A Merry Heathen Christmas
I love Christmas. Although it’s probably the most popular holiday in the United States, it is a funny thing that I should love it so. You see, I am an atheist though and though. I don’t believe in God and I don’t attach any particular spiritual significance to the celebration of Christmas. Yet the time between Thanksgiving and Christmas is my favorite time of year.
Christmas means family. I love the expectation that Christmas should be a time spent with family. There is a strong current of American culture that exhorts us all to work harder, longer. But that stops on Christmas. No one who can help it works on Christmas. This year Jeff and I will stay up late the night before Christmas building a Lego train around the Christmas tree to surprise Thomas on Christmas morning. Henry will wake in the middle of the night and Jeff will bring him to me to nurse; we’ll wake up on Christmas morning snuggled in bed together. My parents will drive down to visit us and we’ll spend Christmas morning eating my dad’s tortilla-egg casserole and my cinnamon rolls. On Christmas evening we’ll all drive to Jeff’s parents’ house where we’ll have a full Christmas dinner and celebration with Jeff’s extended family. Rather than an obligation, I am grateful for the peaceful time to spend with my family.
Christmas means music. When I’m in the car, I forgo my usual NPR and I flip back and forth between the two local stations playing non-stop Christmas music. The iPod has John Denver and the Muppets on heavy rotation along with the more traditional Sleigh Ride and Silent Night. “Holly Jolly Christmas” isn’t just my favorite Christmas song, but one of my favorite songs, period. I was nearly giddy this weekend when I heard Thomas singing the Twelve Days of Christmas. Christmas music is fun, it’s beautiful, and it’s a treat I only get to indulge in for a few weeks each year.
Christmas means a feast. I’ve written before about my love of winter weather. While I have managed to avoid turning on the heat in our house for the past two years and complain of chilly fingers and a cold nose, the cold is worth the pleasure that I get when we turn on the oven and cook up something in our kitchen. We all crowd into the tiny room, enjoying the taste and smells, remarking on how the room is at least ten degrees warmer than the rest of the house. In the only the past week, we’ve made bread and sugar cookies, brownies and chocolate chip cookies. We’ve had soup for dinner two out of the last seven nights. I start planning the Christmas menu weeks in advance and this year we’ll have the added enjoyment of enjoying carrots, beans, potatoes, shallots, greens, and herbs grown in our own backyard.
Christmas means something extraordinary. I usually try to uphold the philosophy that less is more and purchase as little as possible, but for Christmas I loosen the purse strings a bit and I find joy in bringing happiness to my friends and family with gifts. Many of the gifts are homemade or secondhand, but I also get a a sense of satisfaction from finding the perfect gift to buy. And I might be thirty-one years old, but I still get a little thrill when a package arrives on our doorstep or see a present under the tree with my name on it. And then there is the tree itself. I know that it is utterly ridiculous to cut down a tree, bring it into my house, festoon it with ornaments (breakable chocking hazards!) and lights (what a fantastic fire hazard of an idea!), and yet, I love it so. We decorated our tree today and I keep wandering into the living room just to stare at the twinkling lights and reminisce about where each ornament came from.
I am frequently troubled by religion, by the hypocrisy, by the wars in its name. But I am not troubled by Christmas. Whether the reason for celebration is the changing of the seasons, the birth of a savior, or simply the love of food and family I believe it is the most wonderful time of the year.
December 7th, 2009 at 11:41 pm
Gina on our way home from Thanksgiving friday we found a Station in the Central Valley just north of Bakersfield that just played XMAS and holiday music all the way home.
When the Manhiem Steamroller was playing I found the faster the music went the faster I drove, and then move and I rocked to the Beachboys Merry XMAS Santa. John Denver and the muppets Christmas is still the best holiday Album and we had it when you were little on a record Player and 8 track and cassett tapes ( for all you uninformed, this was before there were CD Players and an I Pod. Our 1st computer was a TI and then a Tandy .There are some real surprises in store for you Jeff and Thomas and Henry when we come down XMAS eve. Have the warm bread ready when we get there and maybe you and I can cook a big bowl of my Famous flaming hot Vegetarian Chilli and then take a ride to griffith park to see the lights in the park and then to travel town and ride the train with the boys that night. We put up the lights on the house sunday and Have are little lighted train steaming along out front. Today as I drove to work it was snowing in Stockton, yikes 31 degrees this morning. Snow level was down to sea level with the mountains getting up to 3 feet of new snow. Tonight clear and cold 28 degrees, we finally broke down and put on the heat. I still had one up on my UP buddies in Omaha as they got about 8 inches of snow and it was a balmy 6 degrees today. Oh by the way maybe Thomas and I can make SALSA together and then he can try it out.
All out love PAPA Dave and Grandma Marie
December 7th, 2009 at 11:47 pm
Just read read the Title, Merry Heathen Christmas:
I think some of the folks in Green River and down in Texas always though we might just be the heathens among them, We were not LDS or Southern Baptist. Rereading the title made me think back on those times when you Tony and Sara were little and we moved around those many times. Cutting the trees in the Flaming Gorge south of green river and having a house with two trees you thought it was great and you helped with all the decorating of those two trees.