Sometimes I think it might be best to celebrate Christmas the old way, which is to do nothing Christmas-related until the actual day.
That means no twinkling lights adorning the house even before Thanksgiving
That means no lighted garland up the banister and on the mantle, nor a fully decorated house on the weekend after Thanksgiving.
And that means no Christmas tree, either.
At least not right away.
Now before you start thinking I’m becoming more and more Scrooge-like and before you put the words “bah humbug” in my mouth, let me explain.
Every year the preparation for Christmas, which begins the Friday after Thanksgiving, is becoming a greater and longer chore.
There is just so much to do, and it lasts so long, weeks on end.
At times, preparing for Christmas leaves little time to get anything else done.
And then there is all the shopping still to do. The wonder of the Internet makes the binge buying a little bit easier, but if I don’t buy online early enough, I still might have to fight the crowds at the shopping malls or on State Street.
It’s too much.
And then the big day arrives. You rush to get breakfast, rush to open presents, rush to church, rush to prepare the big meal for the relatives and rush to open more presents and before you know it, the big day is over.
It is almost anticlimactic.
All the days of preparation for so short a reward.
Maybe it would be better (and I don’t know if it would be) if you just saved up all that decorating for the actual day. Or save it for at least the day before – Christmas Eve – or the day before the day before – Christmas Eve Eve.
Maybe then, the holiday would have a bigger bang for the buck.
And there might be more incentive to celebrate Christmas longer.
The way we do it now, most of our time is spent preparing for Christmas. If we reverse it, maybe we’ll prepare less and celebrate the meaning of Christmas a bit more.
There are 12 days of Christmas, you know. And each one is a joy, right?
And in the church calendar, the Christmas season doesn’t end until the Epiphany (Jan. 6 this year), or when the Three Wise Men visit the Christ child.
Now, it’s all over on Dec. 26, when everyone is just recovering.
So let’s celebrate this thing called Christmas, the coming into the world of the Savior, just a little bit longer.
He didn’t come to stress us out.
He came to bring peace. Let’s savor it.
Randy Blaser is a freelance columnist for Pioneer Press.
