Sunday, November 16, 2008

What is your favorite family holiday tradition?

I don't remember which year we started doing this tradition in my family growing up, but it was an instant success! We decided to choose a country each year and on Christmas Eve we have a meal of foods native to that country. We also learn about their holiday traditions (usually Christmas traditions, but other holidays if they don't celebrate Christmas) and sometimes watch a video tour checked out from the library. We also have an ornament for the tree to represent that country! Some of the countries we've done are Mexico, China, Denmark, Equador, Taiwan, Australia, Hawaii (not a different country, but very different traditions), and Native American (also not a different country, but one of my favorites). I am probably missing a couple, but it's hard to keep track after so many years of doing this! We are currently trying to come up with a country for this year's celebration, so feel free to leave any ideas, especially if you have an idea of the food we could prepare. We do try to stay away from disgusting sounding things, no matter how popular they are in the country (such as dog, or goat brains). This is definitely my favorite holiday tradition, because it has opened our frame of knowledge to realize that not everyone celebrates the same ways that we do here in the U.S. and it is also really fun to just learn what other people believe!

2 comments:

Morgan said...

My friend has a tradition every Christmas Eve that I would love to take up but just haven't yet. She has a meal similar to what they think was traditional during Christ's time. Such as olives, oils, bread, stone-wheat crackers, cheeses. Its a light meal obviously, but they dim the lights and eat on the floor in front of the Christmas tree. I think it sounds really cool, and a really reverent thing to do the night before Christmas.

Hazel said...

I love this tradition.