Fabulous Family Holidays
Guarantee great get-togethers
By RM Deegan
In this day and age when family is spread all over the country the one thing that can bring them all together is a holiday. Instead of focusing on all the commercial hype of what to buy, buy, buy, the holiday can be so much more enjoyable if quality time is the focus. When family and friends gather together for a holiday, involvement should be the key to everyone feeling like they helped make it happen.
Thanksgiving
Thanksgiving is one of the few holidays where the only gift you give is your time. Instead of having people show up to eat a large meal you slaved over for a week, share the work load. Even people that come from out of town arrive a day or two early, so there's plenty of time.
Before they come, talk to your guests and let them participate in what will be on the menu and what area of preparation they would like to be involved in. Then put together a menu, time table and game plan that explains all the details so everything goes smoothly. Print out lists and instructions appropriate for each age group and go over it with your guests when they arrive. Who does the shopping, what can be made the day before, who will do the cooking, who will do the decorating and setting the table, etc. Make every job a group of 2 or more people so they will all spend more time together.
If you make everything from scratch the preparation and cooking will be so much more interesting. Everyone will learn and do something they have never done before. Nothing means more than sitting around a table catching up with your loved ones while you're all chopping, cutting and peeling.
Even children who are too young to cook can make decorations for the table. It's amazing how much fun they can have with glue, construction paper, scissors and some pipe cleaners. Guests who can only arrive on the day of the holiday can participate too. They can bring dessert, drinks or maybe the fixings for those late evening turkey and cranberry sandwiches.
Throughout the Year
These principles can be applied to any holiday. For Christmas, family could participate in decorating the tree, stringing popcorn and preparing the holiday meal. If many family members are flying in for the holiday they could mail their gifts ahead of time. With security at the airports it would be a nightmare to bring them with you.
On Christmas eve, after hot cocoa, Christmas stories and bed for the children, the adults could have a gift wrapping party with drinks and snacks. a great time to catch up and spend time together. However a family does their holiday, participation is the key.
Easter, Hanuka, Kwanzaa , no matter what the holiday, involving everyone starts a wonderful tradition that adds a new spark of enthusiasm. It's become so commonplace for people to have everything ready by the time their guests arrive. You spend the holiday exhausted and your family spends the holiday feeling like a guest.
Even among family members, everyone has an idea of how they would like their holiday to be. If it's all done for them, it's not personal. When everyone participates in making the holiday happen they feel such a sense of pride because they were a part of making this beautiful occasion.