Thanksmas

For years my famiy did the typical Christmas and Thanksgiving gatherings. In addition to our own family, we had gatherings with my extended family at my Grandmother's house. In time, my brother had his own family and had to balance his gatherings against both ours and his wife's family gatherings. Scheduling was chaos.

We also are the type of family that dislikes the commercialization of the holidays. We still played along for years, buying each other gifts because that's what you're supposed to do.

We finally broke free. A few years ago we redefined our holiday. First, we decided to pass on Thanksgiving and Christmas altogether and create a new holiday - Thanksmas! We went back and forth between calling it Thanksmas and Chrisgiving - but ultimately Thankmas won out.

So each year we pick a day between the two holidays and my family gathers for food, social interaction, and gift giving.

Yes, we still give gifts, but we changed that too. Now, no one buys gifts for any one particular person. Instead, we play White Elephant. It's cheaper, the gifts are better, people tend to get what they want, and the whole thing is way more fun.

So what do we do on Christmas and Thanksgiving? Well, my brother's family can has time to share with everyone else. My Grandmother is gone so we don't have the extended family gatherings anymore. Me? I usually go snowboarding.

~Scott