The most stressful time of the year?

Exactly one week since thanksgiving Day, many refrigerators and freezers still hold some left-over turkey, stuffing and various holiday fare. Yet, the Christmas season is in full swing. Some companies offer "Early Bird" specials to those eager enough to be at the store by 4 a.m. Some specials are so good that our local newspaper features hundreds of people sleeping outside of a "Best Buy" in order to get their Holiday deal.

I typed in "Christmas Stress" in my Google search engine and found 19 pages with related articles. People not only stress about buying the "right gifts," we stress about having the "right" decorations, having the time to put up the decorations, and making sure the kids don't break the decorations. Then we stress about where to go for the holidays. Will Aunt Ruth in Lake Woebegone carry a grudge if we cannot make it to her place? Can we make it we stay long enough at Claire's party and still make it to Amanda's?

Oh and let's not forget the food to cook, cookies to bake, special recipes to create, and then the guilt of gaining weight on top of it all...stress. Please don't get me wrong, I am not saying that we should go bah-humbug, but for a season that is suppose to be about glorifying the birth of the King of Kings, we sure do make it messy.

For me, Christmas time creates a deep stress in my heart. Let me try out a word picture...do you know the "icicle tinsel"? The really thin pieces of shiny silver string that hang from many Christmas trees? Every year at Christmas time, I feel like one of those icicle tinsel strands that has been pulled on too tight on both ends and then let go. It either gets all crinkled up or is just stretched out of place. That's me at Christmas time. Me right now.

Napp and I do celebrate Christmas, we just don't celebrate certain elements of Christmas--basically we don't put up a Christmas tree in our home and we don't do the Santa tradition. Here's where my feeling like pulled icicle tinsel comes in to play. We both grew up in homes where our families did the works. Only after Napp became an adult did he choose to take those elements out of his life.

However, when I grew up I wanted all those traditions. I dreamed of a Norman Rockwell Christmas. One in which my husband and I would decorate a tree with children underfoot, while carols blared from the CD player impersonating an antique radio. When Napp and I were dating, I understood that he didn't like how Christmas was celebrated, but I didn't understand the extent. Not that it matters. I still would have married him. So yes, there was a part of me that wanted a Christmas tree with all the trimmings. A romanticized Christmas of course that really wouldn't be a reality (how many couples each year fight over a Christmas tree--either the choosing of it, decorating/lighting it, etc.). But I've since let that go and it is now a family decision. I'll be honest, if he came home tomorrow with a Christmas tree, I wouldn't make him take it back, but I'm no longer going to wish for one.

I think why our decision is hard on others is because perhaps they feel that we are taking some sort of joy out of Christmas, or implying to them that they are doing something wrong. And again, that's really why I feel like the tinsel. But to me a harmonious household is much more joyous than cleaning up pine needles. Christmas is a very special and personal holiday for many and we wouldn't want people to think that how they are celebrating is wrong. It is just different from what we choose to do in our family.

We don't shy away from the holiday. No one needs to feel afraid of offending us and we make no judgments on whether or not others should have a Christmas tree in their homes.

Our kids are not being negatively affected from us not having a Christmas tree in our home. Sure, Xylie asks for one from time to time, but she also has asked for her own moon jump, trampoline, pony, swan and giraffe. And we do let her enjoy the beauty of Christmas trees in other people's homes. She is attracted to them. There will be lots of Christmas tress in PA and GA this year that she will enjoy. She'll even have one in each of the rooms she'll be sleeping.

As for gift exchanges we do participate in them from time to time and enjoy making homemade gifts. Last year we gifted our small group members with homemade BBQ sauce.

So, what do we do for Christmas? We have an advent wreath, a Nativity scene (Xylie has one too), and we play lots of Christmas music. We also started having a Birthday Party for Jesus each year.

And what we lack for gift giving at Christmas, I try to make up for at Birthdays. I love Birthday celebrations and make as big of a fuss over the birthday person as my budget will allow (so sometimes that's just coffee at Starbucks).

So I do look forward to celebrating Jesus' birth this year. I hope we all do. I wish everyone who reads this a very stress-free Christmas.