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Strangely enough, I was indeed being serious, and it absolutely adds to the discussion at hand. I'll elaborate, since it appears necessary. It's fine if someone doesn't care about food traditions, but that person is in a tiny, tiny minority of humanity. Food traditions are some of the oldest and deepest kinds of traditions across the entire world. They are a part of virtually every ritual: marriage, religious rites, sex, death, harvest, solstices, etc., and always have been.
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For example, while I like food traditions (just because I love cooking) I don't care about holidays. Not at all. I think they're stupid. I am not sure there was ever a Jesus and certainly don't think he rose from the dead or was born at the winter solstice, and so Easter and Christmas are nonsense to me. I'm a little sickened by nationalism, so the 4th of July is out. Halloween combines religion and commercialism, and the food is just candy anyway, so meh. Even Thanksgiving, which I love both from the food tradition aspect and the concept, is tarnished because I'm not especially fond of family gatherings.
There is a lot of guilt tied up with food-based/family traditions as well, at least in my experience, to add to the mix. I don't hate food traditions per se, but everyone's idea of how it should be are so completely subjective that it's hard to walk away from a holiday meal without some kind of physical or mental discomfort. And I'm just talking about the food, forget family drama and politics.
For instance, this Christmas my husband I are traveling to Newfoundland to stay with his family. They're great people, so hospitable and generous. But there's a dark flipside to it. My husband and I refer time spent with his parents as the Food Olympics, because every meal is an event, in which it is impossible to win the gold medal. There's enough food to feed an army, with only 5 people sitting around the table. More food than anyone can possibly eat without making themselves sick. Not just at dinner. Breakfast and lunch too. We try to get out of the house all day to avoid it, and save ourselves for dinner. But when you don't ask for seconds or thirds, the disappointment from my mother-in-law is palpable. That's how she shows her love. If you don't gain 5 lbs per meal, you didn't get enough of her love. It gets emotional for me. I'm not a big eater. I have food sensitivities, but I hate making excuses, so I'll often ignore my better judgment and try to please her, which ends up with me sick and her sad that I'm sick. And then trying to make me feel better by offering me pie.
Nevermind what my husband and his brother went through their whole lives, dealing with the mother/love/food/guilt scenario every damn day. So I'm thankful it's relegated to the holidays for me. Can't say I'm looking forward to it though. I am looking forward to my father-in-law's homemade blueberry wine though, that stuff's the bomb! And it's a tradition I can always get behind, haha.