Evolving holiday traditions

[Deleted]

I have decided to adapt my Thanksgiving traditions this year. Not only do I pick a random date to celebrate thanksgiving, this year it will be at the beginning of November, but I'm planning on changing up my desserts to fit the French format better. I can never decide what to do for dessert and always end up making too much. So this year I'm doing a 'café gourmand' which is a coffee with 3-4 mini desserts so that I can have the best of both worlds!

In what ways have you seen yourself adapting your family holidays to fit with your current home?

[dorothyinAus]

The biggest thing I have noticed is that I have changed the traditional meals to suit the weather. It's hard to contemplate a traditional, heavy, American-style Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner on hot summer days. And even though it was often in the mid-80's on Thanksgiving and/or Christmas Day in New Orleans, it was a winter mid-80's rather than a summer mid-80's, you know?

I'm thinking next year I'll do a more traditional American-style Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner for friends/family over the July school holidays. The weather will be right and I think it would be fun.

[potatopie]

I'm with dorothyinAus in that I don't think anyone will want to cook or eat a heavy Thanksgiving meal when the temps start to rise. So I'll certainly have to adapt the menu. This is our first Thanksgiving and Christmas we'll be spending down here.

Even if we weren't in the southern hemisphere, though, I've taken on some Italian traditions from DH. We'll definitely have to eat fish on Christmas Eve, and I might try some Italian desserts but not sure what yet.

[Deleted]

Oct 15, 2014 3:12:27 GMT -5 dorothyinAus said:

The biggest thing I have noticed is that I have changed the traditional meals to suit the weather. It's hard to contemplate a traditional, heavy, American-style Thanksgiving or Christmas dinner on hot summer days. And even though it was often in the mid-80's on Thanksgiving and/or Christmas Day in New Orleans, it was a winter mid-80's rather than a summer mid-80's, you know?

I'm thinking next year I'll do a more traditional American-style Thanksgiving/Christmas dinner for friends/family over the July school holidays. The weather will be right and I think it would be fun.

I never really thought about it but it must be strange to do the traditional winter holiday foods in the middle of summer! I probably would do the same and maybe celebrate the 4th of July with a Christmas/Thanksgiving feast lol

[orriskitten]

The setup for Christmas here is much more busy. There are more holiday celebrations and no Santa. So we'll be doing Christmas morning with presents from Santa and a big American style breakfast for the immediate family (SIL and her kids, BIL and his kids if he is in Iceland) on Christmas Day. Otherwise there is fermented shark and skate on the 23rd, family fancy dinner with presents on the 24th and a few days after Christmas is another party with extended family.

We'll also be doing stuff around the Yule lads who are little elves who come around Christmas.

Things will evolve over time I'm sure, but this is the plan for now.

[potatopie]

Oct 15, 2014 6:19:14 GMT -5 orriskitten said:

The setup for Christmas here is much more busy. There are more holiday celebrations and no Santa. So we'll be doing Christmas morning with presents from Santa and a big American style breakfast for the immediate family (SIL and her kids, BIL and his kids if he is in Iceland) on Christmas Day. Otherwise there is fermented shark and skate on the 23rd, family fancy dinner with presents on the 24th and a few days after Christmas is another party with extended family.

We'll also be doing stuff around the Yule lads who are little elves who come around Christmas.

Things will evolve over time I'm sure, but this is the plan for now.

Ummm, what is this?? You gotta explain that one!

[pittpurple]

We are holding on fast to Thanksgiving! Now that we have a Thanksgiving baby we are doing birthday/Thanksgiving parties but we always have a turkey and plenty of friends round. I've really failed to keep up the Jewish holidays, it's just been difficult without a Jewish community here and I'm apparently not motivated enough to make it a bit thing for just me and DD (DH isn't Jewish) but we have noticed our Xmas traditions changing a lot. Each year it's slightly different but we tend to get together on Christmas eve with expat friends.

A tradition I love is that almost everyone doesn't work between Xmas and New Year's so for 4-5 years now, we've been renting a big house in the countryside with somewhere around 15 of our friends and hanging out for a week. They've been some of the most fun and most relaxed New Year's Eve's I've ever had. This year it's a bit different to years past - there are around 16 of us PLUS 4 babies (DD being the oldest of a big baby boom).

[orriskitten]

Oct 16, 2014 3:41:30 GMT -5 potatopie said:

Oct 15, 2014 6:19:14 GMT -5 orriskitten said:

The setup for Christmas here is much more busy. There are more holiday celebrations and no Santa. So we'll be doing Christmas morning with presents from Santa and a big American style breakfast for the immediate family (SIL and her kids, BIL and his kids if he is in Iceland) on Christmas Day. Otherwise there is fermented shark and skate on the 23rd, family fancy dinner with presents on the 24th and a few days after Christmas is another party with extended family.

We'll also be doing stuff around the Yule lads who are little elves who come around Christmas.

Things will evolve over time I'm sure, but this is the plan for now.

Ummm, what is this?? You gotta explain that one!

Haha yea, Icelandic food is really gross. The day is called Thorláksmessa en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thorl%C3%A1ksmessa The shark is called Hákarl en.wikipedia.org/wiki/H%C3%A1karl and I´ve never tasted it yet. I am not expected to try it, but I definitely am this year. I have sworn to take a bite of each new food I am presented with. I've been told you take a bite and chase it with Brennivín, which is translated as "black death." It is a liquor flavored with caraway seeds and actually quite tasty.

To get the ammonia smell out of the house the day after, December 24th, a delicious smoked lamb meat called Hangikjöt (literally translated as hanged meat) is cooked. It is soooooo good! And smells so great. Seriously one of my favorite Icelandic foods en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hangikj%C3%B6t I never knew it was made with horse meat. I've never tried horse hangikjöt but I have tried horse here.

[mrsukyankee]

We usually celebrate Thanksgiving the weekend after and we have a Christmas lunch. Lots of turkey. Lots. But otherwise I keep T-day pretty much the same as in the US.

[mrsrotty]

So when we were in Cali, our family came down to see us for thanksgiving. Our tradition was Thanksgiving was for our families. Christmas was for OUR family.

This year were going to do a "friends giving"'

My husband has a bunch of first term airmen who oogle his food. So I might take him an "extra" dinner at work with all the fixings just for the kids