It was a quiet and still night, the children were sleeping, the candles were glowing, the lights were twinkling, and the fire was crackling. The Mister of the house wanted desperately to cuddle in with his Sweet Wife, soaking in peace, and joy, and fruitfulness–all of which were their’s for the taking.
However, he was perched on the roof in the biting cold bracing himself against the howling wind that threatened to take the whole mission out. Despite the conditions, that night was slated for the installation of the Exterior Christmas Light Display. All Mister could think about was the next biting cold night where he’d be acting in reverse–untangling and dismantling the Exterior Christmas Light Display. You see, the holidays can be quick and fleeting like that. Harried and hurried and all to and fro. Racing from Thanksgiving to Christmas to New Years–with so many timely tasks in between.
At the same time Mister was dubiously balancing on the very crest of the roof, his Sweet Wife was ensconced in the kitchen. Beads of sweat dotted her brow as she dutifully, if not resentfully, rolled out the third batch of Beautiful Christmas Cookies. She wondered if her tireless work would be noticed this year. Or, would the cookies would be left until stale in the Tasteful Christmas Gift Tins she put together for tired teachers, nosy neighbors, and the postman who hit the mailbox more often than not.
Sweet Wife could not stop mentally scanning her to-do list as she mindlessly but tiredly criss-crossed the kitchen. There were the costly costumes for the Cute Kids Christmas Pageant, which would be worn once but took hours to create. There was the Awkward Office Christmas Party that she needed to attend with her Mister. She would need to purchase a gift for that (under $5, wrapped, with a Snowman theme, no less). Then, there was the Happy Holidays Dessert Banquet for the neighborhood women, where encouragement and celebration was the aim–but instead it bred obligation and exhaustion.
This to-do list was longer than her children’s Gift Wish Lists, but much more easily accomplished. The gifts her children wanted were exotic and hard to find, more about the Accumulation of Christmas Things than the joyful giving of a simpler time.
A simpler time. Was there ever a simpler time? Was Christmas really about the Exterior Christmas Light Display–trying to outdo or at least keep up with the neighbors? Was it about the Beautiful Christmas Cookies, painstakingly shopped for, baked, exchanged, and gobbled up? Did Mister and Sweet Wife do these things out of obligation or joy? Would they be willing to sacrifice a cheerfully lit Exterior for a joy-filled and peaceful interior? Would the extra evening gained from forsaking those Cookies be better spent cuddling by the fire, dreaming of Christmas Day and then the coming New Year?
What if Sweet Wife savored the Christmas season rather than laboring over it? What if she embraced joy and chose to only to participate in the events she loved? What if she delegated the Beautiful Christmas Cookies to the local bakery–allowing someone who loves cookies to painstakingly craft them?
Would the Mister be letting his neighborhood down if he neglected the Exterior Display because it just didn’t fit with the Family’s plan for Christmas time this year? If the finances or time ran low, would not putting up lights be Anti-Christmas or Anti-Suburbia?
Christmas is about the birth of a tiny baby (tiny like your’s and tiny like mine). It is about remembering a Season pregnant with possibility. A Moment swelling with joy and glory. History broken in two, before and after. It is about a woman who submitted to pains of childbirth in extraordinarily hard times, bringing forth a Baby who would change Life forever.
Why the hurry? Why the to and fro? Why the obligation?
If a celebration turns into a chore this Christmas, let it fall aside. Do the things that cause your heart to pause in joy and thankfulness. Continue the moments that bring magic and spark into your home–causing your children pause at the glory. But, please please, don’t do things because you feel you have to. The fuss pushes out the joy.
Keeping up with the Jones’ or the American Marketing Machine is not the way to remember the birth that changed history, all personal and world-changing at the same time.
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Tiny Twig will be on vacation until December 28th. Posting will resume then! Please enjoy your Christmas.