Happy Holidays! [NOT 9/12/20]

9/12/20 Hannibal 72

There are other holidays in December. Do you celebrate Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, or Yule? Talk about your traditions. Bitch about Christmas overshadowing your festivities. Or complain about the relentless Christmas presence even if you do celebrate it. As always, this is an open thread. Feel free to ignore my prompts and chat about whatever.

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72 Comments

  1. Good topic for today, we went to go cut down our Xmas tree today w/ two grumpy girls in the middle of finals.  Of course, I was left to find a place that still had u-cut & I did.  Called to make sure they even had some Noble’s still but then wife went on Yelp as we are driving & read reviews that all the trees left were brown.  So, since all other nearby places had no more u-cut, I found a place with really nice looking trees about 20 miles away but you needed reservations to go in.  We couldn’t get one for about 90 mins so killed time at a nearby high end grocery store.  When we got to the nursery having these great trees they were between $185 to $300!!!  We ran out of there and found a smaller place with some nice trees but still kinda pricey.  People super nice but they tied my tree to my racks very poorly and almost lost the tree on the freeway.  Had to pull over twice & ended up using my own straps that I luckily had.  Fun family bonding!  At least got some good dim sum on way home.

    • I gave up on cut your own reluctantly a few years ago because the close farms have too few trees and I don’t want to drive over an hour one way to get one. But as I think I wrote a couple of days ago, we went to a close by garden center for our tree and they were wildly decorated in a fun way. The tree is kind of oddly crooked but it works — there is no mistaking it for an artificial one.

  2. That’s a lot of money for a tree! Glad you found something a little cheaper. There’s so much pressure around the holidays to have FUN! I can’t tell if it’s better or worse this year. But good dim sum is a great way to enjoy yourself.

  3. Despite being Jewish I love Christmas, which probably has something to do with celebrating it with my Catholic father growing up, but is mostly just that I dig the movies and the songs and the baking and the Christmas markets. One of my closest friends is Muslim, and for the past several years we’ve had Jewish-Muslim Christmas together, which consists of gift exchange, lots of food, and watching The Holiday and The Fellowship of the Ring. 
    Something I do do every year for Hanukkah though is watch this an unnecessary number of times:

    • We need more Hannukah songs. I loved the one Meg had in the DOT the other day.

      I never really enjoyed Christmas. Growing up my nonna lived with us, which was wonderful, but it meant everyone came to our house for the holidays.  I had to spend the whole time helping with the cooking, cleaning, caring for younger cousins. We opened our gifts on Christmas Eve, put them away, went to mass, came home, and went to bed. There was nothing fun about it. Later when the celebration moved to one of my sister’s homes all the work fell on her, and me since nobody else would help. If all that wasn’t bad enough, I’m going to whisper so nobody else hears, it’s my berfday.  I never had parties, or a cake, or any of the other birthday stuff everyone else had. My parents tried when I was small but to be fair there was only so much they could do and even that fizzled out when I was still pretty young. BOO HOO lol. Your Jewish-Muslim Christmas sounds lovely. Do you have plans to do it by Zoom this year?

      • Happy birthday @Hannibal, my fellow Capricorn!  I knew a family who celebrated their Christmas baby’s birthday in July (for a party, etc.) Growing up, money was always tight in January  (when mine is) and stores were sold out of almost everything. Snivel whine. But it is a good thing now, my work gives birthday as a personal holiday…January is a loooong work month after extra days off in November and December. Score!

      • OMG no your birthday! You didn’t have a party even a few days before or after the actual day? 
        We probably won’t Zoom.  I tried a few times in the spring and summer to make virtual hangs a thing within our friend group, and my Christmas friend always resisted. And I don’t at all mind the idea of a solo Christmas. 

        • No, there was always too much to do getting ready for Christmas. And afterwards everyone was too tired. One year when I was 19 I went to hang out Christmas night with some friends of my boyfriend. He must have told them it was my birthday because after we’d been there a couple of hours having drinks they brought out a cake with candles and everything. Like a dork I cried, lol. It’s the only real birthday cake I remember.  My mom would always say one of the Christmas desserts was my cake but it really wasn’t. We couldn’t even have it until the entire extended family was there. I don’t blame my parents, it was just too hard to pull off.

      • When I was a youngin’, my stepdad decided, even though he wasn’t religious, to go to Catholic church on Sundays. It lasted about a year and it was confusing to say the least. Not because my mom made us go to a Southern Baptist Sunday school until the year before, but because it was the only one around that had Cathedral status and the minister or whatever they’re called in Catholicism didn’t talk, but either sang or chanted in tongue, and in rhythm, to the devil like a fake teenage Pagan with a Ouija board  in a bad seance birthday party. Who knows?

        For a Protestant, which I very much was in its definitive term, it was a constant game of “guess when to stand, kneel, or sit.”

        Because I wasn’t Catholic, I had to kneel whilst waiting for everyone to get drunk and eat Jesus or whatever they do which was the sign that the experience was FINALLY close to the end. One more “song” and a few “peace be with you” handshakes to go before I could go home to play with toys and put it all behind me.

        All that ended within a year or so except for Christmas Eve midnight mass. I knew it was all a bunch of shit when I realised how busy the church was on Christmas Eve in comparison to every other Sunday. It didn’t matter though because I got to stay up late and wake up to presents from Santa, who was very real unlike the fake man in the sky for whom I was going to mass…not that it mattered because Saddam Hussein was starting World War 3 and we were all going to be dead soon anyway.

        Merry Holidays, everyone!

        • Yup, as Hannibal said, it’s Latin, and the priest at a Cathedral is called the Dean.  I once knew someone who referred to himself as a “Chreaster.”  I said, “what’s a Chreaster?”  He said, “someone who goes to church on Christmas and Easter.”

        • This comment was in no way a knock on my stepdad. Never was anything pounded down my throat by him or my mom. There is no way I’d be where I am in life without him. He was an “old timer” in AA and was adamant that a “higher power” could be anything so long as it wasn’t oneself thinking they were all high and mighty. Speaking of birthdays (and happy birthday!), he died a week before he would have received his 50th medallion. His AA group hosted the celebration anyway. Even though I’m not one to believe in any specific religion or a specific higher power so I doubt he hears me, I wish him a happy birthday every December 2nd even though he was born on September 1st.

          God giveth and taketh away…or so it goes.

      • HAAAAAAAAPPPPPPYYYYYY BIRTHDAY!!!!!!!!!!😁😃😀🤗🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳🥳
         
        I hope it’s been at least a good one, and that you got to do or have something fun & lovely!😉😁🤗

          • Oh, sorry😖
            So…. *ON* Christmas-onChristmas, then?
            I wish you an EXCELLENT Twelve-days-of-Birthday then!
            And will suggest that you ought to do something really kind to yourself, each of the next few days!**😉😁🤗💖
            I thought you had one like soooooo many of my family & friends–in these days leading up to, or directly after that day (2 of us 13 cousins are in Dec, one Auntie is a New Year’s baby, and current roommate is a couple days after Christmas…
            Had a friend some time back, whose day was the 25th–he had a love/hate with it (similar to the groundhogs day folks I’ve known, tbh!), because he always DID get more presents than his siblings… but he never really got to have friends over for parties *on* his birthday.🙃
             
            His parents DID make sure he got his own cake, though!
            **OR, if you feel so inclined, you could choose the more traditional “12 Days of Christmas”–from the 25th, to Epiphany/12th Night/ January 6th😉

            • Since we can no longer edit (for VERY reasonable reasons!😉), 
              My favorite suggestion would be to celebrate a “12 days of Birthday” on the days leading up to your Birthday, and then celebrate the traditional “12 Days of Christmas” from the 25th-6th, because THEN you basically get 24 days (25?), of presents and good things, to make up for all the shitty years, when you DIDN’T get the celebration you deserved…
              And remember, you could TOTALLY celebrate that way, because you are a grownup, and can MAKE all the rules now!!😉😁🤗💖💖💖
              To quote a couple of the best characters on Parks & Rec, 
              “Treat Yourself!” 😉

            • On the very day! I never thought about claiming all 12 days but I’m going to adopt that idea this year and do at least one little special each of them. Thanks for the great suggestion.

    • Was just talking with a friend who is Jewish but they always did “Santa” and she loves it. She’s doing it with her kids but the oldest (who turns five on New Year’s) heard from the other kids that “Santa” isn’t supposed to come to their house because they are Jewish. He had a huge meltdown today but he was soothed when she told him he’ll still get presents. 

       

      • Mrs. Butcher grew up in NYC, so as a little girl she thought she was Jewish.  She came home from school one day in tears because the Jewish kids in her class got into an argument with her over it.  They asked her, “do you believe in Jesus?”  She, being 5 or 6, said, “yes!”.  They said, “then you’re not Jewish.”  She said it took weeks for her to get over her disappointment.

      • Damn, kids can be horrible little monsters. Poor little guy. Some of my Jewish friends did the whole Christmas too-  tree, presents, Milk and cookies for Santa. It never even occurred to me that they wouldn’t.

        • One of my last pre-pandemic pics is a selfie of me and the little guy because I would babysit them a fair amount. Aunt Meg misses all my little friends (and I’m guessing their parents miss the free babysitting!) 

  4. I’ve already mentioned that our traditions are essentially gone, but as a life long Christmas celebrator, it makes me fucking crazy how much Christmas Creep there is in the rest of the calendar.  Once upon a time, you didn’t see or hear shit about Christmas until the day after Thanksgiving.  Then it started in early November, then it started before Halloween, then it went past Labor Day (which I honestly didn’t expect), and now we hear about Christmas in fucking Summer.  When the girls were growing up they wanted to start playing Christmas music in October.  I laid down the law:  the other holidays should be celebrated without having to do so under the shadow of Christmas.  You can play all the Christmas music you want starting the day after Thanksgiving.  They bitched about it every single year, but I did not budge. 

  5. I dunno if I’ll manage to make a Plum Pudding this year, or not… I kiiiinda want to, but if I don’t end up with two days in a row *off* before the week of Christmas, it may not happen, because it’s an ALL day process, with *extra* process😉 (soooooooooooo much chopping, y’all, THEN combining it, and boiling the damn thing for 3-5 hours!!!🙃)
     
    My only real “tradition” isn’t really much of one, it’s just that I make a lazier/cheaper version of this roast.
     
    I don’t typically bother with a ribeye roast–it’s too expensive… I just get whatever’s on sale before the holiday, that has a decent (but not overly thick!) cap of fat on one side, put the Wasabi crust on, and cook it all fat-side up.
     
    The rest of the meal is rounded out by Mashed ‘Taters with butter (no gravy with this recipe), the Wasabi Sauce in the roast recipe, some sort of veg/salad, some sort of bread, and whatever sides i feel like making😉

    • I also just noticed the typo in that recipe…
      It’s supposed to say a small, 4 *TO* 6 pound roast….
       
      You’ll need a A LOT  more Wasabi, garlic, and spices, if you intend *46 pounds* as your “small” roast!😉😆😂🤣

    • Your meal sounds delicious. Who are you sharing it with?

      I used to help my sister do a rib eye roast and a turkey every year. Last year was the first year I didn’t travel and I decided I wasn’t spending another Christmas cooking and cleaning. I did some easy apps and finger foods for Christmas Eve Store-bought panettone and stollen for breakfast Christmas morning, cheese board, and leftover apps for the rest of the day. I’m not even baking cookies this year, I ordered them from Ferraras. I am going to make butcher’s peanut butter candy, and maybe some maple fudge. 

      I used to do plum puddings and fruit cakes with my nonna. It’s a lot of work! 

      • Mmm store bought pannetone. That’s a tradition in my husband’s family that I appreciate. 
         
        My family’s food traditions that I carry on are Pillsbury cinnamon rolls on Christmas morning, and peanut butter balls sometime around Christmas. Also sometimes, but not always, my great grandmother’s butter cookies, which we make with her super old cookie press into fun shapes. That’d be fun to do with Lil this year, maybe I’ll see if I can borrow the cookie press from my mom.
         
        We didn’t usually do gingerbread houses, but I did one with Lil the other day and he had fun, so that might be a tradition going forward. 

        • Oh, I feel like I should also add – my husband’s family is Jewish, but they celebrate Christmas and not Hanukkah… I mean, they’re atheist Jews and my husband only found out he was Jewish when he was like 8, but I still think it’s funny. Meanwhile, my family used to light the menorah through Hanukkah, despite not being Jewish, because my grandfather was Jewish and we enjoyed the tradition as kids. 

            • I know lots of people who celebrate it as a religious holiday. More that celebrate it as a mostly secular cultural thing, but definitely plenty celebrate it as the birth of Jesus. It’s like one of the two times of year when most Christians go to church.
               
              But yeah, I’d say the majority of my Jewish friends growing up celebrated both Christmas and Hanukkah. 

              • I know a lot of people go to church on Christmas. But I think the religious significance has been overshadowed by the cultural aspects of the holiday. It’s not like Easter where the importance of the Lenten season and Easter itself is bigger than the bunny and eggs. But maybe that’s only natural since one of the holidays is a big birthday party and the other the entire reason for a religion. 

                • Fair enough – if we’re saying the cultural secular stuff outweighs the religious stuff, I think that’s true for almost everyone (I think jehovahs witnesses and the like aren’t allowed to celebrate the secular stuff, no gift giving, etc). But I do know people that make a real big deal about the birth of Jesus all through the holiday season. My grandmother was one of them. And when I went atheist, she started really going over the top trying to remind me the meaning of the holiday was about Jesus at every turn. 

      • If i cook this year, it’ll be the roommates, our roommate’s mom (she’s her PCA, and already in our bubble–she did Thanksgiving with us, too😉), and me.
        Usually, it’s my mom & dad, me, and whichever of my roommates happen to be home that day😁
        Tbh, if I don’t end up doing the roast at Christmas, it’ll be Easter–i usually do it for one/both of them, because it’s so easy–grinding the garlic is the most difficult part, and is REALLY, not that hard😉

  6. I have no complaints this year about the holidays. We are doing the traditions we enjoy, the tree, the music. I have a reprieve from being the sole cook for a Christmas crowd of 14, give or take. We will do Christmas Eve lunch with my son and his family; I will cook appetizers and favorites. And make a nice punch. Then instead of four loads of dishes, I will get to relax. Pretty chill.

  7. I put up my Christmas lights this evening! A couple years ago I got some solar ones from amazon and I love them. The lights themselves are a bit tinier than typical lights but it gives them a pretty fairy light type look. I only had 11 command clips left over from last year (oops!) so I only put one up strand instead of two, but they’re really long strands so I was still able to line the whole front of the porch. 

  8. Well, I’m an artificial tree guy, because allergies (both my daughter and me). But I had a tree I loved. Pre-lit, separated into three sections, branches fold up like an umbrella. Takes 10 minutes to set up, and then it’s time to drink and decorate. Mostly drink.
     
    This year I set it up, hit the light switch, and the middle section refused to light. I tried tinkering with some bulbs but there were 100 or so on the middle section, and it’s supposed to stay lit even with one bulb burnt out. I concluded that one of the wires had broken inside the sheathing. I reluctantly decided to replace it. 
     
    Then things went south. Holy crap, comparable trees are expensive! I bought my now-defunct tree at an after-Christmas sale. The lower-end trees were sold out everywhere. The cheapest I could locate was $200. I swore my daughter to secrecy and bought it. I mean, it’s cool and all (my old tree had white lights which I prefer, but this has LEDs that you can set to several different colors) but DAMN that is a lot to pay. 
     
    However, Loveshaq’s story makes me feel better about it. If this one lasts five years, I’m coming out ahead. 

    • We have an artificial tree too. We use our fireplace a lot and it dried the tree out too fast even when I kept up with watering it. The nice ones are very expensive but yes, at least the last longer than one holiday.

    • I grew up w/ fake trees, in Hawaii real trees were so expensive & after 2 weeks on a ship getting there were a fire hazard.  My wife always cut them down.  This is first year we bought one already cut in at least 10 years.  Seems stupid since I’m surrounded by evergreens I could just go cut down w/ my chainsaw  but that is frowned upon in my neighborhood.  

  9. My tree is also artificial. It’s now about 6 years old but it still looks pretty nice. It was from Home Depot- a Martha Stewart prelit tree with gold glitter tipped branches. After so many uses, the lights went out 2 years ago so I got some cheap ones from Target and light it myself now which takes extra time to set up…but every time I look for a replacement, I never find a tree as pretty as my old one. I’m a nostalgic loser haha

    • It’s hard to find the right tree. I can’t use half of my ornaments. I needed a skinny tree that fits in a corner because the house I live in now is STUPID!  

  10. This might finally be the year, the one I’ve been fantasizing about for over 20 years now.  The year I finally, mercilessly, break that fucking Rosie O’Donnell Christmas CD into 50 fucking pieces and grind every one of those fuckers under my heel while I drink Natty Boh and laugh maniacally.

  11. My husband is fundamentally opposed to the very idea of traditions, so the small amount that we have are from my insistence. We buy a small living potted tree every year, which lives in the house decorated through the winter, and plant it in the spring. It was sad leaving our old house with the trees, but we planted the one from last Christmas at my parents’ because we knew we’d be moving. 
     
    My family does a Christmas grab and we all prefer it to traditional gifts, so we actually stopped doing individual gifts a couple years back and only do the grab. We do it in a way where there are multiple rounds per person, with gift trading on your turn. We won’t be doing it this year… which is sad. We agreed to only send gifts for the kids. 
     
    My mom actually gave me my old ornament advent calendar (we used the same one every year, and I didn’t know chocolate advent calendars were a thing until a few years ago) and lildamnhero has been totally loving it, so that’s going to be a tradition. 

    •  I would have hated leaving behind the past year’s trees too. Did you get a potted tree this year? My daughter had a felt Advent Calendar when she was a child and she loved it too. 

      • We haven’t bought one yet but we’re planning on this weekend. It’s been a hectic time still settling into the new house, so we’re later than usual. But hey, nothing about this year is usual. I’m not even sure where our lights and ornaments are (other than the little advent calendar ones now). 

  12. nowadays december is just criffmaff for me 


    but kid me used to love december
    5th sinterklaas (wooo presents)
    15th birthday (woo presents)
    but i grewed up… combined sinterklaas into criffmaff and birthdays are a thing that shall not be mentioned
    also normally my entire extended family organizes a bigly family do (great food…okay entertainment…questionable company…) its a thing i never thought id miss if it stopped happening
    but here we are in 2020 and whadaya know…
    25th chriffmaff (woo presents from the english side of the family)

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