This Christmas will be undoubtedly different. It will be the first that either of us will not see our parents within the two-week timeframe of the holiday. It will be the first time in our married life the hubby will not be working tirelessly in the days and weeks leading up to (and day of) Christmas. It will be the first year in our new state with far less Christmas parties to attend and perhaps less need for winter clothing.
All of this I knew about and have been mentally preparing myself for during the past few months. You want to know the kicker? We’re likely going to forgo the Christmas tree. This one caught me off-guard, and I can’t say I was totally on board with it. Logistically, there are a few reasons such as…we sold our fake tree before moving and the cost and maintenance of buying a real or artificial tree isn’t worth it this year. But still. Those issues could be overcome if we really wanted to, right? The more I wrestle with it, the more I realize it must be this way.
We have so many things. Things still in boxes; things we’ve finally purged. While it can be nice to take comfort in these things, we certainly don’t need them all. We have a tub of decorations and a recent round of dollar store Christmas decor for our Christmas cards. Have no fear, there will still be evidence of “Christmas” in our home. We aren’t planning on becoming little Scrooges and dumping cynicism on everyone’s Christmas spirit. We’ll have a tree again in our lives. We aren’t anti-Christmas or even anti-Christmas trees.
When I dig deep—it seems that for me, the tree has been one of the primary factors of Christmas. And why? There’s nothing wrong with having a tree. It probably has all sorts of symbolism and tradition and good things surrounding it, not to mention, it’s pretty. Somehow along the way it became an expectation and a crutch for me. The tree does not equal Christmas. Neither do stockings or seeing Santa at the mall or eating too many cookies or exchanging gifts. It’s not the music or the lights or the Nutcracker. And I seriously love (almost) all of those things! But like any good thing, if I can’t go without it, then I’m valuing it more than the one thing. The one thing that Christmas is truly about.