People Shared Their Weirdest Family Traditions And They’re Adorably Absurd
Every family has their own quirks and behaviors that are entirely unique to them. Coming together to celebrate, or even coming together for Sunday dinner, can lead to a fun rehashing of past traditions that stir up nostalgia.
There are some family traditions that are common amongst a lot of people, but these families went outside of the box to come up with some weird traditions. It's all fun and games until someone new to the family is wondering why you're all making direct eye contact while eating corn-on-the-cob.
Goodnight, Chad. Goodnight, Brad.
"You have to say goodnight to everyone in the house before you go to bed. If they're already asleep, you have to say it outside of their door just in case they may still be awake to hear it. I never thought anything of this until I spent the night at my ex’s house and I wanted to say goodnight to his roommates. I seriously thought everyone did this."
Merry Memorial Day!
"We always get each other cards for holidays and birthdays, but we make them the most unrelated card possible. My mom gave me a card for my 18th birthday that said she was proud of the strong black man that I'd become (I'm white). My mom had gallbladder surgery and my brother and I got her a bunch of It's A Girl! balloons. Lots of confused nurses asked us if we were looking for the maternity ward."
Time To Add Perfume To The Wrapping Process
"At Christmas, we sniff the presents before opening them. I don't know why and most of the time they just smell like wrapping paper. It’s been going on for over 20 years now."
Does this family also amend the carol to say "It's beginning to smell a lot like Christmas"?
How Unfortunate
"Whenever we got takeout Chinese food for dinner, we had to sing our fortune before we were allowed to leave the table. I still remember the horror of standing up and singing 'CONSTANT GRINDING WILL TURN AN IRON ROD INTO A NEEDLE!' while having a new friend over for dinner."
Screw Dinner Toasts, We're Doing Dinner Roasts
"We have a family roast every Sunday, but it is much more than just the food we eat. Generally, it ends up much like a celebrity roast where one member of the family gets ridiculed and has hilarious (embellished) stories told about them for the hour while everyone else laughs."
Kind Of Corny, Don't You Think?
"We have a family tradition where if you make eye contact with someone while you are eating corn on the cob, you must finish eating that piece of corn without looking away, blinking, or swallowing. It usually ends in corn being spewed everywhere due to laughing, but it's plenty of fun."
This Is Ducking Hilarious
"We regularly adopt stupid/funny autocorrects/typos into our lexicon. Mom tried to type "okie-dokie" once and it turned into “poker dome,” so now we'll occasionally say 'poker dome’ as a sort of ‘I understand/yes/alright’."
I actually really love this, and definitely am going to steal this and use it in my own family. Thanks!
Birthday, But Make It Multilingual
"We sing happy birthday in Polish. We do not speak Polish."
There are many ways to make people's birthdays feel truly special, but learning a new language tp serenade them in has to be one of the most unique methods. As someone who has heard the Polish version of "Happy Birthday" I can confirm that it's far superior to the English one.
Did Katniss Everdeen Write This?
"We have a distinct whistle to locate ourselves in places like stores or supermarkets. Mostly useful when we're traveling outside the country and have no phone service."
Where was this method when I was ten years old and my mom would disappear in the grocery store and leave me behind by the onions?
I Play This Game For Real At Work
"Pretending to be asleep. Whenever a family member or guest arrives at our home, everyone, no matter what they're doing, will be fast asleep snoring obnoxiously."
Imagine going to this family's house for the first time to meet the parents and having them literally sleep on you? I would be absolutely terrified.
A Family Room Pizza Picnic
"Whenever my family orders pizza for dinner, we lay out a blanket in the family room and eat on the floor. My parents did that before they were married, and we still do it 20 years later."
There's nothing like keeping a cute tradition from when you were young and struggling and sharing it with your family now that things are better.
MERRY CHRISTMAS! IT'S NICE TO SEE YOU ALL!
"About 25% of my family has hearing loss and can't hear certain frequencies, so we are always yelling at each other."
Coincidentally, everyone in my family is also yelling over each other during the holidays when we get together, but that's just because they are loud. Everyone can hear just fine.
Bop-It! Twist-It! Pull-It!
"We have a Bop-It contest at Christmas. We even organize for the first and second place family members to receive prizes that are usually pretty cool. Everyone competes—even my 88-year-old grandmother."
I never thought I would say this, but I kind of want to go buy a Bop-It at Wal-Mart now.
Love, Fido
"Once my younger sister stopped believing in Santa (around 15 years ago) my parents starting making our Christmas presents from dogs that we knew – our dog, our cousin's dog, our neighbor’s dog. I think one particular Christmas Eve, Mum and Dad were delirious and thought it would be funny, and it has stuck."
What Is: Adorable
"Jeopardy. Every. Night. We don’t give the answer in the form of a question or keep score—it’s not that extreme—but the person that gets final jeopardy correct gets high fives. When I’m away at school my mom texts me the final jeopardy question so I still get to play a little when I’m away."
I'm Touching The Butt!
"For quite a while, my large family found it highly entertaining to playfully slap each others' butts. We decided that fair warning was in order so that we had a chance of evading. This consisted of clapping twice… We started just randomly clapping twice without a clear shot, hoping the other person would forget about it by the time we had a chance…By then, we’d clap just to watch our siblings jump. Endless entertainment."
Sharing Is Caring
"When more guests arrive than expected, my mom uses a secret code for me and dad: FHB (Family Hold Back). This is done so that we eat less, and the extra unexpected guests don't run out of food."
This is so wholesome because my immediate response would be to eat all the food before the other guests could steal my mini quiches.
Vocal Lessons Are For The Weak
"Any time it is someone's birthday, we purposefully sing as badly as we can. It is hilarious. My mom usually ends up aggressively coughing because she thinks that is funnier than singing."
Can you imagine being at Applebees for dinner only to hear this family working as hard as possible to butcher "Happy Birthday"?
Aye Wee Lass That's Quite A Tradition
"My brother and I were born in Scotland but immigrated to Canada at a young age. Neither of us has an accent like our parents, but over time we've learned to imitate theirs to perfection. Any time we are joking with my parents, mocking them, or asking for something, we use thick Scottish accents and slang. Also, we talk to our dog STRICTLY with an accent."
I Would Like To Know The Origin Of This One
"Until I was 23-years-old, I thought Tupperware was called 'Mctainers' instead of containers. My parents still have never justified why they have only called them that throughout the entirety of my life. Even to this day, I still slip up and call them Mctainers regularly."
Watch out before McDonald's sends you a lawsuit!
Rake In That Money, Girl!
"This is just between my mother and myself, but every time I get the hiccups, she buys them from me. I'll start hiccuping and she makes a big fuss and throws up her arms. "I suppose you want cash for those, huh?" She’ll give me whatever spare change she can find in increasing amounts until I stop hiccuping."
Die Hard Is A Christmas Movie
"My mom and dad split when I was 4. My dad got custody in mid-December and after Christmas dinner, he put me and my sister to bed. An hour or so later I could hear my dad crying. I went out to hug him. He was watching Die Hard on TV, so I sat with him. So now every year, we watch Die Hard together."
The Best Kind Of Goodbye!
"While on the phone, instead of saying "bye," we say “buh” or some variation. Not sure why, but we always have done this. When I'm public or with acquaintances, people give me some really weird looks when I'm on the phone with my mom and say, “Alright, love you! Buh.”
All Work, No Play, With Laser Pointers
"We have six cats in our home and, for fun, we pretend they have human lives and jobs. We each pick our favorite one. My dad's cat is a country singer and my cat is a lumberjack."
My question is, which cat is the rich aristocrat that could support my desire for a lavish lifestyle?
"Okay, I'll Be Waiting At The Gate!"
"My kids are grown and we live in different parts of the country now. Whenever one of us gets on a plane, we call each other and say, 'I regret nothing.' It's creepy but fun."
This is so incredibly morbid, but a cute tradition nonetheless. If something were to go wrong...well, there have been worse last words.
Let The Dogs In On The Fun
"We organize an Easter egg hunt for our dogs. We make Easter eggs, like three dozen, and hidden them for the kids, but later we put the dogs in the front and hide a few eggs for them, rubbing them around on the ground to leave scent tracks. They LOVE it!"
Make The Best Of A Bad Situation
"My dad is a narcoleptic. Every year, when he inevitably passes out at the table during Thanksgiving dinner my sisters & I play our favorite game, called 'What Can We Balance On Dad's head?' So far, our most impressive item is a coffee mug. I'm still fairly proud of that one."
This Is The Opposite Of Depressing
"My dad grew up during the depression, so every year for his birthday dinner we have, at his request, baloney sandwiches, tomato soup, and chocolate milk."
It's nice to not only celebrate the people we love, but to also celebrate the experiences that shaped them. Never has a baloney sandwich sounded so good.
February 2nd Is A Big Day
"Every Groundhog day we go and get small gifts for each other for a dollar or less, then we eat flapjacks and huddle down on the couch to watch Groundhog Day together."
The fun part is that they get to relive the exact same type of day every year, over and over again.
A Lovely Way To Keep Her Memory Alive
"For the past 20 years, we've been vainly trying to replicate nana's homemade ravioli every Christmas. We poorly make and roll the pasta (nobody can remember if she used 1 egg or 6?) into about 240 inconsistently sized ravioli with inadequate sauce and mediocre bags of shredded cheese. We make a giant mess but everyone seems to love them."
