Sparse Christmas
This year, my family and I had a sparse Christmas. Because of circumstances, we pared down to a few essentials. It was not a bad Christmas.
We live in a nice apartment with high ceilings but it doesn't accommodate a tree well. Especially because we moved to this apartment at the beginning of December and are still dealing with boxes of stuff. Plus my wife's mother now lives with us and her bed basically sits in our dining room. No tree this year.
To many, that may seem ghastly. I like decorating the tree and having it with us. Truth to say, tho, the tree represents a lot of work. The whole Christmas season can seem that way. I work retail so I hear it daily, how overwhelmed many people feel at this time of year.
Many people feel locked into celebrating the holiday, every bit of it. I'm not even talking about those who don't celebrate the holiday but have it pushed in their face. It is like people cannot say no to all the holiday opportunities. I merely say, Allow yourself to choose.
This year, we had a late breakfast together as a family. We went for a walk on an unusually warm day, with swans and geese passing across Fawn Lake. We had Christmas music, good Christmas music, on all day. I made bread. Beth did a pork roast. Cheese and olives before dinner. Watched “The Big Lebowski” after dinner. I got to read and write some, and recharged after the intensity of working retail at Christmastime.
At the store, I heard from enough people stressed about Christmas, from the overdriven, early-starting Black Friday sales to the last minute bottle of wine. They all love Christmas and are completely glad when it's over.
Many people fear that Christmas might not somehow be good enough, not "like the ones we used to know". Listen to the popular Christmas songs. “White Christmas" and “Have Yourself a Merry Little Christmas” wistfully recall past Christmases and moodily hope for good ones. Both songs, as it happens, were originally key points in movies (White Christmas and Meet Me in St Louis), and came before the plot resolution. Christmas saves the day!
Other songs (“Silver Bells” and “Happy Holidays”) relentlessly paint scenes of perfect Christmases. Some of these songs (like “Jingle Bells”, “Winter Wonderland”, and “Sleighride”) don't even mention Christmas. They simply evoke the winter fun that supposedly comes with Christmas. The bolstering is weird. Trying to convince ourselves of Christmas pleasures. And by the way, much of the Christmas-loving country doesn't even get snow. And further by the bye, a lot of people hate autumn because it means winter snows will arrive soon.
Christmas pleasures exist, for sure. But do we have to pay for them by the Christmas shopping grunt, and party-like-it-or-not? The batch file of Christmas activities includes lots of things that please, exalt, and resonate. Together with my small family worked this year for me. Maybe next year we'll see The Nutcracker.