A Simple Christmas

If you believe television and movies, Christmas is a super hectic time of year where the struggles to make a perfect holiday rarely live up to expectations. In my family, however, we have no such delusions of grandeur. Instead, when we entertain our immediate family, we keep things simple.

While my family is responsible for the turkey, rolls, and pies, this isn't a big hassle because everyone who comes for dinner brings a dish to add to the meal. One aunt brings green bean casserole, while another brings macaroni and cheese, and an uncle will prepare appetizers like sausage balls and sugar cookies. Obviously, this is decided well in advance so as to prevent such catastrophe as a dinner consisting of turkey and four different kinds of pie! Everyone loves the potluck method because every household contributes, while no one is bitter from carrying the brunt of the dinner "burden".

Decorations used to be a pretty sparse affair (tree only) until a couple of years ago when my brother bought several boxes of Christmas lights at an after-Christmas sale. Now, in addition to the tree with its family ornaments and glass balls, we add lights not just to it but to a few of the walls as well. We keep them in place with tape and create fun patterns look great once we settle the longstanding battle of whether to keep the lights bright or let them twinkle. Any cards we've received during the holiday season will be strung up and hung from the doorways (a nice touch, though unpleasant for certain tall family members!) and sometimes a young cousin will contribute a red and green paper chain that they've made while sitting around the house on school vacation.

All of this takes place on Christmas Eve, our time not just to get together, but to open presents as well. Annoyed not just at the commercialization of Christmas, but at rising prices in general, several years ago my mother thought of a great way for us to personalize our gifts. Instead of buying several rolls of flimsy wrapping paper for several dollars apiece, we now brown bag our presents and collect paper bags from stores and have bought inexpensive lengths of it online. After we've wrapped our presents in the drab covering, we personalize them with paint, ink stamps, ribbons, and bows in our favorite Christmas colors. Some of our relatives have latched on to the idea and it's always fun seeing the "masterpieces" they wrap for us every year!

We don't usually have set forms of entertainment or games to play when my family celebrates the holidays. Instead, I'm in charge of creating a great Christmas playlist for my ipod and it creates a nice atmosphere and background noise as we all just enjoy talking to and visiting with each other. Sometimes the adults play cards, while the younger ones are entranced by the multitude of Christmas specials either on tv or dvd.

We might have a simple Christmas, but it's always memorable!