5:49 p.m. | 2002-12-26 Christmas In July. I thought I�d share a little story with you. You may want to get comfy as this �little� story is, well, long. Actually, I�ll offer you a choice. Here�s the short version if you want that. Our family celebrates Christmas in July. There you go; feel free to go on about your business. If you want the long version, keep reading. First off, as I�ve mentioned before, Dad and StepMom lived in Germany for 20 years but came to the States every summer. But they weren�t here during the holidays. Those that were Stateside and could get together did, however, there was one person in the bunch who has what I call �Holiday Affect Disorder� (HAD). I think that it was something that they inherited from previous generations. The main symptom of this condition is based on a simple human characteristic� �If I�m going to be miserable, so are all of you�. And, man, were we miserable! No matter what we tried, it just didn�t work. After spending Thanksgiving together, which was followed so quickly by Christmas, we all started off the New Year feeling exhausted and frustrated. Out of pure survival instinct, we abandoned the family Thanksgiving gathering and all went our separate ways for that occasion. While that measure helped, Christmas was still quite an unpleasant ordeal. So those of us without HAD did some brainstorming. We realized that all the hype and sentimentality promoted during the holiday season was creating an atmosphere that exacerbated the symptoms of HAD. So, after careful thought, we decided to move the family Christmas celebration to July with hopes that the lack of media hyperbole preceding the event would provide a more suitable mood. Once we moved Christmas to July, Dad and StepMom were now able to attend and wanted to be a part of it. That also brought in all the StepSiblings. And, guess what? It worked like a charm. We soon discovered there were a lot of other benefits that came with this change. Here�s some of that. During the summer, the weather is much better so people can be inside or outside or whatever. We don�t all have to be cooped up in a confined area which tends to fan the flames, if you will. We pick the celebration days every year and always make it a Friday, Saturday, Sunday event. This allows for travel time; some people don�t have to take any time off work and for those that do, it�s easier (everyone wants Christmas off but most people don�t have any strong feelings about having the second or third weekend off in July); for those who have children with shared custody agreements don�t have to spend all their time shuttling kids back and forth (and arguing about it for weeks); for those who are married don�t have to decide which family to be with or how to split up their time; you can throw all the little ones outside and they can be noisy out there; it spreads the costs out over the year, etc. Really, the list goes on. It does require some planning as we do decorate and use Christmas plates, napkins, etc. (paper or course). But, once you get use to it, you can really take advantage of the after-Christmas clearance sales. We do wrap presents in Christmas paper, have a Christmas tree, and play Christmas music. And, there�s virtually no stress. The person who suffers from HAD is perfectly fine in July. We have a lot of fun and it�s a solution that works very well for everyone. Then, for Christmas in December, people are free to celebrate however and with whomever they want to. Many people spend that Christmas with the other side of the family or whatnot. It reduces the stress during the holiday season also as the family stuff has already been taken care of for the year. And, for this year in particular, it worked out really well for all of us as we already had Christmas with Dad before his death. your thoughts? seed flower