We will get together for various holidays throughout the year, like Christmas is always spent at my grandma’s house, and usually we have breakfast for dinner. And a tradition that’s been in the family for a while: a “Kris Kringle” – more commonly known as a “grab bag” or “white elephant.”
I feel like it’s a tradition for many families, but anyway. We also get together for Thanksgiving…
WAIT, I FUCKED UP!
We used to do Kris Kringle which is like Secret Santa, where everyone has to get a gift for someone else based on names we drew at Thanksgiving, but recently we’ve switched to the grab bag, which is everyone gets a gift and you draw numbers and pick and steal
And I hate it but everybody has a good time.
Except me, of course.
I find it really interesting that the informant assumed that more people did his tradition, devaluing and trying to make it seem less special, in a way. While he did not explain why it was called a “white elephant,” the concept does not stray too far from his family’s original tradition. I think he hates the new one because it is less personal. These posts on Christmas traditions exhibit how different families celebrate the same holiday in a variety of ways. Furthermore, this tradition links two holidays together, which ties this family further together.