Holidays & HearthKeeping

In the Vincent extended family, October, November, December is our favorite time of the year. We love Halloween, Thanksgiving, and Christmas. We love the traditions, the food, and the extra time together.

This is truly the most wonderful time of the year.

This is, admittedly, a mercy from the Lord. Many people don’t enter the holiday season with the same fuzzy warm feelings we do. From just bonus anxiety to bad memories to big, triggered trauma, holidays can be anything but the best time of year for many of us. For some, it’s the hardest, saddest time of the year. It hurts my heart that sin breaks celebrations and robs them of their merriment. We truly need to be rescued.

I struggle with the anxiety side of the season. With my specific health issues, I can be a bit easily stressed. Extra things to do, extra cooking, extra social engagements, and my routine being extra all over the place raises my anxiety level and spikes my fatigue, or spikes my fatigue which raises my anxiety levels. When this happens I take a step back and remind myself of three things:

❖   holidays are the steps, not just The Day

❖   holidays get you out of your routine

❖   holidays are important

Sometimes Thanksgiving or Christmas just seems like all work and juggling and more things to do. There are even more things to say no to and many more things to think through. Queue the freak out…

Stop. Stop freaking out.

All the extras, even the things we have to say no to, are what make up the holiday. The decorating, cooking, shopping, wrapping, parties, and the celebration are all part of the holiday. Just stop. Put on some Christmas music and enjoy the holiday today. Whatever little part we’re doing, remember that it is good to do. Christmas and Thanksgiving and Halloween are more than just The Day. They’re the whole holiday season. Each of the steps building up to The Day should be enjoyed, embraced, and cherished.

Our routines are good things. They’re not chains that bind us to a life of boredom, but a way to create peace and comfort in our homes. Routines provide stability. Everyone knows what is happening and when it’s happening. But routines become ruts easily. Ruts aren’t good. They communicate stalling out, giving up, or being lazy. You’re no longer engaged in life, you’re just slumped in the rut. Holidays break routines. This is a good thing. Broken routines don’t become ruts. Holidays help you see the routine. Holidays give you a break from the routine which helps you appreciate it more. Don’t we all just love January when things get back to normal? Holidays help us appreciate the normal by charging into the middle of it and making a mess. As HearthKeepers, if we see this we can appreciate it, embrace it, and use it.

Holidays are important. Our kind and good Heavenly Father instigated holidays. Every culture and every family has special days. It's part of being a human made in God’s image. Days have always been set aside to commemorate important things. Our Sunday is a weekly holiday. Even though we live in the time of the New Covenant without the stipulations of the Passover and other such holy days, holidays are still important to celebrate. They tie us together culturally, both in our family cultures and our extended nationality. Holidays add uniting traditions to our lives. This is a good thing. Are they law? No. Do you have to do them the same way everyone else does? Of course not. But there is some ordinary magic afoot when a whole country stops to spend Christmas Day celebrating together. There is something ordinarily magical about being home for Christmas. Traditions, both within the home and the country, are important. Stopping the everyday things to celebrate home, family, and the blessings of this life are a good thing. Even though our cultural holidays aren’t spiritual or instigated by God, it is important to commemorate the Incarnation. And maybe not as important, it is fun to celebrate the scary sides of life with pumpkins, candy, and costumes. Holidays are part of being human.

So if we feel anxiety welling up within us, or a bah-humbug attitude, step back and see what is truly going on. Look beyond the to-do list. You’re under no obligation to celebrate the holiday with all the pomp, circumstance, and frivolity our world sees as important. You don’t have to go into debt, go crazy decorating, or fatigue yourself with a social event every day. How simple or crazy the holiday is is up to you. But check yourself. Do you see that holidays are important and wonderful and magical? Do you see that they are useful and community building?

Halloween is a wonderful time to dress up, pretend to be something you’re not, scare someone, and enjoy the wild imagination of children. Thanksgiving is a feast eaten in praise of God’s glorious bounty to each and every one of us. Christmas is the celebration of the coming of Christ, and in our non-Christian culture, a celebration of the brotherhood of mankind. As a Christian, it is a moment at the start of winter, when the world is dark and cold, to remember that Light, LIGHT, has poured in. It is a moment to remember that we aren’t alone and we aren’t lost. Christmas is the celebration of the first turning point of grace in the long, horror story that is humanity’s history. What is not to celebrate?

Holidays can be earthy. Holidays can be spiritual. Holidays can be national, like the 4th of July, or familial, like birthdays. Holidays can have deep roots going back in history. They can have mixed roots in both paganism and Christianity. They can be celebrated with parades, lights, and music across continents, or they can be the simple raising of a glass to remember those no longer with us. Either way, they are a common grace, a special event, a good thing.

This year, 2020, I’m going very simple. I won’t be doing all the cards and long-planned gifts I usually do. I won’t be doing the decorating I usually do. I want to take each of the three weeks until Christmas to enjoy the small steps that lead up to the big day. Am I still struggling with some anxiety? Yes. Did you see that? 3 weeks! I have to discern between whether that is fatigue-anxiety or me needing to say no to more things. This year has been crazy. It’s not just Covid or the election, it’s the passing of my Grandma, the move of my parents and sister, the downsizing I’ve been working on, the lockdowns, and my husband’s work changing. I’m keeping Christmas simple but I’m still keeping it because holidays are important, wonderful, and fun. The extended Vincent clan/mafia/gang celebrates holidays with enthusiasm because they remind us of holidays past. They tie us together as a three-generation celebrating family. They, in an earthly way, light our way forward into the future with the next generation. That’s what tradition does, it says “this is us”. There’s a reason that one of the first things every child in our family is taught to say is, “And God Bless us, everyone,” as early as possible. It is something we say in our family because we all love The Christmas Carol. This line communicates family to us.

So, HearthKeepers, we keep our hearts and minds in the right place. We keep watch. We guard our homes. We keep traditions because we know they are part of telling our family stories. We hold both the spiritual sides of holidays and the earthly, temporary sides. And we feast, celebrate, and enjoy the most wonderful time of the year. (Is there really a better word than feast?)

Ultimately, this is what Sunday is. All the holidays that we celebrate are just visual metaphors for what Sunday is. We believe by faith that Sunday is The Lord’s Day. We take the Lord’s Supper, we feast on the preached Word. These are living pictures of our now-not yet lives. Good Christian men rejoice, with heart, and soul, and voice!