{"id":290836,"date":"2018-12-21T06:06:12","date_gmt":"2018-12-20T20:06:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/?p=290836"},"modified":"2018-12-21T06:06:12","modified_gmt":"2018-12-20T20:06:12","slug":"not-home-alone-on-christmas","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/not-home-alone-on-christmas\/","title":{"rendered":"\u2018Not home alone on Christmas\u2019"},"content":{"rendered":"
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File photo from last year\u2019s Saipan Family Christmas Open House at Amanda Dunn\u2019s house shows Santa Claus giving a child a gift. (Contributed Photo)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

If Bobbi Grizzard had her way, nobody should go through what Kevin McAllister went through in Home Alone.<\/p>\n

Created out of a thought that nobody should be home alone to celebrate Christmas, long-time former Saipan resident Bobbi Grizzard began a tradition more than 20 years ago where families, friends, and strangers would gather to bask in the essence of the season.<\/p>\n

Amanda Dunn is continuing that tradition, an annual get-together called Saipan Family Christmas Open House.<\/p>\n

\u201cBobbi Gizzard started the Open House tradition and she hosted it for 23 years on Christmas Day,\u201d Dunn said. \u201cMy family and I would host a Saipan Family Christmas with a gift exchange prior to Christmas. Then, in 2015, we merged them together to make it the \u2018Saipan Family Christmas Open House\u2019 and moved it to our house.\u201d <\/p>\n

This year, the Open House tradition is now 27 years old.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe have hosted the Saipan Family Christmas for nine years now,\u201d said Dunn. \u201cMany of us live on island and don\u2019t have family near and need somewhere to go to celebrate this wonderful day.\u201d <\/p>\n

No man is an island and this is especially true during Christmas where everyone is expected to spend it with family. That thought alone\u2014not a movement or an active organization\u2014led to the birth of the tradition.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think Christmas is a very special time of the year and I am blessed to spend it on such a wonderful place. I love Saipan but it can get lonely on the holidays if you are alone,\u201d Dunn said. <\/p>\n

\u201cDuring my first Saipan Christmas, I traveled and went to Korea, then on my second Christmas I thought I would just stay on island, but most of the people that I knew were busy with their families or traveling and so it was really kind of sad. Then I met more people and went to Bobbi Gizzard\u2019s Open House on Christmas Day and, since then, Christmas has been full and anything but lonely,\u201d Dunn added.<\/p>\n

The idea of opening up her house on Christmas Day to many people is not something that everybody is willing to do but Dunn said her grandmother influenced her in many ways. \u201cMy grandmother was very hospitable and the door was always open. \u2026I had 18 cousins and we would spend Christmas together with aunts and uncles, so I always remember Christmas as a good time of big gatherings and good food. Everyone pitches in for a big potluck and that, too, is how we do it\u2014everyone brings a dish of their specialty to share and the kind of beverages they prefer and we share in one true family-style day,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n

A part in the program has Santa Claus showing up and calling the children by their names and giving them gifts. <\/p>\n

\u201cSeeing the children light up when Santa arrives and spending time with them is special in a Saipan family sort of way. \u2026Parents bring a gift for Santa to give to the children and everyone brings food to help make a feast,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt\u2019s always a great time and we have a lot of fun exchanging gifts and playing Christmas games\u2026Even with Saipan being a small island, sometimes I will meet people for the first time at Christmas and see them again after many months\u2014but Christmas Day gives us that connection,\u201d she added.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

If Bobbi Grizzard had her way, nobody should go through what Kevin McAllister went through…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":30,"featured_media":290837,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[900],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-290836","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-featured"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290836","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/30"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=290836"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/290836\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/290837"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=290836"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=290836"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.saipantribune.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=290836"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}