10 days till Christmas

I love Christmas. I always have.

BUT

I don’t like the pressure to consume( beyond alcohol and food because there can never be too much of that)

The best way to fight bombardment is to hold on tight to simple tradition. And to remember what you like about this time of the year- not what they tell you you are supposed to like.

 

These are some of ours-

-Advent calendars (how simple is that? The only difference now is that I buy my teens the ones with finer chocolate. If I forget on December 1st- they remind me- they don’t let me mess with tradition)

-last minute drop ins and dinners, glasses of wine.

-tree decorating with hot chocolate and old fashioned  (please no rap or bad mash ups) Christmas music

-getting dressed up for everything

-cookie exchange (I am working my way, impressively I might add, through 12 dozen assorted cookies). First you curse the cookie exchange, then you love it, then you curse it again.

-the annual day of Christmas shopping with my girls starting with breakfast out

– baking

-wrapping

-singing “baby, it’s cold outside” every single time you come inside

-snow (remember when that was part of the tradtion? Hurry please!)

-unexpected gift giving- the world’s nicest young guy at the art store where I buy all my supplies, the garbagemen (I get the feeling no one is ever nice to them- when I give them cookies they look at me like – you try one first- poison?), Lloyd, my favourite postman, the crossing guard in the neighbourhood, your neighbours you don’t like. Anyone. Everyone.

-unexpected OVER THE TOP kindness. Oh my goodness, this feels AMAZING. This is Christmas so they won’t lock you up as readily for it.

-homemade prezzies-my children make me something for Christmas every year. This is THE WORLD’S Best thing. I hear them whispering  and plotting about it now. Yes, I cry  when I open it.

-spoiling people

-staring at our tree

-changing our pace

-pulling into the driveway and finding a present in my door. Love to give but I do love to receive too. (Earlier this week there was a beautiful box with a homemade tarte au sucre left at my house from a real live french angel)

-annual dinner and carol night where many of us with pretty bad voices try to outsing those with really good voices as we walk through our neighbourhood and generally get mixed/surprising and even poor reviews

-annual Santa Brunch where now grown teens sort of  sit on lap of Santa you hope is not dirty old man

-bringing the basket of all the Christmas books out-  we do actually look at them (I swear this is not a staged picture from Thursday night)- because we are all still  babies who want to believe in something.

 

also and don’t  you dare forget my annual book club dinner at my lovely friend Anne’s house. I can’t stand it it is so special and apparently according the the third most popular blog post I have ever published, if I write the word PENIS  you are more likely to click here for it. PENIS. 

 

What are your traditions? I want to hear.