❄️ Holiday Traditions | Badge of the Month | December 2022 | XM Community

❄️ Holiday Traditions | Badge of the Month | December 2022

❄️ Holiday Traditions | Badge of the Month | December 2022
AmaraW
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Badge +48

 

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During the first week of each month, we will post a new question, topic, or activity for you to connect with the community and earn a badge. All community members who contribute a thoughtful comment to this month’s discussion, between December 1 and December 30, will receive this badge worth 40 points.

 

Badge of the Month | December 2022


Question: What are your favorite, local holiday traditions?
Here in our global community, we celebrate countless holiday traditions. In the spirit of the holiday season here in the states, we want to hear all about your favorite holiday traditions local to you. Are there any traditions you look forward to each year? What makes them so special to you? Alternatively, tell us about traditions you don't celebrate but admire!

176 replies

Michael_Cooksey
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +31

My favorite tradition of all is watching the Charlie Brown Christmas special. It's not Christmas until I hear the music in the Charlie Brown TV special! ❄️❄️❄️
charlie brown gif.gif

AmaraW
Rank
Badge +48

Every year, my mom and I have a sort-of baking marathon in the week leading up to Christmas. We spend a couple of days baking for the holiday party we host every December on Christmas Eve. We always make extras and freeze them for later 😂
I also love decorating the Christmas tree 🌲 here is a picture our tree
IMG_2719.jpg

CarolK
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +37

Every Christmas Eve my family gets together for an informal gathering. We don't have a "meal" per se, but we have everyone's favorite nibbles. It's all appetizers, finger foods and desserts, with the holiday punch (of which I have become the master). We read the Christmas story from the gospel of Luke, and watch some combination of a Charlie Brown Christmas, the animated How the Grinch Stole Christmas (fully half of us can recite along), and a fun replay of the claymation Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer (which we mock mercilessly throughout).
The next morning we gather again to exchange gifts, celebrate the holiday, and have a real meal together. But the informal night before is one of our favorite nights of the year.

Carol, Sr Researcher at Coax Insights Inc
CarolK
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Userlevel 7
Badge +37

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/52742#Comment_52742I can hear that playing in my head, just looking at that!

Carol, Sr Researcher at Coax Insights Inc
bgooldfed
Rank
Userlevel 5
Badge +25

I cannot go past Christmas lunch - December is my "cheat month" when it comes to food (my birthday, Christmas, New Year) and Xmas lunch is my favourite. Turducken is the best 🤤
Aside from that, whenever we would go interstate to my grandparents for Christmas, we would always gather around and watch "Dinner For One" on VHS. It is hilarious, I haven't seen it in years at this point. Might have to give it a spin this year!
Dinner For One, Freddy Frinton and May Warden

CMurph
Rank
Userlevel 4
Badge +24

One of my favorite things to do with my girls is to wait for a cold night so we can bundle up and fill thermoses with hot chocolate for a slow walk around the neighborhood to look at all the Christmas lights. It started a few years ago with me pulling my oldest in her wagon and now our middle pulls our littlest in the same wagon. ♥️ They usually sing Christmas carols, and there's always a disagreement about who can ride and who can pull the wagon, and someone always spills their hot chocolate down their sweater, but that's what makes memories, right?

jflowers1
Rank
Userlevel 5
Badge +33

My favorite holiday tradition is pulling out my VCR and all of the tapes that my parents and grandparents recorded Christmas specials on when I was little and rewatching them throughout December with my family. There's a wide variety -- classics like Rudolph and the Grinch, but also things like a Christmas episode of Eureka's Castle and my favorite Christmas movie, The Christmas Toy. The best part is seeing all of the old commercials!

Deepak
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +36

Well, holidays for me equal to No work + Fun + Great Food.
One of our family rituals is to go to our natives and gossip and yes that means all-night gossip. Apart from it, movies, food, and all the love make me feel so special.
We have a ritual of sharing gifts and playing secret Santa. So all in all a fun way to spend this time of the month and welcome the New Year with open arms!! 😍🤗


Michael_Cooksey
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Userlevel 7
Badge +31

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/52752#Comment_52752Dinner for One is huge in the German-speaking world, too! 🇩🇪🇦🇹🇨🇭 Classic!

Michael_Cooksey
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +31

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/52750#Comment_52750"Christmastime is Here" is my very fave 😀 But gosh that jam session to the Peanuts dance music is hard to beat! 🎹

MattiasM
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +61

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/52752#Comment_52752Ha! in Sweden, that is a New Years Eve classic. It's on every year, but it's called something along the lines of "The countess and the servant", I don't know the actual english name for the bit. Love it and a HUGE part of my childhood! :)

MattiasM
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +61

Hello and good morning from a cloudy Sweden!
Since I married a Danish woman me and my extended family are treated to the traditional Danish Christmas dinner on the 23rd, and then the Swedish christmas dinner on the 24th (which is Christmas eve here and that's when Santa comes around to hand out gifts).
On Christmas eve (again, 24th here) we usually have a BIG lunch with all the traditional food like: Baked ham, swedish meatballs, small sausages, "Janssons temptation", eggs, salmon of different varieties, pickled herring of different sorts, potatoes, home made mustard, swedish "julmust" to drink (NOT coca-cola), beer and schnaps for the adults.

Another strange tradition is that the entire family gather around the TV at 15:00 (3:00 pm) to watch a Christmas Donald Duck show that last an hour.
After that we eat nuts, fruits and candy as the sun sets and then all of a sudden, Santa Claus comes to hand out the gifts that have been left under the Christmas tree.
Then dinner which looks very similar to lunch, then relax and the kids play with their new toys etc.
Early night to bed or watching some typical Christmas movie like Home Alone or Die Hard (yes I know, sensitive topic).
All the best
-Mattias

jmborzick
Rank
Userlevel 6
Badge +33

December is the month of traditions. In the last 15 years, if we do anything in December that my daughter likes she declares it a "Tradition" and we're required to continue doing it every year. There's too many to list them all, but here are a few, in no particular order:
stopping at our favorite burger and frozen custard place (Kopps) before driving through Candy Cane Lane, decorating the tree with cookies and punch, advent wreath on the table, getting together with our families, Christmas movies (White Christmas, Holiday Inn, Elf, etc), a Christmas celebration in a local downtown area, going to the Public Museum and walking through the Streets of Old Milwaukee decorated for Christmas.

MSobotta
Rank
Userlevel 4
Badge +17

I love watching all the the Christmas movies including, but not limited to with emoji quotes (those who watch them enough will get them):
A Christmas Story (the new one is pretty great too) 🔫👁️️👦
Elf 🥞☕️
The Grinch (all versions) 🤢🐊
Home Alone 👁️️🤵👰🏚️️👤
Christmas Vacation ⚪️🦌👁️️💥💨
A Charlie Brown Christmas 🐶🏃💸

AdamK12
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +56

We have a little tree that I put that year's Starbuck's ornament (a little miniature ceramic disposable cup). It's supremely cheesy but I love adding to it every year. Pics to come once this year's tree is up...
UPDATE: Here it is, in all its glory!!! Happy Holidays!!!

Starbucks tree.jpg

Adam Korengold, NLM/SCI (he/him/his)
Michael_Cooksey
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +31

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/52784#Comment_52784AMAZING emoji usage and selections! 👏🎬

Michael_Cooksey
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +31

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/52780#Comment_52780That sounds fabulous! 🎄🎅

gingersauz
Rank
Userlevel 5
Badge +26

Christmas Eve Candlelight carols at church and Christmas brunch hosted at my house every year.
Our traditional menu is a huge southern breakfast with mimosas and sausage balls for appetizers. Someone inevitably brings up the grease fire I started the first time I cooked said sausage balls. And the condition the stove was in afterward. 🤨 We eat as if we've fasted for a week then pile up on our huge sectional to watch Elf or something similar. It's one of the few times a year everyone can turn the world off and relax in the moment...then the snoring starts! LOL

~ Laura
Michael_Cooksey
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +31

https://community.qualtrics.com/XMcommunity/discussion/comment/52767#Comment_52767I'll be awaiting my invitation to your house for Christmas this year 😂 That sounds like a wonderful day!

Radam
Rank
Userlevel 5
Badge +31

Watching National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation and eating take out/delivery Chinese food. Don't know how it started but we've done it for the past 10+ years; including tonight!

ralphpagarigan
Rank
Userlevel 5
Badge +27

My favorite holiday tradition is that every Christmas Eve we all meet at our grandparents’ house. Each family will bring their own specialty for the potluck. Then we do play bingo at have a talent portion and exchange gifts. On the same week we travel to Baguio City to celebrate New Year. 

Ralph Pagarigan
SteveBelgraver
Rank
Userlevel 6
Badge +41

December 5th is traditional Dutch Sinterklaas. And yes, that's where the Americans got their Santa Claus from! Although ours lives in Spain and arrives with his white horse in late November on a boat 🚢 To this day it still revolves very much around the children 👶 who 'believe' and the presents of course. Traditionally Christmas is when families get together to enjoy each other's company along with a great dinner 🍽️️. But not being immune to the global reach of US popular culture means in addition to fast food chains and jeans, Christmas has increasingly become another popular gift giving event along with corny movies on tv 📺️and of course Santa 🎅 
sint.jpg

ManfredBM
Rank
Userlevel 5
Badge +32

My favourite Christmas tradition is decorating the Christmas tree together with my children. The right Christmas music is always playing in the background and we have biscuits.
On Christmas Day, we have a big meal together with the whole family. Traditionally, we have sauerbraten. 

James_McQuillin
Rank
Userlevel 4
Badge +8

Gift Exchange games are always a hoot! I've seen a few variations but something like https://www.whiteelephantrules.com/ seems to capture the general essence. It's also fun to have some sort of funny/silly/gag gift in the mix that someone gets stuck with and brings a lot of laughs. Then each year when you start a new game people often remember a few gifts from the prior year and see what the "big prize" is this year or which is the goofy gift to avoid.

Tom_1842
Rank
Userlevel 7
Badge +27

Every year I look forward to attending the Philadelphia Christmas Village. It's an outside holiday market in Center City Philadelphia and has a wide variety of booths selling holiday gifts, foods, and drinks. Especially at night when the whole thing is filled with lights, the atmosphere there really helps me the feel the holiday spirit.

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