I'd rather have two Thanksgivings

[pbray]

I don't like Christmas. There, I've said it.

Christmas is a holiday high on stress, and low on the things that matter. It's a holiday about unreasonable expectations, and too much crammed into too short a time. There are endless rounds of holiday parties, writing out holiday cards, travel, and worrying over budgets. We make umpteen trips to the shopping centers, malls, surf the internet, and fret over whether we have found the perfect gifts for family and friends.

Thanksgiving was always the favorite holiday in my family, because it was a day about being with family. And having turkey, which is one of my favorite meals. The only stress of Thanksgiving was the annual tradition of forgetting the rolls in the oven, and wondering if all the dishes would fit in the dishwasher.

Whatever meaning there once was in Christmas has been lost in the endless commercialization of the holiday (buy diamonds now!) and the knowledge that no holiday celebration can ever live up to the hype.

It will be fun to see my nieces, though I know from past experience that they will be completely overwhelmed by the deluge of gifts from family and friends, one of the perils of a large family with only a few children to shop for. And the holiday is a nice chance to spoil those people who have limited means, and can't afford to buy whatever they want for themselves.

And as for the rest, while I deeply appreciate the gifts I'll receive, and the time that my family and friends have put in trying to find gifts for me, I sympathize with the stress that they went through for their holiday shopping.

One of these years I'm going to propose a ban on Christmas-- instead I'll simply buy gifts for people throughout the year whenever I see something that's perfect for them, and ask them to do the same for me. At Christmas time I'll send any leftover cash to a charity, and host a family dinner.

A turkey dinner, naturally.

Wouldn't that be nice?

Comments

[janni.livejournal.com]

I've been moving more and more toward making donations for the adults in my life as part of their gifts. (Not for my nephew, though, because buying a goat in his name is a bit ... abstract for a 10 month old. :-)) Not yet ready to go to a Buy Nothing Christmas (http://www.buynothingchristmas.org/) (though I approve!), but the focus on consumerism does make my skin crawl. There are lots of things worth celebrating around Christmas and other winter holidays, and none of them have anything to do with finding the perfect gift.

I like the cards. But I try to see them as a thing I'm doing because I happen to enjoy it, and actually have no expectations of cards in turn--I do it because I want to, is all.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

I've been moving more and more toward making donations for the adults in my life as part of their gifts

My friend jennifer_dunne does this. In past year's it's been a donation through Heifer International. I think this year she's giving a llama or maybe an alpaca, I always get them confused. I've copied her for the last couple of years, at first donating animals through Heifer, and this year I'm making a donation to Habitat for Humanity.

[mmarques.livejournal.com]

I host 2 Thanksgivings.... one in Canada for my in-laws, and one in the U.S. at my mother's place. They're about 1.5 months apart. :-)

I love shopping for gifts for people, but after going batty with too many cards, we now use gift tags for anything that isn't being stuck in an envelope.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

The excuse to celebrate two Thanksgivings is yet another reason why I'm considering relocating up north....

[origamilady.livejournal.com]

Ditto here
Even as a child, I never really got into the whole "Christmas" fever bit . . . but have gotten even more annoyed lately . . . the local classic rock station started playing Christmas music the day AFTER Halloween ?!?!?!

What my solution has been is to *make* my gifts to people. It means a lot more that way -especially if the gift is something that they could use.

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

Mmm, turkey!

I'm very into Christmas-but I don't believe in spending money for the sake of extravagance, either. I'll spend money because something will be special to someone, but not just because it's expensive, or "hot.". And I've never understood the obsession with jewelry.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Precisely! I'd rather receive a ten dollar present that says that the person really knows who I am, than a one hundred dollar present that could have been bought for just anyone.

That's why I think out of season gifts are so nice, the "I saw this and knew you needed to have it" kind of present.

[pbray.livejournal.com]

Making gifts is a wonderful idea. I've done it in the past--one year I gave everyone handmade quilts, but alas that was before I became a writer and found a new way to suck up my free time.

[melissajm.livejournal.com]

My youngest sister's partcularly good at this sort of present-like when she got my grandpa's favorite salt-rising bread on a summertime trip and froze several loaves to give to him at Christmas, or when she found Vernors' gingerale for my dad.