Maybe it’s just my middle age. Maybe it’s the empty nest thing. Or maybe it’s just that I have more time on my hands to spend reflecting on the past. Whatever it is, I find myself singing the words to an old Frank Sinatra Christmas song.
“Give me an old fashioned Christmas, an old fashioned Christmas,
Family faces, wide open spaces, covered with snow.”
This Christmas here at Mama’s Empty Nest there will be family faces. And wide open spaces at our country home for certain. Right now those spaces are covered with snow and hopefully we won’t just be dreaming of a white Christmas.
In my heart, I’m longing for an old fashioned Christmas – one with less hurry and scurry. One with deeper meaning. One with a simpler celebration. And I’m determined to accomplish it. Oh, my Christmas to-do list bounces around my brain but I’m simplifying it. I’m not scouring Pinterest for decorating ideas or cookie recipes or fancy Christmas dinner menus.
I’m sticking to the basics but even abbreviating those. Christmas cards are signed, sealed, and delivered but this year I opted for fewer cards and a shorter Christmas note. Decorating our home is completed but not all of the décor, just some favorites, made it out of the storage boxes. The oven will fire up for some cookie baking but not the usual marathon, just two or three kinds instead of a huge assortment. Simple meal preparation will follow suit.
Downsizing for a simple Christmas almost doesn’t make sense though. This year is different than Christmases past when I squeezed in all of the preparations and scarcely had enough time to do it all. I have more free time on my hands than usual and you would think that would entice me to really do Christmas up big. Fancy. Over the top. One to remember.
But then I recall Christmas as a child. Do I remember anything fancy? Do exquisitely wrapped packages with expensive gifts inside come to my mind? Fine cuisine? A beautiful and elaborately decorated home? Do I recollect an over the top celebration?
What I remember from childhood Christmases are simple aspects. My father would usually bring the Christmas tree home with him one day after work. Sometimes that wouldn’t be until shortly before Christmas and one year I remember actually decorating the tree on Christmas Eve.
After my older sisters married, they spent Christmas Eve with their in-law families so that meant my parents and I usually attended candle-light service at church to welcome the Christ child. Before the service, my father would drive us around our area to see neighbors’ homes Christmas light displays and we would ooh and aah over those that glowed the brightest.
No fireplace existed at my childhood home, but I still hung up my stocking over the knob of the front door. I would be so excited for Christmas morning that I could barely sleep. When Christmas Day arrived, my stocking bulged full of goodies although not with toys, gadgets, and gizmos. Dumping it out, I would discover a huge juicy orange, a shiny red apple, mixed nuts in their shells, candy canes, and other Christmas candy. And I would be delighted with the yummy treats even though they were practically the same every year. Nestled beneath the Christmas tree, I’d find one or two specially requested simple toys – a doll, a game, or one exciting year, a beautiful blue bicycle – just for me.
That afternoon brought our entire family gathered together and crowded into the living room around a simple Scotch pine real tree covered in old-fashioned strings of lights with colored bulbs, metallic icicles, and the same ornaments year after year. It wasn’t a fancy themed tree; instead a hodge-podge collection adorned that prickly-needled fir which filled the air with the pungent scent of pine.
We exchanged gifts – real honest to goodness gifts that were purchased with thoughtfulness and consideration instead of gift cards or envelopes of money. And we laughed, and we exclaimed over our wonderful presents, and we thanked one another with smiles and hearty hugs.
My mother prepared a simple but abundant and appetizing meal displayed on the dining room table – no fancy recipes, no exquisite table centerpieces/decorations to make it look like a photo spread from a magazine. And we bowed our heads thanking God for the most precious gift of all – His Son Jesus Christ – and for our provision of food and family.
After dinner, one of us occupied the bench at our upright piano to plunk out Christmas carols while the rest of us sang the well-known tunes over and over again. We’d eat dessert and commence a few rousing rounds of cards or games or sometimes just putting a new jigsaw puzzle together.
A simple Christmas. Not photo worthy because of the food, the glitz, the gifts, or the amount of money spent. A Christmas worth remembering because of love, gratitude, and joy felt and appreciated when a family assembles to celebrate.
That’s my idea of an old-fashioned Christmas and that’s what I’m hoping for this Christmas.
“When we recall Christmas past, we usually find that the simplest things – not the great occasions – give off the greatest glow of happiness.” ~ Bob Hope
©2013 mamasemptynest.wordpress.com
I hope you get your old-fashioned Christmas. I wonder if that’s even possible now…. But that photo of you is SO similar to one I have of me. Mine shows me with a cooking set rather than a doll!
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We were happy receiving the simplest toys too, weren’t we? I don’t know if an old-fashioned Christmas is possible any more either, but I’m going to try. 🙂
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What a wonderful post, and again, I totally agree. We’ve had so much family drama with my sister over the past few weeks, and keeping things simple this year has really been driven home to me because of it. I need a simpler Christmas this year, too, and one that is Christ-centered above all. Thanks so much for an inspirational read today!
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I think there’s a lot of us out here that do want a simpler Christmas. Maybe we just need to be more vocal about it? I’m so glad you enjoyed my post today, D! 🙂
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So much like the Christmases I remember, including what filled the stockings. When did that all change?! Lovely thoughts here and a wonderful intention. As a bonus, the photo banner is just great!
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I agree, when did all of that change? When did Christmas morph into this giant commercialized monster? I don’t know, but I hope our generation isn’t to blame for that. I tried to instill the simpler joys of Christmas into my kids when they were little and always put an orange, Christmas candy, and candy canes in their stockings. They still talk about getting oranges while their friends did not.
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I confess. I did not put fruit in our kids stockings. I put UNDERWEAR in them! 😉
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Oh, I did that too! :-O
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That’s the best part of Christmas, a day to be together to experience the joy, a day you never want to end, a day to savor. All possible when we keep it simple.
I love the image of your dad coming home with a tree. “Daddy” coming home was always anticipated in our days, and the anticipation of Christmas, too, when your dad came home with a tree, …I can just imagine. ♪Have yourself an old fashioned Christmas♪ (To the tune of “Have yourself a merry little Christmas”)
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It’s so true about the excitement of “Daddy coming home from work!” When our three were little, my husband traveled a lot with his job, so when Daddy came home, my kids were in an excited frenzy. Of course, the frenzy continued when he would let them jump all over him and he would get down on the floor and let them crawl all over him and slide down his back (their own personal ‘jungle Dad’). And yes, the memory of my Dad coming home with a Christmas tree will always be etched in my mind.
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Ohhh…when Daddy came home and my brothers and sister were very little “Fly me Peter Pan” was our never changing request. Mom laughs now saying, “exhausted after a day’s work and a long commute when we lived back East, I felt so sorry for him, but he always did it.” “Fly me Peter Pan” was an exercise in picking us up under our arms and flying us off our feet whirling around in a circle.
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You are so right about our fondest memories being of the simple things. As I read your beautiful post I was remembering the old tinsel and how important it seemed to hang each strand so very carefully to look like an icicle – and all the excitement in anticipation of the big day. And yes, the gifts were simple and thought out and we never heard of gift cards. Yes, I agree with everything you say here. Let’s go back to an old fashioned Christmas! 🙂
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Yay, glad to hear you’re with me on going back! Oh yes, the proper way to hang the tinsel icicles. We always put ours on one strand at a time to make them hang properly, but I knew folks who just grabbed them by the handful and threw them on the tree willy-nilly! Scandalous!! 😉
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We are planning to do the same here, Mama. Very simple, but heart-felt.
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The best kind of celebration there is, Montucky, heart-felt. 🙂
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What wonderful memories Mama, I wouldn’t want to trade them for anything in the world. How easy it is to be happy and content if we let ourselves be so, and that’s the real treasure. 🙂
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The memories are the things that last, those items most precious to me. I think that’s what we’ve all forgotten especially at Christmas.
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