Article created by: Viktorija Ošikaitė
We might think that we’re completely ‘normal’ even when we’re objectively the equivalent of the wonderfully weird Addams Family. It’s only when we start interacting with others, having people over to our home, and visiting them at theirs, that we begin to truly understand how (ab)normal all of us truly are. Bizarreness (in the best possible way) is in the eye of the beholder! And that’s exactly what we’re going to be taking a look at today.
We’ve collected some of the most fun and peculiar habits and traditions that families have, as shared by internet users in these two r/AskReddit threads here and here. It was only after these people grew up that they realized how utterly strange their relatives were behaving. (Then again, with all the traditions that we personally have, nobody’s judging anyone!)
Read on for the best stories, upvote the ones that you enjoyed the most (or forced you to do a double take), and think about what guests might consider odd about what you do at home. Now, shall we follow the white rabbit down the rabbit hole?
Bored Panda was interested to learn more about wholesome, fun, and long-lasting family traditions, so we reached out to parenting blogger Samantha Scroggin, the founder of 'Walking Outside in Slippers.' "I love having family traditions in my house, and I treasure the ones my husband and I had growing up as well. Some of the most special ones are those that we take from previous generations and share with the next generation," she told us.
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The family Christmas tradition was that Santa always left a toothbrush in each stocking, and each toothbrush was different, so everyone knew which was theirs.
Growing up, my family had a unique whistle of a few short notes. This was because (especially in the pre cell phone era) when you're in public and it's time to go or you're looking for someone in a crowd, if you heard the whistle it meant someone in the family was looking for you and you should go see what was up.
Having a system like that is *really* useful, but the first time others heard about it they were shocked I'd respond to my mom's whistling "like a dog."
We have costume parties for EVERYTHING.
We recently all dressed up like cowboys because my mom was making chilli.
At Christmas, we all give each other a set of underwear, which once you receive you have to say, “ooh thank you” really loudly, stand up, then put the underwear on your head to show everyone. I had to have a serious conversation with my wife after her first Christmas with us.
Edit: forgot to add that the underwear must remain on your head, like a fancy crown, until all presents have been given out, and all members of the family were wearing said crown.
My mom and dad would let us stay home from school occasionally just to sit around and play Nintendo. My brother and I were very young and we'd hang out in our pajamas eating cereal while dad played Legend of Zelda. It was awesome.
My father was paranoid that if someone broke in, they would steal his video games. This was in the 90s, and we had a PC, so the video games came on about 7 or 8 floppy disks. Remember those, kids? Anyway, we had about seven crates of floppy disks for his video game library.
And they had to be hidden under the bed. Every time we went away, the computer room was stripped and the floppy disks were stowed under the bed. Because, y'know, burglars would NEVER look there.
The PC stayed in place. The TV stayed in place. The jewellery and everything else stayed in place. His floppy disks had to be protected at all costs.
We were never broken into. We lived in a small village England with a crime rate of precisely zero. He just had a thing about his floppy disks.
Eventually we found his adult games collection, so maybe that's what it was about.
Apparently every morning in my SO's house her dad would get fully dressed for his office job but "forgetting" trousers as a joke. He would open the front door and announce his departure and his kids would yell "You forgot your trousers!" only for him to look down and go "Oh no!" and dash back upstairs to put them on. **Every. Morning.**
It's a cute thing to do for your kids and commit to it for years. It was a fond memory for her until I reminded her that as her dad gets older it's only a matter of time before her dad goes to work without trousers on and it's *not* a joke.
Share one hotel room for seven people. Didn’t realize people could afford multiple hotel rooms. Still, some of the best experiences of my life.
My dad tried to 'kill' the Easter bunny every year. He would literally run out into the yard with his gun and take a few shots. Then he would come back inside grumbling about how he would get him next year.
We thought it was both terrifying and hilarious. I didn't realize how weird it was until I told people about that tradition later in life.
My wife's family used to pass around a Tupperware full of vitamins after dinner. Like just random pills as if they were mints.
Putting everything in Tupperware. If we open a pack of biscuits, it needs to be all removed and nearly stack in one. Open a big bag of crisps? Tupperware. Tea bags? Tupperware. Nothing ever gets left in the original packaging it came from...
My mom would set out chips in a bowl the day before a party. Saving herself thirty seconds and making the chips stale. That's just one example.
My brother used to casualy stand on my head, like i would lay down and he would stand on my head. I don't know why we did it or what excatly I was thinking but yeah...
