It seems like we’re dropping certain holiday traditions
As I type this, I am looking at six Christmas cards my daughter Nikki and Brenna have displayed on an ornamental Christmas tree card holder in my office at home. The cards are from thoughtful families who have forgone the temptation of sending holiday greetings via social media.
I know it’s old-fashioned, but like an early Christmas present, each card we opened this year is done so with a real sense of anticipation. Each has created a gleeful holiday connection to the sender.
When we were kids, displaying Christmas cards used to be an art form in our small home in southeast Bakersfield. My sisters, Rachel, Espie and Nancy, were usually the ones to hang, tape or pin them throughout the living room, hallway and doors. And each year, the value of our family seemed to be figuratively measured by how many Christmas cards we received.
I know it takes time to make your Christmas card mailing list, purchase the cards, sign each one individually, add glitter to the inside of the envelope (so when opened, glitter splatters everywhere), purchase expensive stamps, lick the envelopes and mail them all. It is a minimum six-step process. Whereas on social media, one click of the send button, and you have impersonally (some might say) delivered your card to your entire family and friends.
Thank you to the families from whom we have received Christmas cards. Hopefully we will still receive more this year. I know sending on social media is more efficient, but believe me, most people appreciate opening the envelope, having glitter splatter everywhere and physically holding your card in their hands. I know my family really enjoys it.
Christmas Tree hunting: The diminishing selection of Christmas tree lots is another sign of our changing times. Our tradition is the Sunday after Thanksgiving, my children and grandchildren all go Christmas tree hunting.
An hour before my family began its search, I was assigned to be the lone scout who combs the four corners of Bakersfield looking for a tree lot with an abundant selection.
I bet someone has taken the actual count, but I would guess the number of Christmas tree lots is half of what it was last year. I was very disappointed,
saddened and frustrated.
As USA Today reported, “at face value, the perennial competition between artificial trees and the real deal may lean in favor of the phony, since weakening supply, rising costs and changing consumer behavior all work against Mother Nature’s evergreens.”
All 11 of my kids and grandchildren went looking this year, measuring height, width and fullness of prospective trees. Running through the aisle of trees during a cold foggy day looking for our Christmas tree is our family tradition. I don’t ever want to change.
It’s sort of a democracy whenever we think we have found the perfect tree for our entryway. We all get a vote. Each year my vote counts less and less, and my grandchildrens’ votes count double what they were worth the previous year.
We did find the perfect tree but, really, having my kids and grandchildren be an important part of the Christmas tree hunting tradition makes it even more perfect and memorable.
Giving spirit of my readers: I recently wrote about my new friends Ralph and Doreen Steele, who I met while they were waiting at a bus stop at Yokuts Park after a cancer-fighting fundraising event. I offered them a ride home.
Ralph is a cancer survivor who uses a walker. He and his wife use public transportation as their only means of getting around town. I noted that Ralph owns a vehicle but it’s undrivable at the moment — it needs a brake job and electrical repair. Several of my readers emailed me to offer to pay for the repair of their car. I called Ralph and Doreen to give them the great news.
Ralph appreciated all the help offered but asked that my readers donated to help cancer patients instead. “It’s more important to help cancer patients than it is to fix my car,” said Ralph.
Ralph is my new hero.
Thank you to my readers for your offer to help. As Ralph and Doreen expressed to me, it was greatly appreciated.