Category Archives: Rituals, festivals, holidays

The Pink Tutu

Nationality: American
Residence: McKinney, TX
Performance Date: 4/19/15
Primary Language: English

When his granddaughter Lauren was a little girl, she was the biggest tomboy in the family. She was entirely devoted to sports and bugs, and hated girly things, especially the color pink and the ballet lessons her mother tried in vain to make her take.

As a joke for her 12th birthday, he got her a pink tutu. Because the entire family, including other aunts and uncles and cousins, lived nearby, the whole family was there when Lauren opened her grandfather’s present. Naturally, everyone including Lauren was incredibly amused.

Lauren ended up regifting the tutu back to her grandfather that very Christmas (again, in front of the whole family), which kicked off a new family tradition. Each gift-giving holiday (Christmas, Easter, any family member’s birthday), the tutu passes to another family member. The gifter always attempts to regift the tutu in a creative fashion. Some have put it on stuffed animals, others opt for more of a surprise regifting by hiding it inside another present or wrapping it in a box specifically shaped for a different gift. It’s always a challenge for each subsequent recipient to figure out a new and funny way to regift the tutu.

The tradition has been going on in his family for a little over a decade now, and it’s well-known even to family members who live too far away to participate as frequently as the group who lives in North Texas. It’s a way to keep the family close to one another, even as grandchildren graduate and go off to college or even move out of the house to start their own lives in new cities. The family always looks forward to seeing who the next recipient of the tutu will be, as it has become a main event during family holidays and gatherings.

Christmas at Dawn

Nationality: American
Age: 83
Residence: McKinney, TX
Performance Date: 4/19/15
Primary Language: English

His grandfather started the tradition of waking everyone in the family up on Christmas morning (December 25th) at the crack of dawn several decades ago. He was the kind of man who was always very excited for the holidays and wanted the younger kids (who could never sleep anyways) to be able to get up as early as they wanted to look at what Santa brought them in their stockings.

 

The adults would get their coffee first, and would keep the kids out of the living room where the stockings were until everyone was at least sort of awake and ready for presents. Then whoever was guarding the doorway would step aside and let the kids run into the living room. They would spend the early morning watching the sunrise, opening presents together. The adults would always make pancakes and cinnamon rolls for the kids. He would say a prayer with the family before breakfast.

 

He keeps this tradition alive today with his own grandchildren. Every Christmas, they look forward to getting up early for presents and cinnamon rolls. In fact, he finds that most of them are already awake and waiting in their beds and sleeping bags for him to come tell them it’s time to get up.

Ashes and Switches

Nationality: American
Age: 83
Residence: McKinney, TX
Performance Date: 4/19/15
Primary Language: English

The informant explained his family’s other Christmas tradition of waking up at dawn for presents, and added that another Pierson family Christmas tradition is telling the children that if they weren’t good that year, Santa would bring them ashes and switches. It’s something that Pierson grandparents have been telling their kids for many decades, and it passes down as each new generation grows up.

 

A particular story involving this family tradition came to mind as he was telling me about the tradition. He said that he would tell his four daughters about Santa’s ashes and switches every year, but on one particular year the girls decided to turn it into a practical joke. That Christmas, their family was headed to Alabama to spend the holidays at his sister’s beach house. He had been warning his daughters about the ashes and switches for a couple months by that time. The girls decided to wrap ashes from the fireplace and switches (twigs) from the backyard in a pretty box with a beautiful bow and took the box with them to Alabama. When it came time to open presents, they presented the box to their father (the informant). He opened the box and the ashes flew out and coated his pajamas and face. The entire family laughed because for the first time ever, the kids had turned the tradition back around on the adults.

 

He still continues the tradition to this day, and so do his daughters with their own children. He thinks it’s only a matter of time before someone else wraps a box of ashes as a prank.

The Homeplace (Family Rite of Passage)

Nationality: American
Age: 83
Residence: McKinney, TX
Performance Date: 4/19/15
Primary Language: English

The Homeplace is a big parcel of land in Southern Alabama that’s been a part of the Slade family for many, many years. Also called Slade Properties, the land is divided amongst the members of the Slade family, and the land passes down through the family via the Slade side only; those who marry into the family aren’t eligible to have any part of the land passed down to them by an older family member.

His great grandfather Slade, who was the first to own the property, wrote in his will that members of the family who owned pieces of the land would need to convene at the Homeplace twice a year. The purpose of these meetings was not only to discuss financial issues but also to pass down skills like gun handling to the younger members of the family. Parents bring their children to the meetings, and the older kids will take them out to explore the land, tell them stories about the cemeteries on the property (one of which is supposedly haunted by the children who died before they reached adulthood), show them the old Slade schoolhouse, and teach them how to shoot and hunt if they’re old enough.

It’s a rite of passage in his family to attend the meetings and be inducted into the family legends surrounding the property, like the haunted cemetery and the fact that his family has used the property as hunting grounds for decades. Every family member has attended at least once, and every family member knows the family history surrounding the place. The kids who grow up visiting the Homeplace eventually inherit part of the land from their parents or grandparents, and bring their own children back to the Homeplace in turn.

Harry the Hanukkah Bush (Family Tradition Story)

Nationality: American
Age: 22
Occupation: Student
Residence: Los Angeles, CA
Performance Date: 4/28/15
Primary Language: English

Harry the Hanukkah bush has been in his family for so many generations that his family can’t really remember who it was that started it, but they have a story as to why the tradition was started.

According to his father, someone in their family many generations back thought it was silly that Christians celebrated with Christmas trees. That family member thought that their family should start celebrating Hanukkah with a Hanukkah bush as a joke. His father doesn’t know how the name Harry came along, but he doesn’t think the name was originally included in the Hanukkah Bush tradition. The family, including aunts, uncles, cousins, grandparents, and other relations, each put up their own Hanukkah Bush on the first day of Hanukkah and keep the bush up for the duration of the holiday, giving it Hanukkah gifts along with the rest of the family. Gifts often include alcohol and candy, which is distributed to the family after the holiday comes to a close.

The informant plans to continue the tradition with his own family. “It’d be a shame to let such a long-running family tradition die out on my end,” he said.