For some Gen-Yers, holidays back home are passe
It's becoming increasingly popular for young people to host Thanksgiving for their friends.
By Jenna Fisher | Contributor to The Christian Science Monitor
It had all the premeal buzz of a typical family Thanksgiving, except that the 20 or so guests were not related. The 20-somethings who gathered in Washington, D.C., last Saturday were friends, holding their third annual Thanksgiving together.
Increasingly, America's young adults appear to be spending traditional family holidays with friends rather than – or in addition to – their relatives. Chalk it up to the high cost of travel or the increasing time young people spend on their own between the end of college and marriage. For whatever reason, people in their 20s appear to be blurring the distinction between family bonding and friendship.
As more and more young people organize holiday rituals with their friends, it may lead them to redefine holidays as less family-based and defined more by friendship and community.
http://www.csmonitor.com/2007/1121/p01s03-usgn.html?page=1
