In the Holiday Spirit
I’ve started about a bazillion pre-Christmas themed blog posts. Tried writing a new version of The Night Before Christmas based on a mom’s lack of ability (as in no design skills) to decorate. Even tried writing about songs I love and songs I hate, but all of them lay in the scrap pile of abandoned blog posts. None of them worked. None of them was really going anywhere. And I kept wondering why I had this unbelievably bad writers block about Christmas. Then it hit me. Because Christmas doesn’t effect me the way it does some people.
*Gasp* I know, right? Here I am a mom, a Christian, a student, a volunteer and more and Christmas doesn’t effect me?! Ok, before you get your knickers all in a knot let me explain. Yes, I do love Christmas and yes, we do celebrate it.
However:
- We don’t get many Christmas gifts for our kids, so I’m rarely stressed about what to get them. They usually each get 2 gifts and some stocking stuffers. This year they’re all getting the same gift and nothing else. No stockings, no small side presents, that’s it. One gift. Totally un-American of us, but the reality is they just don’t need anything else. Despite my eldest trying to convince me that she’s the only 10 year old on the planet without a DS, cell phone or computer.
- Because we don’t give our kids very many gifts AND because we don’t buy for everyone else in the family or everyone else’s dog/kid/niece/teacher/bff/lunch buddy we don’t have a lot of shopping to do. Not shopping means not experiencing the mall crazy, Wal-mart shoving, Target price-matching, Toys R Us fighting we see other families “enjoy”. I can peacefully enter Target or Wal-mart at 3 in the afternoon in the middle of the week and do my grocery shopping and relax and smile with the checkout girl. No lines, no fighting. No drama. I love a drama free Christmas season.
- This is probably the craziest reason of all: I like almost all Christmas music! But, if a song comes on the radio that I don’t particularly care for, I exercise my God-given ability to press a button and change the station. Apparently some people out there don’t know this is possible because I’ve heard a lot of complaints about, “If I hear this song one more time, I’m going to quit Christmas!” And in a store, I totally tune out the music playing on the speakers anyway. The music in my head is usually better anyway. Something like Phineas and Ferb “Perry the Platypus” or The Suite Life of Zack and Cody, “London Tipton is really great, really great, really great.” is frequently running through my head thanks to my heads endless fascination with those shows. (For the record, I’m able to change the channel in my head too if I don’t like the song it’s playing.)
- This year I’m not stressed about my inability to decorate because I’m not decorating it. That’s right. There are zero decorations up inside my house. On my lawn there is a pathetically small blow up that usually is unplugged with the tree flopped over the penguin holding presents. And there’s one small, plastic nativity scene. Only 2 of the lights work and half the time Mary has
allen and can’t get up. Thanks to my sisters’ wedding on Dec. 22, we won’t be in our own home over Christmas or New Years, so I used the excuse to not drag it all out of storage, flop it haphazardly at the mantle and window sills, only to stuff it all back away 15 days later. And even bigger than her wedding, our house is currently on the market which means I get the pleasure of keeping it clean and clutter free. Christmas decorations always feel like clutter to me, so not having them around the house helps me be “show ready”. - My kids are all in school! This year, I’m enjoying a season of my kids all being in school, I didn’t agree to volunteer in ten bazillion capacities and thus I’ve been able to relax and have coffee with friends whenever my little heart desires. I’m enjoying these few moments before the storm of nursing school hits in January. Which coincidentally is my fallback excuse for not accepting anything I don’t feel like doing. I’m having some much needed “me” time. It’s helping me to be a better mom, wife and friend.
No shoving and fighting, no overspending on gifts no one needs, no Christmas decorations to trip over, no hours and hours of classroom crafts and endless carpool has left me in a permanent holiday spirit. I can’t write about the miseries of this time of year because I refuse to participate in that side of Christmas. This momma has discovered the secret to a peaceful and relaxing Christmas. Just don’t do it. Yep, refuse to be sucked into all the chaos and you’ll fly through the season sipping white chocolate peppermint lattes, campfire mochas and passion tea. Raise a glass with me, put up your feet and enjoy the season.
“So they hurried off and found Mary and Joseph, and the baby, who was lying in the manger.” Luke 2:16 (NIV) This is the only hurrying I plan to do this Christmas!
And, amazingly, our kids seem to be surviving and enjoying the Christmas season just fine! — DH
Yep. Despite their protests to the opposite they do just fine.