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I grew up in this era where your parents' friends were all called aunt and uncle. And then I had an aunt and an aunt. We saw them on holidays and other times. We never talked about it, but I just understood that they were a couple.
It's the time of year when the literati give advice on what we should be reading on our summer holidays. These terrifying lists often leave me appalled at my own ignorance, but also suspicious about the pretension of their advocates.
The holidays are a time of reflection, and I think it becomes really clear in people's minds around this time of year what they want to get out of life, who they want to spend their life with, and what kind of person they want to be.
When you start to work out during your holidays, you know you've got the motivation. When I stop working hard during my holidays and getting excited before the beginning of the season, that's when I'll know it's time to call it quits.
We had idyllic summer holidays, building sandcastles with my father on the beach at Bridlington. It might sound strange, but I think that secure cocoon of familial love was so nourishing, it gave me the strength to live life on my own.
I find that I'm constantly drawing. Even when I'm on holidays or when the baby's sleeping, I'll just start doing some automatic drawing, something like that, and then it will turn into a piece, even though I thought I was just doodling.
Everyone is always telling me that I must be exhausted, but I've learned how to use my time well, and that includes holidays to recharge. I always try to give myself big chunks of time to think about what the next project is going to be.
I first saw the island of Noirmoutier when I was two weeks old. I think it's probably safe to say that I didn't fully appreciate it at the time; but I grew to love it as year after year I spent holidays there at my grandparents' cottage.
I also hate those holidays that fall on a Monday where you don't get mail, those fake holidays like Columbus Day. What did Christopher Columbus do, discover America? If he hadn't, somebody else would have and we'd still be here. Big deal.
During the holidays, I often see my sisters, who still, even after all these years, can't always seem to agree with me. They take silly, indefensible positions, such as denying that my parents loved me more because I was the better child.
You've got to be a right grouch to hate holidays, but one thing I do hate is the old towel on the sun bed trick. It kills me that people get up at five in the morning and go down to the swimming pool and reserve their sun bed with a towel.
I've always been in love with the States. When I was a kid, we would take these long summer holidays in Texas, Nashville, and all over. I fell in love with the people, the food, even the smell. You don't necessarily get that in old Europe.
I was a little punk rocker and was pregnant with Sarah when I went to university. I had her in the Christmas holidays of the first term. It was 1979, and UCL was very proud of its reputation as a liberal university, so they were very helpful.
Every year around Christmas and Thanksgiving, I buy a bunch of toys for the sick children in the oncology center at the St. Louis Children's Hospital. I really love giving back and putting a smile on their faces, especially during the holidays.
There was an undercurrent of poverty throughout my childhood. We lived with my grandmother in her two-bedroom flat, and I slept with my parents. We had cheap holidays, I had to save for my bike and get a paper round as soon as I was old enough.
Writing fueled me, and my task was to make it fit into my life. I practiced my trade as an attorney, and on weekends and holidays, I typed away. I assumed a nom de plume, Selena Montgomery, to separate my fiction from more academic publications.
I never wanted for anything. We went to Ireland for holidays every year. I was 14 when we first went to Italy. My mum was determined I was going to go to a good school. My mum was an absolute grafter. A real grafter. I got my work ethic from her.
Life is all about balance, and there are certain times of the year - birthday, anniversary, holidays - that are meant to be enjoyed without guilt. That being said, Thanksgiving is a meal - it's not a Thanksgiving day, and it's not a Thanksgiving week.
I once worked at a record label called London Records. The company was owned by Roger Ames, one of the most successful figures in the British music industry. Roger always placed a value on loafing, on holidays, on not being in the office all the time.
I am not complaining; I had a beautiful childhood - we didn't have a lot of money, but there was always food on the table, and my parents saved money so that in the holidays we would all get in the car and drive to the mountains. I have amazing parents.
My family background is Mexican, and I was born in Chicago. It's pretty much family tradition every time we get together for Christmas and major holidays to sing. Our family time is centered around the food and a little bit of performing for one another.
We're losing jobs in our manufacturing base, and those families that are going to be out of work over the holidays, that is a very sad thing. That is more governmental dependency. That is a reduced tax revenue for the state and for the federal government.
I used to go swimming and passed the tennis courts every day, and that's how it started. My mum said, 'Why don't you play tennis in your summer holidays because you have nothing to do except swim for an hour or whatever?,' and that's how I started playing.
The school holidays were always an exciting time in the Brownlee household. This was the opportunity for my brother Alistair and me to escape from the classroom and enjoy the great outdoors. Our childhood was jam-packed with fun family games and activities.
I'm a dog lover. With the holidays, everything gets a little bit hectic. There's a lot on your mind, and maybe you forget that your animals also feel that stress as well. So try to keep them on the same routine; try to keep the chocolate out of their mouth.
My family home was a rented house in the East End of London. My parents could have bought it at one point, but they preferred to spend their money on holidays and theatre tickets. It was strange to see it handed on to someone else when my father passed away.
I went along doing the one-salad-a-night routine for a year. And I remember feeling so tired and depressed and irritable. I had no personal life. I was always flying someplace - weekends, holidays, vacations. Dinners at night were no fun because I couldn't eat.
Since Chip and I try to go on a date night once a week, we don't feel the need to keep holidays like Valentine's Day all to ourselves. We set the table fancy, we all get dressed up, and we serve a big, beautiful candlelight dinner. It's our kids' favorite, too.
I didn't feel the need to rebel as a teenager. From age nine to 16, I went to school in Montreux in Switzerland, and it was heaven. I went to England for the Easter holidays, Cyprus for Christmas and summer holidays, and I was delighted to have that independence.
My restaurants are never opened on Thanksgiving; I want my staff to spend time with their family if they can. My feeling is, if I can't figure out how to make money the rest of the year so that my workers can enjoy the holidays, then I don't deserve to be an owner.
As much as I love beach holidays, I do really like to get out and about and explore. It's why I like Los Angeles: because I can easily drive to Malibu or Santa Monica to see what they have to offer. I get itchy feet if I stay still too long in one place when I'm abroad.
My parents really did believe in the Golden Rule. They really did believe that all people should be treated equally. They had friends of every culture, we celebrated different holidays, but really, secretly behind it, they had no problem telling me who I couldn't marry.
The worst thing people ever say is that 'I can't afford to have kids!' It's selfish, and what infuriates me is when people say they can't do stuff they like go on holidays and buy cars when they have kids. You can - you find the money, you've just got to work harder for it.
Though Washington had closed down for the holidays, the next day, December 26, a key message from Hanoi brought Kissinger racing back to his office. It was the signal the White House had anxiously been awaiting; it was also the day of one of the biggest raids by the giant B-52s.
We had this little yard, and during the summer holidays, when my mum and dad were working, I spent hours bowling a golf ball at a stick. Just bowling, bowling, bowling. And I got to where I could hit the stick every time, repeating the same action. That's where the darts came from.
My parents instilled a really good work ethic from when I was little - if you want to have money to spend on holidays, you earn it. So I've always been someone who wanted to be able to survive by myself, but I think you have to let down the barriers a little bit - let other people in.
I've always saved. I believe in keeping money back for a rainy day and living within my means. I don't buy expensive clothes; I have a 10-year-old car I'm hoping to replace when a big job comes in. I suppose when we do go on family holidays, I am quite happy to spend when we are there.
I spent a lot of time at my grandparents in the school holidays, and the only books in the house were a copy of the Bible and Agatha Christie's 'Murder at the Vicarage.' I developed a taste for murder mysteries and then later discovered libraries, second-hand bookshops, and jumble sales.
I think my mom is the person that holds the family together. For birthdays, for the holidays or whatever, everything has to go through my mom. She's the one reminding us about everything that's going on in the family, she's in touch with everybody while we're on our own doing our things.
My family is certainly very vocal. They're very Italian. A lot of our holidays end with people screaming at each other across the room. And everyone's very opinionated and intelligent. A lot of my aunts and uncles are wildly educated, and their opinions reflect that. We're all very liberal.
I'm very spiritual and I'm Jewish by faith. I'm not a practising Jew, I'm more of a recreational Jew. I celebrate the holidays and I try to inform my kids about their heritage because I think we all at some point have to defend our heritage and if they get picked on I want them to know why.
When I was younger, I had some close friends who always loved European football, and Real Madrid at that time were the dominant force. I remember family holidays when we used to go to Spain, and we'd bring back replica shirts of Real Madrid and pretend to be the players when we played in the park.
For many years I enjoyed the pleasure of cruising on my yacht all summer long and these were my best holidays. In mid-May, we'd start in St Tropez. I'd collect my bikinis from my home there and then we'd go up to Cannes for the Film Festival, on to Monte Carlo for the Grand Prix and then to Italy.
People generally complain that they're overburdened by responsibilities, forgetting that they chose to have those responsibilities. No one makes you work like a dog in order to live in a nice house, put your kids in nice schools, drive a smart car and go on exotic foreign holidays. It's up to you.
Lets talk about the holidays, more specifically, consumption during the holidays. If it's true that 'We are what we eat,' most of us would be unrecognizable during the period that ranges from the night before Thanksgiving through that day in early January when everyone decides to return to the gym.
People who hardly ever cook at all, suddenly at the holidays, feel like it's their responsibility to not only cook dinner for large groups of people suddenly, but to serve things that are fussy or fancy or formal. And I don't think that's what anybody really wants, especially if you're not good at it.
When I sold Weststar Holidays, the idea was to take stock and stop and then decide in life - we were going to travel around the world or whatever we were going to do. After about two weeks my husband said to me, 'Oh for goodness sake Deborah, get yourself a business because this is driving me bonkers.'
I used to work at a movie theater and sold hams at Honey Baked Ham during the holidays. I sold a ton of hams, and they offered me a regular job there, which I turned down. I feel like anything you do, just do it 100% because then that work ethic will bleed through when it's time to work on your dreams.
When the holidays approach and the weather turns cold, you spend your nights watching and rewatching saccharine movies until you fall asleep, hoping for some gleam of happiness or catharsis that never comes, a version of life that looks like a Hallmark movie or where your idealized prince finally shows up.
If we want leaders to make good decisions amid huge complexity, and learn how to build great teams, then we should send them to learn from people who've proved they can do it. Instead of long summer holidays, embed aspirant leaders with Larry Page or James Dyson so they can experience successful leadership.