An Untraditional Christmas

Christmas is one of the most traditional times of the year.  The music we listen to, the foods we prepare, the way we decorate our houses, the stories we tell, the family customs we observe - almost everything we do at the end of December has some kind of ritual symbolism attached to it.  Whether you're in it for the Santa scene or the Nativity scene, chances are the way we celebrate the season tends to repeat itself year after year - not in a boring way, but in such a fashion that we feel content with the comforting traditions that trigger happy memories.  Humans seem to need to punctuate their lives with holidays and festivals, and Christmas is the biggest one of all.

Every family writes its own storybook on what they consider important: which treats they love most to eat, the kind of gifts they tend to give, where the celebration takes place, whether their trees are decorated with precious family heirloom ornaments or done in ultra-modern colour coordination with the wrapping paper theme of the year.  Some families keep it small and simple, some have the whole fam-damly for a huge gathering.  Some insist on turkey and plum pudding, some go all crazy by never having the same menu twice.  Some count Christmas's success by how many gifts are under the tree while others spend the day serving others at a soup kitchen.

This might sound like I'm going to get up on my soap box and give a morality lecture about the meaning of Christmas, but no, I'm just saying everyone does it differently.

I've been thinking about this tradition thing quite a bit as we approach the Christmas season this year because there are so many things that will be different in 2017 for us.  This is not the result of any momentous decision to purposely alter how we observe the holiday, it's just a myriad of small things that all seem to be happening the same year.

Like, for instance, I already have my outside Christmas tree decked out in lights.  I didn't plug it in until after Remembrance Day but it's been up and ready since October 25th.  That's right, the Procrastinator-in-Chief is way ahead of the game, not because of any grand scheme, but because it was a beautiful day and I was looking for something to do outside.  It looks magnificent in the hoar frost.

The inside tree will be breaking with tradition, as well, and given my plans for it I could probably go ahead and decorate it right away too.  For a normal Christmas we usually buy a natural tree (bent, crooked, or lop-sided if it's me that picks it out - another tradition) and I decorate it mid December because if I do it sooner it will be needle-less by the big day.  A running sub-plot to the tree decorating performance is that the peanut gallery always wonders why I haul a tree-sized house plant out of the living room to fit another tree in.  2017 is the year I take his advice and I will be decorating the umbrella plant - and with the money I save we will travel to Australia!  Well not quite, but they are related.  I'm keeping Christmas super simple this year because we will be in Australia by New Years Eve.

Another tradition being phased out is the family gift exchange.  We've done it forever - drawn names amongst three generations of family - more to keep us connected across the miles as the family grows than anything else.  This year, after much discussion, it was decided to let it go.  On the one hand relief - it means less gift buying to do.  On the other hand regret - sad to see it go.

In another twist of Fate, the hostess of the big feast this year is of the next generation.  Again with the two hands ... on the one hand, yay, this is a good thing to pass the torch.  On the other hand ... this means Christmas dinner is more than an hour away!  Up until now it was the young folks who had that drive to come to our house.  Talk about a double edged sword!  It's not like we can put some kind of distance caveat on who gets to cook the turkey, and the only daughter-in-law who would qualify might get mighty sick of the honour.

And because of where Christmas Eve supper is happening this year we will be doing a Christmas sleepover at the grandkid's house instead of the other way around.  The menu for the 25th also is likely to be not-a-turkey.  After all, why stop the "outside the box" thinking?  We are on a roll here.

Well, okay, some things show no sign of changing: I am only barely started with my gift shopping and can only think of more ideas for the people who I've already bought for - that's very normal.  And so is the desire to get on with the holiday baking ... so that we can eat it all ... so I can make some more ... so I can eat some more.  It's very traditional for me to struggle with this every year.

All this thinking about breaking with tradition has side-stepped into considering if this will have some effect on our future too.  I know, it's kind of superstitious, but what if keeping our rituals has an impact on what happens in our future?  Our usual tradition is to watch the fireworks over the Harbour Bridge in Sydney, Australia on our TV; this time we will be there.  In person. 

It makes me wonder, what does 2018 hold for us?