BIG CHRISTMAS? QUIET CHRISTMAS? TRAVEL PLANS? Which of these applies to you this year? Is it the same most years? Has the pandemic altered your plans at all?
We’ve always been pretty much homebodies during the holidays. Then again we always lived fairly close to family so traveling was only short distances.
Personally I cannot fathom traveling through a airport or train station with BIG crowds even before the pandemic. The one time we did travel over the holidays, we made a trip out of it leaving well before the holiday and going home long after it.
When I was a kid one of my favorite traditions was that we did a BIG family get together with a buffet of food and opening our family presents on Christmas Eve. Unfortunately, after my dad passed, this tradition fell by the wayside.
Then on Christmas Day we did Christmas morning at our respective homes with “Santa” gifts and just the immediate family and then we would do a BIG turkey with all the trimmings including my dad’s old fashioned stuffing and giblet gravy with the entire family as well as extended family and friends, which included crazy Aunt Louise and Uncle Herb. I replicated dad’s stuffing recipe a few years ago (Oatnut Sourdough Herb Dressing) and that is now a MUST TRADITION for the Christmas meal no matter what the protein is.
Christmases for us now are MUCH MUCH smaller and our newest tradition in the last several years is watching our favorite traditional Christmas movies like It’s a Wonderful Life and Miracle on 34th Street as well as Hallmark Christmas movies and dreaming about moving to every small town depicted in them, kind of like Stars Hollow from the Gilmore Girls. We loved that show!
This year again we will be having a quiet Christmas with just the two of us. There are several Christmas events leading up to Christmas we will be participating in with friends though. We are also hoping some friends will be able to join us for New Years, but there are no plans set in stone yet.
So what are your plans?
Christmas Eve was always a big gathering with extended family. Last year we stayed here (my parents house is a 3 hour drive) with just my immediate family because of COVID. This year we can be 20 in a house with recommendations by Public Health so we will be going to my parent’s house BUT it will be just my parents with us kids – no other extended family as we are already around 20. Anyhow with mom’s Alzheimer she cannot do the big buffet anymore so we will order a buffet.
NY’s Eve was a big thing at our house – both sides of the family. did not happen last year either. This year is still undetermined – one thing I know for sure is I am not inviting both sides of the family at the same time anymore… just too many people and not enough sitting space in the house.