The Holiday Circus

I grew up loving the festive traditions of Christmas.  Long after I outgrew Santa, I still forced my brothers to put on cookies and milk with me;  I insisted on building gingerbread houses, decorating them (and later demolishing them);  I worked in the kitchen baking cut-out cookies and frosting them; I made sure all of the white lights went up outside the house and that the tree inside had the multi-colored lights on it.  We had to get an Advent (okay, it was not really an Advent, but a month of December) candle and watch it burn down each evening with anticipation.  Christmas morning, even when I came home after college, we never went downstairs until my father had checked to make sure everything was all set up (actually, that wasn't so difficult in our adult years, as it was my dearest mother who ended up waking up her children at 8am so that presents could be opened).  I have fond memories of all of this. And for a while I tried to recreate these traditions in my own household.  Our first year at the farm (with just a horse and few chickens we couldn't really call it a farm), we were going to construct a  10-foot diameter wreath to hang on the north side of our barn, so that people driving out of the valley could see it.  We never got to that, but for the first three Christmases I wrapped our porch in real garland that I had made, illuminating it with lights;  I put swags over the doorways; I dressed up the mantle with Santas (sent with love from my mom); I insisted we all put up and decorate the tree; I made dozens of cookies--not just the cut-out kind--and breads; I found the perfect family picture and ordered Christmas cards; and I felt constantly out of breath and bewildered.   

Last year, I simply did not get around to putting up the lights, and guess what? Nobody really noticed.  The Christmas spirit was not dampened a bit.  We had a great holiday party with good friends and good food, and the interior of the house was still lovingly decorated.  This year, in a conscience effort not to buy into the insane amount of commercialism that surrounds this time of year, I have compiled a list of "yays" and "nays" for our holiday season.

Nay to:

• Black Friday, Small Business Saturday, and Internet Monday shopping days (and all other shopping days that are "planned" by the industry)
• Christmas cards (it's a waste of paper as all the cards get thrown out anyway; and I can write little note cards to those I truly want to stay in contact with)
• excessive gift exchanges
• the Christmas tree (we are putting some lights on our shefflera as shown in the photo above; we thought this one might bother Bud, but he's cool with it)
• the outdoor lights and garland
• hosting a Christmas party (we may again in the future)
• the December candle and calendar (falsely advertised as "Advent" candles and calendars, but rarely does Advent actually begin on December 1st!)
• the "I feel obligated to decorate...to bake...to buy..." mentality

Yay to:

• Advent wreaths at church
• Candlelight Evening at the 19th century historical museum in town
• caroling with the students
• listening to traditional holiday music on XM radio
• indoor decorating with Santas on the mantle, various Christmas linens and accents; stockings
• candles on the windowsill (these almost didn't make it up, but alas it was snowing this evening, and the whole winter wonderland bit...)
• Christmas kerchief on the hound (sorry Belle)
• Christmas cookies and goodies
• Christmas Eve service
• Spending a wonderful Christmas Day with my family

Some may call me a Scrooge or a Grinch, but it's not celebrating Christmas that bothers me; it's the huge amount of consumerism that has sneakily found its way into the holiday over the past 1/2 century.  This is a time of faithful anticipation; a time of peace and joy; of spending time with family and friends. When one feels so consistently overwhelmed and bewildered because of the mile long "to-do" list that it is difficult to obtain that peaceful feeling, something ought to give.  It's okay to change your family traditions.  It's okay to step back and trim all of the excesses from your holiday season. 

May you and yours have a healthy, happy and less hectic holiday season.