Creating Holiday Ambiance

Five-fifteen in the afternoon, after a long day of school music rehearsals, hanging decorations, adjusting sound systems, and dealing with excited youngsters, I am the biggest Scrooge ever. At home, my fuzzy darlings have left me icky little gifts in front of the door, my feet hurt and the study is the same kind of mess it was in when I left in the morning. I already know that I am not buying gifts this year. I don’t even want to look at my budget. I am not what you would call in the holiday spirit-unless you consider embracing the doom and gloom of short winter days and long winter nights appropriately seasonal. To top it all off, I have a couple of electronic projects past due, papers to grade, supper to cook, and the littlest kitty has the sniffles.

I know that I cannot afford to go curl up in my bed and hide under the comforter, nor can I log in to my favorite game and ignore the universe; a pick-me-up is in order.

First, I pet the sniffly kitty, which makes both of us feel better. Then I search for an internet radio station I can safely play for my art classes at school-something seasonal, up-beat and instrumental preferably. This is also good. Music is one my earliest memories of the season-singing with my mother in front of the fireplace, dancing to fiddle playing by one of various uncles, rehearsing for school programs (as a child, not as a teacher), singing the Twelve Days of Christmas till my mother and grandmother begged for me to stop. Later, singing carols with my own children on long winter commutes, dancing with my daughter to a battered boom box.

As the strains of holiday music begin to drift through the house, I feel that I might have a winner. I feel the knots of tension begin to loosen. This may not be quite right for school-a little too much chamber music-but very nice for me. I switch stations, and continue exploring holiday ideas.

An article I read not long ago mentioned that the scent of cinnamon stimulates cerebration. The cooks at school today were baking cinnamon rolls. (They make good cinnamon rolls.) But I’m not in the mood for baking tonight-and shouldn’t be eating sweets at this hour even if I were. However, somewhere I have a candle warmer…

After quite a bit of rummaging (including starting supper) the candle warmer is located, plugged in, placed on a non-flammable surface and an orange-spice candle-jar started heating. Not the cinnamon I was seeking-but nice for all that. A French radio station turns out to be just the thing to generate enough courage to clean up the kitty mess (and promises to be a good choice for school), and send me on my way toward meal preparations. Good smells, good sounds, kitty snuggles…maybe it’s a happy holiday after all!