What to do for Life Group gatherings between Thanksgiving and Christmas

Ready or not tomorrow is Thanksgiving, then the start of the Christmas season. You got love how Ozzie tells Harriet that a week before Christmas is too early to be so "busy for Christmas"! This past week (a week before Thanksgiving) emails have been bouncing around our life group about when we should meet and what we should do for our group gatherings in December. While all of the ideas are good... Christmas party, Christmas Caroling, Visiting at Clearview Nursing Home... there is no getting past the busyness of Christmas.

If you are feeling this way about your group, you are not alone. Following is a post from smallgroups.com:

Darryl's group has been meeting for almost two years now, and things are going pretty well. Darryl at least is happy with the overall atmosphere of the group meetings and his own spiritual progress, and he gets the impression that the group members share his feelings.

During the most recent group meeting, people began discussing their plans for the upcoming holiday season. It turns out that several people in the group will be travelling during Thanksgiving and Christmas. Plus, two couples in the group will have to miss a meeting between Thanksgiving and Christmas.

In the middle of that discussion, one of the group members suggested that the group take an extended break over the holidays—from the week of Thanksgiving to the first week of January after Christmas. This seemed to pick up some steam from the other group members, many of whom mentioned that "the holidays are so busy."

Darryl was uncomfortable with the idea, however. It seemed like a long time to be apart, and it seemed to mark the small group as something unimportant—or at least something that is not a priority. He asked the group to think about it for a week and then make a final decision at the next meeting.

What do you think? Is Darryl overreacting, or does he have a valid concern? And what should Darryl do? What are your plans for group gatherings between Thanksgiving and Christmas?