Christmas

We all have holiday traditions in our families.  Some are things we as individuals due during a holiday; some are activities we do as groups.  I like to start December off by reading David Sedaris' essay "Six to Eight Black Men."  David's essay is one of my all-time favorites out of his library of humor.  While the story makes me laugh, it reminds me of the quirks of cultural holiday traditions.  I do find it a bit odd that the Christmas celebrators all cut forests worth of pine trees down to decorate and decompose in our living rooms over the holiday.  And the idea that Christmas involves the economy. 

Call me a cynic, but I wholeheartedly despise two pre-Christmas traditions.  The first is laying out Christmas decor in stores before fall semester starts.  All that is pointing to is commercialism, something I will address later.  My second pet peeve is playing of Christmas music before Thanksgiving.  Let's be real.  Usually the music is used to get people into "the Spirit."  Funny how I only hear Christmas music before Thanksgiving in stores, who are relying on this spirited music to get people to spend money.  Thanksgiving is both my favorite meal all year and a day to give thanks- it should not fall in the shadows of Christmas.

Let's address the commercial aspect of Christmas.  When Jesus was born, he was supposed to bring people closer to God.  The Three Wise Mens' gifts to Baby Jesus lead to current traditions of gift giving.  Society has made gift giving into a huge ordeal that involves stress, guilt, and large bursts of economic activity.  So is gift giving wrong?  No.  I just believe giving should be within reason.  I believe the focus of Christmas should be on community, family, sharing, love, and closeness with God. 


You may be stunned after reading the above that I not totally hard-hearted.  My favorite memories as a child involved the night when my sister would come home.  My parents and us kids would spend time making ornaments from hand-made dough, baking them, and then painting them when they cooled.  Often, we would enjoy loves of bread made from various members of the squash family that my mother or sister had made.  There was laughter.  Nobody had a knock-down, drag-out fight, and, most importantly, we all were together.  As a family.  That was as close as we would ever come to a vintage magazine add perfect day.  Now that I am an adult with a mortgage to pay, its time to make my own Christmas traditions with my husband.  I hope that once we have kids, ornament making over pumpkin bread with  be involved in the mix.

My husband, an electrical engineer, has lit up the condo with lots of fun colored lights.  We drive through the neighborhood looking at other homes and their light displays.  His childhood in CT involved whole neighborhood participation, and he is always upset to see people without "the spirit."  It seems like a silly tradition, lighting up your house, but I love it.  The tackier the better.  I love the absurd displays of giant mangers and blow up arctic friends in people's yards.  Yes, its fun for the kids to look at, but I think it helps adults get in touch with their memories of childhood Christmas magic.

I set up our four foot tall fake tree this year, hung the stockings, and wrapped the gifts.  I love wrapping gifts.  Its fun.  What I love more is seeing the surprise when my family opens their gifts.  In my husband's family, the adults all draw names and buy for one person.  We have a spending minimum.  This is an idea I tried for years to get my family to do, because its much less stressful.  This tradition also lets us all save money for traveling to see each other and to focus on the kids.  Christmas for kids is so magical.  Some eternally living saint drops down the chimney (or finds a random way in) tom homes and leaves surprises?  Yup.  Its crazy and fun.  The magic for the adults, I think, is seeing the happiness on the kids faces when they open their presents.