I was sitting here thinking and thought to myself with Christmas and the other holidays coming in HOT. What traditions do you have?

Mine are limited, which what posed the question; what do you do?

I would like to do more with my family and curious as to what some of y'all do?

Kill stuff with little man

Lol, I bet y'all do a killer job.

When our big family gets together for Thanksgiving, we always have our lemon and panty hose race! Tie some panty hose around your waist with a big lemon inside one leg with it hanging down between your legs. One lemon is on the ground and you swing your panty hose with lemon between your legs using only your waste to swing the hose. You swing your lemon and hit the lemon on the ground enough to roll it past the finish line. 3-4 people go at a time, and it creates some fun times and good commotion. We have trophies and everything. Been doing it for MANY years! Crazy and strange, but if you know me and my family, it's perfectly normal!

I’ll just say in 6 short years we have made a lot of great memories

When the family was getting together we would do Christmas karaoke songs, Santa on the roof for the kids then santa deliver gifts ho ho ho ho,

For years when they were kids I'd buy my nieces and nephews Christmas presents based solely on battery consumption and noise coefficient. I was the fun uncle with no kids everyone hated.....

I remember doing that, before I met my wife (in the same dam club, 26+ years ago), with a "big ol' gal" I went to school with that I'd run into - tying one pair of panty hose around you AND her. Very sweet woman...that I did NOT leave with that night. May God forgive me, I'm a shallow SOB when it comes to weight. I hope she's well. Thanks for THAT memory.

Hunting, just get out as much as possible.

For holidays, I dress as Santa on Christmas Eve and come in during our party. Got to keep the kids off the beard and give Santa a bourbon. Adults get scratch offs and kids whatever their parents find at the drug store on the way over since they forgot to get one earlier. Then they scream that isn't what they asked for. Hope it is cold this year again cause Santa hates sweating!!

My dad wore it many years ago doing the same thing. Someone reads the Christmas story from the Bible while getting dressed. We used to do a whole pageant. Think we had burger king hats if you were a king.

Family, food and spirits. We started going out for Thanksgiving dinner a few years ago, which has been great. My wife can relax and enjoy like the rest of us. She's a great cook, but cooking and cleaning is work to her. Del Frisco at the shops at Legacy is excellent if you want to give your wife a break from cooking and cleaning.

We also started going to the ranch between Christmas and New Years and do our midnight toast with s'mores around the fire.

We are almost to this point. Our adult kids aren't getting the hint. The only reliable helper is the elderly mother of one of my son-in-laws. You know, the generation that was taught to actually get off their butts and help.

After the partying and gift giving on Christmas eve. we wake up and head to Gruene for more festivities. Usually with a pounding head. Good times.

Thanksgiving ... Turkey and family recipe cornbread dressing, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, homemade rolls, giblet gravy, deviled eggs, stuffed pickled jalapeno (tuna fish salad), fruit salad, pumpkin & pecan pies ...

Christmas ... Spiral baked ham or smoked prime rib roast and all the same as above (sometimes including turkey) ...

I love to cook and I do almost all of the cooking for large family events.

at both holidays, we have a large noon meal and then the rest of the day is playing games (42, dominoes, chickfoot, cards, etc.) and watching football, napping and grazing ... then usually everyone will eat again early evening.

one Christmas tradition is to read the Christmas story of Christ's birth to the kids/grandkids

I'm coming over this year! Have to witness this in person!

I like this.

I think this year, we are going to seek out one of those Pheasant hunts in Oklahoma and see how that is.

Not so much a tradition, but here goes....

When I was a young newlywed, my mother worked at a very high end retirement center and had access to one of those multi-thousand dollar Santa suits. Mom often enlisted me to play Santa for the center. My lovely new bride at the time had friends with small children. One of whom lived just a few blocks away.

Early afternoon on Christmas Eve, I put on the whole get-up and ride over there in our family car. Lovely bride goes in first, explaining that I'm at work and will be along shortly.

I wait the planned 15 minutes before knocking on the door. Ryan, the little 4 year old man of the house, pulls back the curtain and sees Santa. I can hear his Mom ask who it is, and I can hear Ryan whisper back, "It's Santa Clause!" His mom finally convinced him to let Santa in out of the heat. We are in Texas, after all.

I'd had lots of practice by then, so I burst inside as Santa with all the ho-ho-hoing and all the presents in the big heavy red velvet bag to hand out one by one. I sat little Ryan on my knee for a moment, and asked if Santa could use their bathroom.

He hops off my knee, grabs my gloved hand, and leads me to the half-bath off their kitchen, conveniently near the back door.

While inside, I toss the Santa suit in the thick heavy red velvet bag and wipe off the makeup with a wet-wipe. Once I get the go-ahead text from my lovely new bride I slip out the back door and around to the car. I toss the thick heavy red velvet bag full of Santa into the trunk and put on the jeans and t-shirt of Uncle Kenny stashed there.

I walked back up to the door as myself, again answered by little Ryan. "Guess who's here?" he asks. I'm counting off our friends in attendance and he cuts me off..."No! Santa's here!". I hate to throw the BS flag on a 4 year old, but I did. "Where is he?" "He's in my baffroom!". Little Ryan was missing his front teeth and bathroom came out as baffroom.

He grabbed my now ungloved hand and led myself and the other grown-ups to his baffroom. He knocked on the door. Of course, no answer. With a bit of encouragement from us grown-ups, he finally opens the baffroom door, finding it empty.

"Where is he?" I ask. I'll never forget that incredulous gaze as he turned to me and said, "He's gone!". I'm also convinced that when you combine the honestly-come-by Texas accent of a 4 year old with some missing front teeth, the word "gone," has at the very least four syllables.

Not a tradition, but that's my best Christmas story to date. I hope you enjoyed it.

As always, safe shooting and tight groups,

SD

Since I was a child Thanksgiving morning was always reserved for hunting, growing up in Wisconsin we hunted rabbits and pheasants. In Montana it was elk/deer and Colorado was usually pheasant/quail hunting.
In Texas it is set aside for Hogs!