Digital Commons Network^™

Tricks Of The Trade At Thanksgiving Point, Kjeisten Secretan

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

I was the setup manager, so in charge of setting up any event at thanksgiving point. We do anything from like a small business meetings to dinners receptions weddings concerts, festivals. We would have to setup all of our wedding chairs or metal chairs, 8 tops, 6 tops cabs linens, bring all the plates down, make sure there are cups and forks. New people would need to know the process of setting up the room all the legs of the tables have to be a certain way line have to be set out a certain way, where all the silverware …

Christmas Pickle, Kjeisten Secretan

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

So, my mom’s older sister Gloria. I think she gave my mom this pickle, but it’s not a real pickle for you Christmas tree, it’s a German tradition I think. The thing is you hide it in the Christmas tree and the person who finds it gets a present or like a prize. But my mom would always hide it or my dad would hide it the night before and it’s the first thing we would do on Christmas morning is we would have a competition to see who would find the pickle and then yeah…but then it got a …

"Christmas Sleepover Tradition", Alexis Robb

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

I think it was funner as a child because your all sleeping under the tree but than as I got older its like oh my back [ Grabs her back and laughs] but I like it though its fun just to get together and sleep together, especially when we were younger. I remember all the tantrums of you and Brandon not getting to sleep where you wanted to. Good times.

Cookie Day, Carrigan Price

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

Cookie Day is a day that we- my current family- we spend a Saturday, one of the Saturdays in December, and um we get up early in the morning and we make cookies. We make all different kinds of cookies. We make chocolate chip cookies, we make sugar cookies, sometimes we make shortbread, cookies that are shaped like candy canes, we make fudge, we make sometimes, some years we make different things, we made cream puffs one year, we make star-shaped Rice Krispy treats, we make muffins, one of the things we’ve added recently is we do chocolate-dipped pretzels, and …

Birthday Week, Carrigan Price

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

Birthday Week is the week of your birthday and you can choose 7 days before or 7 days after or split it but everybody that has a brain does the 7 days before and what you do on those seven days is whatever you want [laughter] you get to pick a place to go eat and you usually open presents in the morning and also we have a big family party on the Sunday that is inside your birthday week. When I’m the birthday person, I get to be the queen of everybody. Like when Mom tells me to do …

Christmas Eve Spaghetti Feast, Carrigan Price

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

Every year on Christmas Eve my whole family gets together. So, my mom’s side of the family, um, and we get together and we always have spaghetti on Christmas Eve, like my grandma always makes spaghetti. And then after that, we all open, like, our pajamas, and I know that pajamas are pretty typical but I’ve heard spaghetti is kind of weird. And it’s a tradition that’s just been passed down- like my grandma’s mom did it, and her mom did it, and it’s like, really traveled down the family line so. It’s just something that we always do. Even …

Thanksgiving Monopoly Night, Carrigan Price

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

We go to my Grandma Judy’s house and we eat stuffing and more pie and then everybody goes home except for the cousins that are 12 to 18, well 12 to 20 and we play a game of Monopoly that sometimes goes until 5 in the morning! And we just go until somebody wins the game. We play the board game and play house rules. We do it individually so like there’s no teams and one person is the banker and one person gives out the properties and everybody else just takes care of their piece. After we finish, we …

4th Of July Parade, Carrigan Price

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

The night before [the 4^th of July] we go and put down blankets for the rest of our family and then we go and usually arrive at 8 o’clock and the parade starts at like 10- oh we put the blankets on the sidewalk on the parade route- and we usually put down a lot because all of our extended family comes, and my dad usually goes and gets McDonalds breakfast sandwiches and that’s what we eat while we wait for the parade to start- or get to us. Sometimes we have siblings or cousins in the parade. It’s …

Dragonflies And Swimming, Nicole Pope

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

[Me]: So do you want to tell me a little bit about the dragonfly story you were telling me earlier?

[Kay]: Ok so when I was younger my grandparents would tell me that I needed to swim and they threatened all the children to ugh catch a dragonfly they'll use the dragonfly and put it on your belly button and let it bite us until we could swim and [pauses] I am terrified until now about dragonflies [laughs]

[Me]: you don't like dragonflies? [Kay]: I don't like dragonflies. yep

The Christmas Pickle, Carrigan Price

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

We do- we just barely started doing this a couple years ago actually but, we have like a pickle ornament. Have you ever heard of that? [I shook my head “No” here] Where you like hide it in the tree somewhere and then whoever can find it first gets the small present.

Deep Fried Turkey, Carrigan Price

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

My family celebrates Thanksgiving every year at our house, we don’t switch off and go to other people’s Thanksgivings or whatever. Every year Thanksgiving is at our house for the solid reason that we deep-fry our turkeys. I can’t remember the exact degree, but you get all of the oil, and basically you have to put cardboard down because it can spill and that will stain your driveway- if it’s windy, you need to take that into account. You never deep-fry a turkey inside because you’ll start a fire. Umm basically you check it every once in a while by …

Christmas Eve Brunch, Carrigan Price

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

Every Christmas Eve my family wakes up and we go to IHOP for breakfast, followed by an afternoon show at the movie theater. And then we go to my grandparents’ or aunt and uncle’s house, it rotates every year, and we do games and Christmas dinner and a cousin gift exchange. It’s crucial for Christmas Eve!

Here Comes Santa Clause, Carrigan Price

USU Student Folklore Fieldwork

My grandpa, on my mom’s side again, when we’re all together- which is most years- umm, he always dresses up as Santa Clause. Ever since I was, like, really little I remember him dressing up as Santa, and he comes in with this big red bag with presents for all of the cousins and it’s fun.