A Mom Shares The Hilarious Reason Why Her Family Members Have ‘Christmas Names’
A good deal at a store turned into a huge holiday inside joke.
Some holiday traditions — like getting a Christmas tree, exchanging gifts, lighting a menorah, or singing carols — are universal. And then there are the other, weirder family holiday traditions that are just for you and your loved ones. Some of them have funny origin stories, others evolved seemingly out of nowhere, but it’s what makes holidays with your family extra special and fun.
Over on TikTok, one mom shared her little family’s tradition of “Christmas names,” and it’s so hilarious it went viral.
Kaylee first posted a regular video showing off some of her holiday decorations, but one viewer noticed that one of the stocking said “Brian” even though that’s not the name of anyone in her family.
She made a second video to explain it.
“These are our Christmas names,” she says. “Doesn’t everyone have Christmas names?”
She goes on to explain the real story.
The real question is, “Who are Dan and Debbie?” she continues. “They were a couple who bought gorgeous Pottery Barn stockings, probably about nine or ten years ago. For some reason they decided that they didn’t want their stockings, so they returned them to Pottery Barn. And then Pottery Barn sold them to a discount store, for resale.”
That’s where her family comes in.
“Then, a young poor couple who had just had their first baby, walked into this discount store and found these gorgeous stockings,” she says. “They only had one child at the time, but they knew they wanted to have three kids one day. So they pre-purchased matching stockings. With the intent that one day they would take out the embroidery and just had them be plain. But the mom of that family never got around to that. And probably never will.”
Now, instead of trying to fix the stockings, they like them just as they are.
“It has now just become an inside joke,” she concludes, “that on Christmas morning, We are Dan and Debbie and our children are Kelsey and… the Brian twins.”
How can you not love? Now I’m kind of upset I don’t have a Christmas name.
Down in the comments, no one could get enough of the Christmas names story — with many, many comments about the hilarity of “Brian and Fancy Brian,” aka the Brian twins.
And a few people shared their own weird holiday traditions.
“My husband & I got a First Christmas picture frame ornament,” one person shared. “We never put our own picture in it so we've been hanging 2 strangers on our tree for 25 years.”
“Love this! We have a family Christmas card that was send by accident from strangers and it goes on our fridge every Christmas,” another person wrote. “It’s just 3 adult siblings in Disney 🤣 going on 10 years of them.”
A few others shared that they have Christmas names, too.
“My Christmas name is Eric,” a woman shared. “My husband's grandma has stockings for everyone and bought a random used one when I joined the family. My name is Amanda.”
“After my parents divorced my mom found PB stockings at goodwill to start over with,” another person shared. “We all still have ours. My Christmas name is Vivi!”
In at least one case, she inspired a mom to ditch her to-do list and just give everyone Christmas names.
“I have a stack of items waiting for embroidery to be removed. I think I will do this and just give everyone their new name,” she wrote.
Love that. Merry Christmas to all Brians, and to all Brians, a good night!
