"Christmas Traditions with the Altmann's"

A Christmas tradition that I look forward to every year is when my whole family gets together at someone’s house on Christmas Eve and we spend time catching up with everyone. This tradition has been going on since before I was born and I have only known doing this on Christmas Eve. 

Usually around Thanksgiving, somebody will send a notification out to the rest of the family letting everyone know that they will be hosting Christmas Eve at their house. Last year, it was my family that got to host our annual Christmas Eve get together. This year, we are going to my Uncle Mark’s house. I always look forward to this tradition every year as families from all over the state that we normally only see a few times a year come over. I get to see my cousins who are all mostly my age or a few years older, and we just talk, hangout, talk about our experiences at college, and just enjoy each other’s presence. 

Everyone that comes usually brings a dish or dessert that they made themselves for everybody to share like you would at Thanksgiving. As the night ensues, we usually let the little kids in the family open a few gifts to play with. Then the adults will usually play a game we call White Elephant, others might call this game Dirty Santa, Yankee Swap, or The Grinch Game. The basic rules for our White Elephant gift exchange are everyone brings one wrapped, anonymous gift within a set price range of about $25, and guests draw numbers to determine the order. Player 1 opens a gift. Then, players in ascending order can either choose a new wrapped gift or "steal" an already opened one. If a player's gift is stolen, they can choose another new gift or steal a different one. 

This is my favorite event of the night as you could get something really cool, like one year, I got a mini waffle maker, or you might get a gag gift which is an impractical gift usually to cause laughter. When the game finishes, everyone goes back to hanging out with each other until it becomes very late into the night. 

Nobody really starts to leave until about 11 p.m. or Midnight, because that is how much we as a family like to be around each other as it doesn’t happen often. It is sad when everyone goes home and you are just in a now empty house, but then you think about what a blast you had that night and you can’t help but smile. I am pretty close with my cousins, but when it comes to being with them in person, there’s nothing like it. So, I look forward to this tradition every year and I hope that it continues for our family for many years to come.