New Christmas Traditions

This is the first year since 2006 that I haven't watched one of the grandsons several days a week during the school year. That gave me plenty of time to prepare for Christmas. Ironically, this is also the first year since 2006 I haven't needed nearly as much time.

We slashed our gift-giving budget in half this year. I also decided to give easy gift cards to most of our recipients, using credit card points. There are two reasons for these changes. First, after a year of major purging, I no longer want to contribute to the stash of minimally-used items in other people's homes. Second, by using gift cards, people can get exactly what they want. I did take care to get gift cards at places I know the recipients frequent.

In addition to wrapping fewer gifts, I also spent much less time decorating the house this year. Again, that decision was primarily due to all the purging. I just couldn't handle a lot of holiday clutter. Plus, after preparing and serving a Thanksgiving dinner for 10, I wasn't up for going up and down the stairs with decorations as much as in previous years. Especially since hubby was down with a strained back muscle and couldn't help. Hubby's back problem also meant a four-foot tree this year, which took me 30 minutes to decorate instead of the hours it took to deck out an eight-footer.

Those are big changes, but there are more. For the first time in as long as I can remember, we're not hosting our Family Christmas on Christmas Eve. My daughter's family will be driving home from Disney World that day, so we moved our celebration to Saturday, December 26. Given that change, I figured why not simplify the menu too. This year, instead of Ina Garten's home-made chicken stew, we're having Sloppy Joes and store-bought slaw.

Yes, Christmas is definitely feeling different this year, and the spring-like weather isn't helping. But, while I'm feeling a bit disoriented as a result of so many changes, I'm also feeling relaxed. After a moment of melancholy a few days ago, I'm now ready to embrace many of this year's holiday changes, primarily spending and decorating less, as new traditions. I guess I was ready for some holiday changes and just didn't know it!