Slow Christmas

"All the Whos down in Whoville, they sang just the same."

You did it! You kept Christmas slow this year.  Before you go enjoy it with your family and friends, I want you to bask for a moment in the glow of your creativity and warmth. You made Slow Christmas a success:  over 6,000 people visited the website and the Facebook page this year, and it wasn’t to hear me pontificating.

You shared your ideas, your childhood memories, and your vision of what Christmas should be.

You are Margaret Mead’s small group of thoughtful, committed citizens who will change the world.

You are also the best Christmas present I have ever received.

It would be impossible to capture them all, but here are a few of my favorites from you:

Slow Christmas experiences

“In Baltimore there is one street that does [lights] for everybody – 34th Street in Hampden. See http://www.christmasstreet.com/ When I lived in Baltimore it was a great Christmas tradition to take a stroll down 34th Street checking out all the different light displays. My favorite was the artist who made a tree out of hub caps.” – Jon, website

“Practically the only Christmas ritual I have anymore is to listen to the Choir of King’s College Cambridge perform its oft-imitated but never surpassed Festival of Lessons and Carols, broadcast on NPR every Christmas Eve at around noon. It is heavenly– for real.” – Eleanor, Facebook

“[White Christmas is] a classic to be sure, but my strongest memory associated with this film is the 10 year old me walking around my house singing ‘And LORD help the SISter who comes between me and my MAN!’” – Sarah, Facebook

Slow Christmas gifts

“I’ll join the cause! It’s near to my heart. Here’s one idea: don’t ever ever buy wrapping paper again. Use the comic pages in the newspaper, or use the regular sections of the paper and color, draw or collage on them. Since we’ll all be exchanging fewer presents, it won’t be much of a burden. And another idea: If you plan to give a gift certificate, tickets or something else in envelope, don’t use a store-bought envelope. Use a page from a glossy magazine to make the envelope. Cosmetic ads make great envelopes – there’s usually a lot of space on the face to write on if you fold them correctly.” – Gail, website

“I just saw a neat idea on a friend’s Facebook status: She and her husband only do stockings for each other for Christmas, no other big presents. I’m assuming they do presents for the kids, but what a great way to cut back without completely cutting out gifts all together.” – Karen, website

“For the past three years or so, my family and I have slowed things down for the holidaze. When I moved to DC traveling expenses became high. So we’ve cut back on gift giving and focused on what a blessing it is to “slow down” and spend time together. We all have such busy lives that it is a special occasion when we can spend time together…Voila! A Holiday Bake Party was born. The idea is to bake from scratch a large amount of baked-goods and invite your loved ones to your home to share them with you. After the feasting is over, pack-up festive take-home boxes of the “goods” for your guests to take home as a gift.” – Fernanda, Facebook

Slow Christmas with kids

“I started thinking about a less commercial Christmas a few years back when my husband and I were facing serious financial difficulty. But times got better and more spending and stuff started creeping back in. Then we had our first son 2 years ago, and it really forced me to reexamine how we were celebrating the holidays and what I wanted our kids (and us) to take away from this time of year. So we’re making presents for each other, and filling the rest of the space under the tree with a big basket of Christmas/winter-themed children’s books. We’ll be spending lots of time in PJs reading, making Christmas cookies, and watching our favorite Christmas movies…” - Emily, website

“A couple in our church told us how they control Christmas for their 3 year-old son. They give him just three Christmas presents, because, they explain to him, that is how many gifts the Christ child got. One of the gifts might be sort of large and extravagant, the “gold” gift, the others more modest, more reasonable. They can’t fully control what relatives might give, but they hope to constrain things by setting this example. They got this idea from someone in another church, they said. It seems an eminently sensible and focused way to deal with Christmas giving. There is a Scriptural basis, it focuses the child on the spiritual reason for the season, it provides a philosophical constraint on materialism that a kid can understand and identify with.” - Ron, website

I was reading picture book versions of the Laura Ingalls Wilder stories to my toddler.  The Christmas story is striking: each child was delighted with new red mittens and a big piece of striped peppermint candy. It was also Laura’s year to get a rag doll.  That’s it. Different expectations.  Time with family and special treats, that’s enough for a great Christmas. - Eden, Facebook [For a real treat, read all the Little House memories this inspired.]

A Feminist Slow Christmas

“Hear, hear! That’s what killed Christmas for me back in the 1970s–all those fraught gift decisions and extra decorating and entertaining and the stress of getting it all right on top of the normal responsibilities of job and family and home. Of course, I grew up reading my mother’s Ladies Home Journal and the odd Better Homes and Gardens and Family Circle in the 1950s. And my husband was conditioned to those rigid gender roles, too. Small wonder I recognized Martha Stewart as the last straw the minute she began showing us how to make-our-own-everything ten times fancier a few decades later. I headed for the nearest exit, throwing the Christmas baby out with the bath. Slowing Christmas down to a more manageable pace might be worth a try for this recovering Christmas-o-phobe. Thanks for the tips and words of encouragement!” – Sherrill, website

A Slow Food Christmas

“My Christmas dinner is going to be extra Slow this year. I’m making a traditional Mexican feast using recipes I just learned while studying Mexican cooking in Puebla, Mexico. I’ve always said that I was glad I wasn’t born a Mexican or Greek grandmother because though the foods are delicious, the preparation of these traditional foods takes forever!” – Meadow, website

“We’ll definitely try the baked eggs recipe. We’re huge sausage-making fans and have found that spinach is extremely easy to grow in the garden. We hope to keep our own hens next year, so we’ll have most of the ingredients close at hand.” – City Smallholder, website

“Oh, this fake-cookie baking thing makes me so sad! One of the greatest joys of my life these days is baking with my two-year-old son. The sensory experience of getting to taste a little bit of each of the ingredients, and the big-boy empowerment of getting to do the stirring (what a great job he did on this for our Thanksgiving pumpkin pie!) — he loves it all and is learning so much. This week he learned the word “recipe” and seems to get that the words in the cookbook are telling us how to make the goodies. I would not trade any of this for all the convenience in the world.” – Karen, Facebook

“Karen, your comment inspired me to make a pumpkin pie w/ my 2-yr-old today! Baking/cooking’s kinda high stress for me, so I usually have her play in the sink, color, or nap while I do any, w/ tiny bits of her “help” or spice smelling. The pie was a great starter project. Thanks!” – Eden, Facebook

Merry Slow Christmas, everyone, and thanks.  More to come before the New Year…