No Ugly Christmas

“Christmas waves a magic wand over the world and suddenly everything is softer and more beautiful,” said Norman Vincent Peale, American minister known for popularizing the concept of The Power of Positive Thinking. Christmastime filters daily life through a magic, sparkling haze that blurs the rough edges of splintered rhetoric and unveils cold, hard eyes to truly see splendor.

A Visit from St. Nicholas (‘Twas the Night Before Christmas) by Clement C. Moore is the classic poem that moves the night visitor’s story to conclusion in easy rhyme. Then, overcome by the late night’s beauty, Papa pauses, amazed at “The moon on the breast of the new fallen snow (giving) a luster of mid-day to objects below.”

The ability to envision a frosty, full winter moon that provides a sparkle on fresh snow comes with conscious watchfulness for the beauty that surrounds us.

The charm of Christmas is easy to behold when the world is seen through appreciative eyes. By adding sprinkles and twinkles, it’s possible to make each day more beautiful and festive. Once, ladies who could afford gorgeous, beaded and sequined sweaters with secular and religious Christmas motifs were enviable fashionistas. Beauty had no real competition in December.

Then, after a decade of glitz and glam, the fashion hackers went to work. Invitations to parties stipulated attire: an ugly Christmas sweater. Ugly and Christmas used in the same phrase posed a puzzle. Boxed away sweater treasures fell from the shelf and became a popular source for sweaters that would win an ugly prize, hands down.

 To quiet those garish, ugly sweaters, glorious melodies like

Hark! The Herald Angels Sing, the morning lawn with a glistening frost, and the words to new songs such as Isn’t He Wonderful by John Wimber, highlight the season. Personal Christmas playlists and Sirius satellite radio provide familiar tunes to lift and soothe moods throughout December. Let There be Peace on Earth, rousing harmonies, organ music, and silver bells create loveliness all around.

And then out of nowhere, Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer. Grandma’s misfortune was not pretty; she had hoof prints on her forehead and claw marks on her back. From a grandma perspective, it seems rather tacky to sing and laugh about how happy grandpa has become since grandma met with an unimaginable end, and on Christmas Eve, of all times.

When looking for cheer and happy times, to get beyond Grandma’s fate and the mental health of the girl who wants a hippo for Christmas, Hallmark Christmas movies uplift the spirit with happily-ever-after, all day, every day of December. Each movie ends when the girl chooses the hometown boy, sending the Wall Street tycoon packing. Stringed instruments play and diamonds float to earth. Orchestras crescendo and “every kiss begins with K(ay).” A sentimental sigh is natural and Christmas beauty wins another round.

Drawing crowds to the box office, however, are movies that spoof everything about Christmas and good tidings of great joy. Bad Santas starring Billy Bob Thornton and Bad Moms with Christina Applegate use dark humor to suggest Christmas is nothing but a wholesale, retail extravaganza driven by panic and stress-filled nightmares.

After a hectic trip to the mall and worries about Grandpa’s spiraling behavior, families can open the mailbox and check out the greeting cards for some relief. Currier and Ives and Thomas Kinkade visit homes through cards with scenes of Americana and familiar Christmas locales like Bedford Falls. The cards trigger memories of Christmas Eve candlelight services, every late-night drive for batteries to whatever store is open, and all those Christmas mornings with the kids when Santa got it exactly right. Visions of sugar plums, the Christmas spirit, giddy grins, and family traditions provide joy.

A new tradition, though, has become downright creepy for many moms. Santa needs no help in making his list and checking it twice. He does not need that ill-behaved escapee from the North Pole known as Elf on the Shelf. Banishment may be the real reason the Elf is absent from the North Pole. The elf has wild, creepy eyes, looks terrible in a skirt, and is a lousy house guest to boot.

The beauty of Christmas is subject to being stolen by spoil-sports and party-poopers like The Shelf Elf and the Grinch. Everyone knows a Mr. or Ms. Grinch who wants to stop Christmas from coming, stop the merriment and celebration altogether. The Grinch learned a fitting lesson from all the Whos in Whoville who didn’t need packages with bows to celebrate Christmas love.

Nothing and no one can stop Christmas from coming. Christmas came a very long time ago, and the Love that came down lives in hearts all year long. Wimber poses, “Isn’t He Beautiful” and Amy Grant sings about “love that circles around us like the gifts around our tree.” Polar experiences whisper "I Believe!"

Celebrating and decorating with love, singing and accessorizing with enthusiasm, and keeping God’s greatest Gift as the centerpiece of the season offers opportunity to witness astounding beauty in daily life throughout the Christmas season.

So, if there is anything ugly in 2017 Christmas, let it be accidental.  

Life Dictates How and When to Downsize

What is "downsizing?"
 - Letting your real life dictate your living area and storage space. Downsizing progress becomes obvious during the weeks before Christmas.

1. Downsizing has begun when Christmas accoutrements are missing, when red and green storage boxes are reduced to 3 labeled boxes, when they are emptied twice, when those green chargers are lost forever. Downsizing is moving right along when sets of red chargers take center stage, sets that were in the pantry, and no one knows the green ones are gone.

2. Downsizing is underway when certain Christmas placemats are missing, when sixteen placemats in various motifs are unaccounted for, when a brainstorm signals where four favorite placemats are located, and when 4 similar placemats in same fabric are found in a highly unlikely place: Clearance aisle at TJMaxx.

3. Downsizing calms when wrapping paper and ribbon are in plentiful supply. Hidden away under the bed in a red and green wrapping paper container are four rolls of coordinating Christmas paper and five rolls of wired ribbon. No wrapping paper anywhere else, no bows in dresser drawers, no tissue paper stuffed away in a box labeled 'tissue paper.'

4. Downsizing is fun when the baking and cooking essentials of the season are readily available and it's not necessary to unload the pantry to find and use them.

Step 1 in the downsizing process has been accomplished. Proof: when it's a challenge to find 'white elephant' gifts once stashed away on multiple closet shelves.

The Next Step: As Marni Jameson, Arkansas Dem-Gaz columnist and author of Downsizing the Family Home, said, "Life is not supposed to be a snowball of stuff that keeps growing as it rolls along."

She has two rules that struck a chord with me:
     1. Do not be a storage facility for your children or parents. If you are 65 and still have your son's Cub Scout uniform, you have issues.

     2. Those who have aging or deceased parents are not responsible for being the family museum.

I am challenged to move toward Step 2 in the Downsizing process.