#12 of Santa’s 12 tips for celebrating the holidays – Toast Yourself for Living Through the Past Year– Toast yourself for living through one of the worst economic years in our history.
Toast Yourself for Living Through the Past Year
Whatever your spiritual tradition, may it be colorful, fun, and filled with goodness.
Number #4 in Santa’s Tips for Celebrating Christmas is- Go on Vacation – Ok, so this idea may be far from traditional, but sometimes you might just need to use the holiday season as an opportunity to take a much needed vacation. Even if Christmas is about family, sometimes one needs a break from family. Going away provides just such an excuse.
I spent the week before Halloween carving pumpkins with my adult children. These fall fruits gave us a contemptuous cat, glimmering ghosts and a Buffalo Bills football mascot. Our driveway was alight with jack-o-lantern luminaries.
This weekend, for the first time in six years, we hosted Thanksgiving in our home. Twenty-three of my favorite people joined us for a day of games, gorging, and grace. Preceding this day, my kids and I shopped for colorful tableware, and spent hours sculpting pumpkins and pilgrim hatted turkeys which served as place setting holders. I don’t think I can remember having more fun anticipating a holiday.
My daughter, son and his girlfriend are here for a few more days over the Thanksgiving holiday. My Tracy set up our Christmas village and funky ceramic nativity scene to the tune of Kenny G’s Christmas album. This will be the first time in many years my kids are home long enough to pile into the SUV for our annual pilgrimage in search of the perfect Frasier fir. My husband and I are typically the two responsible for performing these holiday functions.
The cycle of life dictates that our kids grow up, leave home, and develop their own traditions and rituals. My son is headed to make his way in Chicago; my daughter has been a resident of Baltimore for seven years. This Thanksgiving, my heart has been filled with gratitude at this increasingly rare opportunity to share in these holiday rituals with the people I love most in the world.
I’m so honored and thrilled with the responses I’ve had from yoga studios and students to my “Om…for the Holidays” cards and products. Thank you so much and don’t forget to “om” your way through the holidays.
Christmas is approaching. It’s déj vu all over again as we face the prospect of endless shopping trips for perfect presents and food for feasts. We will make the annual pilgrimage to our attics, climbing rickety ladders retrieving ornaments, strands of burned out lights, and ceramic Santas. Garland and gifts gradually take over guest rooms. We will watch Miracle on 34th Street for the 34th time up to our elbows in cookie dough and wrapping paper. We often spend money we don’t have in pursuit of an ideal nestled into our memories leftover from Christmases past. Now, let me be quick to add, I LOVE CHRISTMAS. When I contemplated converting to Judaism in my former marriage, I was perfectly willing to celebrate Rosh Hashanah and spend the day fasting in quiet contemplation on Yom Kippur. However, giving up Christmas was out of the question. But, this year, why not try envisioning a different kind of holiday, one that might not feel as harried. Perhaps we just need a reminder to help us escape from the stress and schedules and re-discover the playful side of this colorful holiday.
“Santa’s 12 Tips for an Ideal Christmas” can help serve as that reminder. Go to www.idealizms.com to check out these Christmas cards with tips from Santa to help make the holiday season more enjoyable. Cards such as, “Breathe” features Santa seated in a lotus position on a yoga matt, and “Color Your Christmas” with Santa draped in colorful Christmas lights, are designed to inspire your holiday season. Interior reads, “Hope Your Holiday is Ideal”.
I am really excited to be a part of a wonderful holiday catalog called the Spirit of the Season Catalog. This online catalog offers gifts in the following categories: art, inspiration, jewelry, books, and seasonal items like my “Santa’s 12 Tips for an Ideal Christmas” cards. Check it out at http://tinyurl.com/yeja516
Be Brave. Lose the Beige 