I Cancelled Christmas

Rusty Christmas tree ornaments accompanied by rusty tin can plant pot.

Christmas is all over the place this year, isn't it? Pandemic outbreaks everywhere are keeping celebrations muted in some places, while others go all out to try and put a terrible year behind them. Me, I kinda sorta cancelled Christmas. This is not due to covid restrictions. Here in Tasmania we are very lucky to still have a covid-free community. I am tuckered out, just as I am every Christmas, and a bit overwhelmed by Christmas expectations as I am every Christmas, and this year, for the first time, I just said No.

I said no to Christmas decorating, no to Christmas cooking, and no to our usual Christmas lunch with friends. Rosy is having Christmas with her boyfriend's family, and Paul and Red are grinchy Christmas hermits (Paul calls it the 'C' word. Do not speak its name) so I told my parents if they want to come to Christmas with us they can come up to Paul's for a sandwich. They are cool with that, so that is what we are planning to do.

I felt terribly bad about shafting our usual Christmas dinner, but I have lovely friends who were very nice about it. Since that difficult decision I have felt much better about Christmas, and even spent three minutes decorating a stick with baubles. Christmas tree = baubles on a stick. 

Our only other Christmas decorations are two small metal Christmas trees I bought fifteen years ago from the $2 shop. I quite liked them except they were too golden and glittery. I solved that problem by putting them on my outdoor potting bench when I took the decorations down last Christmas. A year in the rain has given them a truly rustic finish, and that was the extent of Christmas craft. I have been to exactly zero Christmas parties. Today I went to visit my parents and did some weeding for them, finishing it off with a nice cup of tea. That was an excellent Christmas week activity. Tomorrow I will host afternoon tea for Rosy and her boyfriend. When I say host, I will bring out the supermarket mince pies. Rosy is bringing fruit. We will have that in the garden because this is how the dining room table looks.

This is the result of a busy Christmas week - busy embroidering (not me), crocheting, reading, drinking tea. Which is, of course, what much of our life looks like, and that is one of the things about Christmas which has always bothered me. Christmas etiquette has us bustling all over the place, buying things, going to parties, visiting all and sundry, and that's nice if you like that sort of thing. I don't, and here I am, forty nine and finally able to admit it. I want Christmas to be about home, and a little peace and quiet..

Yes, I am the Grinch, and I am loving it. Maybe you are spending Christmas a little differently this year, due to all sorts of reasons. Maybe you are hating it, maybe you are loving it. Maybe you are gathering all your clan and neighbours and friends from far and wide, maybe you are home alone. Tell us all how Christmas is for you in this very peculiar year.