British Expatriate Network

It's approaching apparently! roll And I still find that to be a strange expression.."Holiday Season" !

So the holiday season includes Columbus Day
Halloween
Veterans Day
Thanksgiving
Christmas
New Year
I know I have missed out quite a few of the other religious holidays but I was looking at a very Texan redneck calender 8)

My all time favourite is the pressure-less Thanksgiving. A four day weekend without having to buy presents, cook enormous amounts of food or entertain family is bliss.

What's your favourite?

WOW Pressureless Thanksgiving.........

Only if someone else does all the cooking and cleaning and organising that goes along with it.

My favourite is Christmas.I love the snow, the smells, the decorations and the food.

I suppose Christmas because that goes all the way back, and Thanksgiving doesn't. Given that, Trying to think of gifts for my grown daughters is hell unless I can get hints from them. I make it easy for them with a large wish list on Amazon, so i kind of like TG because there are no presents then. Columbus, Halloween and veterans are days you get if you work for the gov. or some non-profits. I never had them off.

:mrgreen: :mrgreen:

That's because usually Thanksgiving is just me and Mick. As our kids both have US partners who have families that have big Thanksgiving get togethers they don't often spend this holiday with us so we take advantage of just relaxing and chilling out.

It would have to be christmas, even though the last couple here have been bloody awful, just me the wife and MIL. Would test the strength of anyone's christmas spirit.

It would have to be christmas, even though the last couple here have been bloody awful, just me the wife and MIL. Would test the strength of anyone's christmas spirit.

I've largely given up on holidays here. If you have family and stuff, then they are probably ok to great but if not, forget it.

I like the time off and try and use it constructively. One Thanksgiving, I remember washing the car and going out to the cinema which was almost empty and a nice treat.

Christmas in UK is way better - office Christmas parties, lots of footy and plenty of family to enjoy it with. I know this doesn't apply to everyone but it's my take on it.

For me

Hallowen
is for kids so thers is not much for me there eccept hand out candy to the neighbours little ones .
as soon as the bigger 12 13 etc kids start to come around the door i shut of the light and lock the door had to much lip from that age group in the past and dont bother with them now .

columbus day
i never did get it off my wife does some years depends on work load , if she does its a shopping day .

veterans day .
time for reflection and be gratefull for the freedon we have on the sacrifice of others .


thanksgiving ,

my favourite , do a lot of what i like (eating ) drinking .


Xmas ,

Its a mess everybody claims for some reason or other its THERE special holiday and others stole it , arguments about what is and what is not paid for by public funds , very commercialised, everybody holding there hand out , a time to complain, and start who is right religious bickering ,while putting those who dont agree with you down not happy and jolly anymore .

growded shops, roads , everything overpriced .

glad when its over .


new year .
used to be my favourite in my miss spend youth time for the first piss up off the year ...

I like them all but my favourite is Christmas. I love the lights, the decorations and being cosy and warm, although I do tend to yearn for Christmases of old rather than what I have now. I miss the family I used to have and the things we used to do.

Well, We have just had Rashashana last weekend and we have Yom Kippur coming up this weekend, so our holiday season has started )

Forgot about Columbus Day! roll I have enough problems trying to remember anything at the minute!

My favorite - actually, I don't know anymore. It used to be Christmas and while we don't have the same pressures as other families regarding presents etc (we have always managed to keep presents and family to a minimum) there isn't much of a run up to Christmas here as there was in the UK. Not that that matters, but it just changes things.

I am tossed between Christmas and Thanksgiving. These last few years we have been able to spend Thanksgiving with friends and it has made it so special. But we have also been able to spend Christmas with friends too. Certainly less pressure than family ;)

Columbus Day
Whu?

Halloween
Never had any interest in it, found it cute when we had a pile of trick or treaters at one place we lived, but now we live on a quiet road and we get maybe 3 or 4 all night, so it's not worth messing around for. I don't like the glorification of death and horror, doesn't sit well with me.

Veterans Day
Still looking for somewhere to buy poppies...

Thanksgiving
This is something I will definitely want to continue when we go back 'home'. We'll probably take the day off and cook up a massive dinner for all our British mates and sit and watch the Lions game at 5.30pm local time... I certainly have a lot to be thankful for and I enjoy this one as much as Christmas. It's a chance to honour the first commandment.

Christmas
... and this is for the second commandment. I really enjoy Christmas, always have. I don't get sucked into the materialistic event "Christmahanukwanzakah" that the retail industry makes it, and just go out and get the presents I want to get people, listen to some good carols or traditional Christmas songs, go caroling with friends... just a great time all round.

New Year
Don't really make much of this. It's just like a birthday, just a number. As a born-again Christian I am in the process of casting off the old and being a new birth, so just like at Valentine's Day everyone says "you should love all year round", I try to change my old character on a constant basis, not just when I hang up a new calendar.

Well, we don't bother with any of them, and that's really stress free.

I think we try and go somewhere different each year to make sure no one can find us...

Andrew )

We don't bother with most of them as I am working every one except Christmas day. We don't have any family across here, so we don't have that pressure. We just stay in our PJ's all day Christmas, hire some dvd's and cook a big dinner and have some wine.

Biggest holidays for me are Thanksgiving and the Winter Solstice.

We had a big debate over christmiss first one we spent together- i'm against it, i despise the consumer festival it has become etc blah blah and,anyway, im pretty firmly an atheist. after thoroughly enjoying Thanksgiving - it makes sense! - we had a tree and stuff at christmiss but i'm still opposed to it on principle. It makes mrs servalan happy tho so thats good enough for me.

Thanksgiving would be my nomination for favourite.