The holiday season

[rapidrabbit]

There are parts of the holiday season that are intrinsically linked not with the generic "holiday" term that encompasses all winter celebrations, but with Christmas, that one which holds so much spiritual baggage for some. Unfortunately, I'm one who greatly enjoys all those festive aspects of the holiday, but I become painfully uncomfortable when

Comments

[theafaye]

Children are the reason why we do Christmas too. It's even worse in NZ when Christmas hits in the middle of summer, so you lose the midwinter feasting aspect. We decided after the first year to have a midwinter family feast instead of Christmas, only that was the first year the children really got excited about Christmas, and I didn't have the heart to be a party pooper just for the sake of it.

Still, our Christmasses are relatively quiet affairs. Remove the midwinter aspect and it becomes solely a celebration of consumerism if you're not Christian. We don't go overboard on gifts or food but we enjoy a day together as a family. My emphasis has always been on birthdays anyway, so those are more important to us. It's just nice having a bank holiday so we can all be together.