Happy Stressmas...

What are we up to at Christmas? Or should I say Stressmas?

I suppose I will put some decorations up before 25^th, if I get around to it. Some people love their Christmas trimmings, others put them up with a sigh of duty, just another seasonal chore. We feel obliged to put on the seasonal smile and be cheery – even when we don’t feel like it, or have nothing to smile about. Getting a card has become not a joy but a reason for panic – have I sent them one? Parents are required to create costumes and props for their darling offspring for school events – whether the children are bothered or not. (And I confess to adding to this with another Christmas competition from the church, not next year – I am learning!)

How much stress do we live through for the sake of tradition, or expectations of others? That applies all year round but is massively multiplied at Christmas.  Even this year’s adverts all seem to be about the stresses of preparing for the ‘perfect Christmas’ – recognising the symptoms but still playing up to an ideal that is even less achievable than size 0 airbrushed models.

I remember being told a story of a couple, married for many years, and every Christmas dinner they had sprouts. He didn’t like sprouts but ate them to please his wife after she had gone to all the effort cooking dinner. She didn’t like sprouts and only cooked them because she thought her husband liked them – afterall he devoured them every year...  If only they would talk about it – then neither of them would have to eat what they didn’t like.

What if we took the chance to say ‘Sorry, I’d rather not eat sprouts’, wear the Christmas jumper, or whatever it is, what if we risked being called Scrooge and labelled a Humbug? Maybe we will find others are only too glad to downsize the best present and perfect turkey competitions too, and be relieved that someone had the courage to challenge ‘the way things should be’.

Maybe then we can have a celebration we can actually enjoy – and that would, I think, be truer to the meaning of Christmas where a manger was good enough and visitors came as they were whether shepherd or king.

So if you want the perfect Christmas this year, perhaps it’s worth taking a moment to decide what that actually looks like for you personally, as a family etc..