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The Grinch Lives Here

© Kathryn Morse

experience some Christmas cheer, here are two "dark" ideas. One, go out late at night to see local decorations. The lights are pretty, but there's plenty of dark to go with your own sad Christmas memories, etc. The darkness of night is soothing. Avoid driving around in the early evenings when families may be driving around doing last minute shopping or looking at decorations, also. Take your trips as late as possbile to avoid the most amount of irritating traffic.

A second idea is to stay home and watch Christmas movies in the dark. Check local TV listings and/or go to the video store and plan an evening or even a whole day devoted to nothing but movies. Stock up on munchies. Take your phone off the hook and lock your door. You can even make a mini-spiritual retreat in your own home by watching one of the great movies about the life of Christ instead of a Christmas movie.

And the food at Christmas! Do you dread the weight gain? Hate to cook? Or are on a too-tight budget? Meet your social obligations, but "do your own thing" at home. Pretend a salad with green lettuce and cucumbers with red tomatoes is a Christmas salad. I make a seasonal tuna salad using pickles for the green and apples and/or radishes for the red color. See how many combinations of red and green vegetables you can come up with for meals.

And any simple meal can be made special by a change in custom or habit. If you usually eat off paper plates, use the "real plates." If you usually eat off "real" plates, go buy some festive colored paper or plastic products. If you usually drink a cola product with your meal, buy some non-cola drinks.

If you are just sick of traditional Christmas food, try cooking the Christmas meals of another culture. Selecting the dishes and getting the ingredients is a great family project and is a non-commercialized activity.

Keep With the Liturgical Calendar

Keeping with the Catholic liturgical restrictions in our homes, as well as our parishes, is a great way to avoid Christmas overload. (An aside to my Protestant readers, I was greatly surprised to learn that Catholic churches do not put up decorations or sing carols about events that have not yet happened in the church year. Examples, the creche cannot be displayed until Christmas Eve and you can't sing