Cohousing-L Mailing List: holiday festivities

[Lynn Nadeau / Maraiah (welcome]

What do you do to celebrate the winter holidays? We get a tree for the  
Common House and decorate it. On Christmas Day, as on Thanksgiving,  
there is a coordinated fancy potluck dinner for those who choose to  
eat together, often with invited family guests.
After our December monthly meeting, which is a morning time, we  
reconvene for an afternoon gift exchange.

Funny white elephants or "nice" stuff, wrapped and parked in the  
center of the circle. Draw numbered slips of paper. #1 picks a gift,  
opens it and shows it around. #2 may either "steal" the prior gift, or  
choose to open a new one. Each succeeding number gets to either steal  
any previously opened gift, or open a new one. A few rules we make: on  
the third steal an object stays with that person and is no longer fair  
game for trading; if your thing is stolen, you then get to either  
steal or open a new one. Number 1 gets the very last turn of all.

With a couple dozen players, this takes time and there is some fun.  
We've definitely enjoyed it in the past, whether hawking our  
inflatable toilet seat or garish lamp, or guarding our tin of ginger  
snaps or handmade wreath.

And some new ideas would be welcome. What else do folks do?

Maraiah Lynn Nadeau
RoseWind Cohousing
Port Townsend WA
www.rosewind.org