When we first moved to the United States, we discovered that there were so many new holidays to celebrate. We were not big on holidays, I can’t say we ever celebrated more than just our birthdays and our anniversary.
The first one we encountered was Halloween. My first time inside of a Halloween store was terrifying since I have a phobia of spiders. I ran out as fast as I could after we got our costumes. We went trick-or-treating for the very first time. It was so much fun! I loved this holiday so much. It’s still one of my favorite holidays. I started decorating for the holiday and giving out candy. It’s every child’s dream. It’s the best!
Then it was Thanksgiving, and my husband’s birthday fell on the same day! I had a lot to learn about Thanksgiving. And on our first Thanksgiving, we had a seafood feast (my husband’s favorite food). My then five-year-old daughter was learning about Thanksgiving in kindergarten, and she shared with us what she learned. She made us write lists of what we were thankful for, which was very nice.
I immediately loved this holiday for the food. I made the full traditional menu once, and we quickly discovered that we all didn’t like turkey. So, instead, every year, depending on whether it is my husband’s birthday, we have our own Egyptian feast with the exception of my perfected pecan pie.
It was Christmas after that, and I loved all the lights and decorations in the city. It was just delightful. We saw all the Christmas attractions in the city, but we didn’t have a tree put up or give each other gifts. It was way more than just a feast unlike Thanksgiving plus I had a case against religious holidays in general.
We continued to celebrate Halloween and Thanksgiving every year, but we skipped Christmas. In my mind, I refused to celebrate holidays with a religious background that I didn’t believe in, and I was strict about it. We had no religious affiliations whatsoever, so it made sense.
Fast forward to the year 2016. My then eleven- and four-year-olds wanted to celebrate Christmas so badly they asked me for a tree, gifts, and a special Christmas Eve dinner. I started to ask everyone I knew who celebrated Christmas. I had a lot to learn, and I was willing to have an open mind and allow us to celebrate even if we didn’t believe in it.
There’s no harm in having fun once a year plus I already loved all the lights and cheerful spirit around the holidays. We went and bought a trial tabletop Christmas tree. We even adopted a little elf on the shelf that we still have. And that was the start of an annual tradition. My children love everything about Christmas, and my younger one even starts to play Christmas music right after Halloween!
They got me into the holiday spirit.
One year, my youngest wanted to celebrate Chanukah, which we welcomed, and again, I asked around how to do it properly, which we did.
Throughout the year, there are a bunch of holidays to celebrate. My least favorite was and still is Valentine’s Day. Mother’s Day is celebrated on March 21st in Egypt, and we didn’t have a Father’s Day, so that was a nice surprise.
Memorial Day, Independence Day, and Labor Day were all new, too, and the way they are celebrated is new as well.
