Holiday Traditions

[Endless_Night]

Yes, and that has got to be the best way to see it used!!

No kidding! When it started popping up in the PMs I was very, very confused.

And then there's google.

 

[Cumference]

And soon the ritual of de-christmasomizing.

Rounding up the tomtes and stuffing them in their little boxes where they rightfully belong!

But in a year or so, they will claw their way out again!

 

[midwestyankee]

Now I'm starting to salivate over one of our New Year's traditions: goat cheese and artichoke pizza for the Eve, and baked French toast for the next morning. Food rules.

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

Now I'm starting to salivate over one of our New Year's traditions: goat cheese and artichoke pizza for the Eve, and baked French toast for the next morning. Food rules.

Oh yes!! We do only appetizers all day for New Years. More about that later

 

[IrisAlthea]

And soon the ritual of de-christmasomizing.

Rounding up the tomtes and stuffing them in their little boxes where they rightfully belong!

But in a year or so, they will claw their way out again!

We do put away the tomtes before New Year's eve, so they are basically just free for a few days.
We leave the the Christmas tree and the lights and extra candles out until St Knuts Day, also called Twentieth Day Yule.

 

[seela]

We do put away the tomtes before New Year's eve, so they are basically just free for a few days.
We leave the the Christmas tree and the lights and extra candles out until St Knuts Day, also called Twentieth Day Yule.

Yep. We have a saying that "Good Thomas brings the Christmas, evil Knut takes it away". Thomas day is Dec 21st, Knut day is Jan 13th. I don't know what makes Knut evil, though.

The Christmas peace that's announced on the Christmas Eve here lasts 20 days, so it ends on Knut's day. I think that's why it is said that Knut's day is the end of Christmas.

In some parts of the country the tradition of "Knut goat" is still alive, and Knut's day is when the Knut goats emerge. It's sort of like trick or treating, kids dress up and go from door to door asking if they can sing to people, and in exchange for the song they'll get a treat.

Originally the Knut goats were young men dressed up as goats with horns and some kind of fur and went from house to house to beg for beer. If they didn't get beer, the house owners got tricked.

These days there are no tricks involved as far as I know. Then again I don't have a great deal of experience in Knut goating. I've only done it twice as a kid when visiting my cousins who lived in an area where the tradition was and is well alive and kicking.

 

[Curious_in_Cali]

I'm knee deep in my annual tradition of deep cleaning and purging my entire place so that I can greet the new year as open and clean as I can. I usually start the day after Christmas and do as much as I can each day until New Years. It is always so cathartic and freeing to touch everything from the past years and honor it all and then decide if it's time to let it go or carry it with me longer. I love to make room for the things that the new year will bring.

I finally let go of a box of things from the day my granny died so many years ago. I was finally ready.

What a year it has been!

 

[IrisAlthea]

I'm knee deep in my annual tradition of deep cleaning and purging my entire place so that I can greet the new year as open and clean as I can. I usually start the day after Christmas and do as much as I can each day until New Years. It is always so cathartic and freeing to touch everything from the past years and honor it all and then decide if it's time to let it go or carry it with me longer. I love to make room for the things that the new year will bring.

I finally let go of a box of things from the day my granny died so many years ago. I was finally ready.

What a year it has been!

We do this too, but more spread out.
Some of it gets done while we prepare for Christmas and New Year's and some of it as we clean up afterwards so to speak.
We also take a long and good look at routines and habits and decide how we want things to work in the new year.

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

We do this too, but more spread out.
Some of it gets done while we prepare for Christmas and New Year's and some of it as we clean up afterwards so to speak.
We also take a long and good look at routines and habits and decide how we want things to work in the new year.

Routines and habits shape our days, weeks, lives...
This is a really good one, Iris!

Yours as well, C_in_C. I spread my purging our over the year, usually to justify bringing something new home with me

 

[FurryFury]

Our New Years traditions are that we have black eyed peas and greens.

We play board games as a family together.

We do fireworks.

We drink egg nog, do x'mas crackers and drink sparkling grape juice.

We also do a burning bowl ceremony during which we talk about what surprised us this year, what we want to leave in the old year and create in the new.

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

Our New Years traditions are that we have black eyed peas and greens.

We play board games as a family together.

We do fireworks.

We drink egg nog, do x'mas crackers and drink sparkling grape juice.

We also do a burning bowl ceremony during which we talk about what surprised us this year, what we want to leave in the old year and create in the new.

Oh, I do like the burning bowl ceremony...
And the board games. Ok, and the fireworks

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

So for New Year's Eve, it's appetizers and friends and drinks and Champaign. We get together around 5 or 6, and then enjoy nothing but guacamole, queso dip, spinach article dip, crab dip, etc. I usually do fried potato balls, possibly my favourite food in the world..., polenta "fries", fruits vegetables and yogurt dips, tartlets of lemon, pecan, chocolate, fig, or whatever we come up with, finger sandwiches, usually cheese and tomatoes, cucumber, chicken salad, etc, chips and sour cream dip, ham pinwheels, etc etc. Cookies
Of course we don't have all this every year... but everyone brings 3 appetizers, and there are usually 5 or 6 of us, so... food is plentiful and varied!

New Year's Day for me is unusual for where I live. I stick to my German roots. When I first moved here, was excited to go to my first New Year's party, of which I was assured "yes, they will have the good luck food". Good luck food here is black eyed peas. And this person served them in a mayo sauce! Absolutely horrified... especially as I do NOT like beans (or peas) in most any form... Good luck food to me is pork roast and sauerkraut! And I will be making that New Year's Day, and its a very special treat for me. The only time of year I have it. My friends have all given up on the peas, and they come share my good luck food instead

 

[midwestyankee]

So for New Year's Eve, it's appetizers and friends and drinks and Champaign. We get together around 5 or 6, and then enjoy nothing but guacamole, queso dip, spinach article dip, crab dip, etc. I usually do fried potato balls, possibly my favourite food in the world..., polenta "fries", fruits vegetables and yogurt dips, tartlets of lemon, pecan, chocolate, fig, or whatever we come up with, finger sandwiches, usually cheese and tomatoes, cucumber, chicken salad, etc, chips and sour cream dip, ham pinwheels, etc etc. Cookies
Of course we don't have all this every year... but everyone brings 3 appetizers, and there are usually 5 or 6 of us, so... food is plentiful and varied!

New Year's Day for me is unusual for where I live. I stick to my German roots. When I first moved here, was excited to go to my first New Year's party, of which I was assured "yes, they will have the good luck food". Good luck food here is black eyed peas. And this person served them in a mayo sauce! Absolutely horrified... especially as I do NOT like beans (or peas) in most any form... Good luck food to me is pork roast and sauerkraut! And I will be making that New Year's Day, and its a very special treat for me. The only time of year I have it. My friends have all given up on the peas, and they come share my good luck food instead

This is a delightful story. My one question is how do you and your friends share in a city in Illinois on New Year's Eve? It's a puzzlement to me.

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

This is a delightful story. My one question is how do you and your friends share in a city in Illinois on New Year's Eve? It's a puzzlement to me.

A shared experience doesn't always have to include shared space or time
Ok, or just Skype

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

This is a delightful story. My one question is how do you and your friends share in a city in Illinois on New Year's Eve? It's a puzzlement to me.

Wait. What did I do wrong?

 

[midwestyankee]

A shared experience doesn't always have to include shared space or time
Ok, or just Skype

Wait. What did I do wrong?

Champaign

Champagne

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

Champaign

Champagne

Ah! Thank you Damned phone, and deplorable spelling... growing up reading books from a century where spelling was quite fluid, I never did get a good grip on it.

 

[midwestyankee]

Ah! Thank you Damned phone, and deplorable spelling... growing up reading books from a century where spelling was quite fluid, I never did get a good grip on it.

You really oughta start reading in the roman alphabet and drop those Pleistocene mysteries.

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

You really oughta start reading in the roman alphabet and drop those Pleistocene mysteries.

Never! I'm all about tradition, can't you tell?

 

[Endless_Night]

Champaign

Champagne

Thank you for bringing this up! I was never quite sure if it was a deliberate spelling choice, or a "phone" error.

 

[Endless_Night]

You really oughta start reading in the roman alphabet and drop those Pleistocene mysteries.

Pleistocene mysteries? Really?

 

[Collar_N_Cuffs]

Pleistocene mysteries? Really?

Not letting them go!
Nooooooo way

 

[Cumference]

Castle Cumference has now been purged of tomtes and glittery paraphernalia.


I even had the time to tie a very nice karada on one of them before packing it. An entire year with a tight crotch rope!

Wonder what Lady C will say when she unpacks it?

?...Ok, and the fireworks

Oh yes!
An appropriate amount of money has been handed out in exchange for explosives.
Much and noisy fun will be had!

 

[IrisAlthea]

New Years Eve will be spent at our house with good friends.
We will have a lot of good food and since there will be lots of loud children, there will also be a healthy dose of champagne.

We don't do fireworks ourselves. We kind of lost the good feelings about it when a friend of ours hurt himself pretty badly at a New Years Eve party.
There is usually enough to look at anyway, from friends and neighbours.

 

[LallyH]

New Year's Day Meal = Brussels Sprout Challenge, the rematch.

So, knowing that the boys would be expecting the green grenades, I took extra special care in hiding them on the plates, one for each of them. As I was in the kitchen, I heard them start to complain, and then daughter offered to eat them but only if she was paid a pound per sprout. I walked in to see both boys handing over their money to her, together with the offending vegetable.

Clever girl, I thought.

Then, the boys both found another sprout hidden on each of their plates......

I looked at daughter who was helpless with laughter - she'd added an extra sprout from her own plate to both of theirs when they weren't looking, then accepted them back together with the cash

VERY clever girl....