When I was in high school, my grandmother accidentally threw away the family’s Christmas decorations. Just tossed those boxes of merry right out.
Gone missing: the wooden sleigh carved by Grandpa, my cousin’s baby shoes, and a five-point Christmas tree star made by yours truly, in kindergarten, with macramé and an enthusiastic helping of glitter.
My mother was distraught.
Mom had always considered the decorations to be a record, like those pencil-drawn height marks on door frames — proof of how we’d all grown through the years.
But, happily enough, losing that cheery decor meant we had a tabula rasa. Unencumbered by tradition, the holidays could be anything now.
One year we even replaced the Christmas Tree with a giant chocolate fondue fountain which, in at least one teenager’s opinion (mine), was certainly a more tasty and delightfully messy way to celebrate.
Do you have any stories of holidays gone awry? In a few weeks we’ll be publishing Mistakes Were Made: True Stories of Holiday Misadventures, which promises to narratively jiggle like a bowl of WTF jelly. Email your stories to us. We’ll publish the best.
And now, below, some of our recent holiday articles which, if you’ll excuse me for saying so, are pretty great.
Happy holidays, gents,
Steve Bryant
Executive Editor
The Gentleman’s Handbook
Vol. V covered Thanksgiving, but the advice inside is applicable to any and all holiday situations. Topics include the Non-Prayer’s Guide to Praying, Hooch to Bring the Host and your new favorite Out of Office Auto-Reply.
The Holiday Gift Guide
Fellow Americans, ‘tis the season of giving. Giving your love. Giving some gifts. Giving a damn. To assist you with your gifting for kith and kin, we’ve made you this: The InsideHook Holiday Gift Guide.
The Holiday Survival Guide
December is a gauntlet. Office parties. In-law parties. Getting-crabwise-with-the-fellas parties. But brother, we’re here to help you get through them with aplomb. So have a look at The InsideHook Holiday Survival Guide.
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