Christmas Season Contemplations
The Christmas Pickle.
If your family is anything like mine, the holidays are steeped in tradition. Some things don’t change from generations past, and sometimes they aren’t meant to.
Yet, I must consider the fact that we humans change and grow during the other 11 months of the year, and I wonder how these changes – whether subtle or monumental – effect how we celebrate the holidays. When are we meant to integrate our new-found knowledge, deepened values, and general belief system into time-steeped traditions? What I’ve noticed, for myself, is that some things lend themselves to being tinkered with, while some things are simply magical as they are.
Christmas Baking ~ this is not the time to try a new paleo Shortbread recipe or gluten-free dairy-free Cherry Cake. When it comes to Christmas baking, I like to keep things as intended (i.e. butter, flour, sugar). My Mom and I have a wide array of recipes that we bake year-to-year and the tradition invokes memories of my grandmother, while my Mom shares fun details about Christmas seasons from before I was born. Some of these recipes have been in the family for nearly 100 years! Oh and they taste dammmn good! These aren’t just recipes; to me, they’re history and I respect that. I will definitely be keeping them in the family, no matter my dietary preferences.
Gift-Giving ~ I found myself going near-crazy over finding a gift for one of our families annual traditions – the Christmas Pickle. Basically this involves one family member hiding a pickle ornament somewhere in the Christmas tree, and whomever finds it wins a prize. I won the prize last year (a $50 GC to the BC Liquor Store – thanks bro) so that means this year I hide the pickle and subsequently supply the prize. For days and days I thought on it and I could not come up with something that would be suitable for a Mom-Dad-Brother collaboration, and I wasn’t about to follow in my brothers footsteps (although the GC was indeed put to good use). I thought, “This is crazy. I’m wracking my brain trying to find a way to spend $50 on a crowd-pleasing gift just ‘cuz I’m supposed to’, and for people that say they don’t need anything.” Alas, charitable giving came to mind and I remembered CanadaHelps.org. They help you locate a slew of Canadian Charities and make gift giving easy. So, I donated funds to a close-to-home charity in the Hawkins’ family name. To me, that is a gift worth giving, and I hope the pickle winner agrees!
Family & Friends – enjoy every person “at the table” this holiday season because one thing is certain: as the years progress, the people you share Christmas with will change. While girlfriends, boyfriends, husbands, wives and children enter the picture, people will also leave. All I’m saying is, enjoy and appreciate the family & friends you spend the holidays with this year, because, as far from the truth as it may seem, nothing lasts forever (except Christmas Baking traditions, of course!).
Wishing you a Happy Holidays, naturally 🙂
Sarah Hawkins, R.H.N.
Hawkins Holistic 