For sure we all have the right to spend the holidays with whom we choose. Those who choose not to spend their holidays with their biological families probably don't have good, strong families. I have three grown children who are very different from one-another, but when the rubber hits the road and one of them is in need, the siblings are there to provide a level of support that few "good friends" would be prepared to offer. While they are different from one-another, they have more in common (18 years of living under the same roof) than they are likely to have with even the best of friends. My family stays connected throughout the year by phone, mail, and occasional one-on-one visits. But, family gatherings on the holidays provide an opportunity for those who live far from their families to reconnect--to see how their nephews and nieces have grown, to have some face-to-face time with their siblings, parents and grandparents from whom they receive undying love, tolerance and forgiveness. Strong family ties result from the values taught by parents. Those who don't have good, strong family relationships are missing what could be a very special, irreplaceable part of their lives.

This is just another Globe attempt to weaken the universal value of family, if not redefine it. What a pitiful, self serving study this references.

Even if you were one of the Walton family, made famous on the old TV series, you still need friends. Guys like to see their buddies and share debates, watch games together and joke around just as the ladies like to see their girl friends and get away from hubby for a while. Marriage and family are not enough for our social needs and what do I know? OK, just my opinion. My wife loves it when I leave the house though glad when I come back as long as there is no lipstick on my collar.

Why is this Blob rag trying to become a socipsycho journal? Its intrepid searchers after gossip and rumors discovered that Muslims and Buddhists and agnostics and even athiests eat Chinese dinner on Christmas day. Wowser Bowser!!!! I couldn't find a pizza shop open after 4 p.m. Christmas Eve, so why is it surprising that non-observers of Christmas want to eat something besides turkey, goose or ham, and so pick lo mein and chop slooey??? And now we have members of the American society that has been splitting into smaller and smaller family units for decades (except where the 20-, 30-, and 40-somethings run home to Mommy and Daddy for freebee bed and breakfasts. Wowser bowser!!! The Blob discovers another social phenom.... Where is the Margaret Mead of American sociology? The Boston Blob is not its parent, the Great Grey Lady... and maybe it ought to stop trying to cater to only the Brattle Street, Carlysle, Weston and far away readers who believe the self-generated propaganda that the Blob is New Engalnd's "paper of record".