I used to love Christmas when I was a kid. The anticipation building up to the day of, particularly opening a new door every day on the chocolate Advent calendar. The guessing about what gifts we’d find under the tree on Christmas morning. The Christmas rituals: getting up early on Christmas Day to start a fire in the fireplace and wait for the rest of the family to get up. The croissants for breakfast. And finally opening presents and playing with them all day. Christmas as a kid was pretty good.
These days I find Christmas more difficult. It usually falls when I’m having a low, so it’s hard to get motivated to do all the Christmas chores. What really helps is that we make a little schedule – nothing serious, just a few notes to note when we want to hang the outdoor lights, when we want to get the tree and decorate it, when we want to decorate the inside of the house, etc. Having it down on paper makes it a lot more manageable – it reminds me that we don’t have to do everything at once.
We’re also putting more emphasis on celebrating the Solstice. It’s a seasonal holiday that’s driven by the calendar, not by Hallmark (given all the cheesy Hallmark Christmas movies that are on TV this time of year). It’s nice to celebrate the shortest day and the return of the light after a long winter. I was going to say a long, “wet” winter but we haven’t gotten as much rain as we usually do this winter so are hoping for more in the New Year. This year for Solstice we made the French Canadian meat pie, tourtière, a bit of an experiment to see what we thought of it and if we wanted to do it again next year. The jury is still out on that – any suggestions for Solstice dinner are welcomed in the comments!
This year my favourite thing about Christmas was that we got to harvest our own tree, which we haven’t been able to do since we lived in Prince George. We went out on the logging roads and found a tree within the legal distance from the road (3m), and even if it is a Charlie Brown tree I have to say I like it much better than the perfectly coiffed ones.
So merry Christmas and happy holidays to everyone, whether or not you celebrate it. A belated happy Solstice (just a few days late!). I’ll be back next week on New Year’s Eve with a post for the New Year.
Thanks for your reflection Sarah, At times I too find Christmas difficult…. witnessing and at times being a part of excessive consumerism. We do our best trying to find alternatives and to practice and live the message of peace and goodwill to all. It’s so difficult and necessary with does have rewards and small victories at times.
This morning I finally finished Poisonwood Bible. It took took a year. I put it down after the first half, finding the fundamentalism of the Price family way to depressing. However, they (and Barbara Kingsolver) came though in the end … well some of them did anyways. It’s a good message how we, along with the world, needs to move towards justice and fairness for all, personal and collective healing and peace and healing through so much incredible suffering…. The earth is groaning!!! (to quote the bible … lol) It’s a big call and really we need some sort of miracle. Like nature around us.
May you continue you good journey Sarah, along with your family, with your committed stewardship to the planet and your creative work at large… into 2020 and beyond.
Bruce
Hi Bruce – thanks for your note. I’m so glad you enjoyed the Poisonwood Bible after all – I found it one of Kingsolver’s more ambitious novels. A lot of it stuck with me after I finished reading it. All the best for you in 2020.