I think we beat the stores to Christmas this year. Yes, we celebrated Christmas on Friday night, October 11. It was lovely. Played the soundtrack from "Elf," opened gifts, ate lots and lots of food, and had a great time of gathering together.
Sound a bit early? Sure, but we have some wonderful friends from the Dassel, Minnesota area, (our previous home), who come up every fall and spend a weekend with us. Since we do not see them during the holiday season, we have Christmas. I love it.
This year I received a Whatchamacallit candy bar, a Lindt chocolate bar, a huge bag of Nacho Cheese Doritos, and a few other tidbits. Junk food is a treat for me and my friends know it. They spoil me at Christmastime.
My favorite gift, however, was the fellowship of friends. It seems during this busy time for my family, we don't have enough time to visit friends and just have fun. Laugh. Joke. Eat. Fun.
One of the reasons I love this extra-early Christmas celebration is because we avoid the hectic, the rush, the cramming in of celebrations, the stress of getting the shopping done, and everything else we cram in between Thanksgiving and Christmas Day.
It's also enjoyable to shop for Christmas gifts betwixt the Halloween decorations. I feel somehow gratified to defy the commercialism that comes with any widely celebrated event by shopping for Christmas amid hollowed-out plastic pumpkin buckets and fuzzy bats hanging from elastic strings.
Don't get me wrong. I do love the actual Christmastime of year. The snow, the decorations, the caroling and the excitement of children. But my October Christmas celebration gives me a head start on reminding myself what the holiday is about anyway. It's a celebration of love. A holy day of recognizing God's greatest gift to the world: His Son. It is an everyday celebration. A January through December celebration.
I know Christmas Day is a bit off yet, but this year, I'm not going to spread out my celebrating, my festivities and my fun. I'm shopping for the "real" Christmas Day celebration the first weekend of November with some friends. Maybe that will be gratifying also, to shop amid the pilgrim hats and turkey decals.
At any rate, I love the October celebration of Christmas. For those of you on my shopping list, don't be surprised if I deliver a bright, red package in early November with a greeting of "Merry Christmas!"
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