To ask for your weird family behaviours that you didn't realise weren't normal until you were older?

[Coffeebiscuitsrepeat]

1. We called a toe poking through a sock hole a "potato".

1. Whoever made the most mess at the dinner table "won the prize"... And the prize was to clean up the mess!

I'd love to try that! Can you post a link to an authentic recipe?

And do you mean an aged cheddar as the cheese?

It’s Wensleydale cheese that goes best with rich fruit cake such as Christmas cake.

I'd tend to agree, but Haribo suggested a strong cheese and I wouldn't classify Wensleydale as particularly strong...

I was thinking about sugar on strawberries recently...

If we had had a roast on Sunday we would have finger sandwiches for tea. Egg mayonaise and cucumber. It was my absolute fave thing! Sounds quite posh but we were poor lol.

Single parent household. My mum never did anything with us, no days out no trips to the park or anything. I had brilliant grandparents who did all of that though and I've never been on a holiday with my Mum ever but always went with my grandparents. I always used to go yearly to Chessington with my best friends family - her dad would get lost on the way EVERY year and get really angry! This used to scare me quite a bit as I wasn't used to men in general!

Although Mum never appeared to enjoy having kids - she always made birthdays fun by hiding cards and presents that we had to find before opening... she may of just been extending the opening but I loved it.

Christmas always meant opening our Christmas sacks in our rooms - never had stockings they were sacks lol. But then having to wait hours for the main event. Mum always has a leisurely cuppa and a smoke followed by breakfast before we could open any presents.... presents were always opened one by one and we had to watch each other opening before we started on a present.
I actually loved all the anticipation and waiting - I still don't like the idea of kids just running in and opening everything!

If I didn't have my grandparents I would of experienced little joy or experiences in my childhood so I am forever grateful for them!

@katew355

We called them potatoes too! Our weird thing was using one of my dad's socks as a stocking at Christmas. It didn't really hold anything other than a tangerine and a 10p coin. My mum also used to put powdered ginger in melon which I've never seen anyone else do x

My Mum still does this.

Depends on the melon.

Some have brown sugar, some powered ginger

@HariboLectar

Not Christmas cake, but I'm from Lincs and we have strong cheese with Lincolnshire plum bread - I'm not sure if that's what our family does or whether it's what others do too?

No I really want some plum bread.

Also from Lincs and my 80 year old Dad does this. It seems it is a thing: www.google.com/amp/s/www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/lincolnshireplumbrea_92134/amp

I prefer my plum bread toasted with butter, sans cheese.

In our house, there was no such thing as table manners. We never ever said "Could you pass the potatoes? ". When I went on a school trip, the group of girls and two teachers sat down to a big cooked lunch in a hotel. I heard my name mentioned, then one of the teachers said "Which one is she?" The other one replied, " The one reaching out and grabbing everything......." They didn't know I'd heard. I was mortified, but looking back, it was a good thing. I realised there was a proper way to behave when eating!

Demelza - is that an authentic recipe?

Weirdly, I put stem ginger with a honeydew melon only last week! It was bloody lovely!
We had the powdered stuff on melon boats with sugar in the 70s and 80s. Normally now we eat melons now just as they are... but I had a jar of Opies stem ginger in syrup, so decided to chop a few pieces up and mix it with the chopped up melon, chilled it in the fridge and it was delicious! Just sayin'!

@AnneOfCleavage

topoftheshops oh yes everyone having their spot 😀😂 We all had our spot at the dining table and you never deviated from it even if a sibling wasn't there. It's weird though but I have a fave seat in my lounge even now but it's not the be all or end all if someone else sits there but you do feel a bit nonplussed when you walk in and see someone else there.

I remember another tradition that our family did that no one else seemed to and that was on boiling hot days my mum would fill the bath a few inches with cold water and we'd sit on the edge and cool our feet whilst eating ice lollies (homemade made in egg cups and flavoured with pink or orange squash which we'd eat whilst paddling). In the winter every afternoon she'd warm our slippers on the fire guard so we had warm feet after walking home from school.

We always had our own seats. We still do it now when we're at my mums, and my partner and I have our own seats too!

Can't comment on how authentic the recipe is as I've never made my own plum bread, I just buy it from bakeries. Most recipes I have found online suggest eating it with cheese though.

@sociallydistained

We used to open Christmas presents one at a time, in turns too. I much prefer it as I think it teaches children how to show gratitude and respect for what they've been given, and makes the whole present opening more of a family event. ExH absolutely hated doing it though because his family are present-rippers (at midnight on Christmas Eve!) and I was never allowed to let DS do it my way because ExH thought it was 'show-offy'.

I think on the contrary that it tended to be poorer families who opened presents one by one as it draws out the process. We would start with the smaller gifts and work up to the 'main' present, so there was always the suspense building of What's in the big box?? Much more fun!

But I've never yet met anyone from any other family who could get their head around the fact that we opened our presents in the mid-late afternoon! When I was little I would get a pillowcase with my 'Santa' presents when I woke up, then there would be a little present for everyone beside their place at the table, but the main present-opening ceremony came after the Christmas dinner had been eaten and everything cleared away. Nobody can ever understand how we were so restrained!

Slippers waiting and warned by the fire! Had completely forgotten that.

Growing up we had hotdogs in buns on Christmas eve, every year. When I was a teeneager and none of my friends did this, I asked my mam what was with the hotdogs. She said it was all we could afford at Christmas when we were small, but we seemed to like it so they kept doing it 🤷‍♀️

We still do it with our DD on Christmas eve now and really look forward to it :)

But no eating in the street is a school rule at most boarding schools.

My gran had a dripping cup, and used to save her butter papers for greasing cake tins. (I do the same )

We also had routines: Friday night and Sunday lunch with grandparents, repeated meals, Sunday night bath night.

Holidays were either camping or visiting relatives. Camping was usually shit because we were in Scotland and visiting relatives at the other end of the country meant interminably long train journeys, but at least we had the treat of chicken sandwiches to sustain us.

I had to answer the phone with the town, the phone number and then say hello. (E.g. Harrogate 567 452, hello). Until I was 19 and left home. Failure to answer the phone correctly resulted in an almighty bollocking. This included in the early 90's, absolutely ridiculous.
Cooking exotic vegetables like aubergines for myself would sometimes result in them being thrown in the bin and being accused of various nefarious motivations. I remember being given avocado at 18 at a friends house and having absolutely no idea if it was cheese or a vegetable.
I was only taught to brush my teeth in the morning! Fortunately I love brushing my teeth so would do it anytime. Soon learned that once was just wierd.
Children being allowed to express opinions, help themselves to stuff, being interesting and held in good regard by their parents... all alien concepts to young me.

Oh, I just though of another. My parents installed an intercom type system in my bedroom so the could tell at me to come and go something without having to come and speak to me. I was not permitted to call them.
I realised when I was about 14 that they would open the channel and listen to me without me knowing. I then pulled out the cable which I got bollocked for and it got reinstalled. I cut the cable with scissors in the end and by that time there wasnt a lot they could do as I'd perfected escaping across the roof onto next door's house over a few sheds and walls and then I left home permanently. Yes I've been in therapy for years! And I'm fine now

I wasn’t allowed to eat outside the house. If I bought sweets or an ice lolly I’d have to come inside to eat them and then I was allowed to play outside again. It took me seeing my friends eating ice creams at the park to realise no one else done this. I ended up with an eating disorder quite young as I was embarrassed about being seen eating.

I’d never seen my parents hug or kiss each other or their children, it wasn’t normal in our house to show love and neither has ever said they love me before. Emotionally I was effected by it looking back as I’d be jealous seeing other parents hug their children and seeing parents actually get along and enjoy each other’s company. Even now I don’t like people touching or hugging me, unless it’s my own children, and often feel a bit teary seeing happy couples and their children together (I’m a single mum).

Gossiping and pretending to like relatives until all the children in the family were grown up and there was no need to fake it anymore

But I've never yet met anyone from any other family who could get their head around the fact that we opened our presents in the mid-late afternoon! When I was little I would get a pillowcase with my 'Santa' presents when I woke up, then there would be a little present for everyone beside their place at the table, but the main present-opening ceremony came after the Christmas dinner had been eaten and everything cleared away

Are you related to me?! We always did this. And then some presents held back for Boxing Day.

@Lincslady53 i'm leicestershire too and definitely a thing, always hated it though

We had our main Christmas presents shortly before dinner was ready, which tended to be 2 to 3pm, so yes, restraint existed in our house, too. We did get the Santa presents at the end of the bed, so we had stuff to occupy us (Mum learned that a book in the stocking was a surefire way to keep me quiet for a bit ).

We also had our favourite places to sit at the table, and also in the living room, so rarely sat in someone else's seat.

This must have bee the case in ex's family too, as he and I carried on with sitting in our favourite places, and in the same seats at the table. I do this now with the DC. It's habit yes, but we all have different preferences.

Interestingly, we sit in different places when my dad and DBro come round for dinner

@EatsShootsAndRuns

I very much doubt it LOL. But we maybe had parents of a similar generation and/or class background, which seems to be a big factor in Christmas traditions.

Presents on Boxing Day though? No! Unless visiting / being visited by extended family on that day only.