Main piece:

“One of my Christmas family traditions is every Christmas Eve everyone gets to open one present, and the one present that you get to open is your pair of pajamas, and you wear those pajamas the night of so that you can wake up and you get to open all your presents in your new pajamas.”

Background:

Informant is a first year student at the University of Southern California who grew up in Pleasanton, California.

Context:

The informant and I were discussing Christmas traditions, and this is what she shared.

Commentary:

This is a tradition that I have heard from many families, and I have even participated in it with my family as well. It allows the children the excitement of opening one present the night before Santa supposedly arrives, and also adds a special element to Christmas morning because they get to enjoy one gift as they open their others.

Main piece:

“Christmas eve everyone comes to my house and we have a huge dinner, and then we fake kind of getting tired and kick our family out and then we go to our best friend’s house, and then we all.. Well when we were younger all the adults would get drunk and then as the kids got older the kids got drunk too, and we’d go around our neighborhood, and even after we moved we went back to our old neighborhood, and we drunk Christmas caroled. And we’d pick up family after family, and so even if the whole family didn’t want to come, if someone wanted to come like the kids then the kids would join on and then we just end up going to everyone’s house Christmas caroling.”

Background:

Informant is a first year student at the University of Southern California who grew up in Indianapolis, Indiana.

Context:

The informant and I were talking about our Christmas traditions one evening, and this is what she shared.

Commentary:

Holidays are often associated with spending time with extended family, but for this informant the most important part is the time she spends with her friends and neighbors. This is also in some ways a rite of passage, because as the children become adults they get to participate in the drinking as well. It is a bit of an unconventional take on the classic act of Christmas caroling, but it has become a beloved tradition in this informant’s family.

Main piece: “My mom last year, when we were in Hong Kong, it was just us three, my father, my mother, and I, and she purchased a whole chicken and made stuffing on the side, and cranberry sauce and we made our own little Thanksgiving. The feeling was almost there, almost… because it was a chicken.”

Background:

Informant is a first year acting student at the University of Southern California. She was born in Medellin, Colombia, grew up in the San Francisco Bay Area, and at age 12 she moved to Paris and later Hong Kong. She spends her winter and summer vacations with her family in Colombia.

Context:

I asked the informant if she still celebrated Thanksgiving once she moved abroad, and this was her response.

Commentary:

Because the informant has grown up in such a mix of cultures, with Colombian parents, an American childhood, and then eventually living in both France and Hong Kong, it is interesting to see the way she still tries to hold onto bits of her childhood traditions. Even though her mother herself did not grow up celebrating Thanksgiving, she loved the idea of coming together as a family to share a delicious, home-cooked meal. To her family, it does not carry the historical context of celebrating the arrival of the Mayflower, but still has the important message of sharing their gratitude and coming together as a family. Even though a traditional Thanksgiving dinner is centered around turkey, the feeling is close the the same, and her family is reminded of the holiday they used to celebrate.