Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with holidays

Suggestions for holiday cheer in Chicago please!

bluloo — Mon, 14 Dec 2009 12:16:48 -0800

What to see and do next week (especially Christmas day) in Chicago? My parents and I will be in Chicago for several days next week, including Christmas day. I'm looking for suggestions of things to see and do (I've seen this thread but the question and responses focused mostly on hotel recommendations). I've been to Chicago several times, although never during the holiday season. So, I figured I'll take them to see the typical touristy things, but what is a can't miss during the holidays? Any suggestions for places to eat Christmas day? We haven't decided whether to go out or try to cook in, so both brunch/dinner ideas are welcome, especially if there's something fabulous out there. My mom and I are thinking about going to see the Nutcracker, but other than that our plans are wide open. Help us plan our trip, Mefites!

48 hours in NYC, let's go to the...?

bengarland — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 10:22:12 -0800

My fiancé and I will be spending Dec 21 and 22 in NYC. What are some interesting things to do and see this time of year that don't cost much money? Our main interests are music, art, plants, museums, science, old stuff, and quirky things.

We're both vegan so we're planning on dining at Vegetarian Paradise 2. What other good restaurants should we hit up?

What are some interesting things to do, museums to go to, events to attend, etc that are cheap (less than $20 per person)? We're especially interested in things that are pertinent to this time of year (limited-run exhibits or shows, the cold weather, etc but NOT Christmas related).

Creative ideas for a party

Kateruba — Tue, 01 Dec 2009 20:56:11 -0800

What short, creative performances can guests put on at my party to entertain themselves? I'd like to have a holiday party. But not just another dinner party or a drinking party. I'd like all of my guests to put on little performances - whether that would be a short skit, dance/music, puppet show, parody, magic tricks, telling some jokes, monologue, poetry reading, juggling, sword swallowing - whatever! I just would like everyone to do something entertaining and creative, my expectations are pretty reasonable, I don't expect everyone to prepare and practice like prima ballerinas...

I am always ambivalent about hosting parties - so much stress in organizing and making sure everyone has a good time! And I am especially doubtful about hosting this one. Even though most of my friends/acquaintances are a creative bunch, a lot of my potential guests find my party idea intimidating. They are either shy or have no idea what to do for this "assignment", and hence are unsure whether they will attend at all :(

I'd love some suggestions for this which I can offer to my friends to make them less intimidated and more enthusiastic. Ideally, they would have all or any of the following qualities: creative, suitable for shy people, do not take much time or effort to prepare for.

And what would I do for my part? I would do something similar to Isabella Rosselini's Green Porno "Nothing Porno about it!" as she says. In the series, Rossellini enacts the mating rituals of various insects and other animals (including the dragonfly, spider, bee, praying mantis, squid, snail and housefly) with cardboard cut-outs and foam-rubber sculptures (wikipedia) - the result is very whimsical and reminiscent of an elementary school play in its aesthetics! If anyone is intrigued, you can view all of the episodes on

Economical Holiday Vacation - With Skiing?

AV — Tue, 24 Nov 2009 10:05:06 -0800

Vacation planning two part-er: Does cheap, decent skiing over the holidays exist? And if not, where else should I spend my time off from work? My office is going to be closed from December 23 through January 3. I’ve got family obligations through December 25, but after that I can do whatever I want (!).

So far my skiing/snowboarding experience has been limited to hills on the Niagara escarpment, so if this is my opportunity to actually experience real snow on real mountains, I’d love to take advantage of that.

The difficulty: I can’t spend more than a grand, and would prefer to spend less if at all possible. I’m guessing this will involve staying away from the major resorts, and so I’m hoping to get some recommendations for some lesser-known but still decent ski areas that might not be as expensive.

I’ll go pretty much anywhere. I’m not looking for necessarily world-class skiing - just something that is enough of an improvement over the Great Lakes ice I’m used to, to make the trip worth it. I can fly out of either Buffalo or Toronto, or, alternatively, I have a car with snow tires that can be driven from that vicinity. I’m looking for probably 3-4 days as opposed to a whole week but I’m flexible there too.

If the ski thing isn’t going to pan out, I’m open to traveling just about anywhere that won’t be absurdly expensive or frustrating this time of year, so feel free to suggest something else if it comes to mind.

Need help finding a Christmas/Hanukkah card

cerebus19 — Sun, 22 Nov 2009 12:00:28 -0800

Please help find a particular Christmas/Hanukkah card that my wife and I love! A number of years ago -- at least seven, but I'm not really sure -- I got my wife a holiday card that she just absolutely loved. See, I'm Jewish by heritage (though I'm not at all religious) and she's Catholic by heritage (though is Unitarian now). So every December we have both Hanukkah and Christmas.

This card, then, showed Santa Claus kneeling down and playing dreidel on the floor with a few kids. On the inside of the card it said something like "Even though we celebrate different things this time of year, we can still play well together." It may have been by American Greetings, but we're not certain of that.

My usually powerful Google-fu has failed to uncover anything about this card. Obviously, we'd like to know how to get our hands on a few copies.

There is another Christmas/Hanukkah interfaith card that was more of the type you write a note in and send to a bunch of folks, that showed a reindeer where its antlers made the shape of a Hanukkah menorah, complete with little candles in each. If you can help find that one, too, I'd greatly appreciate it.

Thanks!

Movies set at Christmas

bonaldi — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 06:20:21 -0800

What are the best movies set at Christmas that aren't actually Christmas movies? I'm looking for some of the best movies set around the Christmas holiday season that aren't actually about Christmas or the Christmas spirit or anything like that.

It's a tricky line, but I think one way to judge is to consider if the film would work pretty much as well if it wasn't set at Christmas. So: No to Elf, The Santa Clause or Miracles on 34th Street, but yes to Die Hard, Die Hard II, Ghostbusters II, etc.

Can I have your tips about entering into the holiday season right after my dad's death?

NikitaNikita — Tue, 10 Nov 2009 13:33:07 -0800

Death, mourning, family, and holidays: How to prepare for the holidays in a post-Dad world? Can I have your tips about entering into the holiday season right after my dad's death?

My Dad died a few weeks ago, somewhat unexpectedly. He was 71 and he had some heart problems for some time, but I didn't expect him to go now, since he had been so sick but then recovered many times in the past.

For the holidays, it was always my mom, my dad and I as a core unit (I'm an only child). For example, in recent years' thanksgivings we might have had one or two of my friends come out to dinner with us, but otherwise it was really just the 3 of us. The Christmas tradition was just the three of us meeting up in a random US city to spend time together, exchange gifts, eat dinner out and see a new city over the course of a few days.

I'm going through a lot/feeling really weird and out of sorts right now. I expect it to be worse over the holidays. Are there any tips on how to prepare ?

One Thanksgiving option is an invite from a family friend to join them, but I feel like this might make me more depressed seeing a happy "whole/complete" family altogether. If that makes sense? But then I wonder if it will feel even more lonely with just my mom and I. Additionally, it would be a good time around Thanksgiving to go to my parents' house and work on sorting out my dad's paperwork, etc, but my mom is torn between getting that done and getting away from the house to clear her hear.

Thanks in advance for any advice here.

Home (not broke) for Xmas.

nicoleincanada — Sun, 08 Nov 2009 04:20:45 -0800

Please help me get from Europe to Canada for the Xmas holidays without having to live out of a cardboard box. This is my first time living abroad, and I've rather naively discovered that holy crap, airfare to North America is super expensive from mid-December to early January. I've managed to get a bit of wiggle room on my travel dates from my employers (I work at a school and the holidays are pre-scheduled), but the reasonable/cheap airfare is still a day or two out of reach and I don't want to push my luck much further.

This isn't a make or break thing - I've promised the family I'll go home either way - but if there's a way to get from Paris to Winnipeg without spending $1800 Cdn after tax, I'd be appreciative. Especially considering $1800 is the price I managed by wiggling the dates.

Is finding reasonable airfare at peak travel time in December a total pipe dream? Am I just booking too late, or too early? Are there any genuinely useful sites for this sort of thing? I've tried both Expedia and Travelocity and find them pretty useless when the destination isn't a major hub - they seem to miss a lot of cheap fares I can find by checking airlines myself.

My holidays are from Dec. 19 to Jan. 3 (like the rest of the Xmas-celebrating world). Employers are willing to let me leave the Wednesday before and return the Wednesday after, which is how I managed the price above. I'd like to be home for Xmas day but I'd be willing to leave pre-NY if that generally makes a difference. I'm also willing to fly to other European centres or take the train to get a better price.

FYI, I've checked other threads on this site and, oddly, can't find a similar question, but my AskMF skills might be lacking. So if you find the same question previously, by all means share.

Thanks much in advance.

Holiday lights: hang 'em high!

Bardolph — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 14:58:49 -0800

How can I conveniently and safely affix a string of Christmas lights to the edge of a second-story roof? Halloween's over, and it's officially time to start planning holiday decorations, hurray! My challenge this year: to get a string of lights (preferably icicle, but standard C4s in a pinch) hung along the eave of a ~22'-high roof.

It sounds simple, but the roof is really too high and treacherous to go with the standard plastic light clips that have to be manually stuck on and pulled off the gutter every season. I think I could probably make it up there once, to install whatever hanging hardware may be necessary, but after that the lights will have to be hangable from the ground exclusively.

My current thought is to screw metal hooks into the underside of the eaves, then hoist a string of lights onto the hooks using a tall pole of some sort-- but without any way to close the hooks, I worry that the lights might blow down in a gusty wind. Ideally, there'd be some more secure way to make sure the lights stay attached, but can still be hung and removed easily by someone reaching out a window or standing on the ground.

So what might be some clever alternatives for hanging long strings of lights across high places? Has anyone had any success with pulley/clothesline-type apparatuses? Or with these dodgy-looking lighting tracks? Any other bright ideas?

Details:
--There's a small dormer in the middle of the roofline which it'd be nice to outline as well, although in theory the lights could be strung straight across that.
--The gutter is also accessible at wide intervals from second-story windows, as shown in this crude drawing.

Any and all suggestions welcome-- thanks!

I Can Has High Holy Day Podcast?

airguitar2 — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 17:33:15 -0800

Can anyone recommend a good Rosh Hashanah/Yom Kippur podcast? I'm hoping to prepare for the high holidays this year by listening to some good podcasts. I'm looking for podcasts about getting ready for Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, about the spiritual background of the holidays, or general meditations that might help make the holidays more meaningful for me this year.

Any recommendations for good podcasts?

Where's the best place to go on vacation in the US if you're five and love everything to do with science?

pootler — Tue, 08 Sep 2009 00:58:09 -0800

Help us pick a US vacation destination for a science-obsessed five year old. So Mr Pootler and Pootler jr REALLY don't like going on holiday. One is geeky/autistic and the other is genius/autistic. But I want a holiday dammit!

Mr and Jr would actually like to go to America. Mr and Jr don't cope with amusement parks, busy beaches and the like, but we do all love museums.

We thought we might be able to do a museum sort of holiday. Specifically one that will appeal to Jr.s obsessions: geology, computers, astronomy, astrophysics, anatomy, chemistry, computers, physics, mathematics, codes, ancient scripts and number systems...... He also loves anything to do with water and books, Tom & Jerry, Bugs Bunny, Garfield and Calvin and Hobbes. ;-)

So clearly we're not looking for the typical travel agents package. ;-) We'd like to have a base in one place, but wouldn't mind driving a couple of hours for day trips. If you want to do theme parks, you go to Florida or California. But where should we go? And what should we visit?

Where can I go for a 'healthy' break?

fernbritton — Wed, 08 Jul 2009 16:38:41 -0800

Where can I go for a 'healthy' break? I'd like to take a week away and come back feeling healthier. Somewhere in the UK or Europe.
I have no willpower so I need something organised, something that would encourage exercise and keep me away from alcohol, cigarettes, junk food etc. etc.
I'm not into 'alternative' therapies, though I think I could tolorate that environment if there was a good programme overall.
I realise that a week isn't going to make a great difference but hope it would kick-start me for a healthier lifestyle overall.

Thanks for any suggestions!

Where Is Good For A Beach Holiday?

Ruby Tuesday — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 13:47:12 -0800

Can Anyone Recommend a Good Beach Holiday? Looking for sun, sea, sand and peace and quiet. Somewhere fairly secluded that myself and my partner can chill out for a fortnight without having lots of other people around. Ideally, we want to rent a beach hut next to the ocean, doesn't matter how basic, be able to swim in the sea during the day and be able to eat amazing seafood at night. Looking for recommendations for travel companies/locations/anything really!

TIA!

Is there a place that catalogs non-standard holidays?

JFitzpatrick — Sat, 28 Feb 2009 10:09:31 -0800

Where can I find an extensive calendar or listing of events and celebrations beyond the basic national and well known holidays? (i.e. that the last Saturday in Feb. is Open That Bottle Night for celebrating good wine.) I'd love to find a website that catalogs various made up holidays and celebrations. I can use a regular calendar to find the dates of common holidays but I'm interested in knowing about all sorts of days that aren't on a standard calendar. How can I easily find out when Computer Security week is? Or Backwards Pants Day? or Jogging Safety Awareness Week is? All of which I just made up of course, but you see my point. Does anyone know of a place where such things are cataloged?

SE Asia tying shoestrings

wilful — Sun, 22 Feb 2009 17:42:43 -0800

Bali, Thailand, or somewhere else for winter? The family are fleeing winter for some sun this July, and we’re thinking SE Asia, because it’s warm, cheap, interesting and close.

We’ll be travelling with two small kids (three and under one) so will be going pretty gently, not doing too much moving about on local buses.

I’m inclined to put Bali or Thailand at the top of the list, and have mostly ruled out Vietnam, Cambodia, Philippines and South China because they’ll be too dirty and too much of a hassle with the kids. Peninsular Malaysia and Singapore we’ve done. So that leaves Bali and Thailand on our shortlist, but we don’t know enough about the two countries to effectively decide.

We’d probably look to get a package deal with flights and accommodation and then just extend our stay out to three or four weeks. For Thailand, I was thinking a week or two down south in the isthmus, then flying to Chiang Mai for a week or two more, then a few days in Bangkok before coming home. Bali I’m much less clear about, sit on a beach for a while (which one?), then do what? Northern parts? Lombok?

Alternatively, would we get bored going to a pacific island instead? Fiji? Vanuatu? New Caledonia? Any and all opinions appreciated…

Is my irritation over receiving tacky religious gifts unfounded?

JFitzpatrick — Wed, 31 Dec 2008 16:40:43 -0800

Is my irritation over receiving tacky religious gifts unfounded? The situation: For Christmas this year, my sister-in-law and her husband gave my family religious gifts.

My feeling on the matter: It wasn't something innocuous like a great aunt giving a niece a childrens' bible because it seemed like a nice gift... the gifts were pretty much given as a form of propaganda. They know that I'm an atheist and that my wife has fallen so far off the southern Christian Fundamentalist wagon that she grew up on that she is for all intents and purposes agnostic now. Their gifts this year were books about finding Christ, how Christ was the one true way and the source of all moral authority and a bunch of other unsolicited nonsense. The real thorn was giving unsolicited books about religion to my daughter. I go out of my way to almost bite my tongue clean off when I hear them filling their childrens heads with the most absurd fundamentalist nonsense you've ever heard in your life because it isn't my place to intervene in how they raise their children. I would never, ever, -ever-, give their children unsolicited books about religion or sex or other topics that are the province of a parent to discuss with their child (even whilst cringing at the size of the therapy bills the poor kids will pay later in life to fix what has been done!)

Ultimately I'm offended not because I even cared that I received gifts from them... I've never been that into getting gifts whether for a holiday or my birthday. I'm offended because while I was picking out thoughtful gifts for them that I thought would be useful and beautiful (and entirely without any sort of agenda other than hoping they found them as useful and lovely as I thought they were), they were apparently putting together Missionary-in-a-Box(tm) for me.

I'm not about to pick up the phone and give them a stern talking to other anything... I just can't get over how incredibly tacky the gifts were.

Am I being irrational? Should I just accept that my in-laws are poster children for the Pat Roberston Glee Club and shrug it off?

What do you do on a Christmas alone?

Anonymous — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 19:28:56 -0800

I've got nowhere to go for Christmas and nobody to celebrate it with. Every place I could use to distract myself is closed. The soup kitchens already have too many volunteers. Plus I have no car. I'm going to be bored as hell. What to do? Posted anonymously out of embarrassment. I've done the holiday-alone thing before and wasn't so much depressed as bored out of my skull. My friends are all visiting family. I'd like to get out of the house, but can only rely on public transportation. Does anyone have any suggestions on how to distract myself until the world starts up again? I'm in the Baltimore area.

Short story read on NPR about white family helping black family in the 1930s at the holidays?

chr1sb0y — Wed, 24 Dec 2008 06:16:51 -0800

Can you help identify a short story read on NPR on or around x-mas day 2007, about a poor white family helping out a poor black family, probably out west, probably in the 1930s? One particular scene involved something like this: a white father coming back from town with 2 turkeys and fruit or candy, from a church or food pantry, and giving one turkey to a black man, who had assumed black folks were not invited to the giveaway. Ths story may have been told from the point of view of a child.

I've searched the NPR site and have not been able to track it down. Thanks!

How to make boyfriend's Christmas away from home better?

soleiluna — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 11:18:43 -0800

My boyfriend just found out he needs to cancel his trip home for Xmas. (Kitty got sick.) I'm still heading out of town (leaving tonight) to see my family for 5 days. What can I do to make boyfriend's Christmas holiday better/less lonely? Our sick cat needs care that the petsitter cannot provide (fluid via IV), so as of this morning, my boyfriend decided to stay in San Francisco over Christmas instead of heading home to see his folks in LA. (The cat is mostly his, so me staying to take care of her wouldn't have been a good option.) I'm flying to Chicago tonight.

(Cat info - it sounds like the cat will be ok after this infection is done with, but we're both quite worried about her. She's getting old-ish.)

He's not a super-Christmasy person, nor is he that close with his family. But I want to do whatever I can to make sure he's not miserable/bored on Christmas. Any ideas?

Some other possibly relevant info - we do have at least two friends staying in SF, so he won't be totally alone. He and I live together. I'm at work for another two hours, and my flight departs in about 7 hours, so not a *ton* of time to do something, but I am around plenty of shops and restaurants if needed. We've already exchanged most of our Christmas presents as well. We'd previously planned a trip to visit his family in early January, which is possibly still happening if the cat is OK by New Year's.

He'll probably be fine, and I don't think it's boyfriend's first Christmas away from family. But I want to do something nice if I can.

Oh, and suggestions that will make the cat happier too are also welcome ;)

Latkes sound awesome!

Mastercheddaar — Tue, 23 Dec 2008 07:45:42 -0800

Good Latke recipes or any helpful hints in general? I have to be honest, I am not Jewish but Catholic. Why would I want to make Latkes then you ask? This question got me interested. I was helping with the menu planning and we needed something warm and crunchy. I figured that I could try and make something special, some different, something that would make the in-laws think "Why are there latkes at a traditional Christmas dinner?!?!?" My only problem is that I have no idea how to make them. Sure I did a little google fu but it seems that a lot can go wrong with this simple dish. Could I please get some tips, hints, recipes, suggested wines to help me bring a little cultural diversity to the dinner table this year?

Where can I find some beady jewelery for mom?

lunasol — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 05:24:02 -0800

Where in New York can I buy some of that nice-but-inexpensive non-blingy street stall jewelery? Today, that is. I have a few necklaces that I've bought on the street in Manhattan that my mom really loves, and she's hinted that she would like something similar for Christmas this year. I don't live in NYC, just visit often.

The necklaces I'm talking about are of the chunky-bead variety, brightly colored. I've usually found them just while walking along, always on weekends.
However, now it's a weekday and I'm short on time! Any suggestions for where I might find such stands on a Monday, or of course, a store that sells stuff like that? I'm also looking for something under $30. Obviously I know this isn't some obscure type of item and I'm sure there are a million places I could look, I just don't know where!

I'm currently in Greenpoint, will be traveling to Flushing and the Upper West Side today, but could make a side trip if necessary.

Help my holiday gift stand out this year

ieatwords — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 13:53:51 -0800

I manage six ladies (I'm a guy) in my department and I would like to get them something for the holidays. I am looking for something $10-15 that is not candy, not a gift card and not an ornament. I probably don't have time to order it online so it should be something that I can find at a store. Any ideas? Did you get something cool this year? I want to give something memorable and different than the usual things employees find on their desks before Christmas.

Sealed with a kiss for the holidays

catburger — Fri, 19 Dec 2008 03:50:25 -0800

Help me think of cute ways to show my new boyfriend that I'm thinking about him over the holidays! My boyfriend and I are about 4 months into our very fun and happy relationship. We will be spending more than two weeks over the winter holidays apart, so during that time I want to do something sweet for him, especially because he won't be able to see his family this year.

Ask Metafilter, I thought I'd ask for some help because I'm quite new at the relationship thing and he's much better at showing affection than me! My current idea is to send him a little note via snail mail and tell him I miss him and am thinking of him. Ladies, what have you done for your men if you've been in similar situations? And gentlemen, what would you want to read/receive if you were in this situation?

Non-Union Square Xmas gift for my mom?

Viola — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 16:30:31 -0800

I was a dolt and missed the deadline to ship my Mom's potential Christmas gift to my parent's house before I left town. So now I'm left with one weekend in NYC to find her something pretty for the home that's also small enough to fit in a carry-on suitcase. I need recommendations for classy, inexpensive stores in NYC that carry unique and/or handmade bowls, candle holders, tableware, etc for under $80. The centerpiece was sort of perfect for my Mom, but I can live (sob) with a substitute. Other possible gifts I considered from the same online store were this tray and this bowl, but alas, they won't make it to the house in time unless I shell out another $40 for 2-day shipping.

I swear I tried my darnedest to find a relevant question from the Ask.Metafilter annals, but nothing popped up. I know NYC has tons of stores like this, but many are very expensive or dull.

Thanks in advance!

Mass Online Gifting Suggestions

LongDrive — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 02:55:47 -0800

Gifting en masse. Looking for non physical holiday gift ideas that can be ordered online for 40+ people scattered throughout the world. Over the last year, my small business has employed about 40+ freelance artists across the world for jobs ranging from pro-bono pitch work to five-figure campaigns, and I'd like to spread a bit of holiday cheer to both them and other vendors we have worked with.

Logistically, I can't buy or make physical items and ship them all out, so I am looking for suggestions of a small gift that can be purchased and fulfilled online.

The biggest problem is budget, as I can really only afford to spend 20 (Australian) dollars maximum per person without breaking the bank.

I feel that doing a straight up Amazon or iTunes gift certificate with a dollar amount on it might seem a bit lame, so I guess am looking for something along those lines that might be a bit more thoughtful.

(previous gifts along this line that I have given are magazine subscriptions, relevant charity donations, planting a tree in someone's name, website gift accounts, a laser etched disc that was going to be blasted into the moon... etc)

Suggestions?