Do the festivals disrupt other things going on very much?

People whose work is time-sensitive will work during them. Most work isn't time-sensitive because, well, until recently everyone anyone knew was immortal and had the lifetime of the world to do as they wished.

Makes sense.

Cána'll compose all festival, maybe try some human-styled things if she has any ready in time, and I'll be working the whole time making sure that it goes smoothly, and mother's really set on some of those engineering ideas that came up over dinner, but most people'll probably put things on hold.

Does that make it any harder to get stuff? If people who normally spend their time distributing dumplings instead are not doing that.

Oh, there are lots of people who distribute food specifically at festivals, special festival foods. 

Fair enough. Humans have much shorter holidays and it's a bit of a mess trying to arrange for essential services to be covered then.

You could say we have people who only work festivals and are off the rest of the time, and everyone considers this fair even though festivals are a minority of time because it means you're working when everyone else is celebrating?

A lot of human holidays are specifically family celebrations, so if one person in a family has to work Christmas it's hard on everybody else.

People with children don't work at all, here, with very few exceptions. My parents are exceptions but that's because they are rather irrepressible with the work and would be worse parents if they had to stop.

Some households have only one parent working but it's rare to be able to avoid it for the whole household. And even if nobody's a child there's still family members people like to be able to see on Christmas or whatever.

Makes sense. What's Christmas celebrate?

Well, originally, the guesswork-dated birth of a religious figure centrally featured in the most popular cluster of religions in my culture, but it's accumulated other baggage in the last couple thousand years and now it is about flying across the country to congregate in a relative's house and put colorfully wrapped presents for one's loved ones under an indoor pine tree and have a fancy dinner and eat too many cookies and sing overexposed music about snow and reindeer and possibly wear ugly sweaters.

...huh.

It's fun!

I'm sure!   ....why would you wear something ugly on purpose?

To be festive and have an excuse to laugh at each other! Some people find it entertaining to find the most tackily Christmas-themed sweater they can dig up and turn it into a contest, who has managed to track down the stupidest possible sweater this year. My mother loves ugly sweater parties.

Huh.

Not likely to catch on here?

Maybe we're imagining different things by ugly? I could see people going in for excessive-jewelry parties....

Well, last year my mom came in second at her ugly sweater party wearing - Mental image of a woman who looks like Isabella but older and with slightly longer hair, in a dark green sweater with candy cane appliqués and multicolored Christmas lights that actually lit up except a burned-out one on the shoulder, reindeer with poofball noses marching around the hem and globe ornaments in slightly mismatched colors from the lights around the neck. (The neckline isn't high enough to conceal the collar.)

Yes, I don't think that'd go over well here.

Oh well.

I'm glad it's fun at home.

It's not my thing, honestly. I am a stereotypical eclipsed and I'm all about the Christmas cookies.