It's hard to really do traditions because of a large extended family. But since my grandmother's birthday is the day after christmas we go to her house for christmas and one the boy's dresses up as santa then we go to a hotel and have a potluck and throw relatives in the swimming pool. BTW Av what movies did you watch?

Fondue and mafia movies...

That's a tradition you don't hear much of

Fondue Mafia extravanganza??? That's awesome! *Laughs* Now if only I were Italian I would have an excuse... But I DO have relatives and there's got to be a hotel out here somewhere with a nice cold swimming pool... that could work.. *Shifty eyes* Thanks Pope!

Pope, of course, "The Godfather" trilogy, although I still need an excuse to watch "Goodfellas" "La Bella Mafia" and "Donny Brasco" and "A Bronx Tale". Maybe I need two such holidays

Sir Death, that was for Sinterklaas. The kids here in Holland put out their shoes on Dec 5th to get treats in them from Sinterklaas.

Just wanted to share this...

Every year, Cathy *Vanadia* (my wife) usually has to go out at this time with my daughter Veronica to get her new shoes and winter boots. My daughter is ten and currently five feet tall, which is scary to Cathy who is all of five foot one.

Well, I had to do this shopping run this year, as Cathy was away for work. This year, Veronica jumped two and a half sizes. She is wearing size 7.5 Ladies at age 10.

Now I am six foor four. I grew at the same astonshing rate and wear size 14 today. I remember my dad cursing at me because I grew out of clothes so fast. He'd always say - I hope one day you have a child that grows as fast as you- then you'll see what its like.

Who says there are no magic curses?

I was wearing a size 7 shoe when I was 12 and only went up 1 size from there.

But if you're really worried maybe you can break the curse somehow...maybe fry a bald monkey or microwave a pear.

I was wearing a size 5 1/2 when I was 12. I am now at a 6.
I'm only 4'11 but I think I was almost there at age 12. THOSE demensions didn't change much between 12 and now, it was OTHER ones that changed almost overnight.

I wear a mens 7, Of course if i wore a larger shoe I could really fill the shoe.... btw isn't that holiday called st. nicks day or something?

I hope it stops at age 12! The feet at least!

St. Nickolas Day with the boots and candy is celebrated in Hungary, that I know for sure. I have friends who are very Hungarian (? Hungurian? Hungry? I don't know) and they go on and on about St. Nickolas and fill your boots.

I don't really have a lot of traditions, although every year, if we get Christmas snow (it's happened once in the last hundred years, by the way - that was the year before last), everyone freaks out and goes outside for snowball fights and snowmen and general fun with everyone around at three in the morning. It's crazy how something like that can bring everyone together. To my knowledge, there was no violence of any kind that didn't involve throwing balls of crystalized water at someone that night anywhere in the city.

I was a hero because I had a pipe for the neighborhood snowman. He lasted three days before melting.

The only real tradition I have is the yearly decorating of the hat. I'll try to get a picture this year for you guys.

Sinterklaas and St. Nikolas are the same thing, I believe. I never figured out why the same story got transferred to Christmas Eve night in other countries when it started out at the beginning of December. I guess so that non-christians would have something to celebrate on the same day as the nativity.

Non-christians (aka "pagans")
were the first to celebrate the "season" even before the nativity story came along. Dec 25 wasn't "declared" Christ's birthday until the 3rd century and that date was chosen because the Romans wanted to make turning to Christianity as 'painless' as possible for the pagans who were already celebrating Dec 25th in honor of the winter solstice. So instead of telling the pagans they couldn't celebrate that date anymore the Romans made it very "convienient" for the pagans and declared Christ's birth date to be Dec 25th. so they could continue their celebrations. Lots of the Christmas traditions celebrated tody started out with pagan roots.

BTW...If anyone has an answer to this question I'd be very appreciative cuz I've wondered about it for some time.

Jesus was one of the most important figures in religious history yet no-one knows the exact day he was born.
Is that a little odd? If there is an exact date, PLEASE post it. Thanks a bunch!


to clarify...when I say "pagan", I am speaking in terms of what the Romans considered a "pagan" to be not necessarily what people would consider a pagan to be today. Does that make sense?

Early April, some historians say, others think late March but it was actually in 1 BC. The people who figured the date of his birth out originally messed up some calender calculations and it turns out they were a whole year off.

So I read somewhere that astronomers figured it to be 6bc. Something to do with known celestial events and the three magi.