A Good Christmas Adam to You
The Christmas Adam “Roast Beast”
A good Christmas Adam to you and yours.
You probably (okay, most definitely) don’t know this, but today – December 23rd – is Christmas Adam.
And yes, it’s a real thing, a real holiday…
…At least at Seth and Jill’s house.
But it really should be a holiday for the rest of us, even though it is on the same day as Festivus For the Rest of Us. I suppose the two could be blended?
Hmmmmm.
Never mind. I’m losing focus.
Back to Christmas ADAM, as in the day before Christmas EVE (in case it wasn’t clear by now – I’m here to help. Or accidentally Mansplain).
Seth and Jill didn’t invent the name, but they came up with the holiday, and it’s such a cool thing that I want to make it a national thing, the advantages of which I will outline in a bit. But first….wait for it….
The HISTORY!
You’ve met Seth and Jill recently, when I mentioned them in My Sunday Post piece about my first triathlon. Their home in Long Beach, CA, has long been a refuge of mine – a second home in a lot of ways – for the twenty years they’ve been living there.
Around that time, they first heard the term “Christmas Adam” to mean December 23rd from the young daughter of a close friend – to that young lady, it just made sense. Seth and Jill liked the idea and ran with it.
Seth is a pastor, so December 24 and 25 are big workdays. With a huge circle of extended family and friends, all the normal Christmas traditions made those two days really heavy and tense. So, they thought, what about adding in another day?
Christmas Adam the Holiday was born.
Here’s how it works. Generally, Christmas Adam is the day where we focus on our Families of Choice, leaving Christmas Eve and Day for our Families of Origin.
Pretty simple, right? Imagine a day where it is ALL about friends – Christmas Adam parties on one day of the year (as opposed to spread out all over the month of December). Now it doesn’t have to be exclusive to friends – extended family take part in Christmas Adam with Seth and Jill’s family so they can then focus on their own immediate families on Eve and Day – but the day focuses primarily on meeting with friends. Every year (except this one - thanks a lot, bleepin’ COVID), Seth and Jill open up their house and all day long their friends come over and revel in stories, exchange gifts, and partake in food and drink(s).
Then, twelve years ago, Christmas Adam took on a new meaning – and another reason for annual festivities – when it became the day Seth and Jill adopted their two daughters.
Yep, Christmas Adam is also their Forever Family Day.
Talk about Family of Choice - certainly for the girls and their new parents, but also for all those who got to be a part of their lives after that day. I’m “Uncle JD” to those girls, and have been since the day I first met them; I cannot put into words just how much that means to me. It underscores, yet again, the power of adoption to literally change the lives of many people - even beyond the adoptive families themselves - for the better.
**Side note: The official motto of Christmas Adam in the Seth and Jill Household is “We Want the Judge! We Want the Judge!” It was what Seth and Jill’s three-and-a-half-year-old niece shouted at 6:00 AM on the day the adoption was finalized. Just classic – and a clear sign that every family that decides to adopt Christmas Adam should come up with their own motto for the day. Imagine people sharing those, context free, on social media every year? It would launch contests and the winners would get fifteen minutes of trending fame and end up on a late night talk show segment.
C’mon, you know you’re buying what I’m selling…but back to the story.
With their family complete, Seth and Jill went even more All In on Christmas Adam, to the point that now it is a day that Seth takes off work and is included in the broader family’s yearly plans.
Like any great new holiday, its traditions take time to develop and stick. The best example of this is with the food.
For about ten years, Seth and Jill found no success in choosing an “official” food for Christmas Adam. One year they tried lasagna. The next year, tacos. No on both counts, though knowing Chef Seth like I do, both were amazingly good. But for over a decade, nothing really resonated as “the” food to set the day around.
Then, five years ago, it hit Pastor Seth like it had fallen off the Tree of Life – in Genesis, Eve is made from Adam’s rib, so……the food should be….
RIBS! Yep – every year now, Seth makes a ton of barbequed ribs for Christmas Adam. We won’t mention that it took ten years for this to occur to the pastor. I’ll just leave it there….
[Editor’s Note: When JDK sees him next, Seth will sucker punch him in retaliation. Not really. Maybe. Then it’s off to In-N-Out Burger for Animal-Style Double-Doubles]
On a sorta related note, there is a fantastic M*A*S*H episode from 1974 (Season 3, Episode 11) where Hawkeye gets so sick of army food that he calls Chicago from Korea for a takeout order from his all-time favorite ribs joint, which is named – you guessed it – Adam’s Ribs.
Just more fuel to add to this fire I’m starting to turn Christmas Adam into a Thing. And yes, I sure as H-E-double-hockey sticks will be hashtagging Alan Alda and various M*A*S*H podcasts to help get the word out. Just watch me.
The food tradition wasn’t complete, though, until a friend suggested that if Christmas Adam was going to have ribs as its meal, then there was only one logical dessert to go with it – Apple pie.
Boom. Done.
It’s been that way ever since. Christmas Adam also might as well be the crown jewel of the motto at the Seth And Jill Homestead – “Well, what’s one more?” All year, but especially on Christmas Adam, friends are welcome, and their friends and their friend’s friends are, too. Anyone who doesn’t have a place to go for a holiday can go there. The fridge is always stocked and open (“If you can find it, you can eat it!”) and to be welcomed into their home is to be welcomed back the next time. When you’re at their table, you’re family and you’re home.
It’s just their thing.
At the end of Christmas Adam, Seth and Jill and whoever else wants to go head down to the Long Beach waterfront to look at all the Christmas lights, then come back home. Any extended family stay the night in a big sleepover, complete with a holiday movie.
The next morning, Christmas Eve, the extended family exchange their family gifts (then each family does their own on Christmas Day), and Seth makes more food – oven bacon, monkey bread, and French toast.
Admit it – that all sounds like a blast, doesn’t it?
So let’s make it happen - starting next year, when we can all dedicate ourselves to it and prepare for it. I am doing my part; tonight, I am doing a small Christmas Adam celebration for my tiny COVID bubble, featuring bone-in Prime Rib as an inaugural feast.
You can come next year.
Let’s review the advantages of adding another holiday to the season:
Clear ‘overflow’ day for seeing friends and other loved ones instead of trying to pack them all in over two days, or alternatively spreading visits out so thin that you are going out three times a week from December 1 - 20th.
By starting the Christmas week “run” a day earlier, you can get your prep for Christmas Eve and Day done a bit earlier, too.
Yet another unnecessary yet superb reason to eat yummy stuff - and it’s barbeque ribs in winter. In WINTER, people!
By having Christmas Adam, the next morning Christmas Eve can actually be a full holiday, rather than the “just in the evening after about 5pm” that feels like a holiday rip off.
Christmas Adam can stimulate the economy - holiday cards, food and item sales, decorations for your Friend Parties, pork and beef farmers ecstatic at the increased demand, and...the ideas are endless!
Another day where giving, generosity, random acts of kindness, reflecting on our blessings, and wishing the best for humanity are the norm. Any day we can focus on those is a step in the right direction.
ANOTHER DAY OFF FROM WORK. This might seal it for many of you even more than 1 - 6. Think of what this does - it can create five-day weekends! Because if Adam becomes a holiday, then it seals the deal for Christmas Eve (which a lot of people still don’t get off as a full holiday) and that runs into Christmas Day. On years when the three days don’t touch a weekend (which would be rare), taking one or two PTO days would turn into nine full days off including weekends. C’mon - that’s bulletproof.
A chance to be part of a movement to build, shape, and guide a new holiday instead of just following one that’s been done for years. How often does that chance come about for anyone? This one is just screaming to be built up, as it adds even more to the GrandDaddy of All Holidays. Everyone would love it and it could take on unique expressions from house to house, family to family. Other than the ribs and apple pie, of course. But there are different kinds of ribs!
Have I mentioned the ribs?
It’s an expansion of the holiday to intentionally include that all-important Family of Choice - we all have them, and this would be an ideal occasion to celebrate that vital part of our daily lives. Christmas Eve and Day default to family of origin, and usually the immediate members. Let’s face it - support networks outside our family of origin are crucial to helping us through our daily lives, and in particular with our...families of origin. Christmas Adam is a day to celebrate that support, say thank you, and provide more of it right before the family of origin portion of the holidays begin.
That’s a recipe for a better holiday season all around.
So let’s start making this happen - Make Christmas Adam A Thing: 2021. Your part is easy: 1) do your own small thing today like call a friend, tell them you love them, and ask them to plan a Christmas Adam with you for next year. 2) link this article on Twitter and other platforms and hashtag it #ChristmasAdam, #ChristmasAdamFor2021, etc. When you do, include my handle (@jdkwyneken on Twitter) and I will retweet it out.
Same time next year, all. And the official greeting of the day is the title of this post: “A Good Christmas Adam to You.”
Thanks, and enjoy your Families of Choice today.
Chins Up, Everyone.
