Holidays or Holidaze or a New Holiday

Does just thinking about the upcoming holidays make you break out in a sweat? Do you get itchy hives at the thought of spending more than 4 hours in the car getting to your destination for "family togetherness"? 

Here is one idea.. start your own holiday. Yah that's what I said. Invite only those who you want to be with, including yourself. That's what our family did. It is the story of Black Christmas. It started after my mom passed away 15 years ago. I came home for Christmas as usual, but it was so very sad. The most depressing tearful day I had experienced since her death.  So the next year I said to dad, I have to work the day after Christmas, which means I have to leave Christmas Day to get home on time.  I said what if we just move our Christmas to the next three day weekend so I have more time to spend at home with you. Plus, the other kids (my step brothers) will be able to come and share the Christmas with us b/c they have already spent their Christmas with their mom.  Dad said, alright, that will be Martin Luther King Jr. Holiday in January, and then he said it will be our Black Christmas. I laughed b/c it would be black for MLK, it would be black for us without mom, but it turned out to be one of the most fun things we did ever.  We invited others to share our Black Christmas. We gave thanks for the day off, to remember what Dr. King did for our Nation and we exchanged our gifts. We had no memories of my mom with this, so we could move forward with our fun and create new memories. We invited our Jewish friends, our Jamacian  friends, our Cuban friends,  friends of friends. Every one was invited. Of every color, every faith, every nation.  No one was offended by us referring to it as Black Christmas. Matter of fact, my friends of color wished me happy Black Christmas every MLK weekend and laughed as they did it.

We got together last year, we had a blast. We shared great food, we exchanged gifts and took a lot of pictures. Each year the group changes a bit with who comes, what house we are meeting up at and new friends are invited to participate.  The star of the show at the center, is my dad. Surrounded by all his kids, grand kids, laughter and great amounts of silliness; he is happy. 

I wish you the very best of your holidays. For whatever reason sometimes holidays can be very difficult and heartbreaking. So invent a new one, start a tradition and invited a friend.

This is Girl Schmuck signing off.

2 comments:

  1. I love this post! I have always got a kick out of hearing you talk about your black christmas. I think there are others who need to read this. How do I link it to facebook?

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  2. I think you just post and then before you hit enter, you type in my web address.. www.girlschmuck.com And facebook takes the rest. Thanks for the plug.

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