November 23, 2005

  • Holy Swiss Cheese, Batman!  It's already that time of the year jumping out at us again.

    Being that we are now a
    multi-cultural family we have decided to try and celebrate lots of
    different winter holidays.  I have been having fun learning about
    new celebrations.  I've noticed that most of them revolve around
    light.  This time of year being so dark, I like this.  My
    elder daughter is excited about this idea because she thinks she will
    be getting gifts for all of the holidays we celebrate.  That is
    actually very amusing, since I tend to go the other way about
    commercialism/buying/shopping and she knows this.

    My friend told me that they do
    'festivus' - as made-up by George's father in Seinfeld.  I never
    saw this episode, but I don't get TV reception, and we are slowly
    watching the DVD stuff; it hasn't gotten to that episode yet. 
    Anywho, festivus starts in their family with St. Nicholas day, where
    everyone has hot chocolate with whipped cream in a special Santa
    mug.  Followed by St. Lucia day where the eldest girl in the
    family makes breakfast for everyone.  There is a floating Hindu holiday
    called Diwali where the house gets lit up with candles and the kids get
    to light sparklers outside.  Boxing Day/St.Stephen's Day is a day
    dedicated to the helping of those less fortunate.  The list of
    celebrations can go on for as long or as short as one wants. 

    For one of the days we want to add
    a board game marathon.  This is a major concession on my part, I
    don't like to play competitive games.  I have been learning,
    however, not to be so stuffy and just have fun without worrying about
    winning or losing. 

    So, my question to you is... what kind of family celebration ritual would you start? 

Comments (5)

  • I love helping the kids make decorations and posters - one of my favourite Halloween posters that Carrie did (a big black cat arching its back with the words "SCARED YET?" written underneath it - the answer's got to be NO cos the cat is just so cute and cuddly and looks like it's yawning rather than scared) is now waiting to be framed and makes me smile every time I see it. How about a day of making wall decorations to kick off the entire holiday season?

  • Diwali is huge here - there's a really large Hindu population and Mayte and Pratik celebrate it with his parents.  The fireworks are inevitably fantastic - Gunnersbury Park put on a great show   It really is the festival of lights - it's awesome to watch   I'm reading your email right now, by the way, and it sucks - not sure how much I can help, though

  • I would LIKE to start a tradition of spending Christmas somewhere warm - like St Lucia, or Key West. Christmas in the west of the UK is usually cold and wet with miserable grey skies. Don't think it's likely to happen though.

    lefthanded 

  • Gooshy Feel Good Christmas Movie Marathon.

    Stuff like; It's a Wonderful Life, Miracle on 34th Street, A Chirstmas Carol, Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer (stop-motion version), White Christmas, How the Grinch Stole Christmas (animated version), and National Lampoon's Christmas Vacation (just to cut the saccerine a bit).

  • I would like to start a tradition of waking up in the morning to snow, but gone by lunchtime so we can go to the beach in the afternoon.  The Caribbean is paradisical but it isn't Christmassy at all.

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