With the lockdowns and illnesses, supply chain changes and resulting inflation, has anything changed in your Christmas traditions?

During 2020 the last of our kids moved out (L is back though as mortgages in Utah are less than rent in California) and we scaled back the decorating as no one would be coming to visit the house.

I moved from 3 trees visible from the street to a single tree. The hardest of the old trees to give up was the one that had graced my father’s company lobby and my house for 20+ years but let’s face it, it was showing it’s age. The stand had broken and it never really fit right anyway so the tree always leaned to one side or the other but oddly it was a happy connection to my extended family. I guess that really sums up my family relationship. My happy memories are working for my father. Sadly, his memory is not that I was an integral part of the family business but he was “helping me” by letting me have a secretarial job. For those that don’t know, I never was a secretary. When I explained my week to the MBA entrance board they said that what I did was director level at least and more accurately described as a VP of operations.

But I digress. In 2020 we went to a single tree and it was white – and then after Christmas we took off the ornaments and put on New Years decorations (including a Hat, blower noisemakers and a Welcome 2021 banner). February was Valentines, March – shamrocks and green tinsel for St. Patricks Day. April was Easter, Mother’s Day in May covered it in flowers. July was Red, white and blue, followed by pencils, crayons and rulers for back to school and then my stitched Halloween ornaments.

Following Halloween it was donated to the thrift store so we could make space for a genuine Stickley couch that we got at a bargain price. And we got a tiny tree for 2021. This year the 3 foot tree is back sitting on the chess table. And on Dec 18 it’s the only decoration besides my Mirabilia Christmas Elf. That’s right, I haven’t gotten out the boxes of tinsel and wrapping, of bells and the giant Santa poster, there is no garland on my stair rails.

I’m also seeing less of the holiday baking pictures on my social media. Did we all switch from Instagram and Facebook to somewhere else? I’m not a TikTok fan and it’s actually not suggested based on my new job in Cybersecurity. Or are people not baking this year?

I have had more Christmas parties this year than in the last two years but that’s because my new employer had a party and my old employer didn’t believe in spending money on holiday parties (waste of tax dollars). And with DH volunteering, we were invited to a volunteer appreciation party (with a drawing for gifts). If there are any extended family parties this year, I haven’t been invited to them. But if it’s true to form, some evening soon I’ll get a phone call asking, “Why aren’t you here?” To which the canned response is “Where is here and when did you tell me about it?” Then I will be told the location where I’m supposed to be and the event (that I was also not invited to) where plans were made and everyone notified by iPhone. (I’m an Android user and for some reason never get the group texts sent by iMessage).

For those thinking I sound really grinch and should get out and do things for other people. Yes, I probably should. That would maybe help me get more in the Christmas spirit. But today, I’ve sat in the front room working on a piece I’ve barely stitched on all year and listened to Christmas music in order to catch the feeling and I’m just not in the mood to leave the house at all. Maybe that’s the biggest change for me, after a year of hunkering down at home, I still haven’t figured out how to restart my extrovert. This ambivert is reveling in the solitude of just those close to me around. I know I would probably be energized by groups of people but it sounds like so much work to put on actual clothes instead of sweats and pajama pants.

Maybe I’ll just tuck into a Hallmark movie or a good Christmas book instead?