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Unlike most months, maybe some of us are thinking December has a few too many festivities.
Balancing family and friends needing greetings and gifts?
Back-to-back holiday cheer with 24/7 responsibilities from all directions?
Before your holidays get too hectic, take it easy this year. Busy family caregivers can pass time in peace with senior and junior family members. Try some mildly entertaining holiday activities this December 2024.
Graycare 365: January 2024, February 2024, March 2024, April 2024, May 2024, June 2024, July 2024, August 2025, September 2025, October 2024, November 2024, December 2024.
AIDS (Acquired Immunodeficiency Syndrome, AIDS) makes a person suffer after the virus called HIV (Human Immunodeficiency Virus, HIV) infects them and attacks their immune system, making them more likely to develop life-threatening infections and cancers. Today, approximately 1.2 million Americans live with AIDS. Back in 1988, Two gumshoes in the WHO (Who? World Health Organization? That’s WHO) established World AIDS Day as an international day to learn about HIV/AIDS. #WorldAIDSDay
Old programs and new technology mix disability inclusion through pillars like security, humanity, and a better tomorrow. Since 1992, the UN (United Nations, UN) wants you to see disability through to superability. Lines between disability and super powers continue to blur this year, as we take a day for rights and inclusivity around the disability very relevant to older adults.
It was the year 1987 in San Francisco, California when a cookie-lover inside the Blue Chip Cookie Company crafted a very special cookie celebration. This December, please STOP, DROP, and ROLL some dough to crumble yummy cookies with family and friends.
A day established by the United Nations (UN) in 1985. The two main reasons to volunteer are for economic and social development, but it makes you feel good to do good, and helps convince college admissions staff you’re good too. To support volunteerism today, you apply to volunteer and become a volunteer after a series of in-person interviews and online background screening. If that sounds like a bother, maybe it’d be best to just thank any active volunteers you know, or to donate money you have saved for yourself, giving it to others instead. Another form of volunteering is to go outside and do good on your own. I volunteer to do trashpicking around the neighborhood and give washed produce to my friends.
In 1941 on this day of infamy, Axis power Japanese fighter planes launched a surprise attack on the US naval base at Pearl Harbor, Hawaii. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, 2,403 U.S. personnel were killed, and 19 U.S Navy ships were damaged. It’s the event that officially brought the United States into WWII.
Bodhi Day celebrates the day the “Historic Buddha” achieved enlightenment. I won’t pretend I fully understand Bodhi Day myself. Apparently there are two different Bodhi Days each year, but most people celebrate on December 8 because it’s easy to remember on the calendar. The “Historic Buddha” might also be called the Siddhartha Gautama or the Sakyamuni Buddha. The words "bodhi" means "enlightenment" or "awakened" in Sanskrit or Pali languages. Apparently, happiness isn’t everywhere, for everyone, all the time.
Today is for freedom, equality, and justice for all. It’s one more December date christened by the United Nations (UN) decades ago in 1950. We’d hope since then that human rights would have become guaranteed across the globe. But sadly this year, human rights crises continue in places like Ukraine, Myanmar, Bangladesh, Ethiopia, Libya, and Canada.
Why it’s called a Poinsettia is because the U.S. ambassador to Mexico who sent thick red-petaled flowers back home was named Joel Roberts Poinsett. Since we didn’t have a name for this particular plant at the time, we named it Poinsettia after Poinsett’s death on December 12, 1851. Just over 50 years later in 2002, the U.S. Congress named December 12 to be known as National Poinsettia Day. Did you know? The Poinsettia also symbolizes diplomatic ties between the United States and Mexico. Did you know? It’s possible for people to change the name and meaning of a flower to better suit their needs.
Most people think of hot cocoa on a cold winter’s day. But it was rainforest-dwelling Aztecs, Mayan, and Olmec peoples of now Latin America who starting making chocolate drinks. When the Europeans arrived by boat to modern day Mexico and Brazil, the indigenous people said “Yoohoo!” - you gotta dry this. The Europeans responded, “Pretty good, but this cocoa mixed into water needs some sugar and honey to make it sweeter.”
With Amazon Prime #ad, your package could still get there in time. Wikipedia will tell you Free Shipping Day was started by a pair of entrepreneurs named Knowles who ran the now dead websites FreeShipping.org (dead) and CouponSherpa.com (dead). In addition to Black Friday and Cyber Monday - the hope was Free Shipping Day would be the day ecommerce shops would offer free shipping, so that people would keep buying more stuff as Christmas approached.
We all love coniferous trees around the holidays, because they stay evergreen year round. Today’s purpose is to cut down a real Christmas tree the size of your living room. Fable writes the National Arborist Association established this tree shopping holiday to keep local tree farms running fine. Don’t confuse the National Arborist Association with the Tree Care Industry Association, and especially not the Arbor Day Foundation’s Evergreen Alliance because the National Arborist Association (NAA) has changed its name to the Tree Care Industry Association (TCIA).
Legend has it Go Caroling Day rooted its traditions in ancient pagan celebrations during the cold Winter Solstice. Other sources say the act of caroling - singing in the streets - started in 1223 at the Basilica of Saint Francis of Assisi in Italy. Right before Christmas holiday, it’s a very timely merry time to suit up for some sidewalk singing to spread cheer around where you live.
A pop culture holiday that sprang up in the 2000s when weirdos Chris Boyd and Jordan Birch held the first ugly sweater party in Vancouver, British Columbia. Find the ugliest Christmas sweater in your closet, in the attic, at the Goodwill, or at the Salvation Army - then you party with other people in that stanky bad quilted fashion statement.
The Winter Solstice is the shortest day of the year, in terms of how much daylight you get. When the earth’s axial title goes 23.5 degrees, the sun goes across the sky low and fast on the year’s shortest day. The way the earth revolves around the sun at a tilt really does affect your life.
TV Show Seinfeld’s Costanza family chooses Festivus the secular holiday celebration over Christmas the Christian holiday celebration. Playful satire ensues as Christians and Jews celebrate different in December with their choice of Christmas, Hanukkah, or Festivus, because everyone celebrates Seinfeld for non-traditional holiday humor.
Sweep that chimney before Santa comes sliding down.
Ho, ho, ho! What fancy gifts with the caregiver in your family unwrap this year?
Hanukkah, which literally means “dedication”, is also called Chanukah and also known as the Festival of Lights. Hanukkah originates from pre-biblical times when a Jewish resistance movement took over a temple. This year, Hanukkah starts on December 25, 2024 and ends on January 2, 2025, during which time American Jews light the menorah among other traditions, to celebrate family and reinforce their Jewish heritage.
Boxing Day is held the day following Christmas in several Commonwealth countries associated with the British empire like Britain, Australia, New Zealand, and Canada - but not really celebrated in the United States. Mike Tyson, like the rest of us, probably doesn’t take rest on Boxing Day. Occurring on the second day of Christmastide, people in other countries get a public holiday off from work to give employees a break.
Kwanzaa is an African American and Pan-African holiday, which presents concepts, values, symbols and practice to reflect on being African and human. Celebrated by millions, Kwanzaa begins on December 26 and ends on January 1. Say “Happy Kwanzaa” like “Heri Za Kwanzaa!”.
Expect to be rejected and declined when you give a fruitcake to a friend or invite friends to a fruitcake party - stale, thick, nutty, heavy. Fruitcake has such a horrible reputation, I can’t believe they’d even make a day for it. The sooner I forget about fruitcake, the better.
10-9-8-7-6-5-4-3-2-1… Smooches! Remind me, what are your New Year’s resolutions?
