66 Days Until Christmas: That's What Christmas is All About...

 

What is Christmas? Well, to some people it's a deeply religious holiday chronicling the birth of the Christ Child and the events surrounding it. Celebrants attend religious services, erect nativity scenes, do good works in the name of Jesus, and some also indulge in the secular events of the season. To most people it's a happy holiday revolving around light displays, a pine tree (real or artificial) hung with lights and shining decorations, gift giving, eating tasty food (some of which is only eaten at Christmas), gathering with family and/or friends, and, sometimes, indulging in activities eschewed during the rest of the year.

 

To too many people it's a shop-till-you-drop, massive financial outlay, exhausting ordeal of buying presents, erecting tasteful decorations, corralling overexcited children and dour older relatives, cooking until your ankles swell and you hate the smell of cinnamon, and the constant thrum of the advertisers to "Buy! Buy! Buy!" so that your family may be happy and you will be fulfilled.

 

If that sounds all too familiar, the following three books may prove useful:

Celebrate the Wonder: A Family Christmas Treasury by Kristen M. Tucker and Rebecca Lowe Warren

Unplug the Christmas Machine by Jo Robinson and Jean Coppock Staeheli

The Christmas Survival Book by Alice Slaikeu Lawhead

All discuss the crazy hopes we have piled on Christmas, once just a reverent celebration of the birth of a special child intertwined with older, secular customs celebrating the turn of the year, when the days have begun lengthening again, featuring feasting and drinking, games, conviviality, gatherings, and singing: elaborate meals that will dazzle all who eat them, extravagant gifts that will prove our worth or fulfill our dreams, celebrations that will magically heal our marriages, revive our down-at-the-heels home, banish our teenagers' disinterest, cure our ex-spouse's selfish ways...oh, and make it snow. In Phoenix, Arizona. Just this once.

These are a breath of fresh air about how to make Christmas meet your expectations rather than you have to march to its: that you can simplify preparations, work out quiet spots, lose traditions that you hate, plan to deal with the unexpected without being torn emotionally about "how Christmas is supposed to be celebrated." The Lawhead book focuses the most on the Christian aspect of the celebration, and Celebrate the Wonder has a lot more about Christmas customs not native to the United States, but all three have a lot to say about quieter holidays, alternate celebrations, and peace on earth.

The bad news is that these are out of print. The good news is that they can all be found to borrow, albeit under their sad new "borrow for one hour" rule (there's no rule that says you can't read for one hour and then immediately "re-borrow" the volume) at the Internet Archive. I recommend all.