Do you watch football every Thanksgiving? Does an elf sit on your shelf before Christmas? Or do you spin a dreidel on Chanukah? We all have our traditions to personalize the holidays and make them feel special.
But some traditions are more common than others. So we want to know... what holiday traditions do you follow each year? Tell us to win a $50 Etsy gift card and a Thanksgiving Thankful Tree Kit!
To get you started, here are some of the non-traditional traditions SheSpeaks staff members celebrate during the holidays:
We do a Thanksgiving Tree every year. Everyone gets leaves and they write what they are thankful for and then we hang them from branches that we collect together. It's very sweet. - Aliza Enter below to win your own Thanksgiving Thankful Tree Kit, plus a $50 Etsy gift card!
Each kid gets a new ornament for our Christmas tree every year. We buy it from a store that has tons of ornaments - they even write their name and year on it. My kids are now 21 and 16 so we have tons of them, everything from soccer, gymnastics and baseball to graduations and driving. - Missy
Instead of gifts every night for Chanukah, we spend some nights doing activities with the kids, usually involving food and a giant mess. We've tried making sushi (a sticky-rice mess), fondue (a chocolate mess) and pasta (the biggest mess of all - flour was everywhere!) - Susan
We make homemade pizza on Christmas Eve, for every year of my life I can remember except one! We even make the crust from scratch and everyone picks their own toppings. Even my teenage son calls it "the best tradition ever." - Carol
My New Year's Eve tradition is to make a fancy dinner at home and skip the crowds. In addition to getting some decadent food, we try a new signature cocktail, candles & mood music so we can feel like we've transformed our house into a swanky restaurant. - Emily
*One lucky commenter, Tweeter or Instagrammer will be chosen at random to receive a $50 Etsy gift card and a Thanksgiving Thankful Tree (if the tree is sold out, the prize will instead be a $75 Etsy gift card.) Giveaway is open through November 25th, 2018 to U.S. residents at least 18 years of age. Entrants must be a member of SheSpeaks. If you are not a member, click here to join. Winner will be notified by email.
Update: Thanks to all who entered! Congrats to our winner, SheSpeaks member peter26.
Waking up early to watch all the thanksgiving day parades!
We have a traditional breakfast on Christmas morning of biscuits, gravy and fried apples. My mother was from Virginia and this is what she always had from Christmas breakfast so she continued the tradition even after she moved to Chicago and married my dad. I can't imagine a Christmas morning without it.
Every Christmas we open Christmas crackers at dinner time - they are British party favors that snap loudly when you open them. They also contain a prize, a joke, and a paper crown - so much fun!
I love making and decorating cookies with my extended family.
We start our Christmas decorating on the weekend after Thanksgiving, when we get our tree and decorate it and the rest of the house. A few weeks before Christmas we bake cookies. We usually make at least two or three types of cookies, but we always make the sugar cookies cut into Christmas shapes.
My kids have fun decorating a gingerbread house!
Making banana bread on Thanksgiving morning.
We love to drive around the city to see all the beautiful Christmas lights & decorations.
I just really enjoy being around family and friends.
spending time with family
midnight mass at my church
My favorite holiday tradition is baking holiday cookies together on the day after Thanksgiving. It's a baking extravaganza!
I love making crafts and sharing them.
My favorite holiday tradition is cooking for Thanksgiving a vegan Thanksgiving and having my family over to partake.
having everyone come together for the holidays and just enjoying one another is the best