Holiday Entertaining, do you generally:

[Kimberle]

How do you generally handle holidays & holiday entertaining in your family? Does it seem to "work" well? How do you fit all "sides" in?

 

[pjlla]

Well... I'm the first vote and I mis-voted! I missed the top option! Actually, for our families, we kind of have "set" places we go for each... Thanksgiving is at my BIL/SIL's house in MA, Christmas is at my SIL/BIL's house in MA, Easter is at my house (or at least it was last year), 4th of July celebration is at various houses on Cape Cod, NYE is at my mother's house in MA.....P

 

[aprincessmom]

Thanksgiving and Christmas Eve are at my house...it's easier for me to host as I am the most central of everyone and I don't mind cooking and cleaning for crowds.

Easter is usually at my parents. Other than that we do our own thing on other holidays.

 

[browneyes]

Christmas-always at my mom's. Thanksgiving, usually at my mom's, but I have had a few quiet dinners at my house with just me, my SO and our kids.

 

[Wish Upon A Star]

How it works in my family is that each child (4 of us) has full charge of 1 holiday per year. Mine happens to be Xmas Eve. So we basically keep the same holidays year after year, makes it easier I guess. It does work out well I think because it is a yearly tradition and everyone always knows what they are expected to bring to the host house.

My oldest sister has Xmas Day
My 2nd oldest sister has 4th of July
My brother has Thanksgiving
Me = Xmas Eve

I spend more time with my side of the family for holidays since DH's side really doesn't do much. I like it that way.

 

[caitycaity]

my birthday falls around thanksgiving (sometimes on it) so we always spend thanksgiving with my family. dh's family is on the other coast and it doesn't make sense to fly out there only for a few days (plus i'd rather spend my birthday with my family). we usually all get together at my parents' house, but this year everyone is coming to our apartment! it will be interesting to deviate from the status quo.

for xmas, we alternate between my family and dh's family.

 

[robsmom]

We rotate houses but don't really have a fixed schedule at this point. For years we alternated between my mom's and my aunts but as my generation started being old enough to host we have been in transition. We haven't quite gotten to a plan per se as we still have weddings, new houses, etc. happening and they tend to mix things up a bit. My oldest sister, my brother and one my cousins all moved in august/sept so none are quite ready for Thanksgiving this year so I will have it. Dsis will have christmas and my cousin will have Easter. Beyond that we have not planned.

 

[I Intrigue You]

We rarely see family at the Holidays. We live in Florida and our families live in Missouri. We always just go home for summer

 

[snoopy]

Since my mother died, Thanksgiving dinner is usually done at my house. Mainly because I'm the only one who can really cook or pull off a party for that many people. The rest of my family are so spastic when it comes to having stuff in their house, so I'm more or less the one to do it, not that my house is really big enough.

Christmas Eve is traditionally done at my Grandmother's house, we have the big Italian Feast of 7 Fishes, followed by midnight mass. I imagine we will do it that way as long as she is alive and able to pull it together every year, and after that I'll probably assume the respnsibility.

Christmas our tradition is to have early dinner at our own homes, and then everyone comes by my house for coffee and dessert later in the evening. I so LOVE Christmas, not having to worry about doing a big thing -- we rarely get out of our pajamas until 5 pm or so.

 

[Crankyshank]

Thanksgiving and Christmas are at my parents' house. We do it in shifts - dinner with my Mother's family and then my Father's family comes over later for appetizers and dessert.

My birthday is 12/29 so usually we do a cake the weekend after Christmas. This year it will be on New Years.

We go to my friend's house for NYE

Easter is at a restaurant

 

[shep]

Thanksgiving is at our house

Christmas is rotated

 

[piglet too]

When I was growing up, we rotated Christmas Eve. Now that we are older, and the family we used to rotate with are all in Florida now, we have a pretty much set plan.

~Thanksgiving at my house and we also stop at our friend's family gathering.
~The Sunday before Christmas is with my in-laws
~Christmas Eve at my sister's
~Christmas Day at my Grandma's (sometimes) and we usually make a stop at our friend's family gathering.
~Easter is at my other sister's

 

[disney4us2002]

We rotate Thanksgiving but since we had our kids we made it known that Christmas was at our house. Anyone who wishes to see us is welcome at our house but Santa comes to us and then we'll visit between Christmas/New Year's. Our families aren't really close enough to see for the "day" so traveling is done the weekend before or after typically.

 

[skiwee1]

I started our own family tradition years ago of staying home on Christmas day with just my DH, kids, and my mom. My mom has no one else so she spends the night with us so she can wake up Christmas morning and enjoy the festivies. I was tired of wasting half a day going to the inlaws and my kids hated leaving all their new stuff. So Christmas day is reserved for us. We do visit DH's family on another day though. I might have Thanksgiving at my house and invite everyone then. For Christmas we generally visit the inlaw the day after.

 

[beattyfamily]

Me and my 2 older sisters rotate the 3 major holidays. I do Easter, one does Thanksgiving and the other does Christmas. It works out well for us.

My holiday is the only one with in-laws as both my sisters are divorced!

 

[sanddune]

We visit before the holidays. My family and I are always at WDW on the holidays!Less stress!My mother& father understands .My mother-in-law & father-in -law we see alot more of anyway. They live within 15 min.of our house.( PS sometimes we will have Thanksgiving with one of the parents but that's about it!)

 

[minniecarousel]

I am the host for all of my family get-togethers. I can't remember the last time we had a dinner at one of my siblings' homes. Thanksgiving is the big challenge - I have to rent an extra table and a bunch of chairs. I usually cook 2 turkeys and sometimes add a ham. This year should be a slightly smaller crowd, with my brother and his family in Louisiana not coming. We'll probably be down to about 20-22. I LOVE having the holidays at my home. We have the biggest house & are centrally located. Plus - my Mom lives with us and it's easy for her to just go into her room when it gets to be too much for her.

Now Christmas is more laid-back. We don't do a formal meal. We get together by late morning, open presents & eat a casual meal eventually. I usually have fruit & muffins for the early arrivals. The "meal" is usually stuff like sliced meats, cold shrimp, a few salalds and....of course: Christmas cookies!!

 

[lilpritch04]

While DH and I dated for 5 years before getting married this summer, we just kind of went along with whatever the families were doing for the holidays. Since both families are in town, there was a lot of driving back and forth to get to all the gatherings. Most of the time, the same people hosted every event, or 2 people would switch off. It all depends who has the biggest house and most central location for us, since all of our families are BIG.

This year we are still deciding how we will break down the holidays--we don't have kids yet, but we want to set a precedent far in advance so that people can get used to how our *new* family celebrates the holidays. I am guessing that we will host Christmas day at our house and our families can join us there.

 

[Strawberry Lemonade]

I voted "other" because it's a combination of "rotating" and "same house".

DH and I don't host any holidays, because even at 30 years old, we're still considered the "kids". Easter breakfast is at my parents' and dinner is at my in-laws', then we go to my aunt's house for dessert. Thanksgiving dinner is at my in-laws', then dessert at another aunt on my side.

Christmas is when is gets confusing. We have Christmas Eve dinner at my parents' house every year, then go to DH's aunt's house for dessert and then we'll go to midnight mass with his family. Christmas Day dinner rotates between aunts on my side. We usually eat breakfast at home, go to his parents' to exchange gifts, go to my parents' to exchange gifts, then go to a random aunt's house for dinner.

Luckily (or not, depending on how you look at it) we all live within a few towns of each other.

Holidays leave us exhausted.

 

[dlbwright]

In my family there is only my mother. In DH family both of his parents are remarried.

For Thanksgiving we are trying to rotate going to his mom's for one holiday and his dad's the next.

Christmas Eve is with my family and Christmas Day is with DH's family.

Easter we usually go to my cousin's house. There are lots of kids and I love seeing them hunt for the eggs and candy.

We have been married 3 years this year and I think this is the first year there might not be a problem with where we go. Everyone is starting to get used to our schedule.