Christmas Traditions

[MrPete]

There is nothing like a sleigh ride on Christmas!  I had a dear friend that used to do it every Christmas.  They invited anyone that wanted to go.  People would come from near and far just for that peaceful Christmas ride.  He passed away 4 yrs. ago but his youngest son now carries on the tradition!  Merry Christmas everyone!

[chain]

We broke traditions this Christmas, instead  Christmas in Mississippi , it,s in Arkansas  with sil, Hot Springs area. Merry Christmas!

[John Mc]

We continued a pre-Christmas tradition that my parents started when I was a kid.  Every year, when the tree was up and decorated, each of us 5 kids would hang our hollow ornament ball on the tree.  When we came down the next morning, the "Ornament Elf" would have left us a Christmas Tree ornament. 

In our very young days, the ornament would be inside the ball. As we got older, there would be a clue (a rhyme, if we could read, or a picture if we were to young to read) about where in the house we could find our ornament.  It was a great warm-up for Christmas, and also my Mother's way of making sure each of us had a collection of ornaments to decorate a tree when we moved out on our own.

[Chuck White]

My favorite all-time Christmas Tradition is celebrating my wife's birthday, along with Christmas!

Sheila was born the same day as Jesus (not the same year , just the same day of the year) we usually (in order to separate the two) celebrate Sheila's birthday Christmas eve!

[John Mc]

My wife's B-day is Dec 30, my mother's Dec 26th, and my father-in-law Dec 24th.  A busy time of year for us.

[Chuck White]

Wow, busy month for you John, much to remember!

[Larro Darro]

We go back and forth between my sister's house and our house from one year to the next. Mamma is 85 now, so she doesn't do much cooking. My BIL has little grandkids, so they wanted to spend Christmas day with them this year, and with both our weird work schedules, Sunday morning was the best time for us to do our meal and gift exchange. We had a nice brunch. But Margie went ahead and cooked another Christmas meal today and we had Mamma over.

I'll tell a quick story about a Christmas tradition that didn't catch on here at the Larro Ranchero. 30 years ago I had just got home from the Navy. I was living at our little house by the pond, and had a few friends spending the holiday with me. Since my Uncle James was in north Georgia with his inlaws, and my pantry was bare, we walked though the woods to see if his collards needed cropping. {they did need cropping} When we got there, we saw a big coon run into a knot hole way up an oak tree. When he wouldn't come out, we shot him through the knot hole. Luckily Uncle James had a tall ladder. It took a lot longer to get that big ol' coon out of that knot hole that it took him to run in it. But after much pulling and tugging, we were able to get the coon on the grill and the collards in the pot. It was a pretty good meal, but one I have never had again. At least not on Christmas.

Larro

[Bill Gaiche]

HardtailJohn, that photo is very impressive. bg

[Magicman]

The entire family gathered last evening for present swapping and also the eats.

The Gumbo and also the Shrimp Chowder were real treats.  Of course there was also the usual candies, cake, blueberry "pie", bread pudding, etc.   

[samandothers]

Hardtailjohn that is great helping out and must have been great fun.

Larro, like the story about the coon.  I have been hunting with my dad for squirrel and seen him take a stick and with his knife 'fuzzy' up the end of the stick and run the in a hole of a tree and twist it to get it tangled in the squirrels fur and pull the squirrel out of the tree.  I would never have thought to do that nor thought it would work if I had not seen it. 

Traditions change as families change.  At home mom always did the big spread on Christmas morning breakfast and then again in the evening.  As we had kids we stayed home on Christmas morning and would travel to visit in the afternoon.  For my family we started having a meal on Christmas eve to help facilitate this schedule.  Our 'meal' became a Louisiana oyster stew which was chicken broth base and a lot of hot sauce, chalets artichoke hearts red pepper flakes and some cream it is spicy and good!  It was from Southern living cook book.  Around this is more an arrangement of appetizers like sausage balls, jalapeno poppers, cheese ball and crackers etc. We would 'graze' and attend a Christmas Eve service and come home and graze some more!

[Chuck White]

Hardtailjohn that is great helping out and must have been great fun.

Larro, like the story about the coon.  I have been hunting with my dad for squirrel and seen him take a stick and with his knife 'fuzzy' up the end of the stick and run the in a hole of a tree and twist it to get it tangled in the squirrels fur and pull the squirrel out of the tree.  I would never have thought to do that nor thought it would work if I had not seen it.  

Traditions change as families change.  At home mom always did the big spread on Christmas morning breakfast and then again in the evening.  As we had kids we stayed home on Christmas morning and would travel to visit in the afternoon.  For my family we started having a meal on Christmas eve to help facilitate this schedule.  Our 'meal' became a Louisiana oyster stew which was chicken broth base and a lot of hot sauce, chalets artichoke hearts red pepper flakes and some cream it is spicy and good!  It was from Southern living cook book.  Around this is more an arrangement of appetizers like sausage balls, jalapeno poppers, cheese ball and crackers etc. We would 'graze' and attend a Christmas Eve service and come home and graze some more!

We used to do that back when we used to "fur hunt"!