Holidays
My apologies.
I rewrote it as much as I could remember.
My holidays start on September 1st. I decorate my house with fall colors, pumpkins, leaves, harvest scare crows, pillows and throws. I then transition my pumpkins into Jack O Lanterns by turning them around and adding my Halloween decorations. My Halloween decorations are cute and not dark. I’ve never been into the scary Halloween stuff. Once November comes around, my decorations are turned back around to hide the Halloween Jack O Lanterns and I add pilgrims and turkeys. I change the centerpieces to go with each transition of holiday along with the runners and placemats.
As a child, my Mom decorated our home with carved pumpkins, monster heads, skeletons, scare crows and a grave yard. She used to dress up as a witch and hide in a decorated box and enjoyed scaring the kids before handing out candy. I remember my brother and I would go dressed up throughout the neighborhood with pillowcases and come back with them almost full. In our day, it was safe to go house to house. Neighbors used to make homemade goodies. My parents would inspect our candy. We always ate too much candy.
With my own children, we usually opted to dress up or wear a Halloween decal shirt and stay home to pass out candy. I would make sure they had a bag full of treats of their own. I really enjoyed when churches started having harvest festivals. For a few years we would go to my daughter’s Aunt’s safe neighborhood, buy my daughter a costume from the Disney store and give her the experience of a few houses. Then her Aunt would have activities at her house for my daughter and son (who also dressed up). My house was known as the house that passed out full sized candy bars. For the most part of my children’s childhood, I lived in a house that got 200 children. Halloween isn’t what it was years ago. Now the kids are sparse, so my youngest grown kids get all the leftover candy bars.
Thanksgiving was always nice. To this day, it is one of my favorite holidays. My Mom would make the traditional Thanksgiving meal with trimmings. Sometimes we’d have Thanksgiving at church or with my Mom’s relatives. As an adult, I usually made the Thanksgiving meal and family would meet at my house. My kids will tell me their favorite dish to prepare. One son likes the green bean and crispy onion casserole. This year my grown kids will be traveling to my house on another day for Thanksgiving and they will be sharing the day of with their in laws. I have been blessed to have shared most of the holidays with my kids as we lived closer together. It’s only been the last three years, life has changed a little. There was a time where I had to split my holidays with my ex husbands, but my children got the best of both families during those times.
Christmas for me, as a child, wasn’t a great holiday. They were mostly very small, because my parents didn’t have a lot of money to expend on gifts. We would get a stocking with token treats or one or two small gifts. I remember after my Mom divorced my biological father and was a single Mom, she didn’t have money to buy a Christmas tree. She ventured out and found a tumble weed to decorate. She bought angel hair and spread that all over it and decorated it with bulbs and lights. She put a star or angel on top and it was beautiful. She used to always play Christmas music on the radio. After she married my step father, money was still tight. However when I was in 3rd or 4th grade my parents discovered the use of credit cards ( oh, oh) and bought my brother and I a bunch of presents. It was overwhelming. On Christmas Eve of 1971, Christmas holidays changed for me as that was the first time I was molested from 11-13 years old. The original movie Scrooge was on and for years I couldn’t watch that movie. I also hated the smell of Vitalis and Wind Song Perfume. During these dark years, church made the holiday tolerable. During my youth, we would go Christmas caroling. I enjoyed that and the special Christmas programs at church. My cousins also made this holiday special for me. We would go there and have homemade tamales, menudo and mole. Menudo became medicinal for the adults who would indulge in too many adult beverages. My two favorite cousins and I would exchange gifts. Jesus was with me during these darker times. God was my refuge and my strength. I didn’t like Christmas until I became a mother at 23 years old. I didn’t watch the original Scrooge again until I had to work through the healing of past trauma as an adult.
For my children, my home was always festive and beautiful. I always have the aroma therapy smells for the holiday. I made sure I made their Christmas memories special. My kids always got a present from Jesus under the tree along with others to remind them of the reason for the season. For a period of time, we had a timeshare and were able to escape the hustle and bustle of Christmas and get away. A couple times we traded for snowy settings. Now we get together and exchange gifts and have meals together whenever we can. I make sure to get Christmas lists in advance, especially now that I have grandchildren. We also have made homemade cookies and decorated them on Christmas Eve. When the kids were smaller, we left the cookies out for Santa with milk. We usually have a brunch for Christmas. I love Christmas music right after Thanksgiving and through New Year.
In my career with the school district, I was spoiled by my coworkers and bosses. My kids would look forward to unloading my trunk on the day before Christmas break to see all the goodies and gifts I would receive from them. The district also had a Christmas event for our employees. I also enjoyed attending my own children’s and district children’s Christmas programs. I also enjoyed exchanging gifts during this time. Our offices were also festive with decorations.
New Year was and is usually with Dick Clark/ Ryan Seacrest. We like to stay safe for the most part, usually spending it with family or friends at home.
Valentine’s Day I never cared for as a child due to the card exchanging. It caused me undo stress like Charlie Brown. However for my children, I enjoyed helping them prepare their cards and goodies to celebrate. I’d also buy them special gifts from me. I’d always make it special for my significant others, but sometimes it was not reciprocated and I got tired of reminding them.
I never liked St. Patrick’s day. The idea of getting pinched for not wearing green is disturbing. I always made sure my kids wore green. There came a time where we started having corned beef and cabbage for this holiday.
Easter, I love everything about it. The significance of Jesus’s resurrection is forefront. However, I love the flowers, bunnies, springtime and everything about it. My first recollection was when I was little and my Godparents bought me the biggest Easter basket and bunny I had ever seen. I had a pretty dress and bonnet. This holiday was usually spent with my cousins on my Mom’s side as we would meet at a park. There was always the variety of Mexican food and football game that would end when someone got hurt or something broken. Then there was the Mexican tradition of dyed confetti eggs that we would break on each other’s heads, including our uncles. This caused a lot of laughter. There was a time in childhood where we would hang a bunch of carrots the night before on our door. We knew the bunny had visited if the carrots had been chewed.
I’ve always given all my kids and family pretty substantial baskets with their favorite toys and treats. We would dye eggs the night before and have an Easter egg hunt in the morning. Usually our dinner was ham with the trimmings. I do the same for my grandkids or send them care packages. When we get together now, I usually include a treat for each adult as well. My twins who are my youngest, benefitted from baskets the longest into their adulthood. I’ve attended sunrise services.
Independence Day was fun when I was little and we would light smaller fireworks along the street with our neighbors. Once I got older and firework shows started, I stopped liking it because I don’t like loud noises. The only time I enjoyed a big show was at the Macy’s 4th of July in New York. They were over a river at a distance. My kids never really liked fireworks either because of the loud sounds. I have a 17 year old dog who for most of his life had to be sedated and held. Hot dogs and Bratwursts were on the menu for this holiday.
My kids have always made my Mother’s Day holidays special. This is a holiday I love as well.
Romans 14:6 “He who observes the day, observes it to the Lord; and he who does not observe the day, to the Lord does not observe it. He who eats to the Lord, for he gives God thanks; and he who does not eat, to the Lord he does not eat, and gives God thanks.”
Luke 2 — Jesus’s birth. (Christmas)
Matthew 28:6 “He is not here: for he is risen.” (Easter)
Comments
Post a Comment