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Let me guess. You sat on Santa’s lap this year and told him, “For Christmas, my one wish is to get to know those cool peeps on the Quicken Loans Zing! Blog team a little bit better.”

Has Santa ever let you down? NEVER. And this year, he’s gone above and beyond to bring you the interesting, delicious, heartfelt, and festive Christmas traditions of the Zing! team. Read on to learn just how crazily unique we (and our families) are.

Amanda

Christmas Eve is reserved for my parents and my mom’s side of the family.

In BK times (Before Kids), the early part of the day was reserved for my dad’s birthday, and my brother and I (and our spouses) would spend the night at my parents’ so we could all open presents on Christmas Day.

But AK times (After Kids) are so much more hectic that we have adapted our Christmas Eve Day to feature: Christmas Morning at Grandma’s – Christmas presents to the Grandkids from Grandma and Grandpa; afternoon – Grandpa and Ripley’s Birthday Extravaganza with CAKE, and then evening with the extended family: Christmas Edition.

The early part of the day is set aside for my dad’s, and now my daughter’s, birthday – birthday cake, birthday presents, nothing but birthday.

Then we have dinner, which always includes at least 3 Filipino dishes, and then the oldest kids help the younger ones pass out the presents to everyone.

So for example, my cousin Rose is 17, so her job is to hand the presents to her brother Jack, 8, and Jude, 5, and and tell them who to hand the present to.

Then we open presents from everyone, hang out, eat dessert, pack up the million and one things we have to drag home, and then go home and wearily wrap another million presents for the kids.

Christmas morning, the kids open presents from Santa, I make pancakes and sausage (a tradition that spilled over from the BK days), and the kids (ie, Jude) calls everyone to say Merry Christmas. We watch “A Christmas Story” on TV until about 3 o’clock, when my tolerance of “you’ll shoot your eye out” reaches an all-time max and I threaten to throw the TV outside in the snow.

One of the traditions from when I was a kid, though, is the best.

My Uncle Rich used to dress up as Santa and come visit my brother and me every Christmas Eve. (He’s my dad’s best friend since forever. Might as well be blood related but isn’t. He’s from Mexico. This will be important later.) He’d come and talk to us, give us a teaser gift and then head out to “deliver other presents.”

One year I called him out. I asked him why he was “so tan.” According to Uncle Rich/Santa, it was because he had delivered gifts to the children in Mexico before heading up to our house. He got tan.

Then the next year, he painted his face white with big rosy cheeks and a rosy nose.

I was like “WOAH WOAH SANTA, what the heck?” He said it was because he had just got back from Alaska where the sun never shines and he was very white. I bought it all. Kids are so dumb.

Amber

When I was a wee child there was a big Christmas party across the street from my Grandma’s house. All the kids would get excited because they had a real Santa at the party! At 8pm, all the kids were promptly ushered to their beds while the adults – and Santa – got boozed up in honor of this precious holiday.

Clay

We celebrate La Befana Day. Befana is an old Italian lady who didn’t want to travel with the Three Wise Men to visit baby Jesus because she was too busy with her housework. Once she realized what she had done, she set out to give a gift to all children she could find on the eve of January 5, hoping she would find baby Jesus.

Also, my family always eats potato soup on Christmas Eve.

Eric

My Christmas traditions are rather simple.  Given the limited options of available restaurants and commodities for a Jew like myself to choose from, my family has a standing reservation at a local Chinese restaurant (if you haven’t been to Peking House in Royal Oak, be sure to go and tell Cecilia and Randy that I sent you).  We have been doing this for as long as I can remember.  After the traditional Chinese dinner, we’ll head out to the movies and catch the latest flick.  Again, not too many options to go out on the town, but it’s our tradition, and I love every second of it.

Gaby

We celebrate Three Kings’ Day. It’s on January 6th. It’s pretty much like Christmas, except that instead of getting gifts from SC, we get them from the Three Kings. Some families will actually do both (Santa and Three Kings), but normally, families pick only one (’cause it can get expensive, you know?)

One other tradition is the “posadas.” The “posadas” are an enactment of the story of Joseph and Virgin Mary looking for lodging on their way to Bethlehem. Each family in the neighborhood will schedule a night for the “posada” to be celebrated at their home, starting from December 16th and ending on Christmas Eve. During the first part of each “posada,” the guests and hosts pray and sing traditional songs around the Nativity scene. After the prayers and songs, people eat and party (including piñatas and all!). Usually, for the last posada, there’s a live band or DJ…pretty fun stuff!

Joel

As a child, for a few years straight, I had a Christmas tradition of eating too many of the raspberry hard candies with the wonderful goo in the center and getting sick. Other than typical Christmas family time type stuff, we don’t have any crazy, wacky traditions. As I’ve gotten older and accumulated a gaggle of young children that call me “Dad,” we’ve tried to start doing more stuff. Now, all three kids get BRAND NEW PAJAMAS (OOOOO! AAAAAAAH!) on Christmas Eve. I’d like to see coming down to City Loft in downtown Detroit to shop, visiting with Santa, checking out the giant Christmas tree, and eating at Louie’s Corned Beef and Ham near Eastern Market become a Jarvi family tradition (PS – all stuff we did this holiday season!).

Jon

We go to my parents house Christmas morning and each sibling takes a turn reading a Bible scripture that’s has been significant to them this year, then each person shares why they are thankful for each person in the family. After that, the kids (my nephews and nieces) are allowed to open one gift.  We’ve had the same tradition since I was born.

Shannon

On Christmas Eve, all the extended family would gather at my dad’s aunt’s house. We’d eat tons of food and candy and the kids would open presents. After, we’d drive around the neighborhood – the nice part with all the matching paper bag and candle votives lining the streets – and look at the light displays. Then we’d head to midnight mass at the fancy church with the vaulted ceilings and monstrous stained-glass windows. Then (if we were still awake) we’d look for Rudolph on the drive home. Christmas day was just for immediate family. The kids would be up at dawn, while my dad made sure to sleep extra late to drive us crazy. Then he’d make a really elaborate (and slow) breakfast for us before we could finally sit down and tear into the presents – usually around noon. Then we’d fall asleep in the piles of torn wrapping paper.

Stephanie

In my prime (circa 1993), Christmas Eve with my dad’s side of the family was the dopest day of the year in my eyes. It’s a glorious celebration of a family of Polish perfectionists spending an entire day engineering hundreds of perfectly pinched pierogi from a recipe that’s been passed down through the generations. I know my last name doesn’t sound Polish at all, right? FUN FACT: before he and my Nana got married, my Papa figured “Koske” would be slightly easier to pronounce (AND SPELL) than “Zajaczkowski,” so he had it changed. Just try to say it. I dare you.

On with the pierogi. While there are many variations on the fillings, our family opts for the timeless choice of a cheesy mashed potato concoction inside the dough. They’re smothered in BUTTER and SAUTEED ONIONS, then crowned with SOUR CREAM. It’s too good to be true, and that’s why ravenous people like my dad will eat upwards of fifteen pierogi. Sure, there’s Polish sausage and other foods from my homeland at the table. But I say who cares… just give me the pierogi. After we stuff ourselves uncontrollably (pretty much in silence since the food’s so good), the rationing of the leftover pierogi occurs. And they’re not icky leftovers that coagulate like green bean casserole. Fry these little nuggets of heaven in butter and they taste even better than they did on Christmas Eve.

When I was a kid though, this day was seriously the best. I’d lost my mind for a while and insisted on eating only the “edgeski” (the pierogi dough without the filling), but I always looked forward to hiding in one of the bedrooms at my grandparents’ house with all of my cousins while the sounds of sleigh bells and Santa’s footsteps could be heard in the living room. Who knows what in the world the adults did during this time, but they were so festive that they always told us to bolt to the window to see Santa running down the driveway. And shucks, we’d always just missed him, but we didn’t really care because there was a freshly delivered sleigh-load of presents under the tree. Conveniently enough, I grew up just two houses down from my dad’s parents. After all the cousins opened their presents together, Santa had made a visit to my own tree by the time we walked back that evening. Sneaky, people. Sneaky.

We still make pierogi on Christmas Eve, although the traditions have dwindled after my grandparents passed away and family members dispersed.

 Isn’t it amazing how unique all of our Christmas traditions are? We’re a group of characters, that’s for sure, but our love of writing, food, and good holiday fun brings us together.

Quicken Loans wishes you and your family a meaningful and memorable Christmas!

Stephanie Koske is a writer for Quicken Loans, a company whose clients believe it’s Engineered to Amaze. Interested in being Amazed by us? Read trusted reviews at our review site.

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