Columnist Carol Daniels
I love this time of year. I love the reason for the season. I love the lights, the decorations, the music and the food. I love deciding who gets what and anticipating their faces when they open up what I believe to be the perfect gift for them.
But I also know that these are the days before things can get a little hectic. It’s the space in time before one too many invitations arrive in the mail, requesting your presence at gatherings you already know you can’t attend. These are the days that some of you begin to grumble about the over-commercialization of what should be the most meaningful time of the year. The stress levels can grow, because this is the time of year when some people compare their lives and holiday decorations to the lives and holiday-planning prowess of others – and, inevitably, someone falls short.
This is the time of year when the meaning of the season can be lost in the fake images in all those gift catalogues, begging us to improve our lives by buying something beautiful.
These are the days when people tend to spend too much and eat and drink too much as well. These are the days when some feel too much – too much loneliness, too much anger, too much heartache, too much pride and too much emptiness.
Several years ago, I remember telling my husband that I didn’t think I liked the holidays anymore. “It never really works out the way I think it should,” I told him, thinking of all the grand plans I always had in my head and how the reality always shattered that vision.
Honestly, my holidays have never been THAT bad, but I realized that I had unreal expectations. But haven’t many of us wanted to pull the perfect turkey out of the oven or run down those stairs on Christmas morning and find that one thing – and it wasn’t there? Haven’t we all wanted to be showered with gifts and attention? Haven’t we all wanted the perfect tree, the perfect dinner, the perfect decorations, the perfect everything?
I’m just coming clean here, because those expectations were a burden for me and I know they are a burden for you. After that realization, I decided that as much as I loved gift-giving and gift-receiving (and still do), I wasn’t going to let our materialistic society take over my world so much that my real world suffered and I missed the real picture.
I’ve started buying less and enjoying more. My expectations have shifted from the unreal to the real. I’m so blessed, from my wonderful husband to my energetic sons to my close-knit family and in-laws to my wonderful church family and even my career. I know I won’t have the perfect tree, and some holiday food may come out overcooked, and chances are something will go wrong in your holiday planning as well, but we are still blessed.
With that realization in mind, these holidays become less stressful and more meaningful. This is my early gift to you!