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Traditions – Friday Fictioneers

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Oh that Rochelle.  Why she does this to me, I cannot say… Putting up my picture between Christmas and New Year’s. Da hell, Rochelle? Of course, I tease. I am honoured to be asked to use my photo at any time of year. I shall gladly play along. Would be rude not to, anyhow 😉  So, here goes. For Friday Fictioneers, a little discussion betwixt a few friends… Click on the Christmas frogs below to play by adding your own 100-word story link.

280 Christmas frogs ideas in 2021 | christmas, frog, frog and toad

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Traditions

How’s it work in your houses?

Mom starts December first.  Christmas everything and everywhere.   I can’t wait for it to come down.

We put up our tree with Dad on Christmas Eve, while Mom makes her meat pies. It comes down January second.

My guy’s birthday is December 18th, so we don’t put it up until the 19th. Keep the two separate, yanno? Spent his life getting one gift as a “two-fer”. He hated that so I made sure to separate them. 

Wonder what their story is? Friends with nowhere to go? So they share together?

Doesn’t that sound wonderful?

 

128 thoughts on “Traditions – Friday Fictioneers”

  1. Christmas birthdays suck! There ought to be a law that no one can be born the last two weeks of December. The only Christmas tradition I follow religiously is being a Scroogey, grumpy Grinch. I’m simply grumpy the rest of the year.

    Liked by 3 people

  2. Everyone has their traditions. Although sometimes they change over the years with the change of family environment. Ours sure did. The one sure constant is that we put up the Tree on my Birthday, 15 Dec., and comes down on New Years Day 01 Jan. With only the two of us, it has certainly got simpler over the years. Good story. Sorry “that person” forced you to have to write one. Merry Christmas & a Happy New Year friend.

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    • For sure. Funny. Mick didn’t want it up on his birthday 😉 I like that everyone has their own cherished tradition for doing things. That person is a sweetheart so I can’t even really give her anything but hugs.
      Happy 2022, Jan! May the year bring much joy and good health. Anything else will be gravy!

      Liked by 1 person

    • I hear you, Liz. My mother’s first one without her hubby, too. Funny how we try to separate the birthday from Christmas when it’s so close. I have three friends who are December 25th. They are pretty much screwed! 🙂

      Like

  8. Dear Dale,

    No apologies. It’s a great photo. (At least I asked. 😉 😉 ) As Jan said, we have our time honored tradition of putting up the tree on the 15th. I enjoyed the conversation you wrote. I raise my glass. God bless us Friday Fictioneers every one.

    Shalom and lotsa New Years’ Hugs,

    Rochelle

    Liked by 2 people

    • Dear Rochelle,

      Excellent. And yes, you did. Even got so pushy as to ask me to modify it! Love that we all have our traditions. And happy you enjoyed the conversation that I didn’t have enough words to say was occurring in the car as they watched this trio…

      Shalom and lotsa New Year’s (Years’? Years?) love,

      Dale

      Liked by 1 person

  9. Here’s to traditions – old ones and new ones and adaptive ones that change with the times and circumstances. …
    A friend of mine was born Christmas Eve. Let’s just say that the two-fers were almost always the rule, though I hope that at least someone in his family made sure to do/give/show him an extra that was Birthday Only. Only knew him as an adult, when we used to go out on X-mas Eve (or the Eve of that) for a special meal with him and his wife. Bring special B-day gifts. Make the waiters bring a sparkler on a dessert. Sing at the top of our lungs to make sure everyone knew this was a BIRTHDAY BOY, not a Christmas get-together. He’s left us now, but X-mas Eve will always be his birthday first, holiday second.
    The two-fer peeps understand each other. No matter their combo-celebrations (aka Combobrations).
    xoxo
    Na’ama

    Liked by 2 people

  12. Thanks for the pic, Dale. I couldn’t decide whether to write a story, or sketch it up… still might sketch it. LOL! Happy New Year. My Gran’s B-day was Dec 12, I always tried to do something special and separate for her.

    Liked by 1 person

  13. (smiles) You’ve hit upon the interesting ways, schedules/traditions that are a part of every household. I always felt bad for those who had birthdays near Christmas. I know a couple that were born on the 25th… often cheating them out of their special day!

    Liked by 1 person

  15. Our traditions are dead, buried, and no marker were left behind to show they ever existed. Everything dies. Right?

    My mom and my son-in-law have birthdays sooooo close to christmas that they went through the same awful thing of always getting one gift. I made them into two different days, but for most of their lives that didn’t happen. How mean it is to skip a person’s birthday because it’s near a holiday. Mean. Mean. Thoughtless. Humbug.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Dang it… that is kinda sad. Unless there are new ones to take their place?

      Good for you on separating the days. It is mean and thoughtless. Why would an April baby or July or September get a gift at their birthday and at Christmas if the December, January babies can’t?

      Like

  16. A toast to traditions. 🙂 I have a son born on the 6th and twin grands on New Years Day. We need to move Christmas to August, but everyone ignores me. These days it’s more like, “how easy can we make this?” I say birthdays over X-Mas. Well thought out, Dale.

    Liked by 1 person

  17. We all have our own traditions. Normally, mine goes up on 1st Dec, comes down 1st Jan — that’s set in stone. I like starting the New Year fresh. Plus, it’s a chore than can linger. I knew people and their tree was still up in May!

    Liked by 1 person

  20. Great story, Dale. Traditionally where I live people put up the tree on Christmas Eve and throw it out January 6th. That’s changing though, some have adopted ‘the American way’.
    The last phrase reminds me of my time abroad where we shared Christmas meals and evenings (and New Year’s Eve) with other people in our department who also were alone working in a strange country. Homesickness bites deepest at holidays.

    Liked by 1 person

    • Same here. Our premier cancelled it last year and tried to this year, as well. However, our family decided to tell with him and went forward with our plans. Then Covid hit…
      Good on you to move it to June!

      Liked by 1 person

  31. Q

    The traditions of some peeps are so randomly interesting to me. I don’t think we ever really followed any such path. And talk about ill fitted timing! To have a birthday in December, I mean, I would dig it since it would be all done in that window, but having known peeps who are born in the month, it does harsh their mellow just a tad. It’s a crush of this and that and people and schedules as it is, now you add another milestone! Aye!

    Next year (this year) my ‘tradition’ will be a real tree. Or maybe a new fake one of a different color . . like white or purple. I’ll make it a one year tradition just in case I wanna change it up again. 😉

    B

    Liked by 1 person

    • B

      It is interesting to see or learn the different traditions. Some just are because it’s how they always did it. Others have chosen to make their own.
      I was watching a show and people were lamenting their birthday being on the 24th, 25th of December. The host said that he beat them all by having his on January 2. Talk about shitty timing: the holidays are over, the credit cards are maxed and people are still hungover:
      happy birthday! Not. Ah well. Not much we can do about it, can we?

      Funny you should say that. I was thinking of getting a real one again. Mind you, I’m not sure I still have the lights to put on the darn thing. But I do miss the scent of Christmas which came from the pine needles. Candles and sprays just don’t do it. Oooh Purple! I like it. 😉

      Q

      Liked by 1 person

      • It makes me laugh because I had this conversation with an Amish guy who used to work for me, name was Davey. I asked him why they wore straw hats throughout the week and black hats on Sundays or in more formal settings. I half ass knew the answer to the question but I was searching for perhaps something more. He replied, because my father did it and his father did it. And yanno? Not deep but meaningful. To him. And that was good enough for me.

        That’s the thing! It’s that stretch you must endure when you have to fit everyone onto your monthly credit card statement without needing to pull a D.B. Cooper!

        I had this idea that I might get a colored tree once. The things are so damned anti-Currier and Ives and maybe that’s the appeal. That contrast, that screetchy, Warholesque caricature that somehow still fits in with the season.

        Liked by 1 person

        • Hah! And why not, right? “Because generations before did it, so I do, too” is perfectly legit, I say.

          No kidding. Oy! You made me go to the Google again!

          Why not? My friend has a white one and it’s rather pretty, I have to admit…

          Liked by 1 person

          • Davey wasn’t the most poetic of souls, but he had a good heart. And he loved that I had introduced him to the show Baywatch, so hey . . traditions old and new.

            The Google! That guy was a hero of mine back in the day. I always believed he made it somewhere safe, and warm. Fight the power and all that.

            Beauty.

            Liked by 1 person

          • I would be rather surprised to find any Amish who is a poet – seems right frilly stuff for them. They don’t do frilly. You introduced him to Baywatch? And he watched it! Whoa….

            The Google still rocks, I hate (love) to admit.

            It can be. Anything can, don’t you think?

            Liked by 1 person

          • Some do try. There was a Mennonite girl I met, many moons ago, who was a published poet. I forget her name, but she was good.

            I had been surfing channels since we had a television set behind the counter and it came on. I never . . . uh . . watched it myself. But he was captivated. As if he had taken a course in Greek mythology whilst smoking the best hashish.

            It is so important, the Google.

            I think. Oh, I think.

            Liked by 1 person

          • That is wonderful. Are the Mennonite less, um. stark? than the Amish? I figured they were the same difference. It is interesting though.

            Uh huh. Right. Of course you um… didn’t… Hahaha!

            It really is. Especially now that paper encyclopedias seem to have gone the way of the dinosaur.

            Of course you do.

            Liked by 1 person

          • They are definitely modern in comparison. They drive, have electricity, dress differently. And the teenagers are nuts! Well, yanno, some of them.

            Hahaha!

            Like maps. And TV Guides. And instruction manuals . . .

            Of course.

            Liked by 1 person

          • Well then, that’s a whole ‘nother thing! I’m sure some of the teenagers are wild.

            He he he….

            I do too. There was something to trying to figure out where to go following a map. It allowed for interesting discoveries when you went off.

            😉

            Liked by 1 person

          • The Amish do “Rumspringa” where the teenagers have their time to sew wild oats before officially devoting their lives to the church. The Mennonites, they just keep on sewing . . .

            How did we find our way around?

            Liked by 1 person

  32. It is cool how everyone has their own traditions within the major traditions. My grandfather’s birthday was on Christmas. We used to do Christmas in the morning and birthday in the evening. He said as a kid, he would get one sock for his birthday and the other one for Christmas.

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  35. Your mom sounds like mine.
    I have a sister whose BD is Dec. 23. I have friends who were born Christmas Eve & Christmas day. I must admit that they are somewhat messed up about that.
    We had nowhere to go this year. Covid saw to that, again.
    Yet, I love being with my Norman…. anytime, anywhere, so it was fab. Although, we did meet 3 family members, outside, in the cold, in masks, on a traffic empty street lined with buildings from the late 1800’s. It was ….dystopian. ⚡️💥

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