do you celebrate?

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back alley

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just wondering how many of us actually celebrate the holidays?

i don't...i'm not anti christmas or anything like that...but i have no family here in town...the friends that i used to celebrate with got divorced years ago and half of them moved out of town and the other half re-married.

i turn down every offer of dinner now and have for years so my friends have stopped asking, except for a few optimists...

do you celebrate? or is it just another day?
 
My wife passed away just before Christmas (we are both too old anyway), my kids insisted on coming down to keep me company and friends have brought casseroles. I will shoo them all away ASAP and next year I will go out and take pictures.
It's just the way I will handle it..

the friends that i used to celebrate with got divorced years ago and half of them moved out of town and the other half re-married.


sounds like "good time charlie's got the blues."
 
I celebrate all 8 days of the holiday 😉 -- in fact, I'm at my in-laws' now for a Chanukka party. And I will celebrate new year's eve with a good dinner at home with a few good friends and a few good bottles of wine.
Even if I were alone, as I have been in the past, I would treat myself to a good bottle and some fine tidbits, and reflect on whatever satisfactions the past year had brought.
Ari
 
No celebrating here.

It's just another day, has been for years since I met the wife. She gets the heeby-geeby's from organised cozyness and volunteers for working shifts 😱 So, wife's working night shifts, daughter is visiting her boyfriend in Bangkok, Thailand (!) and son and me will be spending some quality time together: photo-related, watching a movie, playing some wii-games, walking the dog in the forest, etc.
 
Since my daughter is grown and on her own we still get together but don't celebrate like when she was little.

I also observe Hanukkah since my Mother's side is Jewish and my Granddad said even Christians should at least observe some of the Jewish holiday's..
 
I've just been to the choral mass of our main Catholic cathedral. I think they must be using a new form of incense: it was like a movie where the tech guys had lost control. No-one except hundreds of the congregation coughing and fanning themselves seemed to notice. I was surprised that the guy holding the thurible didn't pass out. Then the archbishop's sermon was all over the place, multiple ideas interspersed with platitudes and no useful cogent message. Then there's the New Liturgy English speaking Catholics have to get used to. Astonishingly they have introduce the word 'consubstantial' into the creed. I think I might look for a nice Latin mass. My father always said it's the song not the singer, but now the song is off. The cathedral itself and the 2000 years of tradition and my long history with faith and the deeper aspects of it that I have been privileged to learn and think about in the company of wiser heads than mine mean that the I will never throw it in but will spend a lot of time apparently at the margin of Catholicism. Sic transit gloria mundi.
 
My wife is my only family in the area. She is more of a celebrator than I which can be a bit of a struggle as she misses her family and their large Christmas celebrations (they're in the UK, we're in Seattle). Our celebrations have been primarily gifts in the morning, perhaps a movie together and then a nicer dinner which she refuses to let me help prepare.

Now that she has friends in the area who also don't have family around, the 3 of them have more plans and I'm off to the side a bit. I'm okay with that as she gets more of the big celebration she enjoys and I can dodge some of the stress I usually feel around times like this.
 
buzzardkid said:
She gets the heeby-geeby's from organised cozyness
Click to expand...

This sums up my sentiment. I have spent it with relatives in the last few years, but I weaseled myself out of it this year. I am afraid that I have offended them (which was not my intention). It is hard to explain that you are fond of someone, but don't want to spend time with them.
I am finding though that after actively avoiding all the seasonal fuss in the last week(which really just gets me down), it has lifted my annual 'winter-funk'. I am rarely this relaxed this time of the year. So for myself I know I am doing the right thing.

Ducky, lot's of strength. I hope you get some photo time in, that usually cheers me up.
 
I buy a gift for the wife, she buys gifts for the kids & grandkids. We spend our holidays alone together. Kid's have their lives with their families. That's cool with me. I have my faith & it's a strong faith, but I don't attend any organized church. So we don't have any 'christian' friends. We're probably considered outcast anyhow...always wanted to be an outlaw! Jesus was an outlaw.🙂

Hey Joe, you like John Hiatt, I've been listening to this song alot. Kinda expresses the mood I've been in.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=endscreen&NR=1&v=1ejWwsLTHnA
 
No celebration for me either. My kids are early 20's and it was only really for them that I made the effort. Wife has gone to Switzerland to see her Mum and I couldn't handle the 10 day turnaround so I didn't go. SO quiet one for me and my rangefinders.
 
my bride and i will go to the oldest son's house in the morning for the secular gift-giving with him, his bride and toddler son, and our youngest son and his fiance (he proposed tonight and she said yes). next weekend we will be at my daughter's home in florida for another round with our grandaughters.
from our oldest son's home in the morning, we will attend a late morning worship service to honor the birth of our Savior. from there, we will go to the home of my bride's mother and father for a big meal. on monday, we'll go to my mom's home to visit and spend the night. so i reckon y'all could say we celebrate ... 😉
 
hausen said:
No celebration for me either. My kids are early 20's and it was only really for them that I made the effort. Wife has gone to Switzerland to see her Mum and I couldn't handle the 10 day turnaround so I didn't go. SO quiet one for me and my rangefinders.
Click to expand...

You could make it quiet for you but busy for your rangefinders.
 
Ducky, I am terribly sorry to hear about your wife. I dread the thought of being without mine.

Personally I could care less about commercial aspect of Christmas and am not one much for organized religion of any flavour. I do enjoy the increased niceness of people that this time of year seems to inspire. That I do celebrate. I cherish what is left of our combined families and celebrate with a family Christmas dinner and traditional gift giving. My wife OTH is like a kid and puts up the tree and does the decorations, bless her. She has just asked me if it was time to open some presents so I'll stop my ramble with a wish for peace and prosperity this holiday season and into the future for all.

Bob
 
Yes...for Christmas
Both kids are home from college, the tree is up, decorated and has presents under it...mostly for the kids even though they are 19 & 21...

As far as New Years...I don't do anything...
 
We celebrate Christmas Day with all our kids and grandkids and enjoy it so much. We start out the day with morning mass and the festivities begin about 2 PM and continue till about 8 PM typically. I love left overs and enjoy them the following week. It's a great time of year!
 
Yes we do, it's been a family tradition to have dinner and midnight meal and opening of gifts on Christmas eve with my mom, wife, brother and kids. Christmas day is lunch out with my wife and kids.
 
My wife and I walked along to midnight mass, it was a nice and simple service. It will be the last Christmas that it will be just the two of us as she is expecting. We like to just keep things simple.
 
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