Do you have a Christmas Eve Tradition?
Insider2
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When I worked in a coin "gallery" (fancy name for a coin store in a good neighborhood), we closed the place at nightfall and the owner, myself and one of his best friends (all bachelors) went shopping for ourselves at a plush department store. I added to my crystal sets of glasses and stemware. Then we went for drinks. I learned they had started their tradition long ago. I felt very lucky to be included. After saying goodbye to his friend, my boss and I went to Midnight Mass. I miss those old days.
Tomorrow it's just a movie and Mass...and it's not cold at all in FL. 
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It's my Dad's birthday on Christmas Eve, so we always have a party at his house, he likes it, blowing out candles at a Christmas celebration is cool. He sort if gets overshadowed in the present department so we go a little bonkers on Fathers day to make up for it.
He's 70 this year.
Midnight Mass. Merry Christmas.
I was a child of divorce, so as an adult it pretty much always has been my mom's side of the family on Christmas eve and my dad's on Christmas day.
. We will see her family Christmas day evening. Nothing like the fun of rushing to get places on the holidays...
At the moment, I'm waiting for my gf to get home from LA and her first flight is already delayed
Fresh venison roast studded with red cherries at one end...."Rudolph the Dead Roast Reindeer." (Elk would be more accurate, but none of them around here.) When I was a kid we had a big family dinner and always invited a homeless politician. Now they want a fee to attend.
Roger, you have a strange sense of humor. If you need an elk roast let me know.
Merry Christmas!
A few days ago I sent @coinlieutenant a request for goofy libertarian humor.
Check out Rand Paul's Festivus tweets for a holiday grin or three.
I should learn to linkify. And take up elementary emojification as well
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...older Italian laddies living in the kitchen for the entire day...handmaking pasta, If it didn’t come from the sea and have a shell...it didn’t make it on the diner table
A couple of years ago, we went over to the Lions' Club and picked up a recently deceased lion. Tough and stringy, unfortunately. Someplace I have a photo of my Dad standing over the lion with a ladle in one hand and a large bouquet garni in the other; a big stew pot is in the background. The Elks disbanded years ago once hunting season was expanded and drinking season contracted.
Indeed. We celebrate the Polish tradition of Wigilia........m
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wigilia
Fellas, leave the tight pants to the ladies. If I can count the coins in your pockets you better use them to call a tailor. Stay thirsty my friends......
Wonderful mix of pre-christian solstice traditions.
The Princess and I for many years have made Seafood Gumbo on Christmas Eve. And we put in_ all the good stuff. _Crab, oysters, some whitefish, and tons of shrimp after making a roux and adding the "Cajun Trinity" of bell pepper, onions, and celery. The only thing we don't put it in terms of seafood is lobster tails, because the Princess would rather eat those just broiled straight out of the oven with drawn butter!
We fry more oysters on Christmas Day, in cracker crumb coating. The massive amount of Gumbo freezes great and is perfect for easy winter lunches (preferably with snow on the ground) in Southwest Virginia during January and February.
Season's Greetings!
Kind regards,
George
We go to bed early; Santa's coming!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
When I was growing up, we did many standard things on Christmas Eve in anticipation of a visit from Santa. Nothing special for dinner, but we always went to the candlelight service and sang Christmas carols before setting milk and cookies out for Santa. Up at 6am to see what Santa left.
Later, we ended up caroling in the neighborhood on Christmas Eve, nice dinner, and midnight church service. Relatives over most years for gift exchanges. Everyone brought heavy appetizers so we weren't hungry. A favorite in the Milwaukee area is raw beef sandwiches. Raw ground beef on small rye bread squares, with slivered onions, salt and pepper. I know most cringe at that, but to me it is a delicacy I can't get in North Carolina. (And yes, the butchers specially prepared the ground beef - I never got sick once).
“In matters of style, swim with the current; in matters of principle, stand like a rock." - Thomas Jefferson
My digital cameo album 1950-64 Cameos - take a look!
We've always asked our kids to find someone that is "forgotten" on Christmas eve. They then become part of our afternoon and evening dinner. We've had first year immigrants, kids kicked out of their parents home (one we took in and raised from freshman to senior HS), etc. This year we get to meet a friend of our daughters who has no family (don't know the reason yet but heard drugs were involved). She's alone....should be fun. Guess the two will take in a late movie after dinner.....I'm going to bed to get ready for Santa in the a.m.
bob
Semi-numismatic:
My extended family gets together in our small rural hometown on Christmas Eve. Everybody brings a wrapped present worth $50 or so and we have a giant game of "screw your buddy" gift exchange with several rules that are not easy to quickly explain. People either pick a wrapped, unopened present out of the center pile, or they can steal a present that is already opened. You might get what you want, but you might not keep it to the end of the game.
My present is always a proof silver eagle and a case of beer, and these are always wrapped in the exact same wrapping paper each year (I have enough of that design to last for at least ten more years). One of my brother-in-laws always ends up with the coin and the beer. I almost always end up with a Barnes & Noble gift card.
We have lots of young adults so the gift exchange gets a little bigger every Christmas Eve.
Church, then family dinner. The long time tradition for me is sort of silly but somehow it means a lot to me. When I was a little kid my mom used to make a Tree Tavern Pizza for me and my now deceased cousin on Christmas Eve.
She and I thought it was the best thing ever. To this day, 50 years later, I still ask my wife to pick one up and make it for me. It's just a touching connection to the past good times with my family, who are now all gone. I'm the last one from all generations past.
Great transactions with oih82w8, JasonGaming, Moose1913.
As a Reconstructionist Druid who has recently forsworn blood sacrifice, I find quaffing a mug or two of mead is no longer quite the giddying experience it used to be.
Luckily, the Dionysian Bacchanalia down the block still rocks and sushi doesn't count..
OTOH, watch out for the 151 proof rum at those Reformed Santeria bashes.
Hanukkah started before Jesus, but I think Christmas came before potato latkes.
I'm thinking chicken tikka masala or Thai duck salad this year.
Xmas AM I'm lucky enough to be spending a few hours (2:24 tops) with a few friends' screaming grandchildren playing cuddly curmudgeon and avoiding 8200 useless calories (while only consuming 1800)
Christmas Eve was always wrapping night. We would get the kids off to bed and then finish everything and have it under the tree for the morning.
Now we don’t have to stay up as late but are still wrapping presents.
A: The year they spend more on their library than their coin collection.
A numismatist is judged more on the content of their library than the content of their cabinet.
Looking for a fun new Christmas eve tradition that you can share with family and friends? Head over to GreatCollections.com and bid strongly on the wonderful selection of 20 cent pieces being offered there ending tomorrow night!
Buying a new double dime or two is a great tradition that has been celebrated in my family for generations! Make it part of yours!
I work and work every year. Wish I have more time to spend with my wife and kids. In fact, I have worked over 20 days , 11 hours a day, straight without a day off so far.
Don't we all? Anyway....MERRY CHRISTMAS!
Thank you. Happy holiday to you too.
The dinner of the 7 fishes...
Let’s see, Christmas Eve traditions.
Since I have been 21, I buy my dad a bottle of single barrel bourbon on the way home for Christmas. Since I was a born; My dad makes cinnamon rolls and stirs his buckwheat cake batter (that’s been sittin on the back porch for a week or two). My mom cooks a turkey and we have that around 2. We go to church around 6 and when we get home we have seafood. Scallops, shrimp, and crab legs. My dad gets my mom figi petty fours every year. We have done all these things since I can remember. My uncle and his family would come over after their mass but they moved a few years ago.
Christmas day we got up, openend stockings, Opened presents (one present at a time), my dad made a huge Christmas breakfast to include those Cinnemon rolls, and then lounged around.
This will be the first time in 38 years I haven’t been home for Christmas. I thought it would be good to start our own family traditions. I miss it already
Standing Prime Rib, Yorkshire Pudding and all the other fixings. Penny in the Christmas Pudding and family. Good times!
Church then to my parents house. They've been having Christmas Eve for about 35 years now and as the family has grown, it becomes more chaotic with all those people there, but I love the memories made.
I am the last of my childhood family.... My daughters are living in distant states....So it will be my wife and I on Christmas Eve... and we celebrate quietly with a nice meal and ice cream for dessert. We will have a quiet evening with wrapped presents under a small tree. Lots of phone calls tomorrow from the kids and grand kids though...and we always spoil each other with lots of presents. Merry Christmas to all.... Cheers, RickO
WELL, IT'S FINALLY HERE!
Thanks for the replies, the different ways of celebrating the Holidays around the country + the food make for great reading as I'm actually a sentimental old curmudgeon who loves "stories." Hate to admit it but I'm hooked on "Hallmark" Christmas movies.
I just received my second cake on CU! Time for another contest soon. I joined this place in December 2016 but did not become "active" until many months later. Now, after a full year of activity - learning new things, sticking my nose in, being somewhat helpful (IMO), and dishing out "snark" (Unfortunately, my favorite thing as I'm like a badly flawed coin), I feel like I have surrounded myself with an Internet family.
Oh shucks, another story plot for a Hallmark Christmas movie. LOL!
lobster stew for Christmas eve
Roast Beef on Kimmelweck (Beef on Weck) sandwiches and visiting dad and mom. He's 91 and she's 87 so don't know how many more Christmases we'll have with them.
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
A neighbor made this for dinner. I never heard of it. Apparently, the fixing were "special order" at the major chain store. Very Yummy! The little pig writing this had two with potato salad and cold slaw and beer.
No late night masses, sometimes the family went to an evening carol sing and church. We used to play a family games of bridge, very popular still with the elderly.
I ran into a Jehovah's Witness neighbor earlier, I didn't know what greeting was right, I said happy holidays. I like old traditions, I do not like compulsory giving, I try to keep people in mind when they have a need.
Your neighbor a Western NY native?
DPOTD-3
'Emancipate yourselves from mental slavery'
CU #3245 B.N.A. #428
Don
She moved to FL from NY. I don't know the city. I learned she made B on W for her visiting relative last week.
Oh my, thanks for the invitation.
I promise to make a glutton of myself.
Sounds delicious!!!!!!!!!
@giorgio11
One thing I don't like about CU is is does not reveal what city or state a member lives in! There are some mouth-watering dinners going on around the country. All the talk about seafood made us get some fish for dinner last night!
@Insider2 @mannie gray If I revealed exactly where I live I would have to take out a loan for the oysters! But it's not in Cajun Country.
That's really great that you post where you worked. Let's us all know a little about your impressive qualifications and any opinions you may post in the future.
Erecting and decorating a Christmas tree the evening of Christmas Eve is our tradition. We cut our own, some years on Christmas Eve morning.
We stay up to midnight because this just might be the year that the animals talk at the stroke of 12.
https://www.pcgs.com/setregistry/gold/liberty-head-2-1-gold-major-sets/liberty-head-2-1-gold-basic-set-circulation-strikes-1840-1907-cac/alltimeset/268163