With only a matter of days before Christmas, anyone seeking
a little holiday spirit needs only to turn on the television for a deluge of seasonal
specials on any number of channels.
If you were searching for an extra boost this past week I hope you came
across The Great Christmas Light Fight, a competition featuring two sets of four families
from across the country that compete for the best Christmas light display.
I don’t want to say these families are over the top, but I
believe I can see the lights on the house in Texas from here.
If you drive by our house in the evening from now until
Christmas you can admire the Spouse’s excellent hanging light display across
our shrubs and garage as well as our collection of penguins (it’s a thing with
us) and even a small lit up spiral tree. Compared to the houses in this
competition, we are a single matchstick lost among the floodlights at Gillette
Stadium.
Do we do it because our kids appreciate it? I believe they
do when they are home, but let’s be real. They are grown, Second Born is only
home on college breaks and First Born will be with her future in-laws this
Christmas. So we can’t really use them as an excuse. I guess we do it because
of the memories and the sentiment it evokes.
For much the same reason, we search for the perfect tree
every year, digging it up at a tree farm, lugging it home and decorating it
over a string of busy pre-Christmas evenings. This is Second Born’s favorite thing
to do, trudge through the selection of trees, choose one, then another, then
one more before almost always going back to the first one. She will bargain
with her dad as to who will be getting down on the cold ground to make the
first cut (usually her) and then who will do the real chopping so that it falls
slowly to the ground (usually him).
When First Born was part of this parade, she and I would
pretend to be grumbling as we followed, teasing her sister about her
indecisiveness. But I realize now it has never been just a matter of her not
being able to make a choice. What it really came down to was that this was a
family tradition, a moment in time that we shared, whether stumbling over snow
mounds or slip-sliding in mud. Her choice kept us there, sipping hot chocolate
in the barn once our tree was chosen and awaiting pickup, keeping the outside
world and its constant interruptions at bay for a little while longer.
We don’t always recognize the glue that holds our family
together. It could be something as simple as a favorite holiday movie everyone
gathers for, the banter of siblings as they compare who has the most ornaments
on the tree, or a snowball fight on Christmas Eve. It may not always be the
prettiest package or the picture perfect setting, and it may take a few years
before you realize one day that what seemed inconsequential at the time is what
you look forward to the most.
It’s so easy to
be wrapped up (slight pun intended) in the angst of the holidays, between
shopping and cooking and scheduling our lives to fit everybody’s needs. That is
why it is even more important at this time of year to notice those little
things that make our family unique. With less than two weeks to go, I hope that
in between the rush you and the ones you love are tossing snowballs at each
other, griping about trying to find the one light that’s making all the others
go out, and creating a competition to decide who gets to put the star on top of
the tree.
And I hope that you can’t wait to do it all again next year.
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