I know it’s early. Thanksgiving isn’t for another couple of weeks and Christmas is another month after that, but people, these things are going to sneak up on you. They are going to to come and make life complicated. So figure it out now.
So how do you handle the Holidays? This is the first Holiday season in about three years when I’ve had a boyfriend and his family added into the mix. It’s looking like Thanksgiving will be my family in the early afternoon and his family in the evening plus Friday things. He’s Jewish and his family isn’t particularly religious, so he’ll be spending Christmas Eve with my family and on Christmas Day I will introduce him to the grandest of Christmas traditions: watching Die Hard.
So how are you planning on handling the logistics of the holidays?
11 replies on “Lunchtime Poll: How Do You Handle Holidays?”
My already small family has had a gigantic implosion this year (18 year old sister ran away to New Mexico from NJ and stopped speaking to everyone but my dad, lots of drama with aunt who is basically draining my elderly grandfather’s bank accounts which resulted in my aunt and my dad not speaking and my aunt cutting me off completely for absolutely no reason) so my family now is basically my dad and my grandfather. Oh and my 4 cats. Cat lady 4everzzz.
I work most holidays so they aren’t really a big deal for me. They used to be and I kind of miss it but it’s a bummer to think about so I usually don’t.
I think it will be the four of us plus my mom for Thanksgiving this year, and we will probably see my brother and his family for leftovers the next day. And I don’t mind if the mister works on Thanksgiving because it’s mucho holiday pay, as long as that means he has Christmas off, since that day is more important to the kids.
I’ll probably be cooking a lot for both holidays, since really holidays are mainly my excuse to have a really great meal and the rest is secondary. If it were up to me, I wouldn’t do a tree at all because it’s very difficult for me to go through all the old decorations, since my dad died on Christmas Eve in 2005. Plus, on a more superficial note, I hate having to clean it all up later.
Also, mimosas.
Oh gods! We haven’t even started trying to figure it out yet. It is definitely more complicated this year than most though since we recently began sharing a house with my soon-to-be-divorced pseudo-father-in-law and that my mother is moving 2 1/2 hours away at the first of the year. Plus this is the first Christmas in 5 years she isn’t working 3 jobs/going to school full-time so it’s a BIG DEAL. And we have to figure out where Man Procrastinator’s mother fits in all this.
At least we get Yule all to ourselves for us and the kids. It’s just the mainstream holidays that are the problem.
The boyfriend and I alternate between families, so this year it’s Thanksgiving with mine and Christmas with his. But this is further complicated by the fact that my parents are divorced, so there’s some negotiation about which one we’re celebrating with on the actual day and who we’re having dinner with on either Wednesday or Friday. This will hopefully get hammered out soon.
I did the splitting the day between two parties once and vowed never to do it again. The day was so stressful that I never got a chance to enjoy myself or just relax with family.
We will be driving 36 hours to be with my family. I am really, really looking forward to it! Otherwise, I am pretty casual about the Holidays … no real traditions because I am very lazy. :)
Holidays are complicated by three factors: 1. I work them. 2.My mom also works them and is on the opposite holiday schedule. 3.I live 16 hours from my family and 1 hour from his family.
I usually do the holidays with my fam on some random day. My parents, for example, are coming this weekend and we’re planning on having Thanksgivings dinner. I go to his family on the actual holiday when I’m not working and every year, without fail, my FFIL can’t BELIEVE I’m still required to work Christmas because surely there are enough nurses who are not Christian who can staff the entire hospital…yeah, I know.
My dad is a nurse and also ends up working a lot of holidays. He does overnights, so sometimes even if he’s not working the actual day of, he is trying to sleep from working the night before. It’s tough, but of course he was always a crankypants anyway so I think he secretly likes not having to deal with the big family gatherings.
Lol. I also work nights and sometimes the I-need-to-take-a-nap-for-work excuse is very convenient. ;)
Fortunately (I think fortunately), my family and the Mister’s family live on opposite ends of the state. Which means we usually have to do some traveling, but it ALSO means we don’t have to do that thing where you dash from one dinner to the next all on the same day.
We generally spend Thanksgiving with the Mister’s family, then Christmas proper with my family and either the weekend before or after Christmas for a visit to the Mister’s family. This year the Mister’s uncles can’t make it to his parents’ house for Thanksgiving, so we’re spending Thursday with my family then going to visit his over the weekend.
The Mister’s mom is pretty chill, and they don’t have a ton of “traditions” so she’s usually pretty good about letting us do the more rigid stuff with my family as long as we all get together at some point.
Die Hard is the greatest Christmas movie. Holidays are going through a major upheaval at my house this year. My dad is being ordained a deacon in the Catholic church in 11 days (I’m totally not counting down or anything :P) so now instead of traveling to be with the entire extended family like we used to do, we are going to start having Thanksgiving at my parents house sans extended family when he has alter duties on Thanksgiving and at my house when I’m stuck on call for the holiday. Christmas will probably be the same, but we haven’t thought that far ahead since we’re focused on his ordination and party and then Thanksgiving in the same week.
The Dutch have a first and second Christmas Day, so that is very convenient. Even better is that this year my parents are probably at my brother’s place outside of the country which could mean that I have one Christmas Day pour moi. I already have the Extended Editions of Lord of the Rings lined up.