The Holidays Are Just Around the Corner
Holiday season is just around the corner. Whether you celebrate Christmas or Hanukkah or just like to celebrate gathering together, this is the season for all that.
Last year was a very different holiday season for all of us. We had to buckle down and find new ways of celebrating with our families instead of being together physically. Families set up zoom parties or zoom games nights, phone calls galore, and facetiming became a verb. This year we don’t have the same confinements but most of us are still exercising caution. How will we celebrate this year?
THE MOST HEARTFELT TIME OF YEAR
Each year as I pull out box after box of Christmas decorations, I reminisce deeply about Christmases past. I love Christmas. I always have and probably always will. I love pulling out the decorations year after year and seeing the old ornaments my kids have made over the years. I get to relive for a short period, all those delicious childhood memories, both my own children’s and mine.
My favourite decoration of all is a Paper Mache Santa holding onto a swaddled baby. I love this for a couple of reasons. First of all, I collect Santas. I have some very beautiful Santas from vintage ornaments to boiled wool and each one has its own place in my heart. The second reason I love this particular Santa is my eldest son was born on Dec 17th and my lovely aunt gave it to me after I brought him home from the hospital. I can get a little lump in my throat when I bring it out each year and remember that special day.
MAKING MEMORIES
Some memories are very funny. For instance, my youngest son made a Christmas tree ornament when he was 3 years old in preschool. It has his picture in it and is obviously decorated by a 3 yr old. BUT on the back where his name is supposed to be it has someone else’s name. Each year as we take out the ornaments we wonder if the other family has a Christmas ornament on their tree that has my son’s name on it! For some reason we find this very funny and we will proudly show the ornament and tell the story to whoever will listen each year. A few years ago a new layer was added to the story. When the story came up at dinner one night , my son decided to look the boy up on Facebook and realized he had been sitting next to him on the plane on his way home from university for Christmas!! It is a small world!
TRADITIONS - OLD AND NEW
Christmas is also laden with tradition. I am sure we all have a set way we “do” Christmas. My daughter loves my Nuts and Bolts recipe I do every year. I usually have to make a few batches over the season as they get devoured rapidly. My daughter’s first year away at school, when she was in the middle of exams and obviously just biding her time to come home, she asked me to send her some Nuts and Bolts. So I did. Sending those darn things across the country set me back $70! But, you know, it was worth it. She and her friends were so grateful. Sometimes a taste of something can remind you of home and that is priceless.
Lately I have added making a homemade wreath part of my tradition. Around Dec 1, I crank the Christmas tunes and get creative. Each year it is different and each year it brings me great creative delight. A festive wreath seems to just set the season off right.
Whatever our traditions or whatever holiday we celebrate, what is important to remember is that no matter how we choose to celebrate the season, it is a time for coming together. If you are far away from the ones you love, may you cherish those zoom calls and phone calls and may you love the ones you’re with.
I wish you all a very joyful holiday from beautiful Vancouver island!
“Christmas isn’t a season. It’s a feeling.”
