3 Most Underrated (But Awesome) Holiday Traditions

As a follow-up to my 3 Awful Holiday Traditions post – and to prove I am not a Scrooge – here are my favorite holiday traditions:

1. Tinsel.

I’ll admit it. People have their reasons for hating tinsel. Tinsel is messy. It gets tangled in the tree branches and on the carpet. Static cling can cause it to stick to anything and anyone who gets too close to the tree. But even for all its faults, tinsel is the single most amazing Christmas decoration in history. I have loved those mesmerizing silver and gold metallic plastic strips since I was a little kid. A tree just doesn’t seem “finished” without a healthy serving of those sparkly strands. I can’t help myself. Something about tinsel gets into my brain and stimulates my dopamine receptors.

I always knew tinsel was retro. (The tinsel from the 1950s was made from strands of real silver and lead.) But, I was surprised to find out tinsel has actually been around since the 1600s in Germany. My only hope is that tinsel will make a comeback, because it gets harder to find every year.

3 Awful Holiday Traditions

Not everything about the holidays can be merry and bright. In fact, some holiday traditions are downright annoying. I can’t be the only one who feels this way, right? Here are my three least favorite things about the holidays.

1. Egg Nog.

You are gross and I hate you.

For a moment, let’s set aside the fact that egg nog tastes like sugary snot. Even if you have some sort of malfunction in your taste buds that would lead you to think egg nog is palatable, there is something terrifying about what egg nog actually is. Basically, take the reproductive bodily fluids of not one but two separate animals, mix them together with a dash of sugar and nutmeg – voila!

I can understand why the British and the colonial Americans enjoyed it back in the 1700s. Snackfoods weren’t invented yet. But come on. These people also believed in “bleeding” with leeches to cure the body of ailments. Do we really want to trust their culinary expertise?