Christmas Cookies and Holiday Hearts (and songs on the radio)

That was a title of a Christmas song we sang in elementary school. I can still sing all of the tunes we belted out before our admiring parents and grandparents at the yearly Christmas program at my (gasp!) public school. I love Christmas and all that it symbolizes: the family getting together, exchanging gifts with those you love, celebrating the birth of Christ. Christmas has always been my favorite holiday because it always felt like the world had a little more joy and togetherness. Was that true or was I in a childhood stupor that only let me see the wonders while my parents fretted about all that had to be done? 

I realize Christmas has taken on a whole new meaning these days. I saw decorations in stores in July! And this ploy is only to make money, the absolute contradiction to the true meaning, yet we can’t seem to pull ourselves away from the Black Friday sales or the Amazon deals. There’s nothing stopping us from a simplified Christmas, but we choose to ignore that call from our conscious and keep the blinders on to keep up with the Joneses. I admit I fall right in this whirlwind of "have to get" when really we all know we just ask for the things we want, someone buys those exact things, we ask what they want, and repeat with everyone in your family. Who has time to figure out a gift?!? Brad jokes, "We should all sit down at a table and exchange the amount of money...just pass $25 to the left!" Okay, I'm stopping this train of thought right now. This is a blog post in another blog post. 

But back to that Christmas music or the start of this Christmas season. I’m a strong proponent for the start of holiday tunes, and let me tell you the reason why. A long time ago when I was a distraught freshman at Duke University, a thousand miles from home, failing my Calculus course with flying colors, feeling like a speck in this great big world, the end of the semester looming and one brave radio station in the Raleigh-Durham area decided to play Christmas music starting November 1^st. I was sad and scared because I really didn’t want to fail Calculus and start my college career with an F on the grade-point average. But then these familiar tunes that brought up my most beloved memories from childhood started playing on the radio and the reminder that this too was going to pass and I would be home enjoying my Christmas with my family gave me some solace to those awful cramming sessions.

Daily, from November 1^st until I took that wretched final in calculus (the very last exam given during the exam week, thanks Duke!), I would get in my car, turn to that radio station and find home again. That was a big deal when you are literally the new kid on campus and are surrounded by geniuses who were basically taking the Calculus course for an easy A.  And when it was finally the week after Thanksgiving, I would still get in my car and listen to Bing Crosby’s White Christmas while traveling into subdivisions looking for Christmas lights.

So to all you nay-sayers who hate that Christmas is just too early, I agree...to a point. Sometimes Christmas music being played is more than just a tactic to ramp up the economy, sometimes it is someone’s saving grace, sometimes it is where that little lost soul feels home again. So don’t look at me funny when I pull up next to you singing God Rest Ye Merry Gentlemen (Barenaked Ladies version, of course). Just know that my soul is comforted by these songs and memories and it pushes me forward to create memories, not gifts or cheapened versions of the true essence of a manger with a baby who would rock this world’s socks off. It stirs the creative juices of my parenting trying to figure out how to create these memories for my kids. So I’m not judging the Christmas music, I’m singing right along!