The holiday season is filled with sentimental traditions. Some traditions have certain quirks and differences that the average person does not deem “normal.”
One of the more common traditions is the white elephant gift exchange. Whether it be for a class or family, exchanging silly gifts between people is one of the holiday games many people partake in during December leading up to Christmas.
However, some groups of people like particularly strange gifts.
“We have a mold of my dad’s face and we give it away every year but somehow it always ends up at our house because everyone thinks it’s too scary and doesn’t want it,” Cora Burnham said.
Burnham does the gift exchange annually with a big group of close family and friends.
Coinciding with the gift exchange, another tradition is the Christmas tree. Adorned with ornaments and twinkling lights, the Christmas tree is a staple tradition to many American families’ holiday seasons.
However some families take this tradition out of the norm.
Multiple families throughout the country find themselves buying five dollar passes to cut down a tree in the middle of state-owned forest. Families with adventurous spirits tend to lean towards this option, regardless, this trend can lead to some chilly conflicts.
Unfortunately, I have fallen victim to this inefficient tradition since I was a young child. Saw in hand, my dad would lead us all into the middle of random woods in hunt of the perfect Christmas tree. Red noses numb from the cold, we all marched behind unconfident.
Yet somehow, we always managed to walk out of those forests with the perfect Christmas tree. Some years that meant a tree as tall as eight feet. Other times it meant a bare and scraggly tree, but perfection in our eyes.
“Well, mom threatens getting a fake tree every year, she hates the little tradition. Thankfully it stuck around though. One of those things, you know, you hate it at the moment but have to do it,” Heidi Halgren said.
Through frozen fingers, and cars stuck in snow, the tradition has strongly upheld throughout our family Christmases.
As inconvenient of a tradition as it is, it is not even near the weirdest that has ever happened.
Many Japanese families enjoy KFC for Christmas dinner. The chicken restaurant advertised “Kentucky for Christmas” ads across Japan back in 1974, and it has been history ever since.
You may have heard of the “Christmas Pickle,” a German tradition where parents hide a pickle in the tree, and the first to find it gets to open presents first. America adapted this tradition in the 1890s. In fact, Berrien Springs Michigan is known to be the Christmas Pickle capital of the world.
Ukraine took a twist on this tradition by switching pickles, with spider webs.
In South Africa, fried caterpillars are a common delicacy during the holiday season. Believed to bring good luck during the holidays, these critters are a staple for a South African Christmas.
Families in Norway hide their brooms on Christmas Eve. It is commonly believed that witches and evil spirits roam the skies on Christmas Eve, and by hiding the brooms, the witches will not come and steal them from homes.
Regardless of what tradition you and your family participates in yearly, one thing is for certain. Christmas is one of the biggest holidays for traditions and nostalgia. So whether your hanging spider webs in your tree, or cooking up some fried caterpillars, it’s just about time to start preparing for the holiday season worldwide.