Our Favorite Holiday Traditions
Happy Holidays from Cubii!
We asked the team to tell us all about their favorite holiday traditions. Here's what 9 of our team members had to share!
My favorite holiday tradition is driving around my hometown with my family to look at all the houses that go all out on Christmas lights! After dinner every Christmas Eve, we prepare a big batch of peppermint hot chocolate in our travel mugs and hop in the car. I am usually in charge of making the playlist (All I Want for Christmas is You by Mariah Carey is obviously always first) and make sure we have enough music to last us about an hour or two. I love this tradition because on top of getting to admire all of the beautiful houses, my family gets a couple hours of quality time where on any other day, we are usually just turning on the TV or going to our separate corners of the house after dinner. - Natalie H.
Every Christmas Eve, my family and I love to come together after dinner to play games – left, right, center, euchre, or monopoly! We do it every year and it never fails to get competitive. – Paige K.
My favorite holiday tradition needs a bit of background, prior to my wife and our first child 10 years ago we would typically jet off somewhere for the holidays or visit one of our families on either side of the Atlantic. But since then the day after Thanksgiving we decorate the house and put up the tree for Christmas as well this requires me to hangout the Christmas lights outside our house (usually in the cold or rain!). I can now give Clark Griswold a run for his money… We do not go over the top but my 6 year old has now required an inflatable snowman!
But what I really enjoy is 9 years ago we started the Elf on the Shelf in London and he has followed us to Chicago, so my 6 and 9 year old boys still believe (I think the oldest is getting wise this year) and they wake up each morning grabbing the chocolate from the advent calendar and tearing through the house trying to find the elf. I think the real enjoyment though is my wife and I taking turns to outdo one another in hiding the elf and or putting him in compromising situations Santa would not approve! - Gregg C.
We always go to the midnight Christmas Eve service! And then the next morning we eat my mom’s special breakfast casserole with a grapefruit on the side and pineapple-banana-orange juice! – Allie M.
I have so many favorite holiday traditions! One of my many favorites is our annual trip to a cabin in southern Ohio to spend time with my dad’s side. Because I have family spread throughout the Midwest, this is always our one guaranteed weekend to see everyone. We hike, play games inside, build fires outside, and enjoy each other’s company. You’ll usually find me helping out in the kitchen or screaming while I play Pit! – Megan U.
One of my favorite holiday traditions happens a few days before Christmas on December 22nd, which is my best friend's birthday. I've known Julia since 5th grade, and I've always heard sharing a birthday week with Christmas isn't all that it's cracked up to be. However, since we all live in Chicago together, she has a festive birthday party every year - which is a great opportunity for our friend group to get together to eat, drink, and obviously, be merry. Most of us leave the city to visit family right after this, so it's been something I look forward to every year getting to spend quality time with my best friends, who have definitely become my family. There is no requirement to dress up, but it is strongly encouraged that we do. – Alex S.
Every year on Christmas morning after exchanging gifts with the family, we go on a family paddle board in the harbor (despite the cold temperatures!) with wetsuits and Santa hats on! – Abby E.
I am polish and raised with a lot of polish traditions. Even though we have become very Americanized, one tradition I will carry on to my children is Wigilia (pronounced Vi-gi-lia), which is the traditional Christmas dinner before midnight mass. We do not eat meat on Christmas Eve and try to follow the old traditions (Borscht, pierogi’s, pickled fish, etc.). One big tradition, one my mother carries, is the breaking of the host. We take the blessed host (the wafer they hand out at Catholic Mass) and we have to go around to each person before dinner and break a piece of their host, eat it, hug and kiss and “Peace Be With You” wishes. At 43, I still try and hide from this, but I’m always caught…and end up loving it anyway. – Katie E.
Every Christmas Eve we can expect to hear the rumble of a pickup truck in the driveway; its bed filled with sand and members of the local Boy Scout Troop 685. They’ll be giddily shoveling out the sand into a pile for the houses on our street to fill white paper bags with the allotted sand, and a candle for each to be lit just as darkness enshrouds the neighborhood. The thousands of candle lit bags lining the entire neighborhood creates a stunningly gorgeous spectacle, one that we just can’t help driving around to marvel at. Every time I see these “luminaries” I know Christmas is finally here. – Alex N.
**Be sure to share your favorite holiday traditions in the Cubii Communitii on Facebook!**
