The Origin of Thanksmas

Holiday are stressful to us all, as well to the communal household and those of us sharing the comforts of Rivendell Co-op in Lansing, Michigan, were painfully aware that when a traditional holiday hit we split off in all different directions leaving one or two members rattling around in an almost empty house.

Then one year we got the brilliant idea that instead of trying to compete with the holidays, the major ones being Thanksgiving and Christmas, we would create our own alternative one. And so "Thanksmas" came to be and all was happy again in our communal nest, that is until we tried to implement the concept.

Who would attend was no problem except there was a long list of prospects from relatives, friends, and ex-members. Our living room space was L-shaped and rather narrow in each dimension - no round table would fit, nor our octagon kitchen table which was needed out in the kitchen anyway for a staging area. What were we to do for tables? Well, looking around at the blank faces, and then the walls didn't help much, until we came to the doors. DOORS! Doors could be taken down and with the assistance of milk crates would make excellent modular tables. Off we flew for tools and in 15 minutes we were lumping in doors from various parts of the house and laying them out in the configuration of a skewed cross. Not bad, we thought, except for the door knobs that might get confused with salt and pepper shakers. But we had a plan and it seemed to work. We giggled over how years later new members of Rivendell would be terrorized by the annual call of "Thanksmas, Assemble!"

That's all there really is to this story. Things worked out as planned, usually about 30 people showed up with huge amounts of food, and left with huge cramps in their legs necessitated by having to sit on the carpet with their legs folded somewhere to gain access to the table.

The resident Rivendwellers are still celebrating their annual Thanksmas. Just received their annual card yesterday!

Charley Noble