sit on the stairs as well. It's getting pretty crowded but I wouldn't have it any other way!
The holiday season is all about making memories that will keep you feeling warm and fuzzy for the rest of the year. Gathering with friends and family members to participate in time-honored traditions are some of the simplest ways to make your holiday celebrations even merrier.
To find out more about the importance of holiday rituals, their history, and what they mean to us in these modern times, we reached out to Alex Palmer, a freelance writer and the author of The Atlas of Christmas: The Merriest, Tastiest, Quirkiest Holiday Traditions from Around the World. He said that there are a huge number of reasons why we feel drawn to create and continue following rituals.
"Many Christmas traditions specifically developed out of midwinter activities (feasting, singing, gathering with loved ones) meant to keep people warm and boost spirits during the chilly months," the writer explained. "Beyond meeting physical/mental needs, holiday rituals, of course, meet our spiritual needs while also helping to strengthen bonds between members of a family or community."
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#2
My parents were broke when I was a kid, but you'd never know it from Christmas. They always went all-out, put money on credit cards, etc. One Christmas we were particularly broke, but dad went out and spent (probably most) of his paycheck on last minute gifts.
When we got home, my mom had been with us all day and since there was no money, she hadn't gone food shopping. All we had were some cheap hot dogs and canned beans.
My parents put the beans in a pot over the fire, grabbed the hotdog cooker from when we went camping, and threw the dogs on over the fire too. My sister and I loved it so much, we did it again the following Christmas.
Eventually we weren't quite so poor. The two-dollar AnP hotdogs became Nathan's, then Sabretts, then butcher Bratwursts. The beans went to BnM, then eventually fancy gourmet sh*t. But my sister and I are now adults with our own families, and even on years where we're not together, our entire family has hot dogs and beans on Christmas Eve.
The author has researched a wide variety of ways in which different countries and cultures celebrate the holiday season. According to him, how a group spends their holidays is less important than the fact that they have gathered together to follow rituals they do each year.
"Whether gathering around the table to eat a feast of eel (the main course at Christmas in parts of Southern Italy), cooking up a turkey or roasting a pig, the act of sharing the same meal together year after year helps bond those people together, and puts us in a good mood (for the most part)."
#3
The first year my boyfriend and I were living together we decorated our tree only to realize we didn't have a topper. As a stand-in, we grabbed an oven mitt from the kitchen and put it on top. It made us laugh every time we looked at it, so it stayed and when we tried a nice "traditional" topper the following year it just felt wrong. So, here we are 14 years later, married and with a daughter and each year we pick a new oven mitt to put on top of our Christmas tree, the weirder the better!!
Cecilia Herrera 3 years ago
Have you considered making a keepsake out of your former tree toppers? Perhaps you could make a quilt, or even a wreath out of them? Either way, what a fun way to make your tree unique to your family!
#4
A tradition we had when I was a child, and one I'll be continuing with my children when I have them, is the Christmas Eve box. For Christmas Eve, we were given one gift early, and it was a box with Christmas pajamas, a mug, hot chocolate mix, popcorn, and a Christmas movie. We would get to open it around lunchtime, and we'd spend the rest of the evening in our new jammies having cocoa and movies together.
When people maintain such traditions and give meaning to them, they tend to elevate what might just be another get-together. "This is true not only of more religiously focused rituals, but even fun games or songs can take on greater significance when understood as part of an annual tradition," Palmer said. "In Finland, a trip to the sauna on the day before Christmas is treated as a special outing, even though it's not much different than the visits to the sauna that take place most other winter days."
"In Ethiopia, a game of ganna (a mix between street hockey and soccer) is played on Christmas Eve day amidst the more sober ceremonies, and even though it's meant to be fun, it's treated with a level of ceremony such activities would not usually receive," the writer continued. "When seen as part of a long tradition, otherwise mundane behavior feels more meaningful and connects us with our fellow celebrants in a deeper way."
#5
One year my great-aunt got her older sister, my grandmother, a bottle of Elizabeth Taylor perfume. The perfume happened to come with a watch - a shiny gold pleather-y affair with fake "white diamonds" around the face. It was hideous, but my Aunt wrapped up the watch too and hammed it up like it was a big deal. My Grandma laughed and wore it all day, showing it off like "Look at my gooold watch."
The next year, my Grandma wrapped the watch and gave it to her sister... Laughter, surprise, etc.
The watch was gifted back and forth each year with great joy.
A few years ago my Grandma died in June. Later that year, when I was opening my Christmas present from my younger sister, I completely unsuspectingly unwrapped the gold watch. I sobbed and laughed, of course, and we have been trading it at Christmas ever since.
#6
My grandpa would always get up on the roof about an hour after our bedtime and stomp around on the roof with sleigh bells
It also shows the bond that we have with our friends and family and how strong our relationships are. Alex Palmer mentioned that "traditions are typically shared with those we consider closest to us, those we trust and with whom we share a connection whether familial or otherwise."
The rituals we create "may be playful, such as a holiday game, or more serious, such as attending church service or honoring ancestors. The tone of the tradition and the way we practice it can say a lot about the relationships we have with those who join us in the ceremony."
#7
We have signs all over our house spelling out Leon instead of Noel. It started out as a joke because my dad is dyslexic, but it stuck and we even named our dog Leon and we’ve been doing it since I can remember.
Yvette Desmarais 3 years ago
My husband's middle name was Leon. We had those Noel signs. Id rearrange them to Leon.
#8
When my oldest was born his uncle gave him a teddy bear which became his favorite toy. His uncle died just before his first birthday. The bear goes everywhere and gets pretty ragged after a while. We did a lot of searching and found the bear, bought several, and every year teddy waits in the Christmas tree to be picked up by the elves where he goes to the north pole and gets pampered. He comes back looking brand new and santa leaves him for our son. We've marked every bear with the year it's from and I'll be sad when he outgrows this tradition but for now, it's my favorite.
The author continued that some traditions have evolved over time. "These changes may be out of convenience (opting for store-bought Christmas cookies rather than baking them all yourself), safety concerns (for example, the illuminated crowns that kids wear during Sweden's Saint Lucia parade no longer use actual candles), or any number of cultural or political shifts (following the establishment of the USSR, the gift-bringing character of Ded Moroz shifted from honoring Christmas to honoring New Years as celebrating religious holidays were banned)."
#9
When we were younger, my parents had a tradition with us. We would always go out into the front yard with my dad to find the 'perfect' pine cone. Maybe a week or two before Christmas, we planted the pine cone in a pot and watered it. Then, overnight, it would become this magnificent, huge (to my young eyes), and fully decorated Christmas tree. It only worked in December and we were always told it was the Christmas magic. Then my sister and I figured it out when we found pine needles in my parents’ car.
#10
My family has a tradition of leaving riddles on cards and guessing what the gift is before opening.
We go around 1 by 1, reading our hint out loud so everyone can guess, then open it and show the room.
Ends up taking like 5 hours for everyone to get through their gifts, but it's always a fun time.
Lord Mysticlaw 3 years ago (edited)
I like this, it's no fun if everyone just rips open their gifts in a few minutes
#11
As soon as this pandemic is over, and we can once again have Christmas gatherings, my sister and I can get back to smacking the hell out of each other with cardboard wrapping paper tubes. We’re in our 50s, btw.
In some countries, Christmas has proven to be very adaptable: "While some cultures continue to observe it as a solemn religious holiday, others have embraced it in almost exclusively secular ways. While we think of Christmas as a cold-weather holiday, it has been adapted to warm weather in creative ways from Australia to The Bahamas."
#12
As kids we'd have this tradition of sneaking into each other's rooms and 'borrowing' something a week or so before Christmas. Then you wrapped the stolen item up and give it back as a decoy gift. We did it with our cousins, grandparents, aunts and parents too. It had to be something unimportant, but something they'd miss. Like a stuffed toy, a favourite spatula or a book. It became a very exciting competition to see how big the stolen item could be without you being caught. Bonus points if they didn't even notice it going missing One year my aunt noticed her stuffed bear was missing (it was also a hot water bottle) and made huge wanted posters that she hung everywhere - from the trees in our yard, to our bathroom to the Christmas tree. It was hilarious and my friends were very confused by this. My grandma was always in on the sneaking and diverting
#13
Every Christmas the kids in the house have wrapping paper put over the entrances to their rooms so they get to rip through it in the morning. It originally started as a way to keep a certain kid in when he kept coming out early and opening presents before everyone was awake.
#14
Every year my wife and I buy an ornament for our tree that corresponds with something that happened that year. So we have a tree filled with all of these weird wacky ornaments like a tennis ball (we started playing tennis that year), swedish chef (Europe trip), Ship Captain Nutcracker (our first cruise), amongst many others. It's such a fun tradition in December to debate what we to get and then finding something. And then reliving them all when we put them up.
Maybe you already have interesting and fun holiday traditions that you share with others and follow every year. Or maybe it’s time to find new ideas, put your family’s twist on them and incorporate them into your own annual celebrations. If that’s the case, then you’re in the right place, because these stories are filled with good cheer that will inspire you and make your Christmas all the more memorable and fun.
#15
I always changed my Mother in laws Noel candles to say El No. she would ask me if I did it and I’d say El No. She found me amusing and I miss her.
#16
Each year we cut a round off the bottom of our Christmas tree. We label it with the year. Over time, it makes a sweet display and reminder of years past
#17
A buffet for 10..... for 2
So my wife and I spend the days leading up to Christmas Eve going around and buying a selection of the poshest ‘party food’ from the likes of M&S, Booths, Waitrose. On Christmas Eve We will bathe the kids (10 & 5) play board games with them, watch movies etc.... it’s bed for 9pm & 10pm for them both. The oven then goes on. 30-40 minutes later we have enough food to feed at least 10, but it’s just for the 2 of us and we always do pretty well and are stuffed by 11:30pm. A few glasses of wine or G&Ts keep the merriment going. We arrange the gifts at around 1am and it’s off to bed. Excited ourselves, we usually end up discussing what food was our favourite and my wife makes a note to buy again the following year.
Apart from seeing the kids faces on Xmas morning, this is by far my favourite part of Xmas.
I hope everyone has a good one this year and is able to fill their bellies and enjoy the company of those you love.
#18
Every year my grandpa reads our family The Night Before Christmas. He has Christmas ornaments that go along with the book so everyone was handed an ornament and you put it on the tree when your phrase was read out
#19
I was sent out to find pine needles in the back park a day or two before Christmas. They were allegedly for reindeer snacks, and they had to fill this big wicker basket that was normally full of magazines.
Turned out, years later, that it was to get me out of the house while my mom transferred wrapped presents from the neighbor's garage into our house, as I always tried to find and open any gifts that I snooped on before Christmas day.
#20
28 years ago I was one of the first 100 customers at an HEB grand opening, for that honor I got two cans of this.
That Christmas we had a fun Dollar Store White Elephant exchange with the family Christmas Eve. I wrapped a can of the potted meat as my contribution. My Mom got it and got a real kick out of it, she immediately re-gifted it to me the next day.
Well next year I wrapped it and gave it to my sister, the year after that she wrapped it and gave it to my Dad.
For the last 28 years this has been the most coveted gift of Christmas. I gave it to my son last year and he happily wrapped it for his cousin this Christmas.
#21
My uncle always hosts Christmas at his house since family comes from all over and he has beds for everyone to stay over. On his property is about an 150 foot diameter pond.
Every Christmas morning we wake up and build a giant bonfire to get ready for the impending shock we will feel later on around noon. We also try to get a decent drunk blanket going (for those that are of our families required drinking age) just in case.
Come Noon on Christmas Day, we do the Polar Plunge to rid our selves of last years crap and look forward to next year. We huddle around this bonfire while my Grandpa passes around shots to help warm up because that pond is f*cking freezing!
#22
On Christmas Eve we're each given a present early. It's always pajamas and once everyone has opened their present the Pajama Races begin. Everyone runs to their respective rooms and puts on their pajamas then races back to the tree. There is no prize for the winner except bragging rights.
Then there is a final present that has been wrapped multiple times with a ton of tape. We all stand around the kitchen table and attempt to unwrap it one at a time. Except you have to put on mittens and a Santa hat before attempting to unwrap it. The person to your left is rolling dice and if they get doubles then you stop trying to unwrap it and pass the mittens and hat to them so they can try. This game becomes very loud and fast so you need to keep on your toes. It keeps going around in a circle until someone is successful. The gift is always a board/card/dice game and we play the game until its time to go to bed. My siblings and I are all grown now, but we'll probably continue to play this with our parents until we have spouses to bring home...then make them play as well.
Steph Harrison 3 years ago
We used to do a similar game to the present one, but we put on gloves and had to eat a huge bar of chocolate with a knife and fork until someone rolled a 6 on a d6. We usually went until everyone felt too sick to carry on.
#23
I'm Catalan, meaning I follow Catalan Christmas traditions. In Catalonia (Barcelona's the capital), we've got two fun, or at the very least, interesting traditions. I want to preface this by assuring you all that I'm not making this up (google it if you don't trust me).
Here it goes.
It's 'el Tió de Nadal' (Yule Log), colloquialy called 'Caga Tió' (a translation would be 'Crapping Log', or something similar). Tió is a cut log with a painted face on the cut surface, and a red cap (a traditional Catalan hat called barretina). We've got it at home, typically under the Christmas tree, often covered with a blanket (God forbid Tió gets cold!).
During the weeks before Christmas, kids give some food to their Tió (mandarines, bananas, biscuits...) every night. When they wake up *gasps* Tió's eaten it all! (the parents removed the food, but the little ones are oblivious to that, obs). The idea behind that is that we want Tió to eat a lot so that he can, er, poop a lot. Why? Well, Tió is a magical log that poops presents. Yes, Caga Tió is our Santa Claus equivalent.
How exactly does a log poop, though? Easy. Kids need to grab a stick and hit Tió repeatedly while singing a song that basically says, quote/translation: "Crap, Tió. Crap hazelnuts and pine nuts nougat. If you don't behave yourself, I'll hit you with my stick. Crap, Tió." Note that this is just one version. There are others.
After that, the kids lift the blanket and usually get nougat, other Spanish and Catalan Christmas sweets, chocolate, and toys. I got my first bike thanks to Tió back when I was 3, so presents can be big XD Parents just need to hide the presents under the blanket, unseen by the children, before the song/hitting ritual begins.
Children love it.
2) We've got another scatological tradition called 'El Caganer'. This is a figurine we add to the nativity scene/manger (not sure what it's called in English, sorry). The thing is that ' el caganer' means 'the crapper'. It's a figurine which shows a shepherd typically dressed in traditional Catalan clothes (including that barretina Tió also wears), squatting while he defecates. It may seem offensive, but the Catholic Church is okay with it, as the poop symbolizes fertility for the land where Jesus is born. El Caganer is so famous some people buy 'celeb' caganers (there's a Trump version, a Rosalía version, a Harry Potter version, a Merkel version... and so on).
Why are Catalans obsessed with poop? Nobody really knows. Don't ask me.
We celebrate more traditions (both Catalan and Spanish), but these two are the funniest. If I talked about them all, this post would be even longer XD
Happy, safe holidays from Catalonia!
#24
Our family has a rather odd Christmas tradition that got its start over thirty years ago. At the time our two sons had a collection of small plastic figures that provided a lot of play time with each other. These figures would sometimes be part of an elaborate array of props and story lines; at other times it would be just a couple of figures taken along to occupy the time while riding in the car.
One of younger boy's favorites was a figure he called Radio Pants. Radio Pants went missing one day. Everyone looked for him but it seemed he was lost. He was disappointed. Occasionally there would be a renewed search, but he was not found. It was the Christmas season and there were other distractions so the missing Radio Pants faded from our memory.
We have an artificial Christmas tree that spends most of its life packed away in two boxes that are stored above the garage with the other decorations. Each year all the Christmas decorations are brought down and when the boys were small the excitement of the holidays usually began by assembling the tree and putting on the ornaments.
The year following the loss of Radio Pants was no exception in the routine of putting up the tree. After placing the central “trunk” in its holder, the individual branches would be taken from the box and its twigs would be adjusted. The color coding on the end of each branch would be checked and then it would be put into place.
During this process we came across Radio Pants clinging to one of the branches. During their play the previous year he had evidently been placed in the tree. We hadn’t thought to look for him there, or at least if we did, he went unnoticed. We had a good laugh when the younger son shouted, "Radio Pants"!!!
We were all happy to see him again and since the little group of plastic characters were no longer occupying the boys’ time we just left him on the tree. He seemed perfectly happy to spend the holiday on the tree after being boxed up in the garage for a year. When it came time to put the decorations away it was decided that Radio Pants would maintain his place on the branch and he was packed away with the tree and put above the garage.
That routine has been repeated each year. Radio Pants recently emerged from the box along with his branch and will be celebrating his thirty-first return to spend Christmas with us. He is a happy reminder of the many Christmas seasons we have spent together. I look forward to seeing him each year and he doesn’t seem to mind the fact that he spends most of his life in a dark box. I think he, like me, has to wonder how little boys can grow so quickly into men.
#25
My best friend and I started a tradition of celebrating Christmas Eve Eve together (actual day is a little loose on interpreting based on life). We switch it up each year but we always dress up in Christmas outfits, have dinner, some kind of activity and a movie. At dinner we also exchange a book we picked for the other that we wrote a personal note inside. Then afterwards, we create a magnet for each other of our favorite photo from the night.
#26
I love when traditions born out of poverty are held onto and evolve. For my family it is chocolate oranges. My grandparents grew up during the depression and an orange would be all that they would get in their stocking, then in the ‘60s they held onto the idea of that by making sure that my mother and her siblings had orange gummies in their stockings, then when my mother had my siblings and I she updated it to chocolate oranges.
I’m not a really big fan of sweets and chocolate doesn’t really like my digestive system since about my mid twenties, but I am so looking forward to getting that chocolate orange on Friday because it just takes me back to being a little kid.
#27
I always rearrange my moms Santa to say satan and see how long it takes her to realize it
#28
We meet up with some friends in a park and launch model rockets while drinking hot chocolate or coffee with booze, been going on for over 20 years.
#29
The family Goober award! Throughout the year, the previous winner tracks all the goofy mistakes family members make , i.e. locking yourself out of the house in your underwear when the trash collector is around the corner. Then at the big Christmas gathering, we all sit down and the previous year's winner presents all the family "goober nominees" leading up to the winner, the most laughable of them all, who gets awarded a decorated 3' tall trophy.
#30
Every year for the last 8 years my sister and I gift each other a weird thing that makes the other one laugh. It started with when our house almost got repossessed just before Christmas and everything was so terrible that we just wanted to make each other laugh.
Highlights include: 12 packs of frozen potato smiley faces to resolve a long forgotten childhood argument, 3 chocolate tubes filled with tinny rubbber ducks instead of chocolate, a lucky dip which involved hiding small gifts in socks and this year a bag of potatoes with Nicholas Cage's face blue tacked on every individual potato
What do you think ?
Peppy Piplup 3 years ago
Every Christmas we go to Grandma's house, sit in a circle (I always sat next to the Christmas tree) with the whole extended family (parents, siblings, my aunts, uncles and grandparents) and take turns opening presents. But then my aunts got married, they had kids and the family got bigger. So it was way more hectic in 2019. Then 2020 happened. Basically my family, my aunts' families took turns visiting Grandma in 1 hour slots. We sat in a socially distanced circle (masks on and hands sanitised) opened the presents, then left so my aunt and my cousins could visit next. So last year was a little more peaceful and not as crowded. 😂
Brandy Grote 3 years ago
Every year we watch Terry Pratchett's "Hogfather". A great seasonal movie by my favorite author. GNU, Sir Pterry.
JitkaBlitka 3 years ago
I read it every year on christmas eve! It's my personal tradition, to snuggle with this book after the presents are opened, kids are asleep and I get my hour of peace at Discworld!
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Yort 3 years ago
We have an accidental tradition that someone will be hiding somewhere finishing making a present until like 6 pm on Christmas Eve lol. We used to have a “carpet picnic” - mom would put an old quilt on the floor and we’d have bowls of chips, triscuits, m&ms, olives on the quilt, turn off all the light except the Christmas lights, and watch Christmas movies. Then we’d get to open one present and mom would read The Cajun Night Before Christmas and The Polar Express. We stopped due to a combination of my sister going through a very lengthy bitchy phase and it hurting too much to sit on the floor for that long.
Peppy Piplup 3 years ago
Every Christmas we go to Grandma's house, sit in a circle (I always sat next to the Christmas tree) with the whole extended family (parents, siblings, my aunts, uncles and grandparents) and take turns opening presents. But then my aunts got married, they had kids and the family got bigger. So it was way more hectic in 2019. Then 2020 happened. Basically my family, my aunts' families took turns visiting Grandma in 1 hour slots. We sat in a socially distanced circle (masks on and hands sanitised) opened the presents, then left so my aunt and my cousins could visit next. So last year was a little more peaceful and not as crowded. 😂
Brandy Grote 3 years ago
Every year we watch Terry Pratchett's "Hogfather". A great seasonal movie by my favorite author. GNU, Sir Pterry.
JitkaBlitka 3 years ago
I read it every year on christmas eve! It's my personal tradition, to snuggle with this book after the presents are opened, kids are asleep and I get my hour of peace at Discworld!
Load More Replies... Yort 3 years ago
We have an accidental tradition that someone will be hiding somewhere finishing making a present until like 6 pm on Christmas Eve lol. We used to have a “carpet picnic” - mom would put an old quilt on the floor and we’d have bowls of chips, triscuits, m&ms, olives on the quilt, turn off all the light except the Christmas lights, and watch Christmas movies. Then we’d get to open one present and mom would read The Cajun Night Before Christmas and The Polar Express. We stopped due to a combination of my sister going through a very lengthy bitchy phase and it hurting too much to sit on the floor for that long.
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