25 Of The Strangest Family Rules And Traditions People Have Ever Encountered

Every family has its quirks, but some traditions are so unusual they leave visitors wondering, “What just happened?” A Reddit thread asking, “What’s the strangest family tradition you’ve encountered when visiting someone else’s home?” opened the floodgates for hilarious, bizarre, and sometimes downright puzzling anecdotes. Here are some of the most memorable responses.

#1

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Instead of praying, a full family recital of the Addams family theme song before meals. They were wonderful people and foster parents

#2

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We have The Werewolf Seat. My father reserved it for people that were new to the family circle, new boyfriends or family friends. He figured that if a Werewolf attacked it would eat the new person in that seat. He would calmly tell the would be partner or friend that they would be the first to go when the werewolf showed up. It was quite the ice breaker. My dad’s insane and wonderful.

#3

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My uncle does real gifts for everyone on Christmas, but then you get something random too. This year i got a piece of toast. He toasted a piece of bread, stuck it in a ziplock and stuck that in the gift bag with some (much appreciated) gift cards. It’s fun when someone brings a new partner over and they’re so confused. I’ve gotten zip ties, a turkey baster, i think one partially used 9 volt battery (or it was a package of two that had one left, i can’t remember). All of them have been useful at some point, especially the 9 volt bc my smoke detector needed a new battery almost immediately after lol. My kid even stole the piece of toast when he was hungry and found it in the gift bags (it was early the next morning, before the sun was even up, and i forgot it was in there). He said it was “actually REALLY good.” There was no butter or anything on it lol. It’s a cute tradition and i can’t wait for my kid to be old enough to get one but he’s still young enough that he’s not even really aware of the joke right now.

#4

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Hot dog time.

My buddy in middle school had like 4 or 5 other siblings, and occasionally they’d do this activity for dinner called hot dog time. Each child was given a paper plate with a bun and plain hot dog. Condiments were hidden around the house, like easter eggs. There was a countdown, and his parents would shout “relish, set, go!”. Then we’d run off and try to find the condiments we wanted. “I got mustard!” would be called out, so if we wanted mustard, we’d have to go get some mustard before continuing the hunt. “I got ketchup!” echoed through the house, but I didn’t like ketchup, so I always skipped it. If someone dropped a hog dog while running around, everyone would chant “don’t cry over spilled dogs!”, then they’d be given a cold one as punishment. I once had to eat the cold hot dog.

#5

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On the first day of winter they’d all (3 kids and both parents) eat ice cream for dinner, with milkshakes to drink. Needless to say I was very happy to be invited several times.

#6

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I had Thanksgiving with a family who took me in once. They did a turkey parade thanksgiving morning. Where they took the turkey through each room in the house saying “turkey parade”

#7

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Eating dessert before dinner because “life’s too short.”

#8

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Santa leaving each family member matching pajamas while everyone is at midnight Mass. Kinda sweet really.

#9

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It was s Sunday. My family was visiting church friends because they had kids the same age as us. We were sent to the basement where we sat. We did nothing. They had a rule that you couldn’t watch tv, listen to music, read, or even do homework on Sunday. We were that bored we asked about homework! They literally sat and did nothing on Sunday after church.
We never went back. I think my parents even thought it was a little weird.

#10

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Years ago, Thanksgiving at a friends house. When the table got set up, and we all sat down, the Westminster (?) dog show was playing on a small 13inch TV/VCR combo on a buffet table at the head of the table. When I started to speak general table conversation, I was shh’ed, and told (like I was an idiot), “TV is on,” and they pointed to the TV. Not a word was uttered the entire meal, just all 10-12 people around the table, all watching the dog show on this tiny TV while serving themselves in silence.

Later on, my friend said it wasn’t so much that they “worshipped television,” as I had accused them of, but that years ago, the fighting around the table got so bad that the rule became “no talking while the TV was on.” So, that worked, and so when the TV was on in the room, nobody was allowed to speak. This eliminated all the snippy side comments that turned into verbal brawls, I guess.

Other than that, they seemed like a nice family.

#11

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They all got up at like 7am sharp, showered and dressed for the day, and then went downstairs to eat breakfast together at the table.

I guess that’s not weird in of itself (well, it was for me), the weird thing is that apparently they didn’t inform guests of that.

I slept over said friend’s house when I was 11-12, wondered where my friend had wandered off to when I woke up. I came downstairs still in my pajamas, hair unbrushed, to find them at the fully set up table finishing up. Pancakes, eggs, bacon, orange juice, the works.

The parents shot me a dirty look. They said I couldn’t eat at the table because there wasn’t enough room and they only made enough for their family. They offered me a bowl of cereal instead lol. I wasn’t even allowed to take a shower because I didn’t bring any toiletries and they didn’t have any to spare.

I went home hungry and in my pajamas, never went back!

#12

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In high school, I gave a buddy a ride home after football practice. His mom asked me to stay for dinner.

I sit down with the family, my buddy, his mom, dad, and brother. They’re having a roast and potatoes. There’s also a 2 liter of coke on the table.

After a few minutes, I’m thirsty, so I ask where they keep their glasses. The dad tells me, “we just drink out of the bottle” and takes a swig of coke. He passes it to the younger brother, who also drinks from it, and he hands it to me.

I just said, “I’m good”. I ate and got the heck out of there.

#13

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One for my husband: my family does a Thanksgiving lasagna instead of the traditional meal.

My mom hated all the food fuss, so I suggested making lasagna instead one year. It stuck until I left home, and my mom will always make one if we visit for the holiday and vice versa. My husband was baffled at first, but has loved the tradition. Doesn’t matter if it’s homemade or store bought, just depends on what we feel like doing each year.

#14

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I had a friend who was required to go to church 7 days a week. No church in town actually did that, so they would go to several different churches, even though they weren’t the same denomination. I was invited once to the pentecostal. It was.. an experience.

#15

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Maybe not the strangest after reading the rest of this thread but my childhood best friend had a couch nobody was allowed to sit on. It was all white and had plastic sheets over it. I sat on it one day while putting my shoes on to leave his house and go out to play. His dad proceeded to berate me and tell me that the couch was just for show and nobody was allowed to sit on it. I have no idea why that was the case. Who the f**k has furniture you’re not allowed to sit on. Especially when it’s covered in protective plastic?

#16

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Wasn’t my encounter; a friend of mine told me about the first time they stayed at their partner’s in-laws for a holiday to spend the night.

The place wasn’t spacious, which was fine, and the partner’s mother used a sound machine to fall asleep. Something a lot of people do. I do that, my kids do. Fan sound, ocean sound- it’s fairly common.

What they discovered, too late, was that the mother of the house went to sleep every night listening to *vacuum cleaner* noise. And not a handheld, whirring one. More like a big- industrial sounding suck machine. She would turn it on before bed, and the gentle calm was assaulted with loud pipe exhaust and squealing belts.

When my friend asked their partner why they didn’t at least warn them, they told them they hadn’t thought it was a big deal.

#17

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I would not call this tradition, but I went over to someone’s house in the summer(when I was a kid) and for breakfast, they brought their son the food from the previous night’s dinner that he didn’t eat. They had blended it in a blender and heated it up for him. Was spaghetti or something.

His Mom said, “We don’t know how you do things in your house, but in our house when we pray over the food, we have to eat all of the food.”

I can’t explain it adequately, but it was creepy.

#18

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Strange? My in laws invite like 40 people over for Christmas or thanksgiving, only have enough food for like 20 people and watch all the outsiders starve while the blood family knows to rush the food trays and load up their plates like gluttons.

Needless to say I have not spent another holiday with them in over 10 years. Love having to leave a family event to go to Jack in the box

#19

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My wife’s family has a chant they do for anyone opening presents, so birthdays and Christmas presents. Every single grandchild (and there are a lot of them) added their own line to the chant… when they were 3. Every line also has added gestures to go with it. Nothing like a room full of adults yelling “dee! dee! dee! dee!” while pointing at the nearest ceiling fan! My favorite is probably making siren noises while doing a low level head bang, though.

It takes 2 to 3 minutes and they do it before. every. single. person. opens their first gift. Thankfully it’s been toned down as it used to be done every single time for every single gift. In a group of over a dozen people!

That first Christmas was hell, and let me tell you, I did that chant in full every single time wondering about my life choices. Still married though, and they’re great people!

#20

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I went to dinner at an older couple’s home in the late 90s. They invited my whole family. They had classical music playing. Candles lit. Little treats on silver platters. They owned a few paintings from famous artists. The whole night was like a fairy tale dream. Soft light. Plush furniture. No television in sight. The man even got my chicken plant worker country dad wrapped up in a conversation about Monet painting his wife on her death bed. I thought that’s what life should look like. Just perfect.

We say our goodbyes. It’s after 11pm. Taken our fill of cheesecake puffs and amaretto (it was what the French do so my parents were cool with it) we get into our rusty buick lesaber and pull out of the driveway. Our car slips in the ice and gets stuck in the debris on the side of the road.

My sister and I walk up the driveway to knock on the door and ask to use their phone to call our uncle with 4 wheel drive to come get us.

The couple were watching an Adam Sandler movie (happy Gilmore I think?) and wearing sweatpants already. Suddenly there was a huge tube television on a rolling cart underneath the impressionist paintings.

The man answered the door and had a Budweiser in his hand. All the candles were out and the bright lights were on. I called my uncle and just stood there. The couple said we were welcome to sit on the porch until my uncle came. They ushered us out of the house as soon as I hung the phone up. Turned off all the lights, including the porch lights.

Me and my sister slid down the driveway telling each other we would never tell our parents what we just saw.

#21

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My wife and I would occasionally have dinner with this family who had a large dog. While eating dinner they would all stick a piece of food between their own teeth and get the dog to eat it out of their mouth. All of them. It was some weird trick they taught the dog and did it every dinner. They asked us to do it too, which was even weirder.

#22

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It was tradition to watch Goonies on Thanksgiving Day.

#23

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You need to leave the same door you came in. came in the back door? must leave the back door

#24

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Licking the plates clean after having dinner, but the plates were see through glass ones.

#25

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The mom roping the living room off in the summer, rope had a keep out sign on it lol.