Coming from the North, this time of year is a bit surreal for me here.
I’ve spent half my life in the schizophrenic winters of New Orleans where you need a jacket in the morning and a tank top by noon, but it is still so strange to see things like Christmas lights on a palm tree. Or an inflatable snowman on a green lawn, windows edged in frost spray in the background while mosquitoes swarm around the puddles left from all of the warm rain.
I wasn’t raised in any sort of religion, but my family celebrated most aspects of the traditional American Christmas. You know, we did the tree and prayed to Santa for the gifts we’d open on the morning of and usually all ate some large meal mostly together. It was a time of year where it felt like we were a normal family. Then at one point, my father suggested we move Christmas to July. We had more money for things in July.
I was incredulous that he would even suggest such a thing. That would make winter just a long, dark and bleak stretch of months with no spark of celebration to break it up. And Christmas in the summer?! How would it even feel like Christmas when it was 75 degrees outside?
Well.
As an adult I didn’t celebrate it anymore for reasons too numerous to mention. However, in the interest of making happy memories for the children, Mark and I flung ourselves back face first into the Yuletide when Violet was born. This time, I just whittled away all of the things that kept me from enjoying it for so long.
At the top of that list was the concentrated consumerism of Black Friday.
Before the children, December 25th was just That Day Everything You Want to Do Is Closed. It was also When Friends Give You Gifts You’ve Specifically Asked Them Not To Give You, Making You Feel Uncomfortable.
Maybe because of this, it took me a while to notice how awful the whole idea of something like Black Friday is. I have enough disdain for humanity as it is, I can’t imagine what item of stuff could be worth subjecting oneself to the greediest hordes of it.
So we don’t. We just don’t!
We aren’t bound to any familial or religious traditions, so we can do or not do whatever we waaaant!
Being heathens, there are no Christs in our Christmas. We borrow from some older traditions and we create some of our own. We do a tree. Santa is mentioned, but he’s more of a peripheral presence and not something used to regulate behavior. They do get one special gift from the jolly magic man a year and they leave him cookies (because I like cookies) but we also mention Krampus, because that’s a fun one too.
We go to the massive holiday light display every year at City Park (Celebration in the Oaks) that features all the perennial favorites:
We buy the girls some gifts throughout the year when we can, stashing them away until December. We order things online if we feel the need to once it gets into the Holiday Shopping Nightmare season. Like most people, we don’t watch network television and therefor avoid being bombarded with 20 toy commercials an hour, so the kids don’t live in a constant state of Wanting.
We try to focus on the giving spirit and give to charities more this time of year when we can. We teach the children that there are always children less fortunate than themselves.
United Nations Childrens’ Fund
New Orleans Women and Children’s Shelter
Finally, our actual Yuletide/Solstice/Christmas celebration is on the 25th because that’s the day when no one has to work. We say it’s Cheesemas because in lieu of cooking a feast, we have a glorious cheese board, with all of the food groups represented that we snack on all night.
We wear our pajamas all day on Cheesemas Day.
We do not leave the house or receive guests on Cheesemas Day.
Cheesemas Day is for merriment and giving gifts and slothing.
Merry Cheesemas!
May the Holiday Sobek smile upon your loved ones this year.
