how do you celebrate?

[DragonFly]

Reading over the NYE thread I've realized that there are those kind of people that go all out in their celebrations, those kinda that just go with the flow and keep it simple with friends and family, and those that treat celebrations as if it was any other day.

In our case, anniversaries and birthdays are rarely celebrated on the actual day. Sometimes we might go out to a fancier restaurant than we might normally go to, but just as often, we just hang home with a cooked meal and maybe throw in a bottle of nice wine and a dessert. NYE we usually just go to an early dinner and either come back home for videos or maybe go out to a movie.

[PinkMartini]

With DH & I birthdays/anniversary are celebrated on the actual day and we usually just go out to dinner and exchange gifts. I've never hosted a 'party' before (bday/anniversary/ect) and assume in the future, it'll be the same (just the 2 of us).

[akacharlotte]

For NYE we don't really do anything special. The last two years we've had dinner with the family, played games over at the ILs and were home and in bed by or before midnight.

For birthdays we do dinner, gifts and try to do something special on the actual day if possible. Anniversaries are acknowledged but not overly celebrated. I think we keep all of our celebrations fairly low key.

[yby1]

We used to go out with friends for a nice dinner, followed by a party or clubbing with way too much alcohol. Now we all have children, so it's been quiet the last couple of years.

Tonight, we're going to cook a nice meal, get DS to bed at his usual time and play XBOX until the new year.

</geek> ;)

It will be fun once DS and all our friends children are a little older and we can all get together again. It's going to be nice to see our kids countdown to the new year.

[camberne]

Birthdays and anniversaries are generally low-key unless it's a big one (16th birthday for my son is coming up this year)... not like he's getting a car or anything though!

NYE is generally a low-key thing, too, but this year our friends decided to have a big sleep-over party... and our son has his own sleep-over thing, so why not?? :)

We like smallish gatherings if we do do something - maximum 8-10 people.

[mamax2]

I think we're pretty moderate in all of our celebrations. We certainly don't 'ignore' any birthdays or anniversaries, but nothing too extravagant either. We definitely make a bigger deal over our kids birthdays than our own (mine basically doesn't exist now that I share it with our youngest!) This year, for our 6th anniversary, we went away for 1 night to a B&B - it was our first night away from our kids ever so a big deal in that sense, but it's not like we went island hopping for two weeks, kwim?

All things in moderation is our motto, I guess!

[udsweetpea]

In my family, it doesn't matter if holidays or birthdays are celebrated on the actual day. My brother was in the Navy and often deployed during holidays, so we celebrated Christmas a few times on Thanksgiving. My birthday this year was celebrated the day before with BF because I had to go out of town on my actual birthday. Birthdays have never been extravagant with us.

NYE is no big deal to me and never has been. I'm not a big drinker, and I don't see the point. Sitting at home on the couch always sounds good to me instead of being on the roads with drunks.

Plus, my cousin died last year on New Year's Day, so its not a happy day in the family.

[curlyjr]

Usually for anniversaries or holidays with DH and I, I make a special dinner then have a few drinks and watch a movie or play video games.:)

[kalogrias]

We're party people :p

No, not really. We are mostly go with the flow people because DH has been deployed for so many holidays, anniversaries, and bdays that it's hard to get too wound up about any of them...

BUT. When he's home, it depends on the holiday...I think we may make a bigger deal out of things because we're "making up" for all the ones that he's missed, if that makes any sense.

Birthdays are super important to me, so I make a big deal out of them for my DH...and he tries to do that for me, too. Sometimes he succeeds ;) For instance, I threw him a surprise party last year and he sent me on a huge scavenger hunt for my gift. It doesn't hurt that our bdays are only 10 days apart...

Christmas...I don't celebrate, so whatever he wants to do.

Hannukah...we usually throw a Hannukah party for friends (and family, if they are nearby).

Anniversaries...We have made a pact to travel somewhere for each of our anniversaries (as long as we can afford it), so whenever that trip happens to fall (we try to keep it within a month on either side), that's when we celebrate. We don't give each other physical gifts.

All other holidays...eh, we're not that into them.

ETA: I forgot Passover. Passover is a huge deal in my house, whether DH is home or not. That's our family's Thanksgiving-style meal (ie. everyone gets together, flies in from wherever, etc).