This holiday season is going to be different than every other one we've had recently. Of course, there have been other years when our plans have drastically changed, our first married Christmas, the first Christmas we had Luke, but those years were due to rather happy circumstances. This year, not so much. I've been thinking a lot the past few weeks about what the holiday season, those lovely 6 weeks from Thanksgiving - New Years (really, through when school starts back up) that I love so much, will be like. How much we can still do from prior years.
It has been really helpful for me, in this year of many changes, to
focus on what we CAN still do. The library closed in March but I could
still read books (pivoting to a lot of digital, getting through my big
stock-up, and buying a few books from an independent bookstore). We had
a stay at home order but I could still run, as schedule and weather
allowed. There are still things we can do, that we enjoy, while also
staying healthy, and keeping those around us healthy.
So the answer really is, we can do most of what we usually do with the holidays. It's just that the things we might not be doing involve being around a lot of people and our families are both filled with lots of people. I love celebrating with them and going to Christmas Mass and who knows what will happen with those events in a month, if they will happen. But we've also started a lot of lovely traditions in our house, with our little family, and all of that can still happen, as long as we all stay reasonable healthy (I swear I've been congested for 2 years straight, thanks, RA, for making my immune system crap).
So, in an effort to stay positive, I am focusing on what we can do and on what I can control. We will remember this year, how could we not?, but I want these holidays to be a lovely memory for my boys . Yes, things were different, but December will still have that magic feeling and we will still make good memories, even if it's primarily just with us 4.
Here are a few of our family traditions that we can still do from home and/or mostly away from people!
Matt & I started doing this even before we had kids and this year we plan to let Sam join for the first time. I'll cut-out and bake (hopefully with help from the boys) a whole bunch of Christmas cookies and then all four of us will sit down to frost and decorate them while watching classic Christmas TV specials. I DVR'd and burned to DVD (our own personal DVDs, that I do not sell, which is perfectly legal) a whole bunch of the classic specials: Frosty, Rudolph, Charlie Brown, The Grinch, and I think there is one more? I did this back in 2008 or 2009, knowing someday we'd want easy access to those (thanks, prior Diana!) We watch these while decorating cookies and it is absolutely delightful.
Fantasy of Lights
A local park sets up a whole 2 mile loop of Christmas light displays. We don't get out of the car and the only time we interact with anyone is while paying. They even opened 2 weeks early this year. We usually don't go until close to Christmas and have never waited in a line more than 10 minutes (then I heard horror stories from my sisters of waiting in line for hours. YIKES.). We did our annual fall hike in the park and mid-October and it's always strange going back two months later to see them all set-up!
This one is slightly different from years past, since the big lighting ceremony over Thanksgiving weekend was canceled this year but we'll still go downtown to park and walk around to see them all on our own. We had to do this a few years ago when it was pouring rain for the official lighting ceremony and it was still really fun and festive AND much easier to find parking. Maybe we should take along hot chocolate to sip while walking around?? Will be considering that.
Our traditional decorating movies
Luke & I watch White Christmas every year while decorating the Christmas tree, something I plan to do again this year. And then maybe Elf
(it takes us more than one movie to do the tree). I usually end up
doing most of the tree myself while he gets distracted by the movies or
escapes to "help" Matt in the basement (Matt always makes himself scarce
for the tree decorating, after I've already gotten him to haul a tree
onto the roof of the Jeep, get it in the house, and help me hang the
lights, he's earned his escape by then.).
We always open our stockings on Boxing Day, going back to the years when Matt & I were running between our two parents' houses on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day. It's nice to have one more things to look forward to after the joy on Christmas Day. And, BONUS, Matt won't be working this day this year (since it's a Saturday) so we won't have to wait until he's home! And we go one at a time to drag it out even more.
Watching The Polar Express on Christmas Eve Eve
Luke was already asking to watch this with the snow we got this past weekend and I told him, not until Christmas Eve Eve!
I personally love the act of both sending and receiving cards. I love any mail any time of year that isn't a bill or a political ad or junk mail (although I have made dozens of calls to get off lists and we get very little now). I think we've mostly determined you probably won't get COVID from the mail just wash your hands and all that so Christmas cards are safe. I think the key to not making it a big deal is to 1) take care of them early (I have addressed mine on Thanksgiving Eve for over 10 years because that is my tradition) so there's not a time crunch. And 2) I made a whole night of it with my favorite Christmas movie, The Family Stone, chex mix, and hot apple cider with caramel vodka. Since we are seeing even fewer people this year I want to see their faces on a Christmas card!
I'll be planning out other Christmas movies for family movie night and involving the boys (well, Luke) in helping wrap his gifts to hand out. I don't know what will happen with anything relating to the holidays outside of our own home BUT I do intend to do all we can to fill our home with joy and Christmas magic and keeping the boys' spirits cheerful. Instead of looking at the things we can't do or might not get to do, I'm focusing on what I can orchestrate, mostly from home, and still keep the magic of Christmas.
This year has required a lot of pivoting from all of us. It took me months to realize I should just stop writing things on the calendar because they were more likely to get crossed off than to happen. There is much outside of our control but I'd encourage you to focus on what you can control, what Christmas joy and magic you can create with the people closest to you. It's not a year for a desolate Christmas, we all need more joy than probably most other years.
We will still be celebrating Jesus' miraculous birth even if we are possibly celebrating from home (I am preparing myself for that so I will be delightfully surprised if we get to go in person!). We will still be exchanging presents and decorating and eating more cookies than necessary. It's going to look different but also the same in many ways. Focusing on what we can do and the magic I can make really makes me very optimistic looking ahead to the next month. It's still the most wonderful time of the year!
No comments:
Post a Comment