Making It Through the Hollow Daze
by Karen Williams - Oviedo Voice - Dec. 2, 2004
It’s common knowledge: Unless a person is of a religious persuasion (and heaven knows there’s nothing wrong with that), the holidays can be an emotional quagmire. We eat too much, guzzle too much, spend too much, sleep too little, and yearn for the people who are gone from our lives--especially Santa Claus. Some of us spend endless hours traipsing the mall or attending a dizzy array of holiday gatherings when, all the while, we yearn to be home watching “Desperate Housewives” in our jammies.
We ache for simpler, happier times when no one made huge demands of us and we received about everything on our Christmas list, with maybe a surprise Betsy-Wetsy doll or Tonka Truck (built tough) thrown in for good measure. And all we had to do was “be good,” a nebulous concept usually attainable by having a cute kid-grin and not kicking anyone in the shins for a couple months.
Back then, the only gift dilemma was which one to tear into first. These days, we have to figure out which gifts to buy that (1) people will half-way like (2) will be in the same price range as what they buy for us (3) won’t put us over our credit limit once again and (4) won’t make all the other people, to whom we’re giving chintzy, recycled presents, hopping mad.
And then there are the Christmas cards. Do we send none and feel guilty/ lazy every time we receive a cheery greeting in the mail? Or do we send a card to everyone we know and end up tired, surly, and out of Bic pens? Or do we send cards just to those we expect to receive from, only to find out that we guessed way-wrong. Every time.
And how about the outside decorations and lighting? Do we try to keep up with the Joneses and risk slipping off the roof and then not having enough money for burial due to an astronomical electric bill? Or do we keep it low key with a plastic reindeer or two and try to ignore the haughty looks from Mr. and Mrs. Artsy-Craftsy down the street?
And what about the holiday cooking and baking? Do we spend relentless hours in the kitchen, squinting at cookbooks and trying to fathom the difference between a teaspoon and a tablespoon? Or do we pick up supermarket fixings, furtively place them in down-home type dishes, and hope like the dickens no one asks for a recipe? (Option three, of course, is to break Martha Stewart out of prison, but we must endure her newly-acquired habit of cussing like a pirate and insisting that cake tastes better with a file baked inside.)
Presenting us with countless challenges, the holidays can become a time to feel more stressed than blessed, more frazzled than dazzled. But there IS a solution.
On the count of three, now, let’s slow down, breathe deeply, and savor the moment. Next, let’s shake out tension, stretch in the direction of the phone, and book a plane trip for, well, parts unknown. The South Pole has definite potential, but I’d steer clear of its northern counterpart. Just a hunch.
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Copyright 2004, Karen Williams
