UK/US Christmas Traditions

[hopejoy]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

Well, we ALWAYS have Eggs Benedict for breakfast christmas morning! Our hollindaise sauce is the best ever and we talk about it all year long.
Also, we have Turkey for Thanksgiving AND Christmas.
I always let my kids open 1 present the night before because they have to wait for the grandparents to get there to open in the morning! poor kids! lol! luckily grandparents get there early!
For dinner we eat around 2pm Turkey, dressing, mashed potatoes, gravy, broccoli and mini onions in a cheese sauce, green bean casserole, homemade cranberry sauce, pumpkin and pecan pie, and an assortment of cookies/goodies collected over the holidays season.
We always go to the movies together as a family... everyone... and see whatever comes out on christmas! It's so fun!
We also go to church Christmas eve too.
liz

[TitianWasp]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

I love hollandaise - is it Atkins friendly?

[TitianWasp]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

Hey, you know, we haven't heard from the boys so much. Richt? Hayden?

[Hayden]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

Just noticed this thread.

My UK family Christmas, is a very sober affair, and to be honest I kinda like it that way.

My ex-girlfriend's family Christmas was completely the opposite, they'd start drinking around 11am, and the family would out-of-their-faces drunk by the evening meal. I could never get my bearings when I had Christmas with them.

Back to my family. My sister and I would open socks, or little home-made gifts that we've made each other, with my parents. More silliness than seriousness. Then we'd go and have breakfast together. A grapefruit, something light but refreshing.

Then we go the living room, and sit around the tree and open the presents, one-by-one, my sister first, then me, then my mother, then my father. By now, it lunch time, so we'll go and have lunch, which is actually the main meal, of the day. We have beef, because we all agree that Turkey, is so damned boring and tasteless. Christmas pudding, and what-nots.

Then, after the dishes have been washed, together. We go for a stroll down the street and back again. Just to walk the meal off. We have a family tradition, who can correctly guess the number of children riding brand new bicycles that they've just received for Christmas, that we'll see when out walking. "I predict four", "No, No, I predict six".


By, now it's getting dark, so we'll walk home, and get ready for dinner, which is the beef that we had for lunch served cold. With crisps, and cheese and crackers.

We'll eat this in front of the TV together, and watch the Christmas movie. Then sometimes, we'll play Scrabble together before going to bed.


Christmas in Japan, on the other hand is a normal working day, for the whole country.

Japan, is a Buddhist country, so the concept of Christmas being a day off, is totally not on their radar.

The 24th, Christmas Eve, is however a National Holiday, because the 24th is the Emperors Birthday.
(Couldn't he have waited one more day??!!)

Japanese love Christmas !

Japanese shops go electronic crazy. Lights, gadgets, OMG it's an amazing sight to see. The Japanese toy shops around Christmas time are my favourite. Toys with more processor power then a spy satellite!

The Japanese have also fully embraced the idea of Christmas cake, trees, and presents. I just wish they'd think about Christmas day once in a while.

Every year, some one in my office will think they're worldly-wise, and ask me, if "Hayden-san, in your country today is holiday, correct?". I smile at them, and make a mental note to deduct $100 from their Christmas bonus.

A small bit of Japanese culture is KFC at Christmas. Yes Kentucky Fried Chicken.

In the '50's when Japan was starting to turn and adopt Western and American culture. Stop wearing kimono's and wear Levis jeans. Eat beef, and drink Coca-Cola that sort of thing.
30 years ago, KFC had a TV commercial in Japan, that told the Japanese, that most Americans go to KFC for their Christmas dinner.
The Japanese have bought this lie, hook, line and sinker. You even have to reserve a table at KFC on Christmas Eve, and the Japanese will be queueing out of the door and up the street out a KFC. It's an amazing sight to see !!

I bet McDonald's every year, think why the h3ll didn't we think of that one!!

Christmas Eve has been hyped by the T.V. media as being a time for romantic miracles. It is seen as a time to be spent with one's boyfriend or girlfriend in a romantic setting, so fancy restaurants and hotels are often booked solid at this time.

It is often also a time when girls get to reveal their affections to boys and vice versa. Therefore, because of this, extending a girl an invitation to be together on Christmas Eve has very deep, romantic implications.

Christmas presents tend to be things which are cute and sometimes slightly expensive because of the relationship to the person to which they are given to.

More obligatory year-end presents are given during this season as well to people who have done you a favour during the year, however, in contrast to Christmas presents, they are given between companies, to bosses, to co-workers, and family friends.

These presents are known as 'Oseibo' and are generally things which are perishable or which wear out quickly for which the price can readily be checked because of the system of 'on' and 'giri' (loosely translated obligation and reciprocity). These presents are usually purchased at department stores so that the recipient can check the price and return something which relates to the scale of reciprocity.

The Japanese have an expression, if someone gives you a Salmon, then you don't give them back a Trout.

So, just like a Christmas Day dinner of Sushi, Christmas in Japan can feel a little cold.

Still, I can always go out and drunk with my friends.

On that note.

Merii Kurisumasu!

Hey, you know, we haven't heard from the boys so much. Richt? Hayden?

[TitianWasp]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

Thank you, Hayden! The Japanese info was particularly neat.

We do Christmas crackers in New England, but didn't in California. Does anyone else here do crackers (pull-apart thingeys with little crowns, jokes and toys inside)?

[*Emma*]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

oooooh we do crackers! the tackier the better!

[TitianWasp]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

Lovvve it, Emma! I think they are a UK invention originally, aren't they?

[*Emma*]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

probably... they usually come up with the tack.

[sadie147]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

we do the crackers too..i'm already seeing them in the stores. I love the cheesy jokes they come with and the tissue paper hats!

[hrgillespie]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

I've never heard of CHristmas Crackers I will have to look for them it sounds fun



Heidi

[sadie147]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

Heres what they look like:



Here's the www.wikipedia.com description:

Christmas crackers, also known as bon-bons in Australia, are an integral part of Christmas celebrations in the United Kingdom and in those other Commonwealth countries which had significant British immigration. A cracker consists of a cardboard tube wrapped in a brightly decorated twist of paper, making it resemble an oversized sweet-wrapper. The cracker is pulled by two people, and, much in the manner of a wishbone, the cracker splits unevenly. The split is accompanied by a small bang produced by the effect of friction on a chemically impregnated card strip (similar to that used in a cap gun).

In one version of the tradition the person with the larger portion of cracker empties the contents from the tube and keeps them. In another each person will have their own cracker and will keep its contents regardless of whose end they were in. Typically these contents are a coloured paper hat or crown; a small toy or other trinket and a motto, a joke or piece of trivia on a small strip of paper. Crackers are often pulled after Christmas dinner or at parties.

Assembled crackers are typically sold in boxes of three to twelve. These typically have different designs usually with red, green and gold colours. Making crackers from scratch using the tubes from used toilet rolls and tissue paper is a common commonwealth activity for children.

It is a running joke that all the jokes and mottos in crackers are unfunny and unmemorable, along with being the same as those which have been used for many years past, resulting in most people either knowing or predicting the answers. Similarly, in most standard commercial products, the "gift" is equally awful, although wealthier individuals - notably, the British Royal Family - may use custom crackers with more expensive rewards. [citation needed] And some people will make their own (typically from kits) and add inexpensive but personalised gifts.

[TitianWasp]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

Hey, does anyone know a good resource for silver christmas pudding charms? My children eye the plum pudding with mistrust, and I think that the traditional charms would be a good way to heighten their interest.

[Alexa]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

Hi TitianWasp,

No ideas about the charms - but this is a great thread! My family had a tradition of putting a coin in the Christmas pudding - though i don't think it was just us! The person that finds it can keep it, though I think my Grandad once snapped a tooth on one once...

I can't believe you don't have crackers!!!! They are soooo tacky!

[TitianWasp]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

There was supposed to be a coin too: wishbone, button, boot, ring, thimble, bell and horseshoe. Each one meant something different if you got it in your slice. They make them now with little loops to attach a ribbon, so you can pull them out before you eat it (for safety I guess).

I found a company that does a charm bracelet with the charms all attached, but I don't want a bracelet. Just the charms. If it weren't 30 Pounds, I'd have bought it and just taken them off for the pudding.

[Alexa]

Re: UK/US Christmas Traditions

oooh, interesting - I didn't know that!