It’s the big reveal: some of your most unusual Christmas traditions

I have family in Poland and spent Christmas Eve with them in 2017. I knew of some of the customs but one truly took the biscuit. When I arrived on December 23, I went to use the bathroom. Weirdly there was water already in the bathtub, and something was clearly fishy... and to my shock there was a live carp in the bathtub! I ran to my uncle to ask what the deal was. Turns out it’s a longstanding Polish Christmas Eve tradition. The carp is to spend two nights ‘getting to know’ the family in the bathtub, before being prepared, crumbed and cooked for Christmas Eve. I found this utterly hilarious. Stefan Odachowski

In my family, on Boxing Day, my mum and grandma wake everyone up by throwing unshelled walnuts at everyone to commemorate the day of St Stephen the Martyr, who was stoned to death. Izzy Kawecka

We play a card game called Donkey which involved reaching across a table for spoons. It gets very competitive and has in the past involved my cousin and aunt wrestling on the floor, and my grandma launching herself across the length of table (she won). Joanne 

Our unusual Christmas tradition is to see who can eat the most Brussels sprouts at dinner. The winner gets the first chocolate. Karly Townsend

My family has an unusual Christmas Tradition. Every year, my dad climbs onto the roof, cracks out his saxophone, and plays Christmas carols for the neighbours. Whether they enjoy our tradition or not, my dad has never seemed to care! Rose Guy

I’ve been single, and live alone, for the last eight years. Eighth Christmas coming up. For the last seven I’ve cooked my own Christmas meal which, of course, includes Brussels sprouts. I love Brussels sprouts. I cook a very large pot of them, and, during the course of Christmas Day, I eat them all. However, the consumption of approximately one kilo of sprouts is a significant reason why I live alone! Same procedure this year. Ms Sadie Godiva

A couple of years ago we decided on a big family Christmas dinner and bought a huge turkey. It took two of us to remove it from the oven but as we did the tin buckled. Juices splashed into the oven, which caught on fire and the turkey skidded across the kitchen floor. We ran to the oven and turned it off but the commotion alerted everyone to come running into the kitchen and hit the oil slick on the floor.  In a slow motion comedy moment people started skidding, colliding with each other, arms flailing etc. After everything had calmed down the decision was made to pick up the turkey, run it under the tap, carve it and have dinner but most of the family ended up strangely not hungry. However it now means that every year the family has cheese omelettes for supper, because it’s what we ended up having later that fateful day because we were all still hungry. Angie Jackson

Every year for the past ten years my family and I have been buying the worst and best present you can find spending no more than £1. The presents are judged on Christmas Day after dinner with strict criteria; price, usefulness, tacky scale, unusualness, and voted on. The winner gets a bottle of bubbly (or gin!) and gloating rights for the rest of the year. We have had some amazing entries over the years, including vases, a ship in a bottle, wigs, how-to-be-a-mermaid kit, full size cutout of Mr Bean, decorative plates, random named pens, you get the drift. It’s always something to look forward to on Christmas Day. Hope I win this year – wish me luck!  Rebecca Lis

When my kids were small one of their Christmas presents was a plastic suit for playing in the snow or jumping in muddy puddles. It was raining that year and so they got a great deal of use out of them on Christmas Day splashing in puddles outside the house. It’s what we now associate with Christmas Day, so every year after that (five years now), they’ve asked to go outside and find puddles to jump in – when the suits got too small they wrapped themselves in Christmas vinyl tablecloths. The neighbours must think we’re mad and they do in fact leave us alone. We’re the tablecloth Christmas jumping family. Caroline Cordery

Our family has a long tradition of playing the ‘Dressing Up’ game at Christmas. The essential equipment is a well-thumbed black bag full of ‘interesting’ clothing items including an assortment of swimsuits, trunks, bras, large pants, hats, scarves, a full body thong with a reindeer face, shorts, nightdresses, and most importantly a string vest. The game starts when everyone, young and old, is sitting in a circle and someone plays some music as the bag is passed around. When the music stops, the person holding the bag removes and puts on an item of clothing over their own clothes. The game ends when the bag is empty. We then have a group photo so everyone can show off their attire and enjoy a good laugh. Hazel Stubbs