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Post by peasapie on Nov 25, 2016 2:19:41 GMT
Christmas is a season, while Thanksgiving is a day. (As I'm sure you know.) So the happiness (or misery) of Christmas is spread out over many days. On the other hand, Thanksgiving is so much more work for me -- many different dishes to make and clean up. I do Christmas Eve at my house, with seafood and pasta, which isn't very complicated. It's fun to open gifts and watch Christmas shows in tv - so I enjoy the day itself more than Thanksgiving.
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Post by jackie on Nov 25, 2016 2:56:28 GMT
I've never considered Thanksgiving approaching anywhere near the size of Christmas as a holiday. There's no real build-up or "Thanksgiving season". It's a really lovely holiday--everyone getting together and enjoying a wonderful meal. Christmas, on the other hand, is huge. Stuff starts coming out in the stores in October. Movies on Hallmark run for over a month every day. Some radio stations play Christmas music every day. There are so many events tied into Christmas--cookie exchanges, secret Santa drawings, caroling, tree-lighting ceremonies, it just goes on and on. And the decorating! There is very little Thanksgiving decorating, but Christmas is nuts. I love every bit of it too.
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Peamac
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Post by Peamac on Nov 25, 2016 3:42:49 GMT
In the US, Christmas is way bigger than Thanksgiving. But I think more people travel at Thanksgiving time compared to Christmas.
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moodyblue
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Jun 26, 2014 21:07:23 GMT
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Post by moodyblue on Nov 25, 2016 6:28:54 GMT
I agree that Thanksgiving is one day, and Christmas is a whole season. We have traditions for both in my family, but more for Thanksgiving I think.
I have cousins who almost always come to Thanksgiving, some who don't ever come for Christmas, some who have started to come for
Christmas now that their kids are older, and some who don't make it to Thanksgiving but always try to come for Christmas. One cousin hasn't made it to either holiday for years.
Thanksgiving is about the food to a great degree and we have more traditional food then. Christmas for my side is potluck style and anything goes. The whole day is pretty relaxed and there really isn't a lot of gift giving, although I do make sure every kid there gets presents.
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Post by triplejscrapper on Nov 25, 2016 12:57:42 GMT
Do you consider Thanksgiving or Christmas to be the more important holiday? For me personally, Thanksgiving is the more important celebration. Christmas for the rest of my family is the bigger deal. I'm not of the Christian faith but the rest of the family is although most are non-practicing, it is their belief system they operate under. On Thanksgiving day we have a much larger group. For instance yesterday, of my mom's 4 children, only the one that has chosen to ostracize himself from the family since her death in 2015, came together with their families, exes who's children's grandkids we all don't get to see that often were included and had a great time. My mom's children, grand-children and great grand-children where there. We ate and then played games. We ate some more and told stories until we couldn't laugh anymore. We ate STILL MORE and made memories that will become stories for future years. Christmas has become this huge commercial monstrosity. I will go to the sale at Wal-mart for the DVD's. I love to have ALL SEASONS of my favorite series on DVD so I can binge watch them because sometimes when you decide you want to just up and start Supernatural from the beginning for the 5th time it MIGHT not be on Net-flix. That section of our local Wal-mart is never crazy crowded. After the Wal-mart sale on Thursday night and I'm usually done with BF shopping for the year. I just seems like BF has now become Black Thursday and even earlier. Wal-mart had decorated the outside of the store by the 1st week in November!!! Our family will usually get together around the 25th and have appetizers and do dirty Santa. I took Apples to Apples with me to Thanksgiving dinner yesterday and it was a big hit!!! Everyone asked me to bring it over for the Christmas gathering so we could play again. It's the time that you spend WITH your family not the money that you spend ON your family that matters. I look back at all the Thanksgivings and Christmases I had with my mom, my grandparents and my beloved step-father and I don't remember the gifts they gave me. I remember watching my grandma sneak little slivers of pecan pie throughout the day until she had eaten almost a whole one before we sat down to the turkey dinner. I remember my grand-dad's stories and acorn people he would carve out for us with this wickedly sharp little knife. I remember how our dressing was always green because mama put so much sage in it but we were used to it so it never seemed strange to us until someone new came to the table. I remember my step-dad and his rambling stories...and how if you didn't listen to every word you would be lost because he had a thick Louisiana accent. |
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Post by fruitysuet on Nov 25, 2016 13:04:00 GMT
In my family Thanksgiving is a lot more low key and relaxed while Christmas has lots of expectations. I've been married for five years and have never spent a Christmas with my husband because both of our moms whine and cry about being away from us AND from their homes and traditions on Christmas. Drives us both nuts. I prefer Thanksgiving over Christmas because I'm not guilted for an entire season.
That is nuts!
Before we had kids we swapped Christmas Day and Boxing Day each year (ie parents Xmas then IL Boxing, next year visa versa).
After the first couple of Christmases of being parents ourselves we moved to having Christmas Day at our house and MIL hosted Boxing Day whilst she felt fit enough. My parents have never hosted anything for 20 years 
We are only a small family though (myself DH x3 kids, My parents and MIL/FIL). My mum preps meats and MIL used to prep some veggies so it was less stressful for me. Also we have now moved from dinner at 1-2 towards 4-5, that way I don't have to do tea, just have cheese biscuits pastries available if anyone gets peckish later.
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Dalai Mama
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Post by Dalai Mama on Nov 25, 2016 13:05:37 GMT
What? So does this mean your DH goes to his mom's and you go to yours? WHY? Can't they both come to your house? Seems a shame that you can't spend the day with your DH...I don't know how I'd handle that. Trust me, I have asked. They won't hear of it. It will change when we have kids, but for now we celebrate our Christmas together early. Repeat after me: "We're having Christmas at our place this year and would love for you to come. Can't make it? Sorry to hear that." Rinse, repeat.
In regards to the OP - Canadian here. Thanksgiving was HUGE for us when we were younger. My mother was the eldest of 8 kids and, every Thanksgiving, the whole family, including great aunts and uncles, second cousins, would gather for the weekend at our place. Everyone would bring a sleeping bag and there wasn't a spare bit of real estate on our floor. Christmas was great (and largely quiet) but Thanksgiving is where all of our memories were made.
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imsirius
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Post by imsirius on Nov 25, 2016 13:11:41 GMT
Trust me, I have asked. They won't hear of it. It will change when we have kids, but for now we celebrate our Christmas together early. Repeat after me: "We're having Christmas at our place this year and would love for you to come. Can't make it? Sorry to hear that." Rinse, repeat. Yes..this 1000%. Your moms are taking TOTAL advantage of you and your DH. It's guilt. Plain and simple. They don't want to go anywhere, that is their issue not yours. I would put my foot down and say "I'm spending Christmas Day with my DH!!! If you want to join us, fine, if not, see you boxing day (or insert another day here) It's ridiculous and they are both being very selfish and petty! |
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Post by gmcwife1 on Nov 25, 2016 13:22:26 GMT
For us Christmas is a bigger deal, but we spend both pretty much the same. At my mom's house  We will have 20-25 people at both and we eat and laugh at both. Christmas is just my mom's favorite and spans both Christmas Eve and Christmas Day since we spend the night there. |
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Post by katiejane on Nov 25, 2016 17:24:03 GMT
I live in the US for a few years in the late 90's. And I was shocked at how much of an after thought Christmas was compared to Thanksgiving. For this UK girl I was sad at the lack of Christmas fever, parties and general consumption of Christmas food that went on. Here the Christmas menus are planned, vacation days are booked, family and friends visits are scheduled and parties aplenty are held. Mind you they don't have a boxing day, which makes the season longer.
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Post by Zee on Nov 25, 2016 18:17:25 GMT
I live in the US for a few years in the late 90's. And I was shocked at how much of an after thought Christmas was compared to Thanksgiving. For this UK girl I was sad at the lack of Christmas fever, parties and general consumption of Christmas food that went on. Here the Christmas menus are planned, vacation days are booked, family and friends visits are scheduled and parties aplenty are held. Mind you they don't have a boxing day, which makes the season longer. That's odd, and not the usual in my experience. |
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Post by jackie on Nov 26, 2016 6:52:34 GMT
I live in the US for a few years in the late 90's. And I was shocked at how much of an after thought Christmas was compared to Thanksgiving. For this UK girl I was sad at the lack of Christmas fever, parties and general consumption of Christmas food that went on. Here the Christmas menus are planned, vacation days are booked, family and friends visits are scheduled and parties aplenty are held. Mind you they don't have a boxing day, which makes the season longer. That's odd, and not the usual in my experience. ITA. I have never in my 52 years experienced anything like this. Thanksgiving is casual and fun but never have I seen anyone give any kind of huge attention to Thanksgiving. I mean it's a four-day weekend and a delicious meal with family, but there's no huge fuss about it. Christmas is EVERYWHERE with parties and festivities going on all month. I can't even imagine it being otherwise. |
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tduby1
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Post by tduby1 on Nov 26, 2016 14:31:17 GMT
I live in the US for a few years in the late 90's. And I was shocked at how much of an after thought Christmas was compared to Thanksgiving. For this UK girl I was sad at the lack of Christmas fever, parties and general consumption of Christmas food that went on. Here the Christmas menus are planned, vacation days are booked, family and friends visits are scheduled and parties aplenty are held. Mind you they don't have a boxing day, which makes the season longer. Really? Because the big complaint I hear EVERYWHERE here in the US is that Thanksgiving is overshadowed by Christmas. Retail wise, Christmas starts rolling out Nov 1, some places sooner. Trees go up the day after Thanksgiving. Music starts mid- Nov. Baking for the holiday can occupy much of Dec. and the obligations and parties can get down right over whelming! |
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RosieKat
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Post by RosieKat on Nov 26, 2016 17:05:35 GMT
padresfan619, do what works for you. I understand the mixed feelings, and totally understand you guys having this solution. Different things work for different families.
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