Not for my Jewish friends Dana and Sharon, it's Happy Hanukkah for them. Not for my Muslim friend Fowad, it's Eid (or was) for him. And my pagan Wiccan and free spirited friends are celebrating the Winter Solstice, that special day of the year where the daylight hours start getting longer again, for which I, too, thank the heavens!
I googled it and there are too many celebrations to list this time of year, mostly celebrations of lights since there is so little of it right now, especially the further North you go. There are holidays about light and singing and fire to defeat the cold and fasting, but by far my favorite is: Flying Spaghetti Monster Holiday. What is this, you may be asking? Around the time of Christmas, Hanukkah, and Kwanzaa, Pastafarians celebrate a vaguely-defined holiday named "Holiday", which doesn't take place on a specific date so much as it is the Holiday season, itself. Because Pastafarians reject dogma and formalism, there are no specific requirements for the holiday.
That's it, I am officially going Pastafarian. A Pastafarian would say something polite in response to the greeting, "Happy Holidays." Something like, "Thank you, and Happy Holidays to you too."
