Ten Non-traditional Traditions: A Christmas Post

A Christmas Post      

It's December here on Shaffners' Mountain.
The wrapping of the grandgirls' presents was done months ago
and they were shipped to the other side of the world.
We will FaceTime the unwrapping,
thankful for this aspect of technology.
With no wrapping duties,
we thought we'd use the extra time
to share ten non-traditional ways that we celebrate Christmas:


1. Write the year's highlights on an ornament.

Each year,
Den plays John Denver's Christmas album
and gives advice from the couch
while I hang lights and ornaments.
This process can take a long time,
as for years we have judged an ornament's worth
by the ability to write on it with a fine-tipped Sharpie marker.
The year's events are recorded on that year's ornament.
We reread the family highlights on the ornaments
on tree decorating night...
births,
first wiggly teeth,
two-wheelers conquered,
dogs lost,
roles in plays,
college acceptances,
marriages...
The cycle starts again with grandchildren.
The older we get,
the longer it takes
as the ornament number increases.
The print also gets smaller.

1989- Paul loses his first tooth, Luke dresses himself, Den gets chiggers, Pap has a bypass

1995- Luke stars as the Big Bad Wolf, Paul gets his first deer, Sue sings with Red Grammer

2001- Luke babysits ferrets and gets Heeleys, Paul goes to the Dominican Republic alone, Den takes sabbatical to study C.S. Lewis

2. Write a Christmas newsletter, then illustrate it.
Our newsletter is usually started during Thanksgiving break.
We list memories that we are thankful for,
think of unique experiences that each family member has had,
try to present them in a semi-organized way,
then draw small illustrations.
Tech-savvy people would add photographs,
but I feel that
1. I am not tech savvy.
2. people may be impressed with my tiny cartoon drawings, or
3. people will feel much better about their own drawing skills after seeing mine.
It's similar to hearing Pierce Brosnan sing in Mamma Mia!
You appreciate his guts
and feel better about your own voice at the same time.
It's a win-win situation.

An alphabetical recap of our western RV tour

3. Decorate your vehicle for Christmas.
When December begins,
Den decorates our vehicles.
The jeep has a wreath on the grill,
magnetic lights on the sides,
and sports the added bonus
of a souvenir plate
from our trip to North Pole, Alaska.
"Got reindeer?"

Holly jolly jeeping

4. Wear a Christmas hat.
During December,
I wear a black fedora covered with Christmas pins
gathered year round from thrift stores.
Many people give sideways glances,
but the ones that make a comment
get their choice of a pin
and a blessing, like
"May your new year be blessed with health
and safety
and adventure
and peace
and may you be aware of the presence of God."
Warning:
Wearing so much metal on a hat
can get you moved
to the potential trouble maker line
at the United Nations.

Which pin would you pick?

5. Host a wreath-making party.
For the last two years,
we have provided assorted fresh greens and ribbons
and invited friends to bring wreath forms and wire
to assemble their own wreaths.
Needle-proof gloves are highly recommended.

Watch Sue's wreath making video here.

Wreath-making-- a great way to spend the first Sunday in December

6. Visit your local children's library.
Just like Christmas is not just for kids,
neither are children's books.
Visit your local library
and read children's books to your grownup self.
May we recommend
Peter Spier's Christmas! by Peter Spier,
The Biggest, Best Snowman by Margery Cuyler,
and especially How Little Porcupine Played Christmas by Joseph Slate.
Its phrase "You are the light of my life"
has become a part of the family.
The pseudo-children's book
Father Christmas: The Truth by Gregoire Solotareff
is also a slightly bizarre delight.
For Sue, anyway.

ostrich: in Africa, where it is far too hot for reindeer, Father Christmas has to ride an ostrich. He always feels rather nervous about it. So does the ostrich.

plate: all the elves are envious of Father Christmas's plate. Theirs are much smaller.

7. Go to a children's program...
even if you don't know any of the kids.
Not feeling the season yet?
Go to a children's Christmas presentation,
the local theater's kid production of Elf
or How the Grinch Stole Christmas.
Our elementary school program this year had wonderful harmonies
and recognizable band numbers
and a funny song about ugly Christmas sweaters
and a break-dancing Rudolph.
You don't have to be a relative to attend school performances,
you just sign in for security purposes.
Friends come to see my first graders put on A Christmas Carol every year;
"Bah! Humbug!"
and "God bless us, every one!"
coming from small smiles with missing teeth
are especially memorable.
One of my favorite characters was a belligerent Ghost of Christmas Past--
"Ebenezer! Think about what you done!"
And almost any church's nativity play has energetic shepherds
and wise men
and angels
to tell the story of the incarnation
when God became human,
became a child with burps
and tears
and coughs.
Take your tissues.

Tiny Tim with tiny cane. God bless us, every one!

8. Spend a dollar to dress festively.
When you venture out,
looking festive is recommended.
This can be accomplished
by first making a trip to the dollar store
to buy plastic ornaments to attach to your earrings
or shoes
or coat zipper
and plastic holly to tuck behind your ear.
(Real holly hurts when you wear it. Trust me.)
Use Will Hillenbrand's illustrations
in The Biggest Best Snowman
as your inspiration.
You may want to keep in mind our son's advice, though:
There is a fine line between wacky and tacky.

Love Big Sarah's style

Plastic bulbs and tiny lights

Plastic bulbs that sway when you walk. Better than your neck swaying

Just about anything can be added to hoop earrings

9. Stay home and watch a Christmas show.
Don't want to venture out?
Eat some Christmas cookies
and watch The Snowman
or A Charlie Brown Christmas.
"Ah," you think,
"That is very traditional."
But did you ever catch Linus's drop-the-blanket moment?
We just became aware of it last year.
Linus recites Luke's Christmas passage
and he drops his blanket,
his well-loved security,
when he quotes "Fear not."
Watch it here.

(Don't eat my cookies. Had a little possum trouble this year.
Read that story here.)

"Fear not..."

10. Read the Christmas story outdoors.
The same Milky Way
and Pleiades
and Orion
that sparkle on crisp, clear nights
served as the backdrop
for angel song and the proclamation
"Don't be afraid!
I bring you good news of great joy for everyone!
The Saviour--
yes, the Messiah, the Lord--
has been born tonight in Bethlehem,
the city of David."
Bundle up
and read Luke 2:1-20 under the ancient skies.
Raise your eyes
and your voice
to the Lord of Heaven and Earth.
Immanuel.
Our GOD is with us,
and if GOD is with us,
who can be against us?

Amen.

To hear Michael Card sing "Immanuel"
click here. 

I've discovered Pinterest

It's been quite awhile since I've blogged!
This summer during our time in Montana,
my cousin's wife Tangie started me on Pinterest.
Stage one of Pinterest
is spend LOTS of time scrolling down and down and down....
I do it while Den is watching a movie so I can call it "multitasking."
Stage two of Pinterest
is wanting to share your own ideas.
Since clicking on ideas often leads to a website or blog,
this blog is where I will put my ideas.

It seems quite odd to be talking about Christmas in August.
but to get the ideas out in time to be used,
I guess this is the way it's done.
Besides, "Oh come, let us adore Him!"
and "Let Earth receive her King!"
are great thoughts any time of year.

I am a dedicated, weekly Goodwill shopper.
When I find interesting
Christmas pins for under a dollar,
I buy them
and pin them on an old hat,

and when Advent season comes,
I start wearing the hat.
Along with the eye rolls
I get some interested or
amused looks from people
and sometimes they lead to conversations.
I then offer them
a pin of their choice.
If they choose one,
I ask their name
and wish them a Merry Christmas.
I write their name on a list in my car
and as I drive around in December,
I pray for my "pin people."
(Note: not recommended for
wearing to the United Nations.
The metal detector there doesn't like it.)




Den and I also decorate the vehicles for Christmas.
Den's jeep
and my ancient Volvo Gilda
both wear wreaths on their front grills,

and Gilda also wears a jaunty sprig of holly
on her back windshield wiper.
The holly works especially well,
as the wiper is broken,
along with the tape deck,
the trim on the door,
the back speaker cover,
the latch that secures the back seat,
the front seat heaters....
Thankfully she still passes inspection.








Another decoration that Gilda wears all year long is her quotes.
Since her paint and the metal under the paint
are the same color,
her cancer isn't immediately evident,
but she is just tacky enough
that writing favorite quotes--
scriptures,
the Irish blessing,
Robert Frost,
Jim Elliot,
C.S. Lewis,
Groucho Marx--
above and below her windows
seems like a creative rather than a destructive idea.
Sharpie marker works well.




Various species of greenery from the mountain
become Christmas wreaths for the driveway
and the garage
and the barn,
and extra branches are pushed into the leftover soil in the window boxes
or tied in bunches for the front door
or the pass through.
They're not really Christmas decorations,
they're winter decorations,
and they stay up 'til Valentines Day,
at which time we start looking expectantly for bluebirds and robins
and plant our seeds for summer on the south porch windowsills.








Our Christmas tree ornaments
help us relive the past years.
Each year we choose ornaments
that have a flat surface
on which we write significant events of the year,
one for each child
and one for Den and me to keep.
As the boys decorated the tree,
they relived their childhoods.

Paul's ornaments now hang on his own tree,
and Luke's provide a way to share his past with friends.



 We use old toys from our family's childhoods to decorate the shelf above the woodstove.

I collect moose(s?!)

that are really Hallmark reindeer--
less than a dollar at Goodwill
or yard sales
or Deseret Industries
when I can find them.
I name them for someone
significant
at the time
(Jack is for Uncle Jack
who was there on our DI trip)
and write their names
on their butt tags.
At Christmas
they sit on the stairs
with other old toys.
Granddaughter Anna
has fun deciding
which moose
will play with which toy.













The boys' mouse house
 also gets decorated
at Christmastime.
(It's NOT a dollhouse;
it belonged to the boys
who used army guys
and mice,
not dolls,
and stacked the furniture
against the doors
and windows
to keep out the bad guys.)
The stockings are
hung by the chimney
with care,
and not a creature is stirring,
not even a mouse.






Scrabble tiles
are another great Goodwill find.
I use them on trays in my classroom
for spelling practice
and in the hall outside my classroom
for passing students
to do an unscramble-the-word activity.
I put an object,
often something from nature,
on the round table outside my door
and mix the scrabble tiles
that spell the name of the item.













I started using Scrabble tiles
in the upstairs bathroom
to write messages to family
or guests
after seeing Groundhog Ben's
cool breakfast room
with Scrabble tiles on the top of his wainscoting.



















I also use Scrabble tiles
to decorate the table at family gatherings.
This is our Easter table,

with Scrabble tiles
and flowers
and my grandma Maud's ceramic people.
I miss my grandma,
and emulate her in my own grandmothering.
What would Maud do?




My dining room table used to belong to Maud.

Before that, it was the Davenport family's laundry table.
and before that--
hmmm.
I don't know.
Mental note to call Davenports!
 I saw an article in Reader's Digest years ago
that told of a college prof
(sorry, forgot who you are)
who had dinner guests sign
the underside of his dining table.
We've tried to do that
and keep a sharpie in the dining room

for that specific purpose
but at least half the people
have left without signing
because we've forgotten to ask them.
Perhaps that's a mixed blessing
as we've run out of room for names
on the main table
and now alternate the table leaves used.






I'm sure there are more Pinterest ideas around here,
but I'm also currently working on writing a song
for a Penn State competition.
Seven or eight winners will be critiqued by Paul Stookey
(for the two people who don't know who that is,
think "Peter, Paul, and Mary")
and one winner will sing in a concert with him in September.
I'm a great loser,
but I'm hoping to be an enthusiastic winner.
I'll let you know how that turns out.

Blessings,
Sue