Don’t get me wrong, I love the smell of pine trees, scented candles, and cookies baking in the oven. There is nothing prettier than mountains dusted with snow and the voices of children singing carols does a heart good. The problem is that these are the days of Christmas past. Today I feel like we are an “over” society. We over eat, over drink, over book, over stress, over extend, and just plain overdo in the holiday season. Do we bring this upon ourselves or is the media equally to blame? Who in their right mind need to shop at 5 am or until midnight? The commercials give us a daily countdown till Christmas and the newspaper insists that we haven’t bought enough presents. I feel myself falling into the trap wondering if I got everyone exactly what they wanted. I even feel like the children have expectations (sometimes unrealistic) of what they should be getting as gifts. Has the real spirit of Christmas disappeared?
One of the reasons that women feel so stressed around the holidays is that we are adding on to a forty hour week. There is so much to do and we feel like the responsibility of making the holiday wonderful, lies on us for a large part. We become the bakers, the shoppers, the social directors and much more. This in turn leaves less time for exercising, relaxing or doing whatever we do to do feel grounded. Sleep can become an elusive commodity. There never seems to be enough time to get it all done. Stress sets in. This is then coupled with parties that are serving tasty dishes high in caloric content and low on nutritional value. The body and the mind yearn for the New Year when everything will return to normal.
I have also noticed that the patterns of interaction have changed through the years. Now a day the TV or noise from video games fills the air. I pods and cell phones detract from true interaction. Story telling and conversations are losing out to technology. I would love to hear a family caroling instead of cheering for their favorite football. With all this progress I pray to return to a simpler time. Can we teach our children that quality time spent with loved ones is more fulfilling than any gifts? That playing in the snow, trimming trees or singing and dancing are more fun than any video game?
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