Are You Ready for Christmas?

“Are you ready for Christmas yet?” If I heard that question once, I have heard it a thousand times in the last two weeks. We all hear it every year and it always conjures up images of shopping in noisy, busy malls filled with reels and reels of Christmas music and racks and shelves of abundance. Other images are of presents to be wrapped and cards to be addressed or e-sent, cluttered living rooms, Christmas trees and grocery shopping filling up the to-do lists. Those days are long gone. Lacking the patter of little feet - whether grandchildren or grand-dogs - shopping has dwindled and cards are practically non-existent. Checking the mail for Christmas cards is not longer a daily event. Admittedly, I have seldom written the traditional, for some, Christmas letter. My traditions, if one can call them that, are limited.

I have been an employee of some health care system for most of my adult life and many Christmas Eve and Day was spent at my place of employment. I am not alone in that part of life. Many employees, not just health care workers, but police, firemen and paramedics are only a few folks away from their families and at their places of employment. Finding spaces to have a bit of the flavour of Christmas, without feeling burned out from working, and shopping, and wrapping and…….well, you get the picture.

So, am I ready for Christmas? Yes, I do believe I am. Sunday I spent the day cooking my turkey, gravy and an array of vegetables. (I didn’t make dessert as desserts and chocolates are in abundance at work). Staff will be having a pot-luck supper at work on Christmas Eve. My contribution? An apple crisp with cranberries, caramels and chocolate chips. On Christmas Day, after work I am taking roasted potatoes and carrots with rosemary out to supper at a friend’s house. And the usual consequence of Christmas dinner? Leftovers for so many dishes that I love, including my little ‘frozen dinners’.

There are so many folks out there unable, for a host of reasons, to have an enjoyable Christmas or to be close to even one family member. Getting ready for Christmas is the farthest thing from their minds, but a tattered fragment of Christmas spirit may have a tiny corner of their hearts. Those of us that are scheduled to work at Christmas can maybe create a bit of Christmas inside the environment of our work places. And if there is great sadness or tragedy, some support and kindness where there may be none available.

“A lovely thing about Christmas is that it’s compulsory, 

like a thunderstorm, and we all go through it together.”

~ Garrison Keillow