| T O P I C R E V I E W |
| HFox |
Posted - Dec 13 2007 : 07:35:04 AM
Does anyone here celebrate other Winter holidays instead of or in addition to Christmas?
In our family we celebrate Yule on the Winter Solstice, Santa comes on the 25th, and we have a Carpatho-Russyn celebration on January 6th.
Anyone else? |
| 15 L A T E S T R E P L I E S (Newest First) |
| one_dog_per_acre |
Posted - Jan 01 2008 : 08:25:22 AM
I love you, Pagan Farmgirls! This topic makes me smile:)
Trish
Buddhist Farmgirl #91
Make cupcakes not war! |
| HFox |
Posted - Dec 22 2007 : 06:41:44 AM
Its nice to see such variety here! I hope everyone has a Happy Holiday Season, regardless of tradition... |
| kissmekate |
Posted - Dec 18 2007 : 9:54:26 PM
Tasha, your brother sounds very UN-Christian like. I hate self righteous snobs like him, he makes all Christians appear to be uptight and ignorant. Shame on him, who is he to judge anything!!!!!
I am a Christian, and we celebrate Christmas.
On Christmas Eve we all cram into my Grandma's tiny house (she won't give it up) eat ourselves sick and open a few gifts.
On Christmas Day, the kids and I head out to my parent's house in the morning and open gifts from Santa. (Okay, they are from me and Grandma and Grandpa) We eat cinnamon rolls made by my Mom and read the paper. Listen to new cds, watch new movies, page through new books. Relax
If a good movie is out, we'll trek to the movies in the afternoon. Come home and have a great dinner made by my Mom.
Then the kids and I go home before the diabetic coma sets in. LOL
In the past we used to have a big "to-do" on Christmas Day, but it always seemed like the burden of hosting and cooking landed on my Mom's shoulders, instead of my Aunt taking her turn. So when she divorced my uncle, we quit doing that.
The past few years, on the Saturday after Christmas, my Mom makes home made pizza and invites my ex-husband and his "new" family over for dinner. He has three other children with his "new" wife that my parents adore. They are the closest thing to more Grandchildren that they my parents will get since I am done, and my brother is in no hurry to get married. And her parents live in Washington with bad health, and his Mom isn't too interested in being the Grandma. So, everyone wins.
It isn't awkward since I am very good friends with the "new" wife, and love their children like they are my own. They even call me Aunt "Kake". (the little one calls me that-it stuck)
Don't miss out on a blessing, just because it isn't packaged the way you expected. ~MaryJo Copeland |
| GaiasRose |
Posted - Dec 17 2007 : 08:16:27 AM
we celebrate solistice and in fact, yesterday I was told by my "holier than thou" brother (a self righteous adultering SOB) that I was going to hell and dragging my children with me after he had nothing to say about the issue of Jesus not being born on December 25 (he started it....)IT was pretty heated....
ANYWAY....we celebrate and stay awake all night on Long Night and are up to see the Sun be born. I am doing the shopping today to bake cookies through this week. Rob has to work on Solstice but its only till noon. The girls open one gift on Yule and the rest get opened when Santa comes. So anyhow, we bring cookies and hot chocolate and blankets on sleds to our back field where the best view of sunrise is. On Yule we make popcorn and cranberry strings and peanut butter and seed pine cones for the animal friends outside. We play all day and just have fun being together and greeting the warm sun. Grace asks me everyday "Mom, is hte Sun dead yet?" to which my reply is "nope, not for X days...pretty sooon!"
We do the Christmas thing in that we go down for his family on the EVE before, then we come home that night and do the Santa thing the next day and just stay home.
We do our best to teach the girls about the other beliefs there are and teach about the holidays that those beliefs have-ESPECIALLY since so many converge this time of year. I am hard on the lookout for a nice Mennorah for next year (been looking for two years now-think I might have to cave and buy on etsy. Not many-if any-Jewish people up here. we want them to know about it all so they dont turn out like my hostile and hating and angry brother. how sad!
~*~Brightest Blessings~*~
Tasha-Rose
Farmgirl Sister #88
Blogs: http://gaiarose.wordpress.com
http://womonandsprout.wordpress.com
http://youtube.com/profile?user=GaiasRose
Homepage:
http://ForestFaeries.etsy.com
 |
| HFox |
Posted - Dec 17 2007 : 05:30:57 AM
Rosemary..
I have to admit that we buy our 'nog from a local farm market. I've never made it, maybe this year I might try... |
| jo Thompson |
Posted - Dec 14 2007 : 09:43:21 AM
We are huge about the winter solstice, I just returned from Peru and it was so weird they were about to celebrate summer solstice (it's summer there)!
It's wonderful to celebrate the coming light! I have my little llama ornaments up on the fireplace, no solstice tree yet!!
jo
http://web.mac.com/thomja/iWeb/Site/Peru.html
"life is drab without a lab"
http://web.mac.com/thomja/ |
| Rosemary |
Posted - Dec 14 2007 : 08:55:01 AM
[quote]Originally posted by HFox
Rosemary--
Gasp! I can't believe that after 6 years of being pagan I called it the Equinox, instead of the Solstice!!
How embarrassing!
Can I write it off as my pregnant brain being befuddled?
Pregnant for SIX YEARS? Wow, that's carrying Paganism a little too far, I think ;-)
Your family traditions sound very nice. I'm a big fan of eggnog. Do you make your own?
HEY EVERYBODY: LAST CALL FOR EGGNOG RECIPES! |
| HFox |
Posted - Dec 13 2007 : 1:47:52 PM
Rosemary--
Gasp! I can't believe that after 6 years of being pagan I called it the Equinox, instead of the Solstice!!
How embarrassing!
Can I write it off as my pregnant brain being befuddled?
As far as which holiday gets the most attention, I have to say that Santa coming gets most of the kids' attention. We usually have an open house-type thing, where the Christmas-celebrating friends and relatives can stop by for appies, snacks and cookies. Nothing overly strenuous. For the longest time, we had Chinese food on Christmas, "Christmas Story-Style". But now, it's too exhorbitant to take our whole crew to the restaurant.
We have the biggest feast on Yule. And we have our special traditions then. We have a small outdoor fire, burn the Yule log, drink hot cocoa or egg nog, sometimes hot buttered rum for the grown-ups. We used to let the kids stay up late for Yule, but there was the problem of them getting up at dawn to see the sunrise. Three overtired kids aren't my idea of a great day.
On January 6th, we have a huge meal of Mushroom Soup, Piroshki and Stuffed Cabbage. |
| Rosemary |
Posted - Dec 13 2007 : 09:53:14 AM
We celebrate Yule (in the original Pagan sense) on the eve of the Winter Solstice. There's always a "Christmas tree" -- that tradition has deep Pagan roots, after all. We always decorate ours in little white lights and sunshiny-gold ornaments. Our house is in fact very Christmassy-looking because of all the holly and ivy , rosemary (my favorite herb -- it smells divine, doesn't it?), cinnamon and other "sunny" spices, red velvet ribbons, tons of candles everywhere, yummy things to eat, etc. The theme of the Pagan Yule celebration is similar in spirit to other mid-winter holy days; i.e., the return of sunlight and all that it stands for: hope for renewed life. We exchange gifts with each other and friends to "share the wealth" as a celebratory (and very Celtic) way of showing off that we're surviving the winter so far ("YAY -- here, open THIS one first!"). As in other religions, we also share with people in our community who aren't surviving so well. That's very important.
Since our celebration is over by December 25, we spend that wonderful day off just relaxing at home, calling distant Christian relatives to wish them joy on their day (a sneaky way to find out if our gifts were a hit ;-), and just generally enjoying our blessings.
I'm enjoying these posts, hearing what everyone does this time of year. So much diversity, and more to come, I hope! Good thread, Laura! |
| Lainey |
Posted - Dec 13 2007 : 09:52:16 AM
Oh, another thing we've always done in my family is to eat black-eyed peas and cabbage on New Year's Day. My grandmother always had the New Year's Day dinner and she always had those along with her meal. She told us to always eat that for luck, wealth, and good health for the upcoming year. Also she told us not to sweep on New Year's day, but not sure why. But to this day I still don't sweep on the 1st.
Farmgirl Sister #25
http://countrygirldreams.blogspot.com/ |
| Lainey |
Posted - Dec 13 2007 : 08:49:43 AM
Well, usually we make Lussebullar (saffron buns) for Santa Lucia day, Dec. 13th, but last night we didn't get home in time to make them to have this morning. We'll try to make some tonight. My husband is from Sweden originally and we are trying to keep the traditions he always did there.
Farmgirl Sister #25
http://countrygirldreams.blogspot.com/ |
| palmettogirl |
Posted - Dec 13 2007 : 08:45:49 AM
marybeth: i like that idea of adding "we'll come over and visit." i'm looking forward to some quiet time with just my immediate family. dick has so many relatives (aunts/uncles and cousins along with brothers) in this area. many are older so they like to quilt you into having them over, feeding them and then sending them home with leftovers!(i truly don't mean to sound so horrible!) the thing is, on top of entertaining them, they never want to leave. they come in the morning and stay till forever. my mother-in-law just laughs and says i should be flattered....??? anyway, the we'll visit them may help! |
| Marybeth |
Posted - Dec 13 2007 : 08:25:06 AM
How to change---well we are pretty low key so it was easy. My Mother always had a big Christmas thing and all the etceteras, so one year she said to all of us "I'm tired and it is time you start your own traditions" and that was that. We have a quiet Eve and open presents and dinner Christmas day. So maybe just say 'this year we are going to do our own thing with just our family and we may just come and visit everyone else'. give it a try. MB
www.strawberryhillsfarm.blogspot.com
www.day4plus.blogspot.com www.holyhouses-day4plus.blogspot.com
"Life may not be the party we hoped for...but while we are here we might as well dance!" |
| palmettogirl |
Posted - Dec 13 2007 : 08:06:34 AM
i used to be married to a jewish guy...(i'm catholic). when we were first married, we celebrated both. i'd put the dreidle up, make potato pancakes, etc., then put the tree up and do all the christmas stuff. (picked up the easter baskets on the way to passover...!) anyway, it was too hectic and then everything started to lose meaning to me. soooo, i decided to just have a jewish household and did that for many years. he ran off with a tramp and i decided to go back to my roots and now celebrate christmas! ...now to kind of get to your point: if you celebrate several "holidays" near each other, which do you emphasize? (or is that even an issue?) i grew up having a quieter christmas eve, but christmas day was a big deal. my new sister-in-law down the street grew up in germany and christmas eve is a big deal but her christmas day is quiet. we are married to brothers and they think both(everything! but we do love them!) is a very big deal, (demanding mother-in-law). for the last several years ursula and i have been making these elaborate meals and having these big family parties but we're tired of it. i'm planning on doing just hor-douves with just the 3 of us on christmas eve. and ursula and i have decided to split up the family (somebody has to take the in-laws) and then do our own dinners for christmas. do you get wrapped up and dragged into family traditions that have just gotten too big?? any delicate ways to change them?? |
| Marybeth |
Posted - Dec 13 2007 : 07:48:28 AM
January 6th is the Epiphany and that supposedly when the Wise Men came. As children that is when we put the Wise men in the stable of the Nativity scene. We went to church .
We had this thread last year at this time. So it goes. MB
www.strawberryhillsfarm.blogspot.com
www.day4plus.blogspot.com www.holyhouses-day4plus.blogspot.com
"Life may not be the party we hoped for...but while we are here we might as well dance!" |
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