Christmas is hard. There is so much to do between the shopping and the baking and the cards and the shopping and the baking...yes, I think you get it.
Each year I say, ' Things are going to be different.' I have always had the Donna Reed vision of Christmas where I am wearing a lovely holiday dress with two-inch heels, singing Christmas carols as I take cookies out of the oven, pausing ever so briefly to kiss my husband under the mistletoe. The kids are sitting at the table, smiling at each other, gazing around at the beautifully decorated tree with wrapped presents underneath.
But the reality is, I still have some decorations stacked in a corner not placed. I bake my cookies between dinner and kids' extracurricular activities. Shopping, luckily, has been made easy though the wonders of the internet so I feel good in that department, but there isn't much magical about what I do.
Here is the problem - my childhood. My mom always did her best to make Christmas special. She made cookies, sent out cards, did the decorating. I remember her with the electric cookie gun making the tasty bite-sized morsels. I remember my special monogrammed ornaments hanging from the tree and oh, the tinsel!
Most of our family decorations from 40 years ago are gone, but just recently, while browsing in a specialty store, I saw an elf statue exactly like the ones that use to sit on our mantle. He had a buddy and each of them were playing an instrument. Back then they looked a little creepy and even now they still look a little creepy, but it filled me with such joy to see Elfin again.
I really wanted to enjoy more of the season this year so, I got started a little early. In the past, I have been a staunch supporter of Thanksgiving. I wanted the holiday to have its due without being overshadowed by Feliz Navidad. My little protest involved barring all things Christmas until December 1. That is when the decorations would come out, the carols would come on and the celebration would begin.
I have since realized that my little protest was not doing the Pilgrims any favors and I was not going to force Walmart out of business by not going out on Black Friday. This year, I went along with the herd and moooove over bacon, I have seen the light!
I had a present plan before Black Friday and with a click, click, click, I was 75% done with my shopping in an hour. I took my Christmas card photo the day before Thanksgiving and had cards designed and ordered before I digested my turkey. My tree went up on November 25, to take advantage of my husband's couple of days off, achieving a world record for earliest tree debut in the Keleschenyi home.
I am happy about the strides I made this year. It did make me a little sad to jump right into Christmas before Tom Turkey officially made a comfortable exit, but in reality, the extra days were just what I needed. It gave me the option to use the limited weekend time we have as a family to do fun things like see a Live Nativity, visit McKeesport's Festival of Trees and browse the Lincoln Highway Hub's Christmas Open House.
I even visited the PPG Wintergarden with my youngest the weekend before Thanksgiving, just because we were downtown and we could. (This would have been a no-no for my old self.) I did have reservations about walking through the doors with the voice in my head saying, 'It's too early! It's too early!', but I powered through and had one of the most lovely experiences ever. It was early morning, hardly anyone was there, and my little guy and I were able to actually look at all the gingerbread houses. We even made a stop at each Santa from around the world and he slowly read the descriptions aloud.
It is difficult to keep the focus on what Christmas is really all about with all the details that come with it. If Christmas was tomorrow, which thank God it isn't, I would still have a few cards that didn't go out and one batch of cookies that didn't get made and nothing is wrapped yet. I would have one child who would not get much because I just got his list yesterday. But on the plus side, there are already some great memories that I have stored away from this holiday season.
I am very pleased with my experiment this year. I have learned that like it or not, in today's society, you have to adapt. I can no longer be the poster child for trying to save Thanksgiving. That is a lost cause. It was a valiant effort, but no more activism for me, only peace. My new mindset has made December more enjoyable and it looks like I may have started a new holiday tradition, one that will continue to make room for the joy that the season brings.
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| Creepy Elfins Circa 1970 somethin' |
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