Make little moments festive

Getting in the holiday spirit doesn't require big displays

Every year, I plan a few big holiday anchor events, like seeing the Rockettes, or the Nutcracker, or singing in a Christmas concert. These events tend to involve specific times and tickets, which isn’t a bad thing. When something is on the schedule, I tend to do it!

But some bits of holiday fun are more about little moments. For instance, in years past, I have set the Sirius XM radio channel in my car to “Holly.” Even I might get sick of holiday music eventually, but it’s as fun as listening to pop music for a few weeks, and it has made random carpool runs more festive.

Using downtime

Each year, I also pull out my stash of Christmas puzzles. I like to work on 1000 piece puzzles at night because it’s relaxing and keeps me off my phone. I could work on any sort of puzzle, so why not do ones with rustic Christmas scenes, or pictures of carolers, or of Santa sitting by a fire? This squeezes a little more celebration into small moments.

As for before bed reading, I dig into my stash of old holiday magazines. I love old magazines in general — especially those from a long time ago, as they show what life was like for normal people. I’ve collected some vintage December issues of women’s magazines, but I’ve also kept some that I’ve subscribed to, like years of Martha Stewart Living, Better Homes and Gardens, Good Housekeeping, O the Oprah Magazine, and so forth. Some of these titles have stopped publishing, which makes me happy I saved the old ones. I don’t really remember flipping through the December 2013 Martha Stewart Living issue back in 2013, even though I’m sure I did, so looking at it is like reading a new magazine. If you’re similarly inclined, but haven’t saved old magazines, hit the library and borrow old December issues from the stacks. If your library is on Libby, you might be able to borrow electronic versions and flip through them on your iPad.

We need a little Christmas…

In any case, we have some discretion over how we spend our leisure time. Little choices like music and reading material are definitely within our control. If you’re reading to kids at night anyway, why not read a holiday story instead of the stories you read the rest of the year? Why not use the red dish towels and put up some twinkly lights?

We can go overboard on this of course, but every year as the weather gets bleak in December I remember the wisdom of ancient humans holding solstice festivals, and then of the Christian tradition putting this holiday of light during the darkest days of the year. As the song goes, we need a little Christmas, right this very minute. Even if you don’t celebrate Christmas, or simply celebrate the secular version of it, a little festivity in the little moments can be welcome indeed.