HEMMING AND HAWING AT CHRISTMAS (I like it, but it is sooooooo much work)

Every year, we make a pledge that this Christmas will be simpler. No wretched exhaustion after cooking a leviathan meal, no mess to clean up, no presents to buy pounding around the mall on Christmas Eve  day, and no disgruntled relatives you forgot to include.

Of course these are unimpeached fantasties, presaging our carrying out or suffering every one of the aforesaid miseries.  Is it worth it?  You bet. For a moment in time, we stop thinking about everything else and think about the great feelings that are attendant on each one of the activities we hope will be easier.

My simplest Christmas was my best. Newly arrived in BC, and with two other Christmas “orphans” I worked with, we each took our very tiny Christmas Budget and went to Woodwards Food Floor. We could afford potatoes, three chicken breasts, a lemon and cookies.  I went home first and found a Christmas card from my aunt with a small cheque in it. I was sure Woodwards would not let me cash a cheque at the eleventh hour on Christmas eve, but they did. With my fortune I bought each of us, my two friends and me, a Timex watch on sale.

It felt like Christmas.  I worked for a social service agency that had received a donation from Woodwards of night clothes.  There were typical pyjamas, but also a box with flanel nightshirts. Even the social service agency rejected them. I thought they were somewhat Dickensian, and brought them home. I bleached them and ironed them and that is what we wore, all three of us that Christmas eve night. We cooked dinner, ate our repast and gobbled the cookies down with egg nog we made.  We went to late night church and sang carols and when we returned home, watched the Allistair Sim “A Christmas Carol” on television. We put our flannel nightshirts on and fell to sleep. One of us on the couch one of us on a pillow by the little fireplace, and one properly in bed. When the sun came up, with a light frost on the ground and the sun  warm as could be there was  a peace that settled on each of us.  Though we had so little, we were happy, together and saw the world differently on Christmas Day. In Dickens’ novel, he said “It was the worst of times it was the best of times” and Christmas often is both,. We torment ourselves wondering if we will get everything done. We wish everything was perfect and we wish that nothing goes awry. 

The wonder of Christmas is that it strengthens us, tempers us, and for a time, we are much more part of our world and the hearts of others. In our lifetimes we will see more than 80 Christmases if we are lucky. Each of those will be full of the same people, new people and a powerful hope for a world free of conflict, and lives that share in gratitude, expression of our best selves and a desire to give more than receive.  Christmas rich or poor, is a celebration of our hearts and a reward, a prize. Each year we have an opportunity for a short time,  to put our computers, our tools, our politics and our daily toils behind us. Lucky, happy Christmas everyone!