A Very Merry Little Christmas
by Jana
Most of the time, I am one of those people that starts singing "Silver Bells" long before the first snowfall. I will meticulously string strands of popcorn and cranberries for the tree. I stay up late addressing cards to be sent out to friends and family.
I haven't been hit by the happiness of the season yet. I can't help but struggle with the commercialism. As we celebrate the 75th year with our Coca Cola designed Santa, sip our Gingerbread Lattes and decorate our upside-down Christmas trees, it feels like the festivities have lost their meaning. It seems that many shoppers are budgeting so that they will have enough left over for the big Boxing Day sales.
My lack of glee might have been caused by a store that outright refused to sell me an item that I wanted to purchase as a gift. Don't mention shopping online as the solution because when I tried that, my husband almost got arrested.
It could be that I have heard one too many people say that Christmas is for the children as a lame excuse so that the adults stop buying presents for each other. I can't help but think that these people would rather save their money to spend it on themselves. It is the time of year that I delight in finding something special to give because I truly love giving.
It could be the result of past years where I worked myself up into a frenzy of spirit to quickly settle into the post holiday blues. I think I have come to expect too much from this one day of the year.
Of course the holidays are not the same if I don't get to see the rowdy bunch of relatives on my side that are all out west. I will miss eating too much of my Mom's, Aunts' and Baba's delicious traditional staples. I will miss laughing at my brother's jokes and watching my daughter play shuffleboard with my cousin's son.
I haven't found our new family holiday groove yet. I don't know what will be the treasured things that my children look forward to each year. We are still sorting out the different rituals that my husband and I both have. The big issue being that in his family he did not get presents from his parents. They all came from the jolly man in red. In my family we asked Santa to bring the one hot ticket item plus he filled our stockings with little goodies.
I want to spread good tidings and peace. I want to merrily wave to my neighbours and smile at strangers as they pass me on the street. I want my house, all decorated with a sparkle and glow, to be filled with laughter and love and the sweet scent of goodies baking in the oven. I want my heart to expand and grow twice its regular size. I desperately need to know the secret in how to make the transition into new family traditions.
The one thing that I do have is the twinkle of anticipation and excitement in my children's eyes. That is precisely enough for a merry little Christmas.
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Jana is a Prairie Girl turned City Mommy. She lives among dust bunnies in an under renovation house with her two daughters, senile cat and Peter Pan syndrome inflicted husband, Colin. She escapes her chores by dashing to the office to do behind the scene things in the music industry.
10 comments:
I can completely relate to this Jana especially the part about your traditions and how you and Colin "are still sorting out the different rituals" you bring to your family. We have the same "issue" here at Casa Bump. I've had a hard time finding my festive place this year (sickened by commercial crap and how to keep mix my traditions with husbands). I think if we just hang onto that love of giving and sharing, we can build new melded traditions that we can call our own. Merry Christmas Jana and family.
Different traditions can be tough. My husband comes from a 'open the presents on Christmas Eve' family; I'm from a 'presents on Christmas morning' family.
Made last year reeeealll interesting...
You can make cookies for me. I'll be very grateful.
We call it Hellmart. I hope you get your holiday groove back although it would be nice to see some snow on the ground. As to the pictures of your beauties? egads, I like them all. Esp the second image. Your kids are just lovely.....Have a wonderful holiday, hope your man gets out of the slammer in time! Tell him that I was at the post office today and i was thinking of him....
I am struggling this year to establish some of our own family traditions too. It is hard.
I hope the Christmas spirit catches up with you and whisks you off your feet with joy and happiness!
Of course in true woman like fashion, I've been smiling all day long.
Cheer. Merry. Joy. - I'm so glad you arrived with six sleeps to spare.
I really can relate to much of this post, especially the blending of traditions. In the years that I've been married it's been difficult for me to accommodate his family's traditions while trying to establish my own and make sure that I see my family, as well. His family is much, much larger than mine and trying to "fit" everyone in is rather difficult at times...but we always manage to make it work.
Merry Christmas Jana...I do hope your holiday is rockin'.
yes, we're working out the santa business and so on as we go, too. I think he'll just do stockings here. But I'm finding it tough to be in the spirit this year too - I think it's partly the weather, partly the lack of energy in general. The suddenly tighter budget doesn't help my rampant gift-giving impulses, either, as I'm busy reigning them in a bit and it's not that fun. Ah well, one of these days when I have time I will slip on some Boney M christmas and get to work on the last of the wrapping the way it should be done!
My "new" family christmas looks nothing like the one I remember from childhood because my husband and I came from 2 totally different schools of thought about this time of year and have tried to meet in the middle. That has resulted in a very diulted version of what each of us wants. But the older my son gets the more it becomes about what HE wants ... and for me that is the ticket. The magical way he sees the holiday is what I love most :)
Wow, I feel like I could have written this myself! Except I wouldn't have worded it as well as you have. I can completely relate. Luckily for me, The Husband is basically letting me decide which traditions to do (and, strangely enough, they're all the ones from MY childhood...HEE! HEE!)
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