DECEMBER 2011 About This Place


Wanted: A More Relaxing Holiday Season


By Lyn Widmyer I learned something very im-


portant from spending Christ- mas with my family in Chile last year: You don’t have to go crazy decorating for the holidays. The most elaborate holiday


décor we observed in Santiago was an occasional sign wish- ing us “Feliz Navidad.” My son put a few strands of tinsel on a house plant for our “arbol de Navidad.” Back home, I left all the boxes of holiday rega- lia and lights in the attic. Why bother with decorating when we would be out of the coun- try? Our only decorations were a handful of Christmas cards on the fireplace mantel. Let me tell you how relaxed


Wishing you a safe and blessed Christmas and Holiday Season


the holidays are without the compulsion to recreate the North Pole in my dining room and the Nativity scene (aug- mented by my collection of 15 angels) in the living room. Not having a tree meant the gazil- lion ornaments I have collected through the years remained nestled in their cardboard beds while visions of more free time danced in my head. December passed quite peacefully. I am going for the same state


of relaxation this year. I am de- termined to shed all the trap- pings of Christmas that cause


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too much stress. Figurines of elves, reindeer and snowmen, battered tree ornaments, the snow village that consists only of four structures because of the meltdown in the housing market and my interest in col- lecting them, the rocking chair with Santa that used to end- lessly play “Here comes Santa Claus” until I smashed the mu- sic box with a plastic reindeer, the fake tabletop Christmas trees . . . all will be exiled to the Land of Forgotten Ornamenta- tion.


After watching five seasons


of Antiques Road show, I have thought that perhaps some of the holiday paraphernalia I have been hoarding for years might be worth a small for- tune. Sadly, I have concluded I have nothing of value . . . unless the other 4 million people who bought the one-of-a-kind 1988 Land O’ Lakes Christmas orna- ment throw theirs away and mine becomes a rare piece of Americana. There is one Yuletide item


I will keep and display with pride. It is a cheap, yellow pic- ture frame, with “World’s Best Mom” painted on the frame. I remember the Christmas I re- ceived it. “I am so touched,”


I said to Nick and Molly, hand over heart and eyes misty with emotion. My teenage children looked at each other with quiz- zical expressions. This is be- cause they did not buy the pic- ture frame. I did. It was the only way I was go-


ing to get any token of appre- ciation for my stellar work as a mom. Cost of the frame: $2.99. Cost of the wrapping paper and gift tag: $1.25. Watching my children try to figure out where the heck the frame came from? Priceless. The Christmas tradition we


will continue is placing an elec- tric candle in each window of our farmhouse. There are 36 candles. The tradition started in the 1930s with my husband’s family. Each candle has direc- tions on where it goes. Only my husband knows how to inter- pret “Mom’s sewing room” or “Grandmother’s sitting area.” With all the extra time I will


gain from doing less decorat- ing, I plan to engage in a new holiday tradition. While my husband is turning on all those window lights, I will be master- ing all five levels of the holiday version of Angry Birds.


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