By the time you read this, Christmas is 20 days—OR
LESS—away. Now I don’t mean to put any pressure on you, just incase you’re one
of those people who hasn’t wrapped up their Christmas shopping by July. Full
disclosure: I am not one of those people.
Once upon a time, I used to hyper-ventilate when
mid-December rolled around and I wasn’t “done.” When people would ask me, “You
already for Christmas?” I’d feel guilty admitting that no, I wasn’t “ready” for
Christmas, that I wasn’t even close to ready.
My attempts at early “readiness” would usually go
something like this: I shop early. I find The Perfect Present. I hide the
perfect present in the perfect “they’ll never find it there” spot. Several
months after Christmas I prove that premise by unexpectedly coming across The
Perfect Present, still hidden in the Perfect Spot. Early prepping for Christmas just didn’t work
for me.
Then one day I figured out it didn’t really matter
if I was “ready” for Christmas—Christmas was ready for me. So what if I hadn’t
made all twelve of the Christmas Treats I’d planned to, didn’t matter if I had
a pile ‘o presents to wrap—Christmas was going to arrive right on schedule—no
matter how ready I was/wasn’t. It’s not as if my failure to attain The Perfect
Unexpected Stocking Stuffer was going to prevent Christmas from arriving for
everybody else. Frankly, that realization was something of a relief.
The First Christmas happened at a time when people
weren’t prepared—there was literally no room in the inn. The Great Gift ended
up wrapped in swaddling clothes and laid in a manger, and that turned out OK.
Not being “ready” for Christmas? It’s traditional.
And I’m OK with it.
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