Does the sight of store employees stocking artificial Christmas trees shortly after Columbus Day make you want to choke?
Does the idea of Christmas catalogs in the September mail make you want to gag?
Does the 3 millionth airing of the “Sports Illustrated” gift subscription commercial make you want to retch?
Have no fear – you can still enjoy the holiday season.
“It’s awful, isn’t it?” says Rev. Martha Murchison of East Dallas’ St. Andrews Presbyterian Church.
“That stuff bothers me, too. It’s not what Christmas is supposed to be about.”
That’s why, as a public service, I’m presenting the first Siegel Guide for the Spiritually Challenged – tips and pointers to help readers endure, persevere and even delight in the season, courtesy of Rev. Murchison. Christmas may have evolved into both a secular and religious holiday in the U.S. during the 20th century, but both sides of the holiday come from the same base.
Say Rev. Murchison: “Christmas is supposed to be about renewal. It’s supposed to be something to help you renew who you are.”
Here’s how you can do it:
Tip No. 1: Perspective, perspective, perspective.
No matter how frazzled the holiday season may make you feel, there’s almost certainly someone who feels worse than frazzled.
Rev. Murchison says all she has to do to keep her perspective is to drive down Gaston Avenue, below Abrams. One look at all of those apartment buildings – and the happy holidays that many of their tenants won’t be having – reminds her just how fortunate she is.
Tip No. 2: Get a job – or at least a holiday volunteer assignment.
“This may be the best way to renew yourself,” Rev. Murchison says, and even a hard-bitten sort such as myself knows better than to argue with her. When you do something for someone else, you feel that much better. Better yet, the satisfaction multiplies when you actually pitch in, as opposed to writing a check or donating that dented can of green beans that has been sitting in the cupboard since Thanksgiving a year ago.
Best yet, you may take so much pride in your volunteering that you continue it after Christmas, when there is just as much demand but a far smaller supply of volunteers.
And God knows there is a huge demand, as we have outlined elsewhere in this month’s issue.
Tip No. 3: The green in Christmas does not stand for money.
“If you can only do one thing, then do this,” Rev. Murchison says. “Don’t get caught up in holiday spending.”
This does not mean exchanging gifts is wrong. What it means is that renewal has little to do with buying iced tea makers indiscriminately, or making sure your child receives enough toys to last until it’s time to go to college.
A rule of thumb: If the pile of gifts is taller than the recipient, then you have probably bought too much.
Hopefully, these suggestions will help. Remember, it’s no fun spending the holidays in the Lew Sterrett Justice Center after beating the sales person about the head and shoulders for snapping their chewing gum and saying, in that wonderfully nasal whine endemic to their ilk: “If it’s not on the shelf, we don’t have it.”
