Holidays in Writing

The post title might be misleading. I don't mean how the holidays affect your writing or about taking a break from writing, but how holidays appear in your writing. Every culture has special days and different ways to celebrate those days. From a fantasy standpoint these days could be very different in underlying premise, but all cultures gather with those they love for their holidays. There are rituals involving food that we eat and drinks that we drink and games that we play. These days are something that every human has participated in throughout his or her life. These days are soaked in memories both good and bad. Some people lost a loved one around the holidays and forever after a bittersweet flavor penetrates. Often holidays bring back memories and can be a good way to naturally bring up little snippits of background. Often holidays are filled with tension between family members. Also, seeing our friends interact with their families gives us another dimension and understanding to them, in the same way this is true about seeing our characters interact with their families. How are they similar to those who raised them? How are they different?

If you are a fantasy writer like I am then you have the chore of developing something new and distinct to the world that you have created. The reward is a deeper feeling of reality that your readers will have. If you are not writing fantasy then in some ways you have a more difficult job. You have to be true to the cultural identity of your character and the holidays because someone, somewhere will read your inaccuracies and will get ticked off.

Are there any books that you have read that incorporate holidays to some extent (without being all about the holidays)? What difference do you feel this made to the story?