What traditions do you and your SO have if you don''t have kids?

[zoebartlett]

I know there was a recent thread about traditions but for this one, I''m interested in hearing about traditions you and your SO have begun if you don''t have children. These traditions don''t have to be related to Christmas or Hannukah.

 

[KimberlyH]

Our big one is that we go to Chicago every December to see A Christmas Carol at The Goodman Theatre.

 

[Mara]

our general holiday ones aka month of november and december:
--thanksgiving locally with my family
--sf ballet nutcracker in december. we have only missed one show in 8 years of being together, dinner in SF afterwards...some years with my parents, some years alone (this year with my parents and sister)
--xmas in the park (local thing), we have only missed one year in the 8 years we have been together (and we were bummed!) where we always get a churro and mexican hot chocolate, pretty much almost the only time we do this.
--drive through vasona festival of lights, only been doing this a few years but it's a fun addition to the repotoire
--lots of home decor that typically i put up but this year greg was totally in the spirit so he did about 1/3 of it which was awesome, went by so much faster!
--we host some type of holiday party for friends every year, this year it's post-xmas cocktails.
--greg plays some type of xmas holiday concert that most of my family goes to in dec
--xmas music plays in our house consistently from the time our trees go up to new years

then actual 'day of' holiday traditions, aka xmas eve and day:
--xmas eve with my extended local family
--we make tamales for xmas one way or another (this year i am trying them solo, yikes)
--xmas morning with greg, myself and portia at our house opening our gifts to each other
--we also do stockings for each other and portia
--xmas day/afternoon with my parents at their house where we open our immediate family gifts, have lunch and cake and typically go to the movies in the evening

since we are so enmeshed in the holiday season right now, i can't think about outside of the season, but maybe it'll come to me later, ehhee. oh one thing we started doing since getting married is that we always try to celebrate our anniversary by doing something special that involves a weekend away or a trip. next year we will be going to italy, but not sure when, it might be a few weeks before our anni but it's considered our anni trip to ourselves.

one thing i'd like to start is doing something like a big anniversary trip every 5 or 10 years (not sure yet) where we have a small vow renewel ceremony somewhere fun. i have a friend who wanted to do this every 10 years in different places (aka vegas, paris, hawaii) and i thought it was such a cool idea.

 

[Skippy123]

Our whole street lights luminarias so we do that; sometimes we bag them ourselves and other times we buy them (this year we bought 4 dz from the boy scouts). Also, the golf course does a balloon glow right after sunset so we watch that.

I make biscochitos for family and friends; these are a anise spice cookie and oh so yummy. Christmas eve we open presents and then Christmas day we have a nice meal. Also Christmas eve we eat posole and homemade tortillas, yum!

In the past we 2 years we''ve gone been out of town for the holidays. This year we will be home so it will be nice.

 

[Haven]

We have a lot of little traditions, they''re not grand but they''re ours and I love them:

- We bring fresh baked chocolate chip cookies to the movies with us. We ven bought a special tupperware to use to smuggle them in and decorated it! We often bring in a little milk chug, too, and have a little delicious party in the theatre.

- We give each other handwritten letters for special occassions (birthdays, holidays, etc.) instead of a traditional gift.

- We go to a bookstore/coffee shop/library on Wednesday nights to cozy up in a big plush chair and read. I''m often grading papers or writing an exam, but I love this time together and it forces my FI to read more, which makes me quite proud!

- We write little tidbits on blue and green business card-sized stock paper and slip them into each other''s bag or books. We don''t do this often, only when we have something really funny to say, but the little cards are sitting in a stack on my desk just waiting to be used.

We have a ton more but I have to go grab some lunch! Great thread!

 

[zoebartlett]

Great traditions! It is kind of hard, like Mara said, to think of non-holiday related ones but I really like yours, Haven. I''m not actually sure we have a lot of traditions. We''ve been together for four years though, and I''d like to think we have at least one or two. Let''s see...

We usually go out to breakfast or brunch once during the weekends.

We go to my FI''s parents'' house for Christmas Eve. His whole family is there and we eat lots of yummy food and exchange gifts.

We go to my parents'' house for Christmas day. I grew up going to my parents'' friends'' house every Christmas night for dessert and games, etc., but since I''ve gotten older, I haven''t gone quite as often. Now that we''re living in the same area as they are once again, we might go this year.

We don''t usually give gifts to each other. Instead, we go to concerts, shows, etc. and count that as our birthday or Christmas gifts. We also use this opportunity to go away and spend the night somewhere. This year we''ll be exchanging Christmas gifts -- I got my FI Bruins tickets.

We usually get take out and watch a movie on Friday nights. Now that my FI gets to work from home on Fridays, we have more time to spend together, which is always great.

 

[brazen_irish_hussy]

We don''t have many traditions per say, just little things that we do.
Whenever I sneeze he yes "kiss you" and gives me a kiss. When I am not around him I am expected to keep count of my sneezes so he can make them up. It was quite a chore when I was in China for 2 weeks with a cold!
Every other sat, my parents take us to the little family diner we have been going to since I was a kid to talk and do wedding planning. I am really close to my family and my FI is closer to them then his own family.
We keep a memory box of random things we have done. The online letters from when we first met, little matching rocks from a visit to a cave on our sencond anaversery, metro tickets from our trip to paris, etc.
I can''t think of any others at the moment

 

[SarFarSuperstar]

As far as Christmas goes, I make a big breakfast Christmas morning and we open our gifts together before we go to his parents house.

Thanksgiving is our holiday and we love having his huge family over (20+)!

We did throw an annual New Years Eve party with a different theme every year, but this year we are going to the city with friends. I am sure in the next few years, once everyone settles down a bit more, our bash will be revived (and so will the deadly Sangria of 2006!).

I can''t think of anything else- but I love that Haven sneaks in choc chip cookies to the movie theater- what a tasty rebellion!

 

[Haven]

I HIGHLY recommend the chocolate chip cookies in the theatre--they are so yummy and we get to feel so very rebellious all at the same time. Sometimes we order Max & Erma''s cookies and pick those up before we go, they are the best!

I love reading about everyone''s traditions, I think it''s the little things like that which form the real bonds for a couple.

 

[Gemma12]

Not sure if it''s a tradition but hubby brings me breakfast in bed every weekend (when I''m not working). On birthdays or special occasions we have croissants from the French bakery down the road, then attempt to walk them off, LOL. We''d be walking a while!

We also try to do something special for our anniversary. This year we went to SE Asia, but next year will be a bit more low key.

 

[anchor31]

We have a 2-3 day get away evey summer together... It''s always fun. Next summer will be our honeymoon!

At Christmas, it''s the 24th at his parents and the 25th at mine, and we alternate families for New Year''s. Once we''ll have kids we''ll probably stay put for New Year''s; everyone is so spread out we have a lot of driving around to do.

 

[Elmorton]

Hmmmm...I guess these are probably all normal couple things, but in a lot of ways they''ve become traditions to us.

We eat dinner together/cook together at the table at least most nights of the week. TV is not in sight, so we have a chance to talk about work, plans, etc.

On Sundays, we make a really nice dinner together or go out after church. During Advent, we do the Advent wreath/prayers together before dinner (which, btw, in this usage means lunch...probably should clarify).

This year, we have an Advent calendar with doors and have been having SO MUCH FUN giving each other trinkets and gifts every day ($1.50 limit per day).

We also basically adhere to all the holiday traditions of our childhood - DH has this huge quilted wall hanging made by his grandmother called "BEARY CHRISTMAS" and each day we move the bear toward "Christmas" (which, in case you''re curious, is in his living room with his family) via his velcro location (as dictated by the narrative calender at the bottom of the wall hanging). Today the bear is looking for Christmas in the oven. He''s not a very smart bear. We have tons of fun being the first person awake to feed the kitties and hollering out "THE BEAR IS IN THE ____ today!" to the other who is trying to stagger out of bed.

We read in bed together on the nights we''re not exhausted.

We go on a mini-trip about every 3-6 months - just a weekend getaway somewhere not too far away, not fancy, and NOT to visit friends. Just to reconnect and do something out of the ordinary.

One of my good friends has a "Voting Date" every election day with her husband. Since this will be the first time DH and I vote in the same location, we''ll be taking this tradition on as well. They wake up, vote together, and then get breakfast and talk about what their political decisions mean to them. DH and I are also expanding on this tradition with our first caucus date - we''re pretty pumped for Jan 3rd.

Haven - We are sooo borrowing the coffehouse/library date from you! I hadn''t realized how much I missed working together when I was in grad school (ie, I studied, DH read) until I read about your tradition.