Why some people are spending the holidays sans family: ‘My friends are more fun than my relatives’
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Not everyone can – or wants to – celebrate with family. Some choose traditions with friends and neighbors instead. The holidays are often thought of as a time for family – a time to pack bags and hop on trains, planes and automobiles to go see people with whom you share DNA.
![[Madeleine Aggeler]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/uploads/2023/10/31/Madeline_Aggeler.png?width=75&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
But for some, this might not be possible, or particularly desirable. Some live far from their biological families. Others are not particularly close, or have fraught relationships. This can be challenging, but it can also be an opportunity to build new traditions with friends and neighbors.
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We asked Guardian readers to share how they spend holidays with people who aren’t their original family. Answers have been edited and condensed for clarity. The laughing Christmas. I have had a couple of open houses on Christmas Day, which I’ve dubbed the Laughing Christmas Open House. Family relations were strained, especially around the holiday. I was in deep with my local theater community, so I spread the word of the event through these channels, and a lot of people showed up.
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I wanted to look like a snowflake, so I wore a secondhand wedding gown; I got a lot of laughs when I opened the door. I invited people to bring food from their family’s holiday traditions – any tradition – so we had a wonderful array of dishes. My goal was to delight everyone’s senses. So I mulled cider, cooked a large turkey, hung pretty lights and decorations, and had holiday music playing constantly. We’d all crowd into the living room for dinner, people sitting on the floor or wherever they could. I don’t recall how the food tasted, only that I felt so happy to be able to share a meal with all these people.
![[people smiling at a table ]](https://i.guim.co.uk/img/media/7c53fac0bcbae26a2d0d01cb725967eb7bb58420/0_0_7360_4680/master/7360.jpg?width=445&dpr=1&s=none&crop=none)
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