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.
We gather on Christmas Eve with my whole family. It has been growing over the years and we are at 30 people right now.
I enjoy making a pecan pie with my daughter every year and at Christmas time we do Christmas Eve gift box which is usually pajamas, a book, a movie, and a snack of some sort.
The last few years I have been celebrating with a group of friends. We all get together and have lots of laughs and lots of different foods. They love to see me try different meats being the only big city person in the group.
I like sharing food with the people I love and hosting them at my home.
I like getting together with family
Decorating the christmas tree and baking desserts
Baking my mom's Christmas sugar cookies has been my tradition.
For the past couple of years, my sister and I have started a tradition of cooking Thanksgiving dinner together and catching up. It has become our annual family reunion.
Every year on Christmas eve my mom lets me and my brother open just one gift... of her choosing.
Getting a thanksgiving meal to go at Cracker Barrel. Since I had a brain enuryism 8 years ago we have just done this to make it easier.
We do an eggnog family toast on Christmas Eve using mini Santa mugs!
going to midnight mass
Making cookies and candy.
Baking cookies with mom the night before the holidays
We light the Hanukkah candles and spin the dreidel and eat latkes