39 Surprisingly Wholesome, And Sometimes Weird, Family Traditions People Still Follow

Every couple of years we do our own version of the Amazing Race, called the Am*asian* Race (I know). All of my cousins and I get split up into teams of 4-5 people (big family) and race each other to complete a series of challenges at key locations spread throughout a city-wide area, which are usually manned by my aunts and uncles / people who don't want to play. One year we had to "rappel" down a wall and wade around in a creek to look for "treasure". Successful completion of each challenge earns you a clue about the location of the next challenge, just like in the show. You can even earn sabotage items like detours and roadblocks to use against other teams, and it gets pretty funny when everyone messes with the team in first place. The first team to complete all the challenges and make it to the finish line gets a prize, usually Starbucks gift cards, but more importantly bragging rights until the next year. This is all orchestrated by one of my uncles, who also has a full time job and 3 small kids, so I'm not sure where he finds the time.



This started out small but has grown to become a pretty big deal in my family. Last year we were sent video clues the whole month before the race which would "self-destruct" if you didn't watch or download them in time (i.e. before my uncle deleted them from youtube). One of the videos had a morse code sequence you had to solve to get GPS coordinates for the location of the second challenge. This is my go-to story to tell at parties, and I've gotten a lot of requests from people to join my family.

For birthdays, we have to get the person a helium balloon and have a few minutes where they suck the helium out and sing My Heart Will Go On while we film it.

I have no idea how or when it started, but we’ve been doing it since I was about 15 and I’ll be 25 this year...

When the year shifts on New Years Eve, my family and I bang on pots with wooden spoons on our front porch. Something my dad used to do with his family on New Years. Our neighbors love it, I'm sure.

When it's a family members birthday and somebody brought a boyfriend/girlfriend to family dinner we all sing happy birthday off tune and at slightly different speeds. So one person ends then 3 seconds later the last person ends. My uncle normally ends it with "happy birthday to yooooooouuuu" except the you sounds like a howling wolf going through puberty.

Every leap day, Feb. 29th, my wife and I sleep on each other's side of the bed.

Awwwww! You know what day it is!

On New Year's, we have a list of rituals we have to do in the first minute.
From 12:00am to 12:01am, you get a choice of what to do, with different effects for the rest of the year:

-Put on red underwear = love in the new year.

-Throw lentils out your front door, and then pick them up = money in the new year. The more lentils you pick up, the more money

-Sweeping outwards from your front door = Good luck/Cleansing in the new year

-Fill a glass with grapes and wine/cider = One wish per grape consumed

-Grab your suitcase, and dash out the door and back. = Travel in the new year. The farther you go, the farther/more you travel.

I don't know if it original, but I haven't met anyone else who has done it.

If anyone has more suggestions for more, let me know.

Every Christmas Eve my family gathers and we watch National Lampoons Christmas Vacation. Such a funny movie and every year we find new things about it that we didn't see the year before.

We don’t exchange Christmas gifts in my immediate family any more. Us three kids are in our 30’s and comfortable. The nieces and nephews and child aged cousins still get gifts. Then we take all the money we saved by not buying each other Christmas gifts and go on a big family vacation in May. It’s been our tradition 4 years running, and I prefer it. I’d take a week of quality time somewhere nice over a bunch of gift cards any day.

We all get together on Christmas eve and take shots of vodka every time the dude on the fireplace channel stokes the fire or changes the log.

During family gatherings, all the males in the family play the game of who can wolf down about 3 pounds of fried chicken in one sitting. My cousin wins every time (he's a competitive eater).

Protip: never challenge a professional eater.

At Christmas we get gifts from "Thermoman"

Thermoman is a character from a Brit-Com "My Hero" who is a superhero but because he is from an alien planet, he really doesn't understand earth culture and proper behaviour. When he learns about Santa he decides to give all his friends and relatives presents from "Santa" to cheer them up. Only it backfires and they all get mad at each other because no one will admit they bought the presents.

We watch this episode every Christmas and whenever someone wants to get themselves a present or get something ridiculous, it get put under the tree as "From Thermoman"



We also celebrate the Christmas Elephant, but that's another story.

Whenever we have a family get together, people bring 'pass arounds' which are awful tasting drinks that everyone tries and passes to the next person. Started as a joke, but now it is a challenge to find the worst pass around.

We have a naming convention that at least one son each generation is named based on both his grandfather's names. My first name is the middle name of one of my grandfathers, and my middle name is the other one's first name, and my dad is named the same way based on his grandparents.

When I was a kid, my Dad would always take the doorknob off the living room door at Christmas so we wouldn't get in there early (not that we ever tried) and hide it. The start of every Christmas morning involved "the hunt for the doorknob" which "Father Christmas takes off every year". That tradition stopped by the time I was 6 and worked out it was always in my Dad's coat pocket!



We also have this thing where every year we *have* to pick a horse in a Grand National. Despite none of us giving a darn about horse racing and nobody caring if their chosen horse wins. They've even got my 2 year old niece to pick a horse! I really don't know why this is a thing!

Everytime a family member would come home from overseas or university etc, we would put a yellow ribbon around our tree as a welcome home sign.

Mom had her upholstered living room furniture covered in clear plastic so she could "Windex" it when company was coming.

*Enjoy your cake day, OP!*.

Announcing pregnancies has to be done in person.
Also not necessarily a tradition but everyone of the grandchildren have a distinct birthmark somewhere on the body. Mine is right where you'd expect.

We play Mafia at every gathering.

When we have a tiny bit of cheese left we fry it in a pan.
I haven’t seen any other household do it tho.