Fact: I LOVE holidays. All of them. And I love celebrating them.
This has been a thing with me since I was a kid--my mom was always finding ways to make even small holidays fun and special, and I've kept that tradition alive in my adult life.
Obviously, there are the big ticket holidays that most people celebrate: Christmas (my favorite), Halloween, Thanksgiving, Easter, New Years, Valentine's Day, and Fourth of July. Of course, I'm not including other religious holidays that could be substituted, like Passover and Hanukkah. I really like decorating for each season and observing it for as long as possible. Here is a general calendar that I like to go by:
Jan: General Winter Decor--snowflakes, deep reds, silvers, blues--I don't usually do anything different for New Years since I leave my Christmas decorations up til the week after.
Feb: Valentine's Day! I really love v-day, and especially now that I have a honey to celebrate with. My home is a little more classy now (cause I don't want to be too girly when my hubby has to live here too), so I have rose shaped candle holders and red tablecloths, etc.
March: St Patrick's Day! Green please. Also works for Spring
April: Easter/ Spring
May: Spring
June: Summer baby.
July: Independence Day
August: Summer
September: Autumn/ Back to school
October: Halloween
November: Thanksgiving/ Harvest
December: Christmas
These are all pretty normal for people to decorate for I think. The easiest way for me to observe some other fun holidays are with food---no surprise there I guess. Some ideas:
Opening day of Baseball: bbq hot dogs and burgers--this is fun even if you don't like baseball (ps I DON'T) cause you can watch a baseball movie like Field of Dreams or Sandlot and have a grand old time.
Cinco de Mayo: mexican fiesta, please. Go all out. Make everything.
Columbus Day: Make Italian food.
Winter Solstice: English food. Play Enya. This is a big one for my mom.
Anyway--the whole idea for this post came from my delight in seeing that my movie channels--Encore, etc saw fit to pay attention and play Groundhog Day today. THANK YOU whoever was in charge of scheduling. Its so annoying to me to be celebrating a day like Valentine's day and having "The Grudge" on TNT. REally?? Come on people. Also, take note Radio dj's and ward music chairman's of the world: Pay attention. If its After thanksgiving, SING CHRISTMAS MUSIC. and oh, if its New Year's week, SING RING OUT WILD BELLS. Its the only New Year's song in the hymnbook and so you only get one chance to sing it. Plus its cool sounding, with lyrics by a great poet, Tennyson. Let's save "Did you think to Pray" for some random week in June please.
Okay, I'm done. Have a great Groundhog day everyone. btw its REALLY cold today, so I'm pretty sure that the groundhog saw his shadow. good think i live in az. :)
You'll be pleased to know that I DID have us sing ring out wild bells in our ward on New Years Sunday. Speaking of....as I AM the ward music chairman, perhaps you and Jordan would favor my fabo ward with your vocals sometime in April? Just sayin.
ReplyDeleteI love that you are so holidaycentric. You've seen my house at Christmas...i go all out. But, that is about it for me and holiday decore. But, you've given me some food for thought, so thanks for that.
Ah... my simpatico niece! You know all to well that I wholeheartedly agree with all you describe. And, really, what civilized person doesn't have a holiday/decor schedule for reference? It's what separates us from lower primates. Love you!
ReplyDeletep.s. Isn't it fantastic that we have a whole month after 3/17 to dedicate solely to Easter this year? Not like the travesty that was 2008 when Easter and St. Patty's day were practically the same day. The horror!