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© St. Petersburg Times, published December 25, 2001
We decided to cancel Christmas this year. Well, maybe not cancel it, but prune it, simplify it. It has become too frantic. We struggle to think of gifts for each other. We ask for and give each other lists. We order poinsettias to be delivered to the West Coast family, and they do the same thing in reverse for us.
Requested gifts sometimes are things that we would buy anyway, but we can't think of anything else to ask for. So we request a cell phone or a bicycle pump or the book we already had on order.
My husband is the only one in the family who still goes to church. He attends St. Matthew's Episcopal Church in our old neighborhood in St. Petersburg. This has always offered him strength and serenity and means a great deal to him, but the real meaning of Christmas, Christ's birth, often seems lost in the retail frenzy.
We decided that this year, his Christmas will be to go to church as usual, but it will not be necessary to go through the hectic preparations. Except for small gifts for grandchildren, we will not give any. (Their birthdays probably will be a little more lavish than usual.)
We aren't the first to plan a simpler Christmas. I hear more and more people saying they're doing the same thing.
Poinsettias are festive and appropriate in this climate, but for a long time, I have grieved for the Christmas trees in Florida. They were grown in cooler climes and then trucked south. Weeks before the holiday, I see groves of them standing in the tented sales areas on busy streets. I see them through living room windows, with the Florida sun beating in on them. They look dry and out of place. They belong in a dark, northern climate.
The tradition of fires and lights was an ancient custom of both Christians and pagans as they celebrated the winter solstice. Those who lived in the far north placed candles on trees, believing it would bring back the sun during the long, dark winter.
For Christmas dinner this year, I think we will have a simple supper, maybe ham and scalloped potatoes as my North Dakota-born mother used to serve on the holiday. We will be together to share our love and family strength.
As I write this, I am looking forward to the holiday season, rather than dreading the work it usually entails.
As you read this, we might be celebrating the best and most peaceful holiday that we have had in a long time.
- Niela M. Eliason is author of Kitchen Tables and Other Midlife Musings. Write to her in care of Seniority, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731; or send e-mail to Niela@prodigy.net