Tag Archives: Christmas

When the (holi)days pile up

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Did August zip by in a blur as fast for you as it did for me? Here we are in a new September, a new school year already underway. Soon enough (or maybe not soon enough if you’re living through a heat wave like I am), the days will turn cool and crisp, leaves will fall, and children will dream of costumes for trick-or-treating.

What follows is the headlong tumble through November and December, and before you know it, plastic eggs and marshmallow chickens will decorate store aisles.

Walking by a neighbor’s house earlier today, I had a horrible reminder of how quickly the holidays can pile one on top of another:

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Santa and ghosts and the Easter Bunny, oh my!

I am not even making this up. (!)

Other than straightening and cropping the photo and adding a watermark, I did not alter the photo. Do you see the scared Thanksgiving turkey peeking out from behind one of the trees? I felt like hiding, too.

I drove past the house on my way out of the neighborhood so I could take pictures. This is a view from the other side.

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There’s even a birthday cake in the shadows for an extra “holiday” into the mix. Happy Merry Thankseastereenmas, everyone!

When I walked by this morning, I thought, “Garage cleaning?” Maybe they were testing all the decorations to make sure none had holes?

As it turns out, someone in the house is celebrating a big milestone birthday today, and I guess her family (and friends, too?) decided this would be the perfect way to announce the occasion.

I’m grateful all of our celebrations don’t happen at the same time and not only because of what the big celebration would mean for our neighborhoods. I like holidays spaced out with time to anticipate, prepare for, and enjoy each one in its own special way.

I’m also grateful that my family celebrates birthdays in a quieter way.

In case this post has stirred a little whisper of panic in your heart or head about the approaching holidays, let me arm you with this Bible verse:

So do not worry about tomorrow; for tomorrow will take care for itself. Each day has enough trouble of its own.

—Matthew 6:34

Each day has enough trouble and, I would add, enough to celebrate, too, without worrying about the holidays lining up on the calendar ahead.

I have a long line of loved ones’ birthday celebrations coming up, all before I even have to think about buying giant bags of candy, and I hope to celebrate each one without worrying about the next. What’s the next special occasion you’ll celebrate? And do the holidays ever feel like they pile up on you as these pictures suggest?

A Merry Christmas

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But the angel said to them, “Do not be afraid; for behold, I bring you good news of great joy which will be for all the people; for today in the city of David there has been born for you a Savior, who is Christ the Lord. This will be a sign for you: you will find a baby wrapped in cloths and lying in a manger.” – Luke 2:10-12

Merry Christmas, my friends! I do not know what your expectations for this day have been or whether they have been met. I certainly didn’t expect to greet this joyous day feeling lousy, several days into one of the worst colds I’ve had in a long time.

I don’t know whether you are surrounded by loved ones or wishing you could be closer to those who are dear to you. My house is blessedly filled with laughter of family that drove many hours to celebrate Christmas here.

I don’t know how Christmas celebrations look at your house or what the day means to you. But I hope you will take time to read the Christmas story in Luke. I love that the story promises great joy for all and also says that the baby has been “born for you.”

I also hope you will take some time outside today in this beautiful world we share. And I hope that this will be a merry Christmas for you.

Simple lessons from the nativity scene

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I shared with you last week that Thanksgiving was threatening to overwhelm me, but I was really in denial about what would come before the leftovers were even all gone. The “commercial” Christmas season has come roaring in, practically running down Thanksgiving in its wake. Not that it hasn’t been around since before Halloween, but this week has brought a new level of frantic Christmas messages.

Neighbors have lights and greenery and blow-up snowmen out on their lawns. I still have pumpkins on my front porch and feel a sense of camaraderie with others whose front porches are still decked out in Thanksgiving decor.

The catalogs are screaming with deadlines for shipping in time for Christmas. My inbox has became an unmanageable beast shouting about Cyber Monday deals and extended Cyber Week sales and last chances and one-day coupons and so much more that my head is spinning. Exactly when did Cyber Week become a thing anyway?

I got an email from a big crafts store yesterday with a list of one-day deals and a lead-in sentence that said: “This year, take the stress out of the holidays by simplifying your DIYs …” The sale was for ribbon and fake poinsettias that I could use to transform my normal (read: boring, blah, unacceptably plain) chairs into appropriately festive ones with perfect chair ties.

I thought to myself, “Hey – I know. I’ll make my holidays even less stressful by not going to the store and buying festive-chair-tie-making materials.” I also convinced myself I did not need “Celebrate It pre-lit entryway trees,” even if they, too, were marked down 60% for one day only.

By not jumping in the car yesterday, I saved a little piece of my sanity and 100% of the money I would have spent. I also solved the issue of my family exchanging glances behind my back, wondering when I started feeling the need to decorate perfectly good chairs when what I really need to do is just figure out how to bake a pie without filling the kitchen with smoke. (I admit that this is a recurring event in my kitchen.)

Whether I prepare and decorate and learn how to bake the perfect pie … or not, Christmas is coming. I want to get my heart right for it. I’m determined to find some quiet in this Advent season, to carve out some space for preparing for real Christmas. And I think the nativity scene is the perfect place to look.

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These nativity shepherds look so calm and happy and relaxed. That’s how I’d like to be this Christmas.

I wrote a bit last Christmas about the nativity set my mother painted for me, and these are the shepherds from that set. Stop and look for a moment at their faces and what they have with them: a few of their animals, a water canteen, a musical instrument and some food. That’s all.

When they heard the angels singing of Christ’s birth, they didn’t rush around looking for ribbons and fake poinsettias to decorate their chairs. They rushed to the manger and brought only what they already had with them.

Friends, will you take a cue from the shepherds this week and drop what’s not important so you’ll have time and energy and joy for what is? Are you willing to set the Martha Stewart expectations aside and prepare your heart and home for the presence of Jesus?

Got a good tip for how to make the coming celebration a simpler one, less filled with stress? Please share it below!

The colors of Christmas: purple

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For many of you, Christmas may be over. Perhaps you’ve already packed away your decorations, and the tree is out on the street waiting for the garbage men to collect. But for others, Christmas won’t be over until January 6, the day of Epiphany or Three Kings Day. This traditional 12th day of Christmas is a celebration of the magi visiting Jesus in Bethlehem, and for cultures who celebrate it, decorations won’t come down until then.

So in honor of Epiphany, I hope you won’t mind one last post in the colors of Christmas series. This week’s color is purple, and I have my friend Anna to thank for inspiring me to add it to the colors of Christmas. Early in December, she and I met for lunch, and she told me about decorating her tree with purple ribbon, despite her family’s skepticism. When I told her about the blog series, she asked (somewhat hopefully) if purple would be one of the colors. “After all,” she reminded me, “purple is the color of Advent.” She’s right, you know.

In many churches, the color of Advent is purple. You’ll often see purple candles in Advent wreaths and purple cloth draping altars and pulpits during the season leading up to Christmas. It’s not even that unusual to find purple Christmas ornaments these days.

A purple-winged peacock sits on my Christmas tree.

A purple-winged peacock sits on my Christmas tree.

But why is purple so closely associated with the season of Christmas? For two reasons: purple represents penance and also represents royalty. Penance will come into more focus during the season of Lent that leads us into Easter, but Advent is also supposed to be a time when we repent of our sins as we focus on the coming of the Christ child, the king of kings.

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Two of the three kings in my nativity set are clothed in purple. I especially love the crown of the one in the foreground, with alternating stripes of lavender and purple.

So in honor of Christ the king and the royalty whose visit we celebrate with Epiphany, let us embrace purple as a color of Christmas. And as Epiphany comes and leads us toward the season of Lent, may the color purple remind us of the reasons Christ calls us to repent of sins and continue to stay alert for His coming.

I’m going to leave you with another brain puzzler today, this time from a purple card from the set that came in my stocking for Christmas. There’s a message hidden in what appears to be a flower below. Can you find it?

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You’ll find this fun card and others like it at http://www.BelieveIAm.com

Once you think you have the answer, please post it in the comments below (don’t peek at the comments before you’ve given yourself a little time to figure out the message).

In last week’s post where I included a yellow card like this one, I promised a link to the very cool website where you can find these cards and more things to inspire and motivate you. Again, don’t peek until you’ve tried to figure out the message above, but here’s the site: www.BelieveIAm.com. Visit the site’s About page for a fun, inspirational poem to get your new year off to a great start.

I’ll leave you today by wishing you a happy New Year. I’m grateful to you, my readers, and I look forward to hearing what wonderful adventures God has planned for you in the year ahead.