Question of the Day: How Do You “Organize” Holiday Plans?

By Mandi Ehman • April 10, 2009

source: SuziJane

In honor of Easter this weekend…

How do you handle holiday plans with your extended families?

:: Do you alternate holidays year-after-year?
:: Do you make multiple stops on any given holiday?
:: Do you stay home and invite others to you?
:: Do you “assign” holidays to different people?
:: Do you all celebrate together?

Are there any other options I’m missing? I’d love to hear how you handle the holidays!

Categories: Question of the Day

About the Author

Mandi Ehman

Hi. My name is Mandi and I’m an organizing junkie. I’m also a wife, and Momma to four little girls (5, 3.5, 2 and a new baby!). I've worked at home since our oldest was a baby, and like a lot of other moms, my life is a constant balancing act of caring for my family and my home, meeting my obligations and finding time for hobbies in there somewhere. Oh, yeah, in the interest of full disclosure, I’m somewhat of a kitchen dunce and I only like to pretend that I’m crafty. Read more here!

4 Responses to “ Question of the Day: How Do You “Organize” Holiday Plans? ”

Sarah Jane Apr 10th, 2009 at 7:44 am

Mandi,
My husband’s three siblings and families all live within a mile. My parents live 30 min. away, but my sisters are out of the state. For Thanksgiving we switch off and whoever doesn’t get us for T-day gets to pick when the get us for Christmas. Easter is usually with my husband’s fam and my parents and uncle come. Generally, it’s pretty peaceful, but I put more pressure on the decisions than need be.

[Reply]
Abbie Apr 10th, 2009 at 9:29 am

My family lives a plane ride away, so with two kids in diapers we seldom visit get to them for holidays. My husband has 55 relatives w/in 1hr drive so we usually go to his father’s side and then to his mother’s side for Christmas, Easter, and a traditional Korean New-Year’s celebration. The hostess duties get passed around among the members of his parent’s generation. The times his parents host, I help my MIL prepare, though being such an organizer, I sometimes get annoyed at the disorganization of a such a large family. After growing up in a very small family, this circus is quite something! Nevertheless, I think it is wonderful for my children that they can experience the joy that comes with gathering with a large family.

Abbie’s last blog post…Birthday Party Planning – Event Planning

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Laura Apr 10th, 2009 at 11:24 am

I’m visiting from the ProBlogger 31 Day Challenge. Our family holidays are pretty chaotic. We used to have Grandparents and more family around, all coming to my parent’s home cause we had 4 kids and the biggest dining room table. Now, all of the Grandparent’s generation are gone. The holidays seem kind of empty and lacklustre. My Mother is in Florida (snowbird) half the year and my Father died several years ago. We get together at my sister’s house sometimes. But never the full group, not since the days when we had Grandparents. For Easter this year my brother does not want to come but he will. My little sister is away in San Franciso. But my Mom came back north early and we are making a big spiral ham for Sunday dinner. You take what you can get.

Laura’s last blog post…Spell Chucked

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Heather Apr 10th, 2009 at 5:12 pm

I have two sets of parents within half an hour and my husband’s parents also, so we usually try to visit each one separately. However, both of our kids’ birthdays are within 5 days of each other and fall near Easter every other year, so this year we told the grandparents to come here and we’d celebrate that plus the birthdays all in one day. Less traveling for us and we don’t have to bring home all of those gifts!

Heather’s last blog post…Spring Break

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