Damn, people have a lot to say about this.

4th of July mainly.

Outside of Christmas and Thanksgiving (in the us) my opinion is that most of the holidays are meaningless.

Christmas and midsummer are the only ones I “celebrate” in any meaningful sense. Or at least used to. No point of celebrating much of anything when you’re alone.

I celebrate pretty much all of the US ones in my own way, but probably Valentine’s Day and July 4th are the two I don’t do much for. My better half and I just don’t feel the need for Valentine’s day. The 4th I use to do more but it’s always so dry these days I’m not comfortable doing much of anything.

I don’t celebrate any of them, haven’t really in a long while other than having dinner with a friend’s parents sometimes. I find the big ones rather depressing for a variety of reasons. Also could never find anyone to celebrate any of them with (going out to crowded places isn’t appealing to me anyway, so most parties and get togethers are out), other than xmas which I specifically dislike, so I gave up trying. I text people well-wishes if they text me, but I typically don’t even know when they are so…

Just another day like every other day.

I have never been in any sort of serious romantic relationship, so Valentine’s Day means precisely fuck all to me. I’m also too old to really do Halloween anymore.

Thanksgiving in my family always started around 10 PM the preceding night, all hands on deck, no sleeping allowed, because there was too much cooking and cleaning to be done. Grease, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat, or Mamma Mia! playing on a loop the whole time, as that was the only mom-approved background noise, at full blast, so the music can be clearly heard over the roar of vacuum cleaners, carpet shampooers, sizzling skillets, and hurled profanities. An insane amount of effort for what would amount to a massive amount of middling food waste at the best of times.

All in the name of trying to impress some very toxic people we never saw at any other time of year, if they bothered to show up in the first place. The kind of toxic people who always found something to complain about, regardless of how ragged my mother ran herself, or her kids. The kind of toxic people who would be very unhappy to find out I’m a gay democrat who doesn’t like turkey.

So, for the sake of my blood pressure, I make sure I ‘happen’ to have to work every year.

Ramadan

Not Muslim, and it just doesn’t sound like a fun time. Can’t think of any particular reason I’d want to celebrate it.

I don’t celebrate any of them.

Thanks to ADHD and the lack of social safety nets in the US, we’ve just always been too poor. I have not taken a vacation as an adult. My wife and I buy something special we want for birthday and Chrismas - we don’t waste money guessing what the other might want and regret that waste of money. Better to get ourselves something we know we want, as that’s about the only time.

I usually cook Thanksgiving dinner, but we’ve pulled way back. This year I’m getting a turkey breast to heat and slice, cooking fresh carrots, stuffing, cranberry sauce, and the wife wants baked potatoes, so I’ll do that instead of mashed (my pref). I used to do about twice the number of dishes. Oh, and a roux gravy that I’m doing still, gotta have good gravy.

For Christmas, we’ve gotten into the habit of having her make what my mother made for Christmas eve - quick Sally Lunn and hot chocolate. It’s carb-heavy, but the Sally Lunn is really tasty.

None of them, really. I usually stay up to watch the ball drop on NYE, and I watch the fireworks from D.C. and NYC on TV on 7/4, and that’s about it. Walk around the neighborhood on Halloween to look at the costumes and decorations.

I’m so old that I’m sick and tired of all of them.

New Years and 4th of July I don’t celebrate much anymore. I’m an Army veteran, so I’m not that fond of fireworks.

I live in Japan, so basically none of those. I guess I get stuff on v-day (we have a separate holiday where men give stuff a month later called white day). No ball drop or anything here for new-year; people spend the year-end and new year with family most of the time, which is nice.

Easier way to explain it for me, breaking down all public holidays (in Canada) and what I do for each, as a non-religious Canadian:

• New Year - stay up till midnight, have a drink, usually play board games while we wait for 12:00. We don’t always make it to midnight though, so sometimes we say 10:30 is our midnight and celebrate then instead. Depends on the year.
• Good Friday - mostly just an excuse for a fish dinner. I’m not religious but I like to observe traditions where I can. I was never raised catholic but I know fish on Good Friday is important to them and I love anything seafood so I take it as a good excuse to have a nice fish meal. I don’t really do much else.
• Easter - usually a ham dinner. Again, an excuse for a nice meal. Don’t do much else.
• Victoria Day - I haven’t done anything in the past, but I’d be open to ideas if anyone else has any. My wife and I just restarted a rewatch of Doctor Who for the millionth time and just watched the episode where they meet Queen Victoria last night, maybe we could watch that episode every Victoria Day or something.
• Canada Day - wear red, hang up a Canada flag, listen to Canadian artists, eat stereotypical Canadian food, drink Canadian drinks. I think last time for supper we did Hawaiian pizza, all dressed chips, and Caesars (the drink, not the salad).
• Civic holiday - not much, just enjoy the day off.
• Labour Day - same deal, not much, just enjoy the day.
• National Day for Truth and Reconciliation - haven’t done anything before but I’d like to start a tradition. If anyone has any ideas I’d love to hear them.
• Thanksgiving - an excuse for turkey dinner. Not much else.
• Remembrance Day - wear a poppy, moment of silence at 11am, otherwise not a whole lot.
• Christmas Day - I’m a big fan of Christmas, it’s my favourite time of year, not for the religious or consumerist aspects but my parents growing up always made it an incredible time of year and now that I’ve got a little one, my wife are using that as an excuse to go all out. We’re doing homemade decorations and stuff as much as we can and it’s been a ton of fun. My wife is quite crafty and has made almost everything on our Christmas tree. Most of our decorations around the house that she can’t make were bought at a thrift store. I hate how consumerist Christmas has become but you can absolutely go all out with the Christmas spirit without spending tons of money. I also genuinely love Christmas music despite working in retail and being subjected to it for two months straight every year, so lots of Christmas music gets played from November 12 (day after Remembrance Day) until January 7 (what we call Old Christmas, I’m not sure the reason now but it works as a good cutoff for the season). We also have a traditional Christmas dinner. My dad and I also play racing games together throughout the month of December. Not strictly Christmas but it always feels Christmas-y to play Forza now.
• Boxing Day - growing up we would go shopping for big ticket items but I’m not really into that these days. Now it’s the day to spend with anyone we didn’t get the chance to on Christmas Day/Eve, as well as enjoying any presents we did get for each other and just spending time together watching Christmas movies, drinking hot chocolate with Baileys, etc. Sort of the wind down after the hectic fun of the big day the day before.

For other holidays:

• Saint Patrick’s Day - not much, but usually a single drink of something Irish. Either Guinness or an Irish whiskey.
• Halloween - I’m not usually a big fan but since having a little one it’s more fun now. I don’t care for dressing up and I don’t have a sweet tooth, and I don’t care for horror movies, but dressing the little one up is adorable.
• Valentine’s Day - give my wife some flowers and give her a spa night. I don’t care much for the day but she loves it so I make it important for her.
• Mother’s Day - I try to give my wife a good day, but nothing specific. Just try to spoil her. She’s not materialistic so I don’t usually buy her anything but she’s big into dates and experiences so I try to take her somewhere. Maybe a stroll or a nice dinner or something. I also go out with my mother usually the week before to a cafe when it’s not as busy.
• Father’s Day - my dad always wants to go out for breakfast to the same spot every year, so we go do that. Otherwise not much.

My wife and I tend to celebrate the week after Valentines.

Ironically Valentines Day is the worst time to go out anywhere or get her chocolates.

Christmas is a religious holiday that developed secular appeal. Easter is only a religious holiday. It is in fact the most important important religious holiday. My grandmother only made stuffed cabbages on special occasions: weddings, Christmas, and Easter. That’s it. It’s a big holiday that only matters to people who literally believe that Jesus Christ rose from the dead that day. I don’t celebrate Easter anymore.