Hilary Moon Murphy

Bah Humbug?

I used to hate Christmas. I used to hate it a lot.

Christmas when I was growing up was always uniformly horrible. My family had this ideal of a "perfect Christmas" which was all surface and no substance. Every decoration had to be just so. Every person had to have just the right type of present -- and it had better be expensive, thank you very much. Christmas meant stress, gifts I never wanted, and deep-seated anger rising to the surface.

When I grew up, I left Christmas behind. I proudly wore my "Bah, Humbug!" button everywhere I went and arranged to spend my holidays as far from home as possible. On Christmas day, I'd either hide in my apartment and read a book, or spend the holiday with other people for whom it was no big deal -- like Hindus.

Andy changed all that for me. When he began dating me, he went on a campaign to make me enjoy Christmas again. I got invited to family gatherings with homemade decorations, lutheran church basement cuisine, and marathon sessions of Uno card playing. Nobody cared how expensive the gifts were, though people did put time and effort into choosing them. To my surprise, I enjoyed myself, and even looked forward to Christmas the following year.

This year, Andy and I are facing Christmas with not much money for gifts or other things. The six hundred dollars or so that we spend a month on daycare has left a real dent on our budget. But you know what? It really doesn't matter.

Three quarters of our Christmas shopping this year was done in May, at a number of massive yard sales around here. The rest was done in thrift shops and used bookstores. Andy and I spent several hours yesterday making Christmas cookies, wrapping presents, and listening to schmaltzy Christmas carols while Cassie bumped into us with her new (well new to her, anyway) push cart toy.

And you know what? I think this may be the best Christmas ever. Here's wishing all of you holiday cheer, no matter what flavor holiday you celebrate!

Hmm