Certain things change after a divorce. The situation calls for some adjustments. One example is the way you celebrate holidays. You spend some holidays without your children, which means that you spend them alone or with other family members or friends. Or find other ways to pass the time. Some holidays are celebrated on alternate days. Some have modified celebrations. Traditions need to be changed.
Sometimes you can just celebrate the holiday on a different day than everyone else. For example, this year my children won’t be with me and my husband during the day on Thanksgiving. I could just have a turkey without them, but that doesn’t make much sense, and it wouldn’t really feel like Thanksgiving anyway. So, we decided to have our turkey dinner on another day. Because of our schedule, the only day we could really have it was on Veterans Day. I thought that was actually quite appropriate to give thanks for our blessings on the same day we honor and give thanks for our veterans. Also, as a way to give thanks and “pay it forward”, we shared our turkey dinner with others through a soup kitchen.
The place where I work is closed on Veterans Day, and my husband works from home, so we were able to cook everything with no problem. It’s really nice to cook with someone else, especially for a holiday like Thanksgiving which involves more food and food preparation than any other day. The children were at school during the day, so our cooking was uninterrupted, and then we had the evening for dinner. Modified Thanksgiving is better than none!
Some holidays can’t really be moved, though. The New Year ball only drops once a year. Halloween can technically be celebrated any time, but trick-or-treating is on a fixed day. Just about every fireworks display takes place on July 4 (except when it’s postponed due to rain). In those cases, you just have to miss out on celebrating those days (or those events) with your child(ren) if they aren’t with you.
Sometimes it’s actually more convenient when Santa or the Easter bunny has a little more time to prepare for a late celebration. That’s the ‘silver lining’, or ‘life’s lemonade’. We make the most of all holidays, and make adjustments to fit our situation. The most important part of it all is being with those you love, not what you eat, what you wear, how you celebrate, or even when you celebrate. We all had a wonderful early Thanksgiving Day, and hope all of you do the same, whenever and however you celebrate and give thanks!
