The Holidays

[Gotham Witch]

Something somewhat introspective that I've been wondering about for awhile.

When I was younger, I used to do the usual holiday things - I'd celebrate X-Mas with my family, there'd be the usual exchange of gifts, the typical annoying of one another, etc. It was a grand ol' time. This was before my life got awfully complicated, as some of you might be aware.

Since I've become more 'tuned in' with things like angry mages, spooks, and the like, holidays haven't quite been the same for me. My mother and I hardly see each other, and I haven't even been invited to celebrate X Mas with her the past few years - granted, it'd just the staunchly religious woman and her liberal spellcasting daughter.

I've gotten invitations to celebrate with people - as very often is the case when people find out you won't be with family. However, I find I usually decline, either because it doesn't seem right, or perhaps some fear that I might put someone in danger. Whether my sheer presence would do such a thing, I haven't figured out.

I suppose the point is... I find holidays rough. I can't relax anymore and just enjoy them. They've sort of become another day for me, as bad things still happen on them. Thanksgiving just sort of becomes another excuse to eat a lot of food - I've become thankful for what I've had every day for some years now. A specific day is silly for it.

How do you all celebrate the holidays? I don't mean that in the 'What do you celebrate, do you give gifts', etc. I mean... how has one's experiences in dealing with the supernatural - whether it be once or on a constant basis - affected how one sees and appreciates (or not) the holidays? Has one's experience dealing with the big nasty complicated the time spent with family? I could see it straining to know one or several family members put their necks on the line on a weekly basis, and that next X-Mas may not be with everyone. Or do some of you just celebrate it as if nothing has happened, unexplainable be damned?

[danorviel]

This is a very difficult question to answer for me right now, what with everything that's happening in my life. Today is Yule, the Winter Solstice, and I am spending it with my dad and others in my area that follow the same path I do. However, I cannot forget what has begun and the danger that may be just around the corner.

I try my best to celebrate any Holy Day appropriately, but that is not always possible. I have spent some communing with spirits, trying to help them cross over. Others I have spent quietly here on my own farm, or with friends.

In many ways I have been fortunate, especially in the area of family. We have all followed the same religious path for many generations and have similar outlooks on the world and our roles in it.

I guess the best answer I have is that I do my best to celebrate whenever I can, without letting negative paranormal influences affect my celebrations. When I can't, then I deal with it at that time. Sorry my answer isn't a better one.

Have a Blessed and Safe Yule.

[Cybermancer]

The holidays, for any time of year and by whatever name you choose to practice them under is a time for family. Be that biological or adoptive families can vary from individual to individual. Those without close ties are bound to have a hard time of it when others around them are celebrating those very bonds.

Last year, supernatural events kept me away from my family for a number of holidays. It wasn't the first time I've been away from my loved ones and most likely, it will not be the last.

Life goes on however, and there are other holidays and celebrations. I will certainly be participating in such with my family and loved ones in the days ahead. If we are on occasion forced to be apart, it makes our time together that much more valuable when we do come together.

It's been a long night and in a few hours, the sun will rise again. Morning will find me with my family. Despite the weariness that nights like this can bring, it is the time in the sun with those that I love that make it all worthwhile.

If there is no one in your life that can make you defy the dark with a smug smile, then find someone. Life is too short to spend it alone, too precious not to be shared and too precarious not to risk love.

[Ron Caliburn]

Back when we lived on the Compound, Christmas time was mostly just another day. We'd do our chores, shoot target practice, count our blessings that we weren't communists, atheists or liberals, pray that the Rapture would come soon and recite selected passages from Army Field Manuals. About the only difference is the women would cook some extra meat to make sure the girls got some too.


I was very glad to break those traditions when my daughter was freed from that place.

[Tms3]

I tend to try and gather with my grove and family.... it does seem that holidays may be an excuse to eat. but really what it is, is a good handy way to take time form our lives for friends and family's.

I still renumber grand father sitting next to the fire reading yes Verina there is a Santa. Holidays celebration among my grove often in clound games of chance and skill and often season or weather specific sports

[PeterSchnauss]

The yule season for me will smell garlicy and my windows will be steamed up with hot holiday cheer.

Alas I will be delivering pizzas through the holidays...usually good tips though.

[Gotham Witch]

Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their work: If one falls down, his friend can help him up. But pity the man who falls and has no one to help him up! - Ecclesiastes 4:9-10

I don't quite scripture often, but that really does describe the last year or so. I have been a bit of a downer in the past while, but from time to time I realize that even despite all the crap going on, sometimes things aren't really that bad.

As an aside, I would note Hannah's cooking was fantastic.

[PeterSchnauss]

GW....I wish I had a friend to pick me up.

I tripped and wiped out while delivering a bunch of pies Xmas Eve and totally destroyed my shoulder.

Can I get some psychic healing?

The really crappy thing about that doomed delivery....grubby apartment, hall partially blocked with bicycles, 3 flights of stairs, barking dogs, ratty torn carpeting and filthy garbage strewn stairwell.
Me burdened with 2 large pizzas, a dozen garlic/parm bread stix, 2 two liters of pop and a fried catfish dinner culminating in a face plant on the last flight of stairs just in front of the apartment door. I didn't have to knock NO!! because the dog heard me wipeout and was ramming itself at the door to get at me. When door opened I was assaulted by the smell of marijuana, the roar of the slavering hellhound and shill screaming kids. Looking down the CHUD-like apartment dweller saw me struggling to get up (no help). Why? He was too busy keeping his pitbull from chewing my face off. Oh well... I should've done the smart thing and just dumped the order and landed safely.

So there I was wincing in pain at the door fishing cash out of my pocket, I gave the guy the bills and he just stood there waiting, while his kids held back the snarling pitbull. Then the insult added to my injury, he for a second didn't deign to tip me even a frikken cent. In the end, I had to go back to my truck to get his lousy, god-damned 78 cents.


Merry Frikken Xmas!!!!

[Rowan]

Gotham Witch—it was a tradition for my family to go to Orchestria’s and eat. It was a great time, a tradition we dearly held on to for years.

My family still eats there—while I watched them, now a stranger—from several tables away. Still, it was nice in its own way. They were safe.

[Gotham Witch]

When I was a bit younger, right after my brother passed away, my father and I would always eat at the same diner he used to frequent as a freshmen in college.

I went there the other day before I went to go lay a wreath at Hempstead cemetery. The place is still standing, surprisingly. I dare say the coffee has marginally improved.

[Hannah]

Hey Mel,

Glad you enjoyed Christmas at our place.

Hannah

PS: Don't worry about my Dad, he's just like that with new people. I also probably should have told him you were coming.

[GhostSpider]

I have a love/hate thing about the winter holidays.

Love-I am an empath, and during the holidays people feel so much MORE. It's kind of like being around someone young just before their birthday, but multiplied a million times over. The giddiness and excitement usually help to lighten my dark and foul mood.

Hate-I am an empathic vampire. I feed on the psychic energy generated by emotions. During the holidays I constantly feel like I have drunk multiple pots of coffee, many cans of red bull and been eating pure sugar all day. I don't ever go near malls, or any large shopping center for that matter and don't get me started on toy stores. Being near such places is like having had a syringe full of pure crystal meth shot straight into my brain. Need less to say, I do alot of camping during the holidays.

Love-I'm fond of watching families get together for Thanksgiving and Christmas parties. Even with all the underlying problems a family might have, the main emotions they feel are joy and happiness. It's as if the holidays temporarily wipe the slate clean. It reminds me that for all the darkness I might see in mankind, they will still always be worth fighting for.

Hate-I have no family to celebrate with. My relationship with my father is complex, to say the least. My siblings are being held by an enemy beyond evil, and I have to stay away from my mother and friends, for fear of bringing something horrible with me. Loneliness is my companion for the holidays (digging the melodrama?).

[Rowan]

Souls—our very identities—are complex—full of paradoxes.

By the way—unique signature you have, Cybermancer.