Ladies and Gentlemen,
Start your engines! The holiday season is upon us! While many of
us still have turkey breath, we will be dragging out Christmas trees,
ornaments, wreaths and all the other seasonal jewelry to begin our annual
version of “decking the halls.” It’s what we do. We may be tired of it or even
dread some of the boring and frustrating parts of the process of getting our
homes presentable for holiday moments but most of us still adorn and bejewel to
honor the month or so of seasonal
revelry…or not. We don’t “revel” a great deal here at my house any longer but we do have several small
gatherings of friends and family and I like my house to look festive and smell
great.
I recall with some amusement my earlier years as a holiday
fanatic and shake my head wondering what in the world was I thinking? Long
before Thanksgiving, I had ordered my Christmas cards and had my gift list
completed and many gifts bought, wrapped, and tagged! No moss under my youthful
tootsies! Within hours after Thanksgiving
faded into a fridge full of leftovers,
the transformation from pumpkins into themes of Christmas had begun. By
midnight on Friday, my house was done! Wreaths on the door, tree trimmed with
lights shining, and familiar seasonal artifacts, candles, and ribbons spread throughout the place.
Back then I would start the baking duties…something I’ve
never particularly enjoyed or been adept at. It was something I did because
Mother and Grandmother did.. Christmas baking…cookies, fruit breads, plus fudge
and divinity. There were always those little round tins which were saved from
year to year to be filled with cardio-diabetic-glucose paralyzing foodstuffs we
only eat sparingly today. Somehow during the holiday season, I guess we thought
we had corporeal amnesty and license to scarf down sugary-buttery goodies with
no ill effects. Life was simpler then, before we knew how we were killing
ourselves with food!
Oh, I have so digressed. This blog today is to help you NOT
put yourself under such stress that you can’t enjoy the month of fun you have
ahead of you. What I’m suggesting is you look at how you put pressure on
yourself or perhaps let others put pressure on you and see if it’s all really
necessary like Christmas cards or Christmas newsletters. Some years ago, I decided that Christmas
cards could be replaced by New Year’s cards I could send sometime in January
when the world was dark and cold and Christmas mania was past. That was one task
deleted. When I bought gifts, I let the
merchants who were kind enough to offer wrap those gifts and that saved lots of
time. I learned how to honor my friends
and family with gifts in their honor to a worthy organization which helped a
whole bunch of folks and took a lot of the angst about what to buy or what
color and size.
Instead of “What to buy”
we might ask ourselves “Should I buy” with the economy so tough right
now. A gift of your time is priceless so you might offer to babysit, or run
errands for someone who could use the help, or set aside some time for coffee
and a visit. Baking cookies is a treat for most people and that can be a gift
that is not so expensive in goods but priceless in the making.
Holidays are not the time to bring up old issues or look for
opportunity to clear the air or resolve an old hurt. If you’re with your
family, go, eat, mingle, and then go home. This is not a summit meeting, it’s
Christmas dinner. Keep it simple.
That’s the best advice I guess: Keep it simple! In every
way, look for a comfort zone so a Merry Christmas
can be that for you too. Unfortunately, our Christmas celebrations have long
ago turned into an economic event and a marketing bonanza more than a season to
celebrate a precious birthday with family and friends. Isn’t that so sad?
Rebecca Ward
