Holidays

[Occlith]

This poll is let our fellow readers know what holidays you observe or celebrate at this time of year.

You can vote for more than one holiday. Since there are only ten poll options I tried to include different cultural and religious sectors. Feel free to discuss your own style of celebration, or lack of, in your family or town.

I posted a similar poll at a different forum and after the resulting firestorm the poll was locked. Please be respectful in your comments.

 

[MonkeyCatcher]

I celebrate Christmas. Just ignore the vote for "another holiday" - I put it down for Easter, before realising that it was just for holidays around this time.

 

[beer good]

This is a controversial issue?!?

 

[Litany]

I think Yule best sums up what I celebrate. Well, I certainly rejoice over chocolate yule logs.

Was the fight about how to best cook roast potatoes? Because I've witnessed some pretty heated discussions about that in the past and one very nearly did come to blows.

 

[Freya]

Do you boil them for a bit first? My family always argue the toss over the roasties, and how many little sausages with bacon my dad should be making. The answer is always MORE!

 

[Litany]

I boil them for a bit and then bash them about in the pan before throwing them into a tray of hot vegetable fat. And it is fat rather than oil. I've had some terrible ones done in olive oil. And I can normally tell if they weren't boiled first. But there was this French chef on telly who was really angry with the people who phoned in to tell him off for not boiling his potatoes. So he did a blind taste test of boiled vs not boiled and got really angry again because everyone liked the boiled one and said his tasted of school dinners. And then I inadvertently started a fight between two bank tellers just after Christmas. They'd made the usual small talk of 'how was your Christmas?' By the time I left they were at each other's throats.

 

[Freya]

Roasties shouldn't be done in olive oil. That's just crazy talk.

What exactly does bashing them around in a pan achieve? Is it not just mashed potato? Do you roat mashed potato? Maybe that's another variety to try....

 

[Litany]

Once you've drained them off, just shake the saucepan a bit. It roughens them up on the outside so you get those little crispy bits.

 

[ruby]

Coming from a large family we tend to celebrate most things really any excuse to get together and party... Birthdays etc

But i'd say christmas and Easter are really special and my parents go all out to make sure there 4 daughters and 15 grandkids have a great time!

 

[Honeybee]

I try to celebrate anything that involves alcohol really.

 

[mehastings]

How can I possibly be the only person who has voted for Halloween thus far? Yikes! We celebrate Halloween, but also tend to incorporate some more traditional customs rather than just dressing the dog up and handing out candy to little kids.

We also celebrate Christmas, and this is the time of year I start working on it so as to spread the spending out. I was raised in a "Catholic" family until I was twelve or so and he grew up as a Congregationalist. So, although neither of us considers ourselves to be Christian, we still celebrate Christmas (and Easter). To us, it is about giving gifts to our families, decorating the tree, and now that we've got the kid, Santa!

We've thought about incorporating some traditions from other religions into our winter celebrations, but we'll have to see.

 

[Freya]

One of the girls in my office is on Ramadan at the moment. To be honest, she's starting to get on my nerves a bit. Makes her ever so narky not eating all day. The bit that's really doing her head in (and mine) is her not being able to smoke though. Tormenting her by talking about food lost all its joy when she started glaring at me in a manner that left me in little doubt that she might rip my head right off.

Oh - and she hasn't brought me any spare curry yet. Poor form.

 

[SFG75]

Thanksgiving and christmas are big with my family. Not in a religious since at all, but more as a time of getting together and enjoying one another's company. To be honest, these are the two holidays I look forward to the most. We do take the kids trick or treating, though we aren't like some people who have giant inflatable halloween scenes on our front line.

 

[mehastings]

...though we aren't like some people who have giant inflatable halloween scenes on our front line.

Yes, I think those have gotten a tad out of control. There are some folks who have stuff like that year round. If there isn't a holiday to be had they've got football players, snowmen or other more generic seasonal stuff.

 

[Occlith]

Was the fight about how to best cook roast potatoes?

In a way, yes. One person wrote that they liked potatos in their holiday meals, then someone answered that the correct spelling was potatoes. The thread went to hell in a handbasket after that.

This is a controversial issue?!?

Potatos, potatoes, hell, handbasket...

I try to celebrate anything that involves alcohol really.

So, everyday is a holiday.

How can I possibly be the only person who has voted for Halloween thus far? Yikes!

Interesting. It may be that people don't think of dressing up in costumes or trick-or-treating as "celebrating".

 

[Ronny]

How can I possibly be the only person who has voted for Halloween thus far? Yikes! We celebrate Halloween, but also tend to incorporate some more traditional customs rather than just dressing the dog up and handing out candy to little kids.

We celebrate halloween, we decorate the house, dress up, hand out candy and treats.

 

[Litany]

In a way, yes. One person wrote that they liked potatos in their holiday meals, then someone answered that the correct spelling was potatoes. The thread went to hell in a handbasket after that.

I knew it. It's always the spuds.

I don't like Halloween. I wouldn't care if people kept to themselves about it, but when brats come knocking on my door demanding I pay them off in sweets or they'll destroy some of my property, well that's a protection racket and they're illegal.

Fair enough go knocking on the doors where there's a pumpkin on the step or some silly inflatable goblin in the front garden but leave everyone else alone. They're not interested.

 

[Ronny]

What about the kids dressed as pirates? Do you give them candy?

 

[Litany]

I don't open the door.

 

[Ronny]

Aw, that's no fun I like seeing the kids all dressed up, getting them all hyper on sugar and sending them home to their parents.