keep it simple...

"Christmas is not as much about opening our presents as opening our hearts." - Janice Maeditere

After stressing over every detail on long holiday lists year after year, I changed my approach. These days my need for perfection and closure is replaced with a genuine enjoyment of all things holiday during this wonderful season – which at our house will stretch from Thanksgiving to Valentine’s Day. (No need to take down those lights or toss out that tree just yet…January and February are bleak and can benefit from some lingering festivity.)

I started my new approach to the holidays several years ago and each year it gets easier and easier to stay focused on what really matters and not stress about the details. Family matters; gifts do not. Gathering together matters; having an elaborately decorated house does not. Health, love, laughter and sharing matter; shopping ‘til we drop does not.   

Don’t get me wrong. I’m no Grinch. I enjoy shopping for gifts and decorating the house. I like hearing non-stop Christmas music everywhere and I’m a sucker for holiday shows – I watch them over and over again. It makes me happy to hear strangers wish each other “Merry Christmas.” It’s fun to see the holiday wreaths and decorations appear. I smile in traffic when I see a vehicle with antlers and a nose, or a bow, or a wreath. It takes me forever to decorate the tree because I linger over every ornament, savoring the memory it brings back to me. I still send a holiday snail mail card and I genuinely enjoy reading the annual wishes we receive in return. Then there’s the lights - all those bright beautiful lights. They are my favorite - never too many or too gaudy - this time of year.  

As you can see, I love almost everything about Christmas…It’s just that I’ve learned to keep things in perspective. No overspending, no big pile of gifts. Keep things simple and do-able. And, no debt. When the feeling of Holidaypalooza begins to set in or a task starts feeling like a chore, I sit back, focus, breathe, then remember and re-seize the reason for the season.  

The Ghost of Christmas Present told Ebeneezer Scrooge, “There is never enough time to do or say all the things we would wish. The thing is to try to do as much as you can in the time that you have.” Boy, did that ghost get it right.

The holidays are about light and hope, memories and magic - not about crossing every line off your list. “Everything changed the day he figured out there was exactly enough time for the important things in his life,” my friends, the StoryPeople, say. I try to remember that.  

This holiday season is off to a happy start for me. I feel relaxed and thankful and like it’s time for the fun to begin. I started shopping early this year. The house is decorated and our Christmas trees look shiny and bright. My little dog Zoobie wore her Santa suit to the Christmas parade the other day and that made a lot of people smile and wave.

My mailman says he’s delivering more packages earlier this year than in any year he can remember. He says he’s stopping at houses that usually never get mail. His theory is the recession is finally over and people have more money to spend this year. I hope so. And, I hope they’re ordering things that make them happy to buy, not things to cross off their lists.

Christmas is the time of year when it seems easier for us to get it right – to laugh more, smile broader, hum a tune and believe in the best. It’s also a time of year when we feel like being kinder and more generous.

One of my favorite Christmas stories is about that grouchy old Grinch – how he stole the Whos’ Christmas and it came just the same. I try to keep our Christmases that way, too – not focused on packages and tags, but on each other and the many blessings we share.  

So, “Welcome Christmas, bring your cheer. Cheer to all Whos far and near. Christmas Day is in our grasp, so long as we have hands to clasp. Christmas Day will always be, just as long as we have we.”