FROM WHERE I SIT DREAMING OF A WHITE CHRISTMAS 11/24/13 P.D. SPILSETH
Welcome December! The month of Christmas cheer is finally here with all the excitement of the holiday season. Who can resist smiling when we see the splendid decorations, inspiring music, gaily wrapped gifts under the tree and family gatherings? Meals will be extra special: at my house, tradition demands that we feast on lefse, turkey or meatballs, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole, cranberries and krensakke for dessert.
A whiteout would be fabulous. The full-blown Minnesota blizzards, like the ones we had in the Fifties, would be grand. Winter snowstorms were the most fun when we didn’t have to drive cars over the icy roads, shovel driveways or find a way to get to work. Kids had no worries, just fun playing in the powdery snow.
For weeks, I’ve been dreaming of a white Christmas. It doesn’t feel like Christmas to me unless snowflakes are floating through the sky and white drifts make deeps snowbanks outside my windows. In past years, we have enjoyed celebrating Thanksgiving in Mexico with turkey, mashed potatoes and cranberries at Sol’s alley kitchen in Puerta Vallarta, but it wasn’t quite like Thanksgiving is supposed to be. The weather has to be cold and snowy. I couldn’t imagine Christmas in any other climate but my own. I’d enjoy a snowy day with a frozen lake of skaters and skiers, fire in the fireplace, a decorated pine tree and family.
The Saturday Evening Post magazine printed an article this month on Christmas Trends. Did you know that 400 million people celebrate Christmas around the world? Santa’s been keeping track of the naughty and nice kids since the 1930’s. In America we leave a plate of Christmas cookies and a glass of milk by the tree for the jolly guy, but in Norway and Sweden, Santa snacks on rice pudding. Both North America and Scandinavia claim Santa as a permanent resident. This fall Dave and I visited Santa Claus, Indiana, with its year-around decorated streets of Santas, Christmas trees and elves. Though I enjoy a month or more of the holiday, I know it would get old if I saw Christmas decorations 365 days of the year.
In America 93% of people exchange gifts. Diamond and jewelry sales top $6 million dollars. It amazed me to read that parents spent an average of $271 per child in 2012. And who doesn’t buy at least one or two poinsettias to add color to our homes? There are at least 100 varieties of poinsettias now available at the florist, grocery and drug stores. Here in the U.S. we produce enough candy canes to circle the equator 6.7 times...we are gluttons for sweet treats.
I’m looking forward to reading Christmas cards from friends. Hopefully, they’ll include a newsy letter telling about their families and photos of growing children and grandchildren. My husband is busy creating his annual Christmas epistle. I wonder...who will he be this year? Will Dave be the Grinch spewing his political views, garnering the ire of some readers or the cheapskate who swears by the values of the Tightwad Gazette? Hopefully, he’ll be jolly old Saint Nick, doing his annual, last minute Christmas Eve shopping for surprise presents. I’ve told him, many times, no vacuum cleaners, hammers or candles for me this year...PLEASE~ 568
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