We can make holidays more special by regarding life as rare and miraculous. For some of you, you must clear your head of too much screen time, task, and toils of this overwhelming time of year.
You may listen to Tchaikovsky, Bach, Elvis, Bing Crosby, Lennon/McCartney, and/or Mariah Carey, hip hop, Latin-laced songs, or an almost Try on some new, but always enjoy the old familiar faves. Make a redundant jingle or video into an inside joke you play and laugh at each year.
We are cheered by watching old movie favorites, singing songs, and sharing stories. Best of all is to make your own music; percussion with pots and pans, simple kazoos, and even tone deaf voices.
In a real way, traditions can be considered a form of recycling. We repeat with the same sorts of substances, foods, materials, and behaviors that emerge just once per year.
Holidays can also be overwhelming, or even depressing, but there are ways to address this by giving yourself the gift of being well-balanced. Stress and overwork are common. In our home we have rituals that enforce the balance rules: no gift wrap, avoid deforestation products, reduce plastic, shop second hand when possible, create home made gifts, and decor.
We utilize annually recycled decor that splashes gold and green over everything. It doesn’t get old if you use it in various configurations, add and subtract some greenery and placements.
I have ornaments from before Great, Great grandmother’s time. And, some ornaments from special trips. Each piece of decor should have meaning beyond just being shiny and new.
It is not hard to find pride and joy in buying only needed, and cherished items for the whole tinsel time. One tradition that avoids tags, wrapping, and extra work is to designate colors: My spouse gets gold pasteboard boxes. I get green ones. We pre-wrapped them years ago. And, they nest together in storage. By avoiding paper, plastic, and waste we feel this tradition is more aligned with loving and honoring the spirit of Christmas which is sharing all earthly things.
For humanity, after all, our rarest find in the universe is a bauble of the Pale Blue Dot that hangs in heaven like an angel singing. Earth is a Christmas ornament hung among the sacred stars.
Stars are celebrated this time of year for good reason; light itself is more than just a metaphor that gives inspiration and hope. Suns — and there are many — create all by turning photons into life itself.
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Mental and physical health
Especially now, many people understand that over-consumption and commercialization of holidays is not what is best about them. Simple, and low cost traditions can ground us whenever we feel cynical.
Christmas comes with lots of entrenched expectations. Humans are vulnerable around holidays. You can express love to your fellow humans by expressing what you feel/want/ and expect with humility and kindness.
Initiate physical activities, dances, walks, caroling, games, whatever. Getting outside, especially, opens the senses. Once it becomes a tradition, you can tweak it anyway you like. We put out bird seed and peanut butter for a steady stream of every kind of critter in the back yard.
Even political views do not have to divide us. Friends and relations are just as vulnerable as you are, so just honor that humanity. It’s okay to not be jolly at times. It’s okay to politely express what ever comes up emotionally. Allow others to do the same.
Rituals make us human, they change over time, but the anchoring factor is that they will always pull us through together. Rituals are like religion itself, there are thousands of variations through time.
Social ties, bonds, couples and every sort of family, need their sacred rituals. It is what a social species requires for survival.
A family is not a group of people, but a dynamic flow of reciprocity in relationships. This includes our pets, plants, and food as well. Our habits, rituals, events, and repetition of these, create our kinship. Our annual rituals during the holidays act as a glue that holds us all together. Holiday habits lift our mood, and spread cheer.
It is only through relationships that we can thrive. We may trim the tree, lovingly prepare the food, light the candles, hang evergreens, holly, and ivy, listen to time-honored music, etc.because in going through these motions we recognize one another and honor the relationships.
Most people will find, even when a loved one is far away or passed on, that they perform the reminding rituals to honor the departed one, and they feel the bond of love once more.
All of the creation being recognized and included gives us such traditions. Began as a pagan recognition of returning light, and enduring green, holly, ivy, and evergreens, were adapted into Christian traditions that made Christmas the biggest holiday of the year.
Holly leaves and red berries, which already were established as a return of light, spring, and thorny green, also came to signify the blood of Christ and everlasting life. But any greenery, even just seen on a walk outdoors, can serve this purpose.
Adapting continuing generations of such traditions allows us to honor the many ways we can co-exist with both secular and religious respect.
For Humanities’ survival we have to hear what they hear, so to speak.
It’s important for you to create and honor rituals and family time in whatever ways you grow your traditions. In Tudor times, fasting preceded the twelve days of Christmas feasting. Going vegan, vegetarian, or flexitarian can put a whole new twist on food that is better for your budget and joy to world.
Peace on Earth and goodwill to humankind begin with peace of mind and heart, this requires coexistence with all living beings.
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Traditions throughout history are clung to, but at some point, they drop away. Just ask Zeus, or the baby Jesus, at Saturnalia.
Roman rule has also changed several times over 2,000 years. Eventually even all are rituals morph into new ones.
But some things never change. You need long talks and walks. You need laughter and kindness. You need the light in darkness, the greenery of Earth, and the shiny moon and stars.
It is the best way to celebrate — not just one bright star in the night — but our unique and life-giving human nature belonging to all of nature.
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This post was previously published on medium.com.
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Photo credit: Alda González-Cuevas on Unsplash
