
This time of year, many families take part in their respective holiday traditions.
Our family's festive ritual was nothing unique, but special to us nonetheless.
Now, we were not a fancy family and we hardly went out for dinners – save for the occasional trips to the golden arches.
But when we went out for our annual Christmas Eve dinners at Lawry's Prime Rib in Beverly Hills, we spared no expense.
We could always count on the Dickensian carolers to entertain us in the enormous dining area festooned with garlands and wreaths as we feasted – me with au jus reliably dripping down my chin.
That was how we rolled on Christmas Eve.
Curious about other families, Redditor TheAwesomeJunk asked:
"What is your family's unspoken tradition?"
Three-Hour Gift-Opening Session
"Even though there are numerous Christmas presents under the tree, the family tradition is this:"
"Only one present can be opened at a time so that everyone in the room can see what the other person received."
"It makes the gift-opening session last up to 3 hours, which sometimes seems like an eternity when everyone is hungry and wanting to have Christmas dinner."
Make Way For Santa
"All 'children' must vacate the living room at 9 pm on Christmas Eve so 'Santa' can put out the gifts."
"The youngest 'child' is 30, but it makes my mother happy to put out the gifts and have us surprised on Christmas morning."
Kids Go First
"We open ours in the morning. The kids like to dish the presents out to everyone from under the tree and we have our own piles then each person opens their presents in turn, usually the kids first. We only have Christmas day the four of us and told everyone else when we first had the kids that we won't see anyone else on Xmas day to save potential arguments with whose turn it is. We then chill out until dinner which we have about 3pm."
Leaving A Mark
"When someone in the family turns 16, they have to sign underneath my grandmother's kitchen table. It has to be something witty/funny/personal and then their name and the date. Of course, those who 'join' the family late (by marriage/long-term relationship or even just very good friends who have been to a family function or two) sign whenever they're inducted. It's a big deal and everyone takes pictures. Very neat to go under the table from time to time and see some of the faded sayings from old family/friends who are not with us anymore (either from passing on or falling out). All the grandkids looked forward to turning 16 so we could finally add our names under the table."
"I wonder who will get it when Grandma passes."
– EmberPt
On Noche Buena
"Christmas Eve dinner is always after 10 pm. I don't know why but it always is. If you're Cuban, you know the tradition of la caja china on Noche Buena. My uncle always does the pig roast and even though he claims he starts early every year, we never eat earlier than 10 pm. It's rare. Last year we didn't eat til almost 2 am and we didn't leave his house until 4. It's always worth the wait though. That and my grandmas Thanksgiving turkey are both the best dinners each year."
Tasty Treat
"Cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning. Been doing it for 32 years. I'm sad that I can't visit my parents this Christmas due to the risks involved."
"It's A Book!"
"One non-close-family gift can be opened on Christmas eve. This usually turns out to be something a bit rubbish."
"All presents get opened before breakfast on Christmas day. We take turns. If (when) you open booze the bottle must be opened immediately and then passed to whoever also drinks to try."
"Brother gets drunk and starts a fight or skips actual Christmas dinner (dinner is at lunch time)."
"Pretty much every gift gets a little squeeze and an exclamation of 'it's a book!' (last year I did this with a clearly not-a-book mug and there was a tiny book hidden inside it - well done dad)."
Oh, Mom
"No matter how many times we get her gifts, no matter the quality or quantity of said gifts, my mom will go through 20 minutes of: 'This is too much! Why did y'all do all this? I didn't get y'all anything this nice!'"
"For the past few years we start saying it all before she can, but she still keeps doing it."
In Iceland
"I live in Iceland and there we traditionally open the gifts after dinner on Christmas Eve. Aaaaallllll dishes, cutlery and everything must be HAND WASHED after dinner before we get to open the presents."
Casual Therapy
"Getting high/drunk and having intimate conversations that end up really therapeutic."
"Forced Perspective"
"We are huge fans of the Disney Parks and we go all the time. A common method they use to make things look taller (Like the castle) is forced perspective, which is basically trying to orient the angle of which you see an object to give the illusion that it's taller than it actually is, just to increase immersion. Also Florida has a rule where any building over 200 feet tall needs lights on top of it for planes to see, and Disney wouldn't want to do that. My grandfather is very supportive about this and one Thanksgiving he claimed to have one fact/trivia that none of us would know about the Disney Parks, and then went on a 10 minute rant about forced perspective that he probably found on Google, while we all acted amazed. Now whenever the words 'forced perspective' come up, or if we are in the parks and encounter a building that uses it, we all act amazed, even though it's one of the most basic facts someone who is really into the architecture of Disney Parks would know."
Hanky
That my uncle will always carry a dirty tissue in his left back pocket, "Just for emergencies." There has not yet been an emergency where a dirty tissue was needed.
Taking Turns
At Christmas we take ages to open presents (6 of us).
Starts with mum/dad picking a present at random from under the tree and giving it to person on label. Person opens it and everyone has to wait until they're done and then they pick another gift (can't be another one of their own) and vice versa. I actually quite like it
Pickled
we have this pickle ornament which we hide in the tree and the person who finds it gets to open the first present
Every single time
Everytime we all meet up, everybody starts talking about politics and half an hour later we all hate each other. This is usually fixed with alcohol later.
In a galaxy far away
My family always watches the Star Wars series at Christmas time. It isn't really something we acknowledge, we just do it.
All jokes
While opening gifts, if someone is taking a while/struggling to get a gift open, someone else yells "HURRY UP, THE PUPPY CAN'T BREATHE IN THERE!"
Going strong for at least 25 years.
Dinner's served
The cook serves him/herself last. I thought this was a common thing, but the number of times that guests will insist that I get my plate before them ("You go ahead, you cooked!") makes me think otherwise.
Wrap it up
Every Christmas someone gets to spend extra time unwrapping their 'special' gift. This is because wrapping just gets layered on, usually tripling the size. It also isn't limited to just wrapping paper layers, duck tape is common. I also have once created a cage of hot glue for a smaller gift.
This year my sister is the lucky victim. She's getting some pots and pans per request, however every piece is getting individually wrapped at least once before being put in a plastic tub to also be wrapped.
Oh lord
Alternating between who has the "job" of sitting next to my dad in church and nudging him every time he starts to snore
Cat's out of the bag
If the cat is on you, you're not expected to move (doing the washing up / taking out the rubbish and so on)
Take prisoners
During the Christmas dinner, noone can leave the table. I heard that it´s a custom in other households as well, but my mom takes it extremely seriously. Everything must be within arm´s reach of someone sitting behind the table. Since most of the time we spend Christmas at my grandma´s place, where the living room is quite small, we put when we can on the table, and the rest is on a small side table, or on the bed and sofa. Also, before the dinner, we take turns on the toilet, and try to do both number 1 and 2 even if we don´t feel like it.
Also, back when we could (when everyone had jobs that would allow them to take vacation for Christmas), all of my mom´s siblings would gather at grandma´s place. Since me & sister found out the truth pretty early on in our lives, we had the duty to take them out to wait for Jesus to come around (in Slovakia we don´t have Santa, we have Jesus, holy f*ck catholicism is wild). We would light sparklers and stick them in the snow outside of the house while the elders put the presents under the tree (I once fell into a drain full of snow, my shoes were full of sewage water, and I had only my head sticking out of the snow). Then, some elder would ring a bell from inside the house, and we´d run in.
Hug-o-war
We hug each other every single morning, if we're all at home. You could be mad, happy, grumpy, dying, doesn't matter. You get hugs. If we have people over, well, they get hugs too.
Stocking stuffers
Skipping it this year but in the past The whole family would bring all their presents over to whoever had the biggest living room at the time and put the gifts under THAT tree on Christmas Eve.
At Christmas, the oldest child (the duty passes to someone else once you hit like 17) sits at the bottom of the tree and distributes the gifts to everyone (throwing gifts is only acceptable if you KNOW the gift isn't fragile, and the receivers capable of catching it).
Sounds like a blast
Every New Years Eve we have a family bottle rocket fight. The youngest one of us is 28. My dad is 60. All adults who know better. My mother does not like fireworks at all, and every year we try to get her to join. My dad always yells from the yard that if she doesn't come out and join the fight then we are going to bring the fight inside to her. So far she has called his bluff.
But for real, nothing brings a family together like shooting consumer-grade explosives at each other.
Let them have cake
12 layer chocolate cakes are the only "acceptable" birthday cakes and you never tell which baker you got to make it- everyone has their own secret baker. ~never reveal your sources~
Feeling lucky
Everyone gets scratch offs in their Christmas stockings and we have to do those first before anything else on Christmas. It has been this way since my earliest Christmas memories.
Playing dress up
My grandmother has been forcing me and my two cousins to do a corny Christmas pageant. I think the other two like it because they are sisters and they are thirst for attention. But I am an only child and hate attention. She forced us to start this when I was like two. I am now 12 and I am t he middle cousin. I just hate it
Dinner time
A game of nose-goes at dinner where we talk about what the best/worst part of our day was. The person who loses nose goes then gets to say it next at any time in any discrete way.
Dating and the search for love and companionship... What a nightmare.
This journey plays out nothing like in the movies.
Every Prince or Princess (or everything in BTW) seems to have a touch of the psycho.
The things people say during what should be simple dinner conversation can leave a dining partner aghast.
Like... do you hear you?
Redditor detroit_michigldan wanted to discuss all the best ways to crash and burn when trying to make a romantic connection. They asked:
"You're on a date and it's going really great. What can another person say to ruin it completely?"
I once had a guy ask me if I was willing to follow him into the woods, depending on the price of the meal.
Yeah. No steak is worth that.
Plans After...
"Thanks for the ride but I have a date with someone else, I figured you wouldn't drive me if you knew I was going on a date with someone else and I really needed a ride."
"Online dating, talked to her for a while, finally got the courage to ask her out and then she said that as we got there."
iareyours
Mirror Image
“'You look just like my wife!'”
catalinachild
"I did have a guy tell me I reminded him of his son. I don’t believe English has a word to adequately describe my feelings at that time."
UnicornMagicRainbow
"That would definitely do it."
chaotica78
Third Wheel
"'Hope you don't mind if my mother joins us.'"
ofsquire
"Actually had a girl do this on a first date because she had anxiety issues. Honestly wasn’t bad except that 90% of the time she was silent and her mom talked over her."
"I didn’t mind that much and wouldn’t have minded trying again when she was more comfortable except that she was let go at the company we worked at and she deleted her social media profiles and she never responded on her number. Ah well."
Seightx
Liar
"'Hey bro aren't you gay? I made out with you last night.'"
"Random dude I've never seen before in front of my (f) date."
JHXC16
Was he lying though?
Filter Issues
"'You looked better on Tinder.'"
waqasnaseem07
"Isn’t it basic knowledge that everybody looks slightly worse than the worst picture you can find?"
no_user_ID_found
The Past
"'My ex used to do that too.'"
xxIvyOF
"Yep. I’ve definitely had two otherwise-decent-guy date-situations sour because the ex-comparisons just would not stop flowing. No woman wants to be seen as interchangeable—I’m not here to perfectly fill that ex-sized hole in your life. Focusing on the present moment and a future we could build together is a courtesy we need to grant each other in earliest dates of dating."
LarkScarlett
Powerless
"'I'm an alpha, you cant handle my top energy.'"
Midnightgay28
"I actually left a dude in the middle of dinner, in part, for saying this. I ordered an Uber under the table while pretending to listen to him. Went to the bathroom, and never came back. That was when I was young. Now I’d just say, 'How about we enjoy this meal in silence, before we head our separate ways.'”
UnicornMagicRainbow
Mommy...
"'Mother says I should be back by 9.'"
"Saying 'mother says' just feels weird."
bunnyrut
"That gives me Norman Bates vibes."
Werewolf_lover20
"'Mother says alligators are aggressive because they have an overabundance of teeth, but lack a toothbrush.'"
sodaextraiceplease
Obvs...
"'If you were going to be murdered, what method would you prefer. Purely hypothetical. Obvs.'"
Specific_Tap7296
If it looks anything like a Dateline NBC episode... RUN!
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Despite the advancement of technology rendering people left to their own devices–literally–to entertain them, there are some leisurely activities that will never go out of style.
Or so you would think.
Do people still knit to pass the time? Are people actively collecting stamps?
It depends on who's asking.
Curious to hear about hobby trends, Redditor gizehgizeh asked:
"What are once popular hobbies that are slowly dying these days?"

Before we've become conditioned to living on our phones, these activities used to keep people occupied.
Before Texting, There Was This
"Letter writing."
– littlekingMT
Literal And Tangible Joy
"Well the internet killed pen pals for sure. I do remember I had a Japanese girl for a penpal maybe back in 2007 or so. I honestly don't remember how it started, pretty sure some website, but that was a fun experience. But now I can just straight up talk to foreign people real time, lol. But yea getting a physical letter that someone took the time to write and mail still is hard to beat feelings wise."
– skyburnsred
Model Trains
"When I was growing up, every town had a model train store in it. Now I have one in region and everything else has to be bought online."
– Hairy_Effective1172
Pretty Rocks
"Don’t see anyone playing marbles anymore, I had an awesome collection in school."
– sheeple85
"I had some marbles as a kid in the 90s. My grandma got them for me and I had no idea what I was supposed to do with them. I always imagined them as a thing kids in the 40s played with."
– Ryoukugan
People Were Moving Canvases
"Paintball has been dying a slow death since 2006. Sad, really."
– hobo_recycler
Before the general population began hating clutter, collecting was once a "thing."
Precious Coins
"Coin collecting... I'm a silver/gold nut and I'm always hunting for precious metal coins. whenever I go into a shop they get all excited because 'no one under 70 collects coins anymore.'"
– ThatFishySmell99
Post It
"Stamp collecting."
– spooky_scully_mulder
"Collecting in general, really. Of course there are still prominent collectors but it's slipped more into enthusiast and niche territory than being a popular hobby that you might expect anyone to have."
– iuytrefdgh436yujhe2
What A Gem
"Rockhounding was immensely popular back in the 1950's and 1960's. Personally, I think it's a fascinating and fulfilling hobby, but when I go to a meeting at a rock and gem club, I'm usually the youngest one in the room by several decades."
– filthy_lucre
People once enjoyed making things.
Admiring The View
"Stained glass. I learned how to make it from my old man, and my junior high art class teacher also taught it. Very few artisans are still around."
– brobeanzhitler
Metal Vocation
"Black smithing."
– kenworth117
"I bought a forge to try. It’s insanely hard work, and crazy expensive. I still haven’t finished a piece."
– DSentvalue
Scrapbooking
"Yeah. I'm watching the arts and crafts stores around me completely uninstalling their racks for specialty paper. Now the only thing they have is mega packs of repeating colors/images. To boot all the inclusions like papercraft/die-cut things, washi tape, scissors, stickers, etc have gotten so expensive I would rather go buy $5 bags at value village to get an assortment of things versus buying anything new. I really, really miss yard sales for the same reasons."
– Phantasmai
I envy people who have jobs that are basically their hobbies.
Not everyone gets paid doing what they actually enjoy and have a profound level of passion for.
If they do, kudos to them.
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When we first meet someone–whether through mutual friends, at school, or in a new work setting–we generally feel people out to determine if they're worth getting to know.
While the process could take time, some people make our jobs much easier after spotting instant red flags.
Curious to hear about our general radar of people, Redditor xxFluffie asked:
"What is something that makes you immediately dislike someone?"

Some people just think they are absolutely hilarious and never realize they're the only ones laughing.
Next In Line
"They laugh about having screwed someone else over. If you think you're not next, well, you'll learn."
– whiznat
Unfunny
"when you mention you don't like a thing and they immediately do that thing 'as a joke.'"
– wayfinder
Playing Devil's Advocate
"Kneejerk contrarians. People who, no matter what you say you like or believe, just have to dismiss it and say they like or think the opposite."
– BubbhaJebus
People who put others down get slammed here.
Bad Parents
"When they treat their kids sh**ty in public. I don't mean handling tantrums, setting a rule, having to hurry to the train etc. I mean perfectly normal-behaved kids getting in trouble for trailing along peacefully, looking at things, asking questions etc."
"If you don't like tiny humans who learn the world, why have them??"
– raxeira-etterath
Public Humiliation
"Treating people sh**ty in public for laughs. Like being rude to service workers because they think it’s funny. Big red flag."
– Ok_Personality_1080
Simply Uncalled For
"Someone who is a d*ck to other people or animals for no reason."
– xebt1000
Those with ulterior motives rubs people the wrong way.
The Scheme
"If they try to get me to join their MLM scheme."
– spazmcgee1
Hard Sell
"A guy I used to be friends with in high school reached out a couple of years after graduating about a business opportunity he wanted my opinion on because 'you've always been smart', then he set up a Skype call and brought some other dude into the call and they started trying to sell me on what was clearly an MLM scheme. The guy went from friend to 'I'm never talking to you again' in a matter of 10 minutes."
– Mental-Afternoon-164
A Timeline
"Good gawd, this! I've had more than one exposure to this abject bullsh**tery..."
- Back in the late 80's/early 90's I was invited to a meeting of literally the OG "Pyramid" where you're recruited to pay in, and then you go out and recruit others to pay in, and the last in line got f'kall.
- In 1995 I had a coworker try to reel me into Amway, which was a hard no.
- In 2000 it was Pampered Chef, though to be fair they did have useful products.
- In 2009 a coworker tried to get me into some stupid video calling service that was obviously stupid from the description. He even got offended when I called bullsh*t.
– Mystical_Cat
Too much ego is a no-go.
I Can Do Better
"Being a b*tch just to stroke their own ego."
"We get it, you can lift 5lbs more than the 12 year old, you don't have to rub it in their face just because you're slightly better"
– Livia_Pivia
Can't Top This
"Oh, you did <story that's been told>? That's nothing! I did <implausible story>.
"I get the whole empathy through relating common experience, and I'm someone who does that (which drives some people crazy on its own), but there's a big different by empathising through common experience, and one-upmanship."
– Tisarwat
Lacking Conversational Etiquette
"Starting to talk over me when I was already talking."
"Stop it you rude, arrogant jerk."
– R33Gtst
If one or more of these traits sound familiar to you, you're not alone.
We don't have time for braggadocios, pyramid-schemers, and conversation interrupters.
And that's just for starters.
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Children tend to believe just about anything they hear.
That there are monsters under your bed, watching too much TV will make your head explode, and silly faces will be permanent if you make them too often.
The sky is truly the limit when it comes to silly things that children will believe.
Some call it naivitée, other's youthful innocence.
But it's hard not to look back with embarrassment on certain things we believed as a child, that today might simply seem dumb.
Redditor Disastrous_Toe_6548 was curious to learn the multitude of silly things people believed when they were children, leading them to ask:
"What's the dumbest thing you believed as a kid?"
Pleading to deaf ears...
"My dad told me he had hearing loss and couldn't hear me if I whined because my pitch would get too high."
"Would completely ignore me until I asked him questions in a normal voice."
"Trusted him implicitly until I was 12 and he yelled at my younger brother for whining."- Tyrion_Stark.
Get it while you can.
"That they took everything off the shelves when the supermarket closed."- fgyfddg.
Silly superstitions.
"My grandfather used to tell me that if I played with the fire, I'd pee the bed."
"I believed him for a while, until I got older."
"I think he was just trying to protect me from the fire."- teddypa1981.
"Rain, rain go away..."
"That if it was raining where I was, it was raining everywhere in the world."- morningshartz.
Age is just a number.
"My parents used to seem really old to me, so much so I believed they grew up like cave people as children, wearing giant leaves for clothes and what not."- Laleena_.
So that's how they're made!
"That smokestacks from the power plant created clouds."- Scaniarix.
An instant cure.
"The sun gives you sunburns, therefore, moonlight should heal them."- velocipeter.
Better safe than sorry.
"Don't drink and drive meant all drinks."
"My dad was super confused when I told him he wasn't allowed to have any soda until we got home."- hulagirlslovetoparty.
Don't believe everything you see on TV.
"There was an episode of Mickey Mouse where Mickey couldn’t reach something at first, so he tried again and somehow his arm was long enough to reach it."
"As a small kid I believed that if I couldn’t reach something, I should just try reaching for it again and my arm would then somehow be long enough to reach it."- That-Dutch-Person.
The miracle of childbirth.
"That babies are pooped out."
"When I was like 7 I was listening to my aunt as she explained that childbirth was pretty intense and painful for her, and I was all solemnly like, 'yeah, sometimes just my poops are painful, I don’t think I could get a baby out' and she went 'um, WHAT?' and her reaction made me realize real quick that I had f*cked up somewhere and I tried to change the subject while my mind was just reeling lol."- thesoundingfurrows.
Oh to be a child again.
And to believe literally everything you're told.
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