As we are entering the holiday season, I thought I would address a question I was asked recently at a party: “What do DINKs do for the Holidays?”. Response: “We of course are taking our yacht to the Caribbean” (said in a very snotty voice). Well, I hate to disappoint you all, but we do pretty much what everyone else does — our own thing.
But since the question was posed, here are some things you will and will not find DINKs doing this Holiday Season:
WE ARE NOT:
1. Staying up until 3am putting together Barbie’s playhouse
2. Eating half a plate of cookies with milk at midnight (or maybe we are but for different reasons)
3. Mailing anything to the North Pole
3. Showing up on the local news fist-fighting over this year’s hot toy (is it still Elmo?)
4. Destroying the house and blaming it on the elf
5. Explaining to anyone how Santa can still find you even if you are traveling
WE ARE:
1. Buying presents and wrapping them for our pets
2. Sleeping past noon on Christmas because we can, we drank too much the night before, or… oh, because we can!
3. Eating at IHOP (or Waffle House) because we forgot to plan accordingly for Christmas day closures
4. Blaming the messy house and lack of decorations on the elf (I don’t have a tree because the elf stole it, all those empty wine glasses..that elf…damn him)
5. Buying really loud annoying toys for gifts
Of course, I cannot answer this question for the entire DINK-dome population because like everyone else we do what we do, and you do what you do. Some people are super-into the holidays and go all out like National Lampoons. I on the other hand could take it or leave it. We have Christmas decorations that take up several boxes in the bedroom that I refer to as “the garage”, but these decorations have not been taken out of the box for the last three years. I guess we approach the holidays a bit differently because we don’t have to feel guilty for not following tradition or establishing a tradition for our children. For example, this year we agreed to no presents; instead we are buying a new mattress as our gift to each other…very exciting, right?! Next year we might do a trip…we might put up a tree…we might do a TV marathon…who knows. Now, before you feel too sorry for us and think we establish no traditions, let me share the few we have done each year:
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We watch “The Christmas Story” — at least twice so the second time I can say the lines along with it
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I read this section from David Sedaris’s book out loud…usually laughing so hard it defeats the whole purpose of reading out loud (now that I know there is this YouTube reading available maybe P will be spared my incoherent reading[unlikely])
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We buy a nice bottle of something alcoholic, and open it Christmas Eve-this one may have been established to deal with the other two 🙂
So, cheers to you and your’s this Holiday season, however you decide to celebrate!
Definitely sleeping in on Christmas morning. And many other mornings. We’re also pretty lax on the Christmas decorations. I’m not entirely sure I even want to drag my tree up from the basement, and it’s not even really a tree. It’s about two feet tall. But since I don’t have kids I don’t have to hassle with bringing a huge tree up four flights of stairs to put all their toys under, and if I don’t put it up at all, no big deal.
Thanks for stopping by Amanda! If I thought it was important to us then I would do it but I’m not an over the top into Christmas person and P said he could take it for leave it. Maybe we will have a party next year and I will feel like it is worth the effort..you know party decoration 🙂 That is the great thing about being child-free is you really only have to worry about what makes the two of you happy-there is a lot less pressure.
Yeah my husband isn’t a fan of Christmas decorations anyhow. I ended up deciding to leave it in the basement. I told the husband I’ll put his gifts under the window-cling Christmas tree lol. Definitely. I see so many people stressed out at this time of year. It’s nice to be exempt from that.
Ha! I love it. Did you read my post “Thanksgiving tips fromt he queen of take-out”. I love being a DINK! D and I will travel to the east coast at Christmas (where there are small children) and we leave the house at least once a day for some “mood juice”. It’s a lot of caos. I don’t know how parent’s cope.
XO,
Shannon
http://www.brasshoney.blogspot.com
Ha “mood juice”!! I’ll have to remember that one. We went to a party of a close friend, and she texted me prior to the party..”warning there are lots of kids, you may need to have a few drinks before you come” 🙂 I did read that post! I use to totally be like that too, until the past year or so.
Those pesky Elves! 🙂
We celebrate our DINK-mas by working and earning time and a half or double time on what is usually the slowest, easiest shift of the year!
Thanks for stopping in Tara!! You know those Elves are real trouble 😉
“Destroying the house and blaming it on the elf” I giggled way too hard at this. I’d never heard of this tradition until I worked with someone who was all about it and it just is so odd to me. Way to go in DINK-mas!
I still don’t understand the whole premise behind it. I actually look forward to the elf facebook posts…though at times I think some people may need a mental evaluation 🙂