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.