There’s always so much pressure to have a Merry Christmas. But what is a merry Christmas?
Movies always depict it as having all your loved ones around the table heaped with more than food than you could ever eat and with presents piled high in red and silver paper beneath a towering tinseled tree.
While I am sure that is the ideal for some people, maybe even most people, I think having a merry Christmas means something different for every person.
Scott and I had a wonderful Christmas day yesterday. In fact, I think we had a wonderful Christmas season, for several reasons.
First of all, we planned ahead. A couple of months ago, a good friend and I set aside the entire day of the 21st to make candy together. She is an exceptional cook with the cooking school background to prove it, and I’ve always wanted to learn to how to make Christmas candy and soft caramels. I am ashamed that I didn’t take any photos of the day, because it was spectacular and the first batch turned out perfect (at least to my untrained eye and drooling desire for fresh caramels). I’m glad that we both set aside time early on in the season so that we could be sure to spend the day together learning. It just might be a great new tradition.
Secondly, we limited the present runaround as much as possible. In November, we discussed with our families and decided on the amount and what kinds of gifts we would buy this year. In Scott’s family, we drew names at Thanksgiving and promised to each only buy one present per person, a tradition we have been doing for three years now and that works wonderfully. There is still the excitement of gifts and shopping and unwrapping presents together, but a limited number.
Last year in my family, we nixed the idea of gifts altogether. With one brother still in high school and one in college, nobody really needed to spend a lot of money on each other. Also, none of us need anything. We all have enough food to eat and plenty of clothes and all the modern gadgets necessary. We just decided that focusing on spending time together was more important than the rush of presents and stuff. We are always all scattered about, that getting together is tough enough sometimes! This year that is even more true, with the college brother graduating on the 14th of December and moving to Chicago.
And third, we didn’t say yes to everything. We were invited to a Christmas party that we go to every year, but it fell the night before my brother’s college graduation. We wanted to go to the party but knew that we should get a head start in heading south for the graduation on Friday night instead of super early on Saturday morning. Last year, we probably would have tried to squeeze in both, but this year we decided that rest was more important than crazy festivities. It was a good decision, even though we heard we missed a stellar white elephant gift exchange.
Christmas day was no exception to the season. It was the first Christmas in our seven years of marriage that we were able to be home AND be together without company, and we really took advantage of having a day together with no plans. That itself hasn’t happened in ages, so it was much needed and much appreciated.
We got up late, ate breakfast and drank coffee together (a true miracle!). We opened the few presents we had for each other, and then donned our winter gear and headed out to ski. We bought cross country skis a couple of years ago and have barely been able to use them since Wisconsin has really skimped on the snow in recent winters. Our area recently received about eight inches of beautiful fluffy powder right after an ice storm, so the conditions were perfect. We skied at Blue Mounds State Park, and the snow was just hanging on every individual branch as if it was painted on. The park was quiet and restful and and I cannot even begin to describe the elegant hush that hung everywhere in the trees.
Afterwards, we headed home to warm up and then out to the movies! I’ve never been to a movie theater on Christmas Day and was so not prepared for how busy it would be. We threw caution to the wind and even decided on a double feature: Disney’s “Frozen” and Ben Stiller’s “The Secret Life of Walter Mitty.” We probably see about two movies together in a theater each year, so it was a bit strange to see two in one day. Both films were excellent … more to come on them later!
Our day finished in one of our favorite ways: sitting next to each other on the couch reading. We even went to bed before 10:00 PM so that I could start on a new goal bright and early this morning: 30 Days of Yoga & Writing.
I always feel like I should have higher ideals of what my holidays should be like: more ribbon, more tradition, more everything. This year, I just didn’t want the fuss and the gigantic task of decorating a tree, and I am okay with that.
For the two of us, this Christmas was a true blessing: a chance to slow down and spend time together after a crazy hectic year of action. I’m learning that a Merry Christmas is different for everybody. I’m learning that it may even mean something different every year.
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