With the Christmas season counting down its last days, I look around my house and see presents and lights and evergreen.  I smell cookies baking and cinnamon candles burning.  I hear Perry Como crooning all my favorite carols.  This, to me, is Christmas season. 

However, growing older has tied in many unpleasant feelings as well.  Stress over the money spent, the time allotment for festivities, and the fear of forgetting someone or something.   There’s the anxiety of kids finding Christmas presents that are tucked away, the sadness for the loved ones we’ll miss celebrating with, and the fretting about the bills that will come in January’s mail. 

I’ve learned a few things over the years.  I started up a Christmas Club bank account a handful of years ago and add to it every year.  Does this ease up my financial strain?  Yes.  However, I still stress over money because something else will have to be bought, I want people to have more, or I miscalculated something.  I keep a planner AND  a Christmas binder that helps keep gift ideas, addresses, and party dates in check.  That doesn’t mean I haven’t missed something, though – those calendars are only as good as my pen to the paper is, and sometimes, I forget.  I hide gifts – sometimes so well that I find one or two come April or so, I miss my friends and family (and pets!) that are no longer celebrating with me, and I will forever dislike bills. 

The point is, it’s human nature to sweat the small stuff – but the small stuff can take away from the big ol’ fun stuff that are our rewards.  Big deal if I lose a 4 pack of socks that I planned on stuffing into a stocking?  Surprise gift for no reason in June!  So what if I’m packing festivities in?  I love spending time with my loved ones!  A fat bank account?   What’s THAT?!?! 

I say “Merry Christmas” with a smile on my face because that is what I celebrate – and want to spread that cheer to others.  I give to the Salvation Army kettles every chance I get, even though I struggle just as much as others.  I wrap an obscene amount of presents because it makes me happy and makes the receivers of said gifts smile, too.  My house has eight – yes eight – Christmas trees because, in my mind, there just can’t be enough Christmas.  There’s nothing, in my opinion, like the feeling of laying in a dark room that’s only lit with the lights from the Christmas tree. 

I don’t care if people want to say that I don’t know the true meaning of Christmas because I’m commercialized.  I know I celebrate the birth of Christ.  I don’t care if someone wishes me a Happy Hanukkah, a joyous Kwanzaa or a simple Happy Holidays because of THEIR beliefs – they are still wishing me good tidings.  I’m good with my traditions, my beliefs, and my feelings. 

 So, to my family and friends, I wish you a very, very Merry Christmas.