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How We Celebrate the Holidays

We asked Oprah.com users: What holiday traditions, including celebrations, events and activities, are unique to your family and friends? From football to fruitcake, get creative ideas to celebrate the holidays from people just like you!
Girls' night out
15 of 25
Stephanie M.
For my family, the holidays are all about being together and enjoying each other's company. Christmas is extra special because all of my siblings—including my sister, Lauren, who lives in New York—come home for a week to be with my parents and me.

When Lauren got engaged in 2006, she decided to plan a special Girls' Night Out dinner for some of the women in our family and her friends that were in her wedding party. We got dressed up and had cocktails and a lavish dinner in a private room at a restaurant in downtown Chicago just days before Christmas.

Although my sister's wedding has come and gone, my gram decided to keep the tradition alive by hosting a Girls' Night In every year during Christmastime at her condo. Although it's a little tight to fit my gram, her three daughters, seven granddaughters and two great-grandchildren (this year will be three!), we enjoy an evening of Polish food (my gram and mom are second- and third-generation Polish), games and photo-taking.

Who would have thought an evening out would stem such a wonderful tradition?

Share your holiday tradition with us!
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Published 12/07/2000
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