American Christmas

[RedHelenB]

Just curious to know whether the naff Christmas movies are at all like the experience over there. Do you bake Christmas cookies and deliver to neighbours? Do you have candy cane lanes?

I used to find crackers as everyone thought they were good fun. I got them from Marshalls, TJMax and Cost plus world market.

The OP was clearly interested in American Christmas traditions. Of course not everyone does the same thing, just like not everyone in the UK does the same thing.

I live in the UK, but am Australian. We have different traditions there, too.

Get over yourself.

I wonder about this, too.

My brothers settled in the USA after studying there around 35 years ago. My brothers daughters have both married and send Christmas cards with a photo of themselves, their husbands and their babies. I always think that’s very American and not usual here at all. I’m sure not all Americans do that but I have never had a card like that from anyone in the UK as I appear to not be on the Royal families Christmas card list.

Yes! Christmas stocking! 🤣 Sorry! See? I’m being American and calling it a sack/bag! So is it still a thing? We don’t do this (even though I’m more Brit than Yank now. ☺️).

I was told Americans only get one day holiday at Christmas and don’t have the extended festival we do .

Sandgrown that’s true. We don’t acknowledge Boxing/St. Stephen’s Day which is why I think Thanksgiving is the bigger holiday. We get a 4 day weekend for TG. Christmas is just the day itself (at least, it was the case when I was growing up).
I find it rather annoying that (American) Thanksgiving is so big. I never celebrate it. It sits uncomfortably with me, given our history of exploitation and wholesale slaughter of the indigenous Americans. I digress.

But EVERY year, a family member back home will ask, “Are you cooking the turkey yet?”
My 25 plus years of “No. It's fish finger night… just a normal day here in Merry Ol’ Blighty and we don’t have frozen dinosaur-sized turkeys to buy at any rate,” hasn’t sunk in.

I always bought crackers, mint sauce, Bryanston pickle, and marmalade from World Market. Ridiculously expensive but a nice little treat to remind me of home.

Well we certainly do, my children are older now but I still do one. When my mum was alive, I still got one too!

In our house, only stockings are from FC, all other gifts are from whoever they are from.

From what my lot over there have said, I think it is back to normal on Boxing Day.

Dsis who’s lived in the US since the 70s, always did a stocking for her dd. For ages it was one of the big grey woolly ‘sea boot’ socks, knitted by our DM for DF, when he was in the navy during WW2, on the N Atlantic convoys.
Both parents long gone now, but AFAIK Dsis still has that stocking, exceedingly tattered now!

GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER

That’s so heartwarming and beautiful… that big ol’ tattered stocking was made with love and it carries the gift of family tradition/history.

I wonder if, as a Californian and first generation American, the stocking tradition just totally bypassed our home. I find different parts of the States, particularly New England (which really holds the origins of US history) much more traditional than out West. Though we have tamales! 😋

I think it varies a lot region to region. I live in the Boston area. People decorate their houses to greater or lesser extent. We have one friend who bakes cookies (excellent selection) and brings them around on xmas eve (her husband is british so I buy english chocolate in exchange) - she delivers them to loads of friends and neighbours. Our neighbours (lovely lovely older couple) used to bake us a cake in the shape of a christmas tree when the kids were little. nowadays they drop off a scented candle or bottle of wine. the neighbourliness here is lovely. There are holiday concerts in the schools, carol concerts in church (we went to a medieval/early music christmas concert last night - incredible), readings of A Christmas Carol, Boston Pops doing their thing, the Nutcracker (we were near the opera house on Saturday at matinee time and it was like a convention of small girls in velvet dresses). Big charitable drives too - toys for kids etc.

The things I notice different from Ireland - and I imagine the UK - are no pantomimes and people don't really ask small kids "what is santa bringing you?" (they don't ask 8 year olds "are you making your communion this year" either - maybe that has changed in Ireland since my day too).

Most people I know cook beef for xmas dinner - you couldn't face the turkey again just a month later. I certainly can't. Italian-american friends often do the seven fishes as a big thing on Christmas eve. Most people I know treat it like a big day, family, friends, big dinner. We generally say happy holidays rather than happy christmas - although will obviously say happy christmas to people I know are christian churchgoers. It is a nice season here. Yeah everything is open again on St Stephen's day mostly - dh's work is closing for a week and all the schools are off.

I would say Thanksgiving and Christmas are about equal - well maybe the edge on Thanksgiving. It is really handy having two holidays to divvy up family/inlaws etc.

I'm from California, and live in a different state now. All sides of my family have been here for generations. Christmas is bigger than Thanksgiving. There is definitely a divide between people who think you shouldn't decorate before Thanksgiving and those who want to decorate right after Halloween.

Stockings are totally a normal part of christmas but they're hung by the fireplace or near the tree, not the kids bed. Visiting Santa is pretty common. We have a neighbor who brings around amazing cookies, but this is the first place I've lived with a neighbor like that.

Christmas meals are more family traditions. There isn't really a traditional American Christma meal.

Christmas cards are a lot less common than they were growing up. Cards with a huge family update letter were very common in my childhood, before Facebook.

This is like the time I visited America and they genuinely asked if we had leprechauns and lived in little cottages in fields like Darby o gill. I'm from Ireland

I'm curious as to what Americans have for Christmas lunch

We usually have ham. And it's Christmas dinner, not lunch, even if eaten in the middle of the day.

This is true for my workplace. But people often take extra days leave. And we get two days off at Thanksgiving.

I would say Thanksgiving and Christmas are about equal - well maybe the edge on Thanksgiving. It is really handy having two holidays to divvy up family/inlaws etc.

I agree. In my family, Thanksgiving is the traveling holiday. We stay in our own homes for Christmas.

Also, as I grew up with divorced parents, we children alternated the holidays. It's common for divorce settlement agreements to provide for this.

Obviously not, but just wondered which bits were?

I don’t think OP is asking what every single person in the USA eats for Christmas dinner….

I’m sure not everyone has turkey at thanksgiving either, but if you ask what Americans have for thanksgiving, turkey is an appropriate response as it’s seen as traditional.

If there’s not a traditional American Christmas meal, fair enough🤷‍♀️.

@RedHelenB Apologies if I was rude. As Americans, we have so many nasty, absurd and demeaning stereotypes thrown at us here on MN that maybe we aren't as polite in our responses as we should be. It's the size of this country that I think most people can't get their arms around. Plus, other than Native people, we are all immigrants and we bring so many traditions with us. DM used to say that the US is not really a melting pot; it's a salad bar. The variety in behavior, food, laws, races, ethnic groups, religions is dramatic. What seems normal, expected and "American" to me, may seem completely unknown to another American.

Yes. Mine have a little ssck with their names on that they put out for Father Christmas under the tree on Christmas eve. They leave milk and mince pies for him and a carrot for the reindeer.

Thanks for the aplology, I didn't take offence I was just curious. I think the Hallmark movies are the equivalent to Mills and Boon but I thought they must be based on something. I know Americans that cane over here were somewhat bemused at the fact that Christmas cake, mince pies, Christmas pudding were basically alcohol and dried fruit just like pumpkin pie tasted nothing like I thought it would in my imagination after reading about it in numerous books.

The Hallmark movies are based on idealized and romanticized notions of Christmas in the US. Some may have a kernel of truth for some people's experience, but the reality is often far different for many. In our family, Christmas is a fairly low-key holiday.

American here. Christmas is more important than Thanksgiving. Thanksgiving is almost always turkey, but Christmas has more variety--ham, rib roasts, etc. Although MN insists it's an American tradition, I've never known anyone to do elf on the shelf. Have only ever seen it on MN. No Christmas boxes, whatever they are, either. Lots of decorations, both on individual houses, public places, churchyards, etc. Most municipalities have a tree lighting ceremony. Some families open a few presents on Christmas Eve., although most are opened Christmas morning along with the stockings, which are in the living or family room, not in the children's bedrooms. We don't have boxing day. As Catholics our family goes to mass on Christmas Eve. and has our big get together on Christmas day. Some have a big Christmas Eve and a smaller Christmas day.