Do you have any holiday traditions you keep or try to keep? I don't mean getting drunk and having it out with your passive aggressive relatives--everyone does that. I mean something that is a bit more unique to you or your family. Maybe you like advent calendars, maybe you run up a huge debt it takes all year to work off just running your Christmas lights. I'm curious.
When I was growing up, one of the most frustrating holiday traditions was the mandatory viewing of "Miracle on 34th Street"--the old one in black and white, not any of the shitty remakes--and the mandatory viewing of "It's a Wonderful Life". This tradition was more firmly enforced when we got a VCR.
When I say mandatory, I mean mandatory--presents were held ransom. One small present could be opened on Christmas Eve. Another on Christmas morning. But the next round of presents couldn't be opened until after watching one of the aforementioned movies. After that, no presents could be opened until after watching whichever one remained to be watched. This was true regardless of whether or not one or both had been watched earlier in the month.
Recently, I've developed my own Christmas tradition: I build, then burn down a gingerbread house. This year I'm seeing gingerbread family cookies, and I am very very sorely tempted to go full on "terrible person" with this. Maybe I'll keep it slightly reasonable and just have the gingerbread family posed outside, watching their house burn down.
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