- Image via Wikipedia
It’s Christmas- Feel the love?
It’s just part of my cantankerous nature to shun the shopping frenzy of the season but up until now it was impossible to avoid completely. With kids you have to get the spirit because it is part of the contract. Now that I’m retired I spend more time with my wife which is good but often the time is spent accompanying her while she is shopping. This isn’t bad so long as I don’t have to do anything but it does force me to participate in insanities I would otherwise avoid like stores. These days I find that the Christmas season still has all the frenzy that I remember but I can no longer find the spirit.
Bring back the good old days.
When I was a kid, there was magic at Christmas. Department stores would compete to have the best Santa display, devoting whole floors to creating a winter wonderland. They also competed to create the best store windows. (When is the last time you saw a store window?) My family would go downtown (25 miles from the farm) just to visit Santa and see the display windows. Of course today anyplace but New York, and San Francisco downtowns are dead as are all the competing department stores. These days Macy’s stands alone. Shopping malls didn’t come along until later but even then, downtown was where the action was.
Malls leave me cold
I don’t much like shopping malls. It has been six months since I visited a mall and a year since I actually spent any money there. They have the crowds; they have decorations;.they have Santa but they don’t have any spirit for me. It is all just empty noise. I’ll be doing my shopping on line. It is easy but there lies the rub. I’m just going through the numbers. I don’t have any Christmas spirit and I don’t know what I can do about it. There is no hassle. No panic. No frustration about finding a parking spot. I am calm cool and collected waiting for the UPS guy to deliver. I just don’t have any Christmas spirit this year.
Decorate?
I struggle to find the Christmas spirit every year, but I’ve noticed that if I actually have a hand in doing something Christmas-y (other than shopping, unless online) I’ll be happier in spite of myself. Helps having a kid around (my brother) too.
So my advice is put up some decorations, make cookies (or a gingerbread house if you feel super keen), maybe even make some toys if you’re that way inclined. Fold up some paper and make cut-out snowflakes (to pin on the back of your enemies- wait, just me, nvm)… you get the idea. Finding snow helps too, til you get cold and fed up of it.
Heather,
I can see the snow on the Sierra Mountains from my street. That’s enough for now. I think I’ll ask Bob to do a post on gingerbread houses. Between his cooking skills and yurt building, I’m sure it would be a doozy