How to Stop Rushing The Season and Take The Fluff Out of Christmas

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For the past three years, my alter ego has fluffed Christmas trees for two local branches of a national hardware store during the months of September and October.  That means that after employees assemble approximately 25 artificial trees, usually placing them on chest-high platforms, I come along and fluff out the branches, making them as lifelike as possible.

For my first two years as a jobber, it only took me a day per store to complete the project because I wanted to get back to teaching.  However, this year I took off the two days allotted for each store and came away a lot less sore and stiff than I would have otherwise.  Moreover, this more leisurely pace gave me time to reflect upon “rushing the Season”–a process that ensures that Holiday decorations sit on store shelves ready for the impulse customer way before Halloween.

Of course, most households have only one Christmas tree to decorate, or perhaps drag out of a closet or storeroom fully assembled, so that it only requires a little tweaking (as is the case at my house).  All the same, certain rules still hold: 1) Fluff the tree from the inside out, paying attention to every branch; 2) Fluff the tree from the base up, paying particular attention to those “bald” spots that the harried often overlook; 3) Watch your balance particularly when climbing up and down a ladder.  These instructions might also serve as a metaphor for the Christmas Season itself: 1) Get ready for Christmas from the inside out, meditating on the Christmas story itself during all the days of Advent; 2) Pay attention to the small courtesies and forgotten family customs that make Christmas special–a bottom up strategy if there ever was one; 3) Balance the household budget as well as the family’s diet because it’s so easy to overdo.

The following activities might in some cases rush the season, but they also help families to concentrate more fully on the mystery of Christmas:

1. If your church doesn’t provide shoe boxes full of trinkets (toothbrush and toothpaste, jump ropes, jacks, and so forth) to needy children through Operation Christmas Child, which is an activity sponsored by the Reverend Franklin Graham’s Samaritan’s Purse, participate in this activity or one similar to it.  For example, your family might want to start the yearly tradition of dropping off a new toy at a Marine Corps Toys for Tots location or picking out some clothing for a needy child at the local mall’s Angel Tree.
2. Write an Advent book together or contribute to a local church’s Advent book.  A comparatively easy way for children to compose a poem for such books is to supply a word that begins with the first word for greetings like “Merry Christmas”, “Silent Night”, and “Away in the Manger”.  Also, make sure that the family reads aloud together about the Christmas story in both Matthew and Luke in the days leading up to Christmas.
3. Instead of just buying numerous presents for each family member, consider trading “goodies” and “services”: Elementary school students can easily learn to bake gingerbread cookies and fudge.  They can also offer various family members various services in the coming months; for example, helping with the laundry, washing the dishes, or doing other chores around the house.  Husbands and wives could offer their spouses a date night once a week, breakfast in bed on Saturdays, or other little affectionate luxuries.
4. Include Granny and Grandpa in the fun:  Have them write or talk about how they celebrated Christmas when Mom or Dad was growing up as well as telling about how they celebrated Christmas during their own childhoods.
5. Hold a caroling party, sharing the Christmas spirit at a local nursing home or children’s ward at a hospital.
6. As a family, read aloud Charles Dickens’ A Christmas Carol starting in late October or early November.  Have everyone take turns reading even if the text is above a child’s reading level, making sure to talk about the story together.  Incidentally, Dickens’ long sentences are a great tool for growing a middle school and high school student’s ability to compose complex and compound sentences and well-developed paragraphs.
7. Finally, volunteer to assemble and decorate an elderly relative or neighbor’s Christmas tree, and be sure to include those in Christmas dinner who would otherwise be alone on Christmas Day.

All these activities add balance to the Christmas Season and take the fluff out of Christmas.