I love those family traditions. Besides burning off fireworks, a big thing in Germany used to be Bleigießen, which involves melting lead shaped in lucky shapes — think cloverleaf, pig, money bag, etc., then tossing the melted lead into a bowl of water. It would come with a tiny booklet on how to “read” the results, most of which strikingly resembled the shape of a… drop 
Fondue was another tradition, of course, and Feuerzangenbowle.
