I have seasonal cookie FOMO right now. I keep getting pinged by food blogs and harassed by Instagram posts taunting me with all the fantastic, creative, beautiful cookies I could be making, if I had the time. I don’t have the time.
My least favorite thing about Christmas is that I can’t take advantage of every single thing. Forget about a Pinterest-worthy advent calendar this year. Someday I will have the time and headspace to hand-paint an antique wooden curio cabinet and stock it with impeccably curated found objects.
For now, I am just trying to get the lights on the tree we did manage to get, and be at peace with the fact that its crookedness is “artsy” (twitch twitch)**. Last night I tried to put the lights on with the girls. (Sidenote — I am thinking of co-opting David Foster Wallace’s book title A Supposedly Fun Thing I’ll Never Do Again as a hashtag for just about every idea I have to entertain my kids.) This is how that looked:
After they went to bed, I took all the lights back off and started from scratch, this time with the overhead lights off so I could really get in the zone. That took about two hours and two glasses of Sauvignon Blanc. Maybe this weekend we’ll get the ornaments on.
My favorite thing about Christmas? Where do I even start. I mean, there are the gifts. I know we’re not supposed to focus on that as what Christmas is all about, but sue me, I love getting presents. I love giving them too. I have three separate Evernote lists going on in regard to Christmas right now. I just joined a Secret Santa project, voluntarily.
I also adore the intangible qualities of the Christmas season. The warm, fuzzy feelings when the Christmas music comes on, the twinkly lights, the fir tree in my house. Can we talk about what an awesome tradition THAT is?
I know that a lot of people hate Christmas. It would be easy to hate Christmas. It’s stressful; it’s expensive; it can slide into a consumerist nightmare if you’re not careful. Also, it’s dark, like, all the time now. Honestly I think half the reason for Christmas is to prevent us all from getting S.A.D.
But I refuse to hate Christmas. I am cynical by nature, and not prone to bouts of positivity. I have never manifested abundance in my life. But I’ll tell you what, I’m 46 years old and the idea of Santa still excites me. I am so glad I finally have an excuse to get in the Christmas spirit.
** While I was writing this, we managed to get the tree to stand up straight! Progress!
