Hello everyone, For December’s featured discussion we’re asking you How Do You Handle The Holidays? Christmas, Hannukah, Kwanza, and other holidays are right around the corner. This can be can be an exciting time for many of us – spending time with family and friends (especially during non-covid years!), much needed time off from work and school, and an opportunity to reflect on the good things and personal growth that has happened during the past year. However, this time of year can also be bittersweet or a source of dread – family gatherings with family you don’t see eye-to-eye with (or are in the closet to!), financial stress, or increased feelings of loneliness. Please share your experiences and how you help minimize some of the holiday unpleasantries! ***Christmas is uneventful for me as I am not close to most of my family (geographically or personally!) and my immediate family does not do a much of a celebration. Especially in the era of social media, it’s easy to feel a little bit lonely and jealous of those that seem to have a bigger, more eventful celebration. The last few years, a couple of my friends (who are in similar situations) and I hang out and do something fun for a couple of hours on Christmas day. It’s always less lonely when you know other people are feeling the same way as you or are in a similar situation Happy holidays and all the best for 2021 from The EC Staff team!
I was introduced to the Festive Holiday Season of November/December during my formative years in USA. While we never had a tree at home or exchanged presents, My sister and I experienced all of that at school. In a nation of many, many holidays, belonging to many religions, by the time December rolls around, we're done, exhausted with months of holidays rolling around every 15 days or so. But I have fond memories of hanging out at christmas parties and new years eve at friends' houses, dancing the night away. While religiously, the season doesn't mean a lot to me, in terms of friendship and companionship it does. I will be missing it this year because of the pandemic circumstances. My friends and I are planning to meet virtually online, but it won't be the same. . I am however planning a quiet night at home with my parents, cooking a nice, large dinner for all of us to share, as we watch some movies, counting down to midnight on new years' eve.
I'm going to jump on the "I don't celebrate this" bandwagon! Growing up, I never celebrated Christmas, and as such I don't really have any sentimental feelings towards it. Seeing the holiday from the outside, actually reveals some of the uglier side of the festive period: excess, commercialism and loneliness that some people experience. I am not saying that celebrating is bad! I really like that it brings cheer to people and that some families take the opportunity to come together and reconnect. But it's interesting to look at it from an outside perspective in it's entirety! It's happy time for many, but not for all - always worth bearing in mind.
I don’t believe in Christ, nor Christmas although I do believe in the spirit of Christmas. I “celebrate” Yule, if you want to call it celebrating. I dunno I don’t really go all out and we don’t really do big gifts for Christmas. We usually spend time together, play board games, etc. We usually volunteer for our gifts.
I see a theme here. I am also not religious, though still celebrate Christmas. With previous Christmases, there were a lot of misgendering, or getting very gendered gifts. Back then I just dealt with it since I wasn’t ready to come out, or how people would react if I did. For me, COVID’s kind of been a blessing this year as I don’t need to come out to my brother and sister-in-law or extended family, and it’ll just be a quiet year with my parents, who I came out to a few months ago, so hopefully no intentional misgendering.
My mother is the only remaining practicing Catholic in my immediate family. As far as I’m concerned Christmas is about family and coincidentally is the day some possibly fictional person was born. ( I’m Agnostic). It’s the only time of year we have turkey. Our family dynamics haven’t changed in years. My brother and I hate my dad but my sister only dislikes him. My brother treats us like strangers he’s stuck with for the holidays. My mother and sister are way too giggly and I wish everyone would leave me alone. We have a tree and some basic decorations.
It generally always involves an extreme amount of religious stuff, coupled with my parents and their friends trying to one-up each other on who spent the most effort decorating their house. Ya'll want to see how competitive this gets?
It will be a low key Christmas for me this year, due to Covid-19. The Christmas Tree went up last weekend and it took most of the morning because the dog wanted to be involved too. We had to keep stopping for fussing and cuddles.... and then we had to deal with the dog. There will be no Midnight Mass this year in order to stay safe. Unlike some of the crazy, money making mega churches, I tend to follow a religious tradition that puts humanity first... such a novel idea at Christmas, don't you think?
We celebrate Yaldā Night, the longest and darkest night of the year. Not a holiday though, as it's related to Iranian national culture.
It's the longest night of the year and after that, the nights start to become shorter and days longer. So, at this night it was supposed that the evil forces (darkness) are at their peak and we should stay together to be safe and then celebrate the birth of the sun. Something like that. But now it's a non-religious celebration and involves families and relatives gatherings to eat and maybe reading some poetry. Eating red fruits, especially pomegranate is one of the most symbolic. Red fruits resembles the red light of the sun at the dawn. It's between the last day of autumn and first day of winter in our calendar (around 20 Dec)
Celebrating the holidays is always a little interesting for me. I live 2 hours away from my family and pretty much constantly work. The pandemic has not helped either. That being said though, I was able to get some time off the week before Christmas, so I was able to see my family. It has been hard this year, I have not been able to visit my family much with the pandemic. So, getting to see them was enough of a celebration for me. My dad always decorates the house so it is always really cool around the holidays. I was not able to visit my grandma this year because she is in a nursing home and they have had outbreaks there. Usually I visit her on the holidays, because she has had a hard time since my grandpa passed. So, I kept it pretty low key this year. I was thankful to see my dad and stepmom this year.