Holiday Traditions

[Karen J]

Does your area do anything special for Christmas? Tell us about it!

Central North Carolina has a lot, in a typical year. Not so much this year. Starting just before Thanksgiving, Greensboro puts on a very high quality amateur version of the Wizard of Oz in a beautifully restored old theater. High Point usually puts on a truly professional version of Dickens' Christmas Carol. Winston-Salem's NC School of the Arts performs the Nutcracker ballet, with a live orchestra. Just outside of Winston-Salem, Tanglewood Park has one of the largest Christmas lights displays in the South. Old Salem, the Moravian village, has tons of traditional Christmas activities. Everybody around here eats Moravian sugar cake and Moravian sugar cookies this time of year, and has a Moravian star hanging up somewhere. It's like we're all temporarily fake Moravians for a while, just like everybody is sort of fake Irish on St. Patrick's Day.


LED-Frosted-White-Bright-Moravian-Star-1916.jpg

For those willing to drive a little further, Charlotte does a singing Christmas tree every year; a green plywood tree on stage where five levels of singers can be seated. The girl at the top is dressed like an angel. Last but not least, Asheville's Grove Park Inn has a huge gingerbread house competition. You can build any kind of house or scene, as long as it's more than half gingerbread, and everything is edible. The three top finalists are flown to New York for Thanksgiving Day where the winner is announced on ABC's Good Morning America. Then they go back to Asheville to be on display until Christmas.

[6-eyed]

My town of 35,000 puts up tall 10ft Nutcracker statues all up and down Main Street right after Thanksgiving. They do a lighting of the tree right in the historic old town area. They also put up LED light box murals along the river front park that play music; it’s tough to explain but it looks really cool at night and it plays music (for the first week until sound malfunctions and nobody fixes it lol)

Traditions that are canceled this year because of politics of the current year are the parades, and the historic theater playing Home Alone.

[Din Djarin]

We hunt down the most famous celebrity and then burn her at the stake while we're all eating popcorn.

[Meliai]

My city just kinda capitalizes on being more ridiculously quaint and beautiful than it already is.

Sometimes things just stop me here and I'm like okay this town is fucking stupid quaint, it shouldn't even be allowed, this is not a Hallmark movie lol

Definitely get some serious Hallmark vibes here around Christmas

[tumbling.dice]

Nothing I'm aware of in Mayfield, but the nearby city of Paducah has a park thing that's all decorated and lit up. The gist of it is to drive through and be awed, I think. I've never been but the local news channel makes a big deal of it.

On a more personal note, my dad, brother and I had a "tradition" where we would decorate our Christmas tree (always a cedar) while playing a Slim Whitman album. We couldn't stand Slim Whitman; we'd just decorate away and make fun of Slim's lyrics. Not sure how it got started, but my bro and I still reminisce.

[Undies]

same as every other small town in america, decorations in the parks and a shitty parade in november.

[tumbling.dice]

same as every other small town in america, decorations in the parks and a shitty parade in november.

Yeah we had the parade thing too when I was a kid. There was one year that saw Santa at the beginning of the parade, throwing candy, but then an obviously different Santa at the end of the parade. Kids where looking at their parents like, wtf? Some kind of local Santa politics involved, I'm sure.

[Irminsul]

I host my own Xmas party every year and I call it Axemas. It's just us and some friends and we just listen to offensive music and whinge about the day and year.

[JoeKing]

My city just kinda capitalizes on being more ridiculously quaint and beautiful than it already is.

Sometimes things just stop me here and I'm like okay this town is fucking stupid quaint, it shouldn't even be allowed, this is not a Hallmark movie lol

Definitely get some serious Hallmark vibes here around Christmas

Do we live in the same small town.

[Meliai]

Be a lot cooler if we did!

[Karen J]

Asheville and Boone would be good choices.

[6-eyed]

This year is the 1st year I’m actually looking forward to the lighting of the Christmas Tree.

Usually I’m indifferent about these things. But since my state has tyrannically locked down everything over a germ with a 99.8% survival rate. This lighting of the tree is the one and only community social gathering happening this month.

Coming together as a community in the face of tyranny is a beautiful picture thing!

[Karen J]

The one truly lame holiday around here is New Years Eve. That's when all the losers who only get drunk once a year go out and pay way too much to attend low quality, overcrowded events, while the rest of us stay home.

[Sooz]

Normally we would have the extended family over at my parents place.
However, it's going to be more like what we used to do when living in Mildura and our own family.
All because of covid19 protocols

[Undies]

This year is the 1st year I’m actually looking forward to the lighting of the Christmas Tree.

Usually I’m indifferent about these things. But since my state has tyrannically locked down everything over a germ with a 99.8% survival rate. This lighting of the tree is the one and only community social gathering happening this month.

Coming together as a community in the face of tyranny is a beautiful picture thing!

i generally agree on the covid restrictions, but i also find most of those community social gatherings to be just awful so their loss is kind of one good thing that has come from covid.

[Undies]

The one truly lame holiday around here is New Years Eve. That's when all the losers who only get drunk once a year go out and pay way too much to attend low quality, overcrowded events, while the rest of us stay home.

i think that's kind of the trend everywhere. sometimes i'll go out early, but i'm generally at some sort of a house party by 9pm at the latest.

[Sooz]

New years eve is a bit of fun. You get to see in the new year.

Plenty of free things to do with your family.

Usually going to see the fireworks.

Here in ballarat we have Lake Wendouree. That's used for fireworks on new years eve and australia day.

It's very spectacular.