My Christmas Top Ten:
When the boys were young…
1. Not Christmas overdone–Christmas everywhere! Every little thing is a celebration. Every store, every streetlamp, every neighborhood, every everywhere, there are lights and decorations.
2. Holiday spirit overflows as people have an excuse to detonate decorating bombs in their yards. Each house has more lights than the last, and in parts of our usually very proper neighborhood, every house for entire blocks has a different light scheme. Some people go for snowflakes and icicles, some for rattan deer with moving heads, some for Santa and some for the nativity.
3. One family in our neighborhood has done the whole ‘turn on your radio and watch the light show’ thing. It is so great!
3. Have you seen inflatable snow globes? Love it, love it, love it!
4. Kids are in charge. Santa is everywhere. ‘Nuff said.
5. Every ornament on my tree reminds me of something wonderful in my life. The mouse ornament Steve gave me when he knew I was expecting an engagement ring (I got it at dinner that night–December 23, 1983). All the ‘Baby’s First Christmas’ ornaments for both boys. All the ornaments they made through the years at school, starting with sequins glued to cardboard cutouts all the way up to Grinch painted light bulbs. Every ornament from every vacation, joined this year by a ‘few’ we picked up in Alaska.
Engaged?
6. Buying gifts for everyone. I LOVE buying gifts! Even when we were so strapped that I was paying for groceries with change, we managed to buy gifts for everyone we loved at Christmastime. When I see how many gifts I have to buy, I fully appreciate how many people there are in my life whom I love. (A lot!)
7. This year’s Jacquie Lawson (jacquielawson.com) advent calendar. Totally interactive, and everyday has a new show or activity. This year’s is an Victorian scene and I can’t wait to start it tomorrow.
8. Christmas movies. I love Christmas movies. I’ve already watched Elf three times, and Baryshnikov’s Nutcracker half a dozen while I decorated. I’m in the process of replacing all my video cassettes with DVDs, but I also put a little TV with a VCR in my kitchen so I can watch my old movies. I still play the Disney Christmas Sing Along, even though my boys are way beyond Mickey Mouse and Donald Duck.
9. I put Christmas in every corner of my house. I have lighted houses and dancing Santas, snowmen and dogs. My grandmother’s big nativity takes me right back to her living room. I have snow globes small and large, all playing different tune, some with lights and blowing snow. A collection of nutcrackers adorns the top of my grandmother’s pie safe. God bless my indulgent Jewish husband who lets me dance around the house dropping decorations like a comically overweight, over-aged, Christmas fairy.
10. Last but not least, I bet you thought I wasn’t going to mention the reason for the season. Well, that’s the best part of all. Jesus loved a good party-water to wine and all that. This is a month-long party every year celebrating all the things he taught us to hold most dear–life, love, family, and the daily miracles we miss the rest of the year.
God bless us, every one, and happy, happy holidays!
bethwarstadt.com 