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amylou321

Floofish. Holidays and Birthdays and Life. When to celebrate?

4 years ago

Do you have any holiday birthdays in your family? Halloween, Christmas, etc? How are they celebrated? On the day or on another day? My sister has a November birthday which occasionally falls on Thanksgiving. As children, we would celebrate her birthday the day before on those years that it fell on Thanksgiving. I remember thinking that it was SO unfair! She did not seem bothered by it at the time but as an adult she told me that while she was happy to be celebrated, she did not like that it felt like they were kind of shoving her special day aside just to honor a holiday which easily could have been celebrated on another day. Like it was kind of rushed through as an obligation in order to prepare for the main event. I know that that was NOT my parents intentions, but I see her point.

A close friend of mine in childhood had her birthday on Halloween. It was celebrated on Halloween, with whatever theme she wanted, it did not have to be a Halloween themed birthday, though it usually was. She, like most kids loved Halloween. Trick or Treat was just a birthday bonus for her.


I do not know any Christmas babies. What a conundrum to be in! And add to that the complete injustice of probably having "combined" gifts! Yes Yes, first world problems I know......


I work at a place that never closes. Not for holidays or any other reason. So that means I sometimes work on holidays, usually in fact, as the younger more entitled coworkers always find a way to wiggle out of it, while me and the other night minion just kind of take it as it comes. Since my place as the family cook is secure, if the family want to celebrate a holiday, and they want me to cook for it, it will be on MY schedule. That means Thanksgiving may or may not be ON Thanksgiving, unless they cook it themselves, which they sometimes do. Everyone celebrates Christmas at home with their own families. No hauling kids from house to house. The family Christmas party if we have one is always the week after sometime.


Last year was nice I am ashamed to admit. There was no to-do about schedules and this or that. Everyone stayed at home. Well, I didn't. I worked both Thanksgiving and Christmas, but I cooked a nice meal for me and SO on both occasions before I went in. And at work we had a nice festive midnight breakfast where myself and a friend of mine from another department cooked a ton of festive brunchy and breakfast foods for everyone on shift to enjoy together on Christmas. On Thanksgiving, one of the men brought his turkey fryer and fried up some turkeys for everyone to snack on. He brought some homemade bread for everyone to make a sandwich if they wanted. It was so nice and both Holidays were as cozy as one can get at work.


How do you schedule your celebrations? Are you insistent on following the calendar, or are you more flexible?


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