How to Holiday

The thing about holiday's is that they happen.  There really is no getting away from them, they just happen and they keep happening.  So, the question that has to be asked is how to do them when you don't want too?

How do you lean into something that you just don't want to lean into?  How do you make these days that are supposed to be so great and enjoyable and full of all sorts of fun and all that bearable when all you want to do is blow up every Christmas tree, wreath and light display you see?

I've told my folks that there will be no tree this year, no lights, no outdoor decorations.  I'm not into it, can't be really and of course that was met with at the very least derision.  The sad part of it is last year I was starting to feel it again. I really was getting into it again; it had been a while and I was looking forward to decorating this year...now I am trying to figure out a way to keep all the windows and blinds and curtains closed so I don't have to see it or hear it.  

I'm avoiding Christmas music as much as possible, something that gets harder and harder as the clock ticks closer and closer to December 25th.  It's everywhere even on playlists that have no business having it.  

Add to this self-imposed boycott the fact that I can't really get totally away from Christmas because well of what I do and it makes for a tricky situation to say the least.  

Perhaps it's not all bad.  We always say that Christmas is more than all the stuff that it's become.  Trees and lights and presents and dinners and all that stuff are all fine and good but that's not Christmas, and while we give lip service to that sentiment the whole season, we still find ourselves running around to find that perfect gift, digging in the closet of misses that were given to us and wondering if we re-gift that set of glasses to Aunt Gertrude is it going to be okay because it's just possible that she's the one that gave us the glasses in the first place. 

  

All of that stuff gets so big and becomes Christmas even if we don't want it too.  To be honest it's easy to justify it when you have little kids.  The joy that you see with kids 11 and under when they come down the stairs is like a drug that you just want more and more of.  But take that away and suddenly the incentive to put up the tree and hang all the lights and find all the gifts just evaporates.

What's left then.  It's easy to just make December 25th another day.  I will be honest that's kind of what I want to do.  I don't want to go anywhere; I don't want dinner with family or gifts under the tree or any of that. The other option is to do what Mary did, which is what I personally want to attempt this year if I can get past the tears and heart ache that's been here for the last six months and promises to be here for the foreseeable future.  

This is what we should be doing more of this Christmas season.  Realizing what matters is not all this stuff.  What matters is what happened all those years ago.  

Maybe for me at least this year I can begin to get to that point.  I dunno.  It's highly probable that I'll be too caught up in my sadness and anger to really even want to think about all that Jesus did in coming to earth.  If I had to lay odds, I would say that's a sure thing, but even if this is all the extra thought, I give to what Christmas is supposed to be, it's a start down a path of reimagining what the Holidays are supposed to be.  A time to remember and think on and realize what God did for me even when I don't really like him. 

See you around the blog.