As I pretty much indicated in the first 2 installments of the history of my religious experiences, I am not a christian.

i have had increasing "issues" with christmas over the years. whether it's the religion of it, the commercialism of it, the cheap-ness of it, the tackiness of it ... whatever.

So, since my beloved has entered our lives, we started moving more toward celebrating the Winter Solstice. It especially fits in with our schedule and logistics since my darling daughters leave me every other year for christmas. the first year that my beloved and i were together that the girls left, we chose to do solstice instead. my dear sister and her son were living with the girls and i at the time (beloved was living around the corner), and we all did home-made gifts. I had my first foray on a sewing machine - made the girls skirts. beloved made Thing One a bookshelf, and thing two a bulletin board. my sister made the girls nightgowns, which they're each wearing tonight!!!

Last year, the girls were home, and *I* could not refrain from doing a full-on Christmas. Beloved and I worked out special "santa" gifts, and we bought way too much stuff.

part of why it's "way too much" is b/c these girls don't WANT stuff. they don't USE stuff. they want paper. they want notebooks. they want pencils. they love to read, but do it so fast, the purchasing of books is futile. we are library addicts.

This year, the girls were upset upon realizing that it was their dad's turn at christmas, and could barely be consoled ... until we brought up the idea of doing solstice again. they were thrilled!!

I really like it. We don't really buy things. we make things. i told Thing One I was thinking of getting beloved some ____ [I almost linked to it, and then i realized he'd be reading this!! thtat would suck!!] for solstice, and she was completely affronted, "but mom!! solstice is only HOME MADE THINGS!!"

I really want to move to doing solstice every year. i think that right now, we live in such a non-Christmas area (very high Jewish population), that I think I can get away with it -- both with the girls, and with my own conscience.

The girls are leaving at 8 a.m. on 12/22. on 12/21, beloved and i are taking 1/2 days, and we will pick up the girls at 2 p.m. we will already have our "solstice shrub" in the house (last time, it was a living tree, but it died, so it may just be a mini-tree this year, not a live one -- decorated with as natural-type stuff as possible ... popcorn, cranberries ... we LOVE stringing popcorn and cranberries ... fake birds, and other non-commercial, non-Christian ornaments. We will exchange gifts. we will make and eat a nice dinner. we will play games. we will have a cozy, nice day.

posted by Zuska @ 9:16 PM

0 Comments: