Friday, December 21, 2018
Alternative holiday tradition.
I was listening to the radio on my way home from visiting mom and they were talking about different holiday traditions. One is a Christmas day tradition that is not actually about celebrating Christmas. They were talking about a tradition I have heard about before. One where many Jewish families spend the afternoon together at the movie theater and then go out after to a Chinese restaurant.
They were saying that the two cultures combined to create an alternative to the day. Jewish people could go out for the afternoon and not feel judged because the Chinese people also did not celebrate the holiday.
Now many non Jewish people are starting to do the same. It's a lot less hassle to go out for Christmas dinner, than to cook all day while trying to entertain a house full of guests. Plus even better, when the day is over, everyone goes home to a quiet house that doesn't look like a tornado went through. I was thinking that would be a good tradition to follow, not because I have family issues, the opposite actually, I pretty much have no more family. I was thinking there are a lot of people in the same boat. Either people with no family around or people who don't celebrate Christmas, I think it would be fun to get a few friends together and go out for the afternoon. I would imagine that you do not need to worry about crowds on Christmas day. If mom wasn't able to celebrate Christmas with us, I can see myself trying something like that, it would beat staying at home watching "It's a wonderful life" over and over... and over lol.
Today is the solstice, the days will thankfully begin to get longer. On a cloudy day it can be dark here by 4:00, blaaaaaah! Can we say, DEEEeeeepressing! However the darkness is banished around here, banished by my pretty pretty Christmas lights, I bet who ever invented colour Christmas lights was probably secretly gay!
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8 comments:
spouse and I always go out for chinese/japanese/indian/thai/vietnamese food on thanksgiving and xmess. sometimes we go to a movie. we are not jewish, nor are we religious. it's just something to do that we don't do during the week. spouse wants to see "mary poppins returns".
No invite? I see how it is.
I suspect you never got around to putting up Christmas lights this year, and are just trying to bluster your way into Xmas respectability. I note, for example, that you did not post any pictures.
Winter Solstice? It's 1:12 AM it is 59 degrees and we just had a thunder storm. Windows cracked open and I'm running around naked.
Maddie! Don't put images into poor Steven's head!
Here on the north shore of Long Island the kids get Passover and Rosh Hashana off from public school so the Chinese restaurants are PACKED on Xmas day. Most of them have Hannukah menorah decorations instead of Xmas glitter and it's very cute. After our Chinese dinner we're going to go see Aquaman, and another Xmas will have been celebrated in the traditional way.
When I lived in New York I used to go to theater on Christmas Eve. I would go to the half price ticket window and get a cheap ticket for the hottest show on Broadway.
My husband and I celebrate Yule. It starts on the Winter Solstice and continues to Jan 1st. It's something of a Scandinavian thing that we do every year. We also give only one great big expensive gift that is not for just one person but a gift both of us can use. This year the big gift given by both of us to both of us was a FoodSaver system. Both of us can use it for various things. We then give little things for the rest of Yule like books, movie videos, music CD's, etc. David really likes this little system we have because the big gift is something we plan on all year and it has to be something we really need.
Another thing is, we don't decorate with a tree. We do put up a wreath, holly, and mistletoe. It feels more festive and less of a hassle. Also, we never wrap presents that we give to each other. We like to keep it simple and with no waste.
The Chinese restaurant owners - no fools - make a big hype here about having Christmas Eve dinner at their places.
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