Tis the season

I am not a big Christmas person. After my father died, the Christmas spirit was gone. It was not the same anymore.  At the age of 12 I spent 4 weekends in a row in overcrowded shops on my own in order to find Christmas gifts. I think during this time I started hating Christmas. As a teenager I always dreamt that I could escape it all and simply could spent Christmas with friends. I dreamt we would cook, eat and drink together. We'd play some games, listen to some great music and just enjoy each other, instead of staying at home doing the usual Christmas stuff. Well, I am almost at an age where I can do this now. These days there is even more overdosis of everything at Christmas, starting with the decoration of houses right after Thanksgiving.  I think I am with the anonymous writer of a letter to his neighbors in Michigan, who describes the phenomenon as a pagan ritual.

A little bit of Christmas decoration is OK, though. I use the Christmas light chains to decorate my windows inside, and I actually use them all year round. It gives my house a great festivitive character - I love it. I also made peace with the Christmas shopping burden, I order almost everything online. In this respect, great times we are living in. This year I was looking for some new Christmas decoration. I replaced some of the China-made Christmas crap with a lovely pyramid, bought and made in Germany. I also found a Charlie Brown Christmas tree in the shops. Just the type of Christmas tree I really like. Although as a child I have seen the peanuts on TV, I couldn't remember the special 'A Charlie Brown Christmas'. I looked it up on Amazon, when I ordered the DVD. It was highly recommended for Christmas by some parents. They said it is a real must to watch with the children to teach them what Christmas is really about. So this Christmas I will watch the Charlie Brown Christmas story with my kids. We will cook, eat and drink together. We'll play some games and listen to some great music and just enjoy each other. Merry Christmas!