The Holidays are Not Cancelled

I cannot believe that wintertime is creeping up on us! I feel like just yesterday we were out at a pumpkin patch capturing fall family photos, and now we are shopping for Christmas decorations and preparing to brine a turkey for Thanksgiving this Thursday. I look at our son every day and wonder how it is possible that time could move so quickly…

It is no secret that autumn is my absolute favorite time of year, but winter is a close second. I love chunky sweaters, Crock Pot recipes, cozy drinks, and (of course) Christmastime! I am also a fan of Thanksgiving and New Years. I am especially excited for this year because our son is finally up walking around and can appreciate the holidays a bit more. Last year he was an infant and had no idea what was going on, haha!

A few months ago in early October I published a post about whether or not Halloween or autumn was cancelled. My answer? No! Of course Halloween was not cancelled. Yes, the holiday looked differently and did not include bobbing for apples, conventional trick or treating, or Halloween parties. However, nothing was going to stop me from watching horror movies and listening to “The Monster Mash” in the comfort of my own home. We dressed up in costumes, watched It’s The Great Pumpkin, Charlie Brown with our son, ate candy, and celebrated the holiday privately. We adapted and changed our traditions to better suit our needs this year.

…and Christmastime will not be any different. I see so many people lamenting about the holiday season and being sad because it is “cancelled,” but the only person who can cancel a holiday is you. Given the current state of the world, just like Halloween, Christmas will probably look different than in years past. There probably will not be grand parties or festivals, dinners might be smaller, and social distancing might keep us physically away from some of our loved ones. However, Christmas movies are still on television, trees still need to be decorated, and eggnog is delicious (especially when you add rum!). Like with Halloween, we plan on changing some of our traditions to adapt to the current state of the world. No one is happy that Christmas will be different this year but the reality is what it is and we cannot do much to change the world.

With all of that being said, it is important to respect everyone’s comfort level this holiday season. This is something that I have been saying for months now and even wrote a blog post about (see above). No one should be made to feel bad about their decision to stay in this holiday season, cancel plans, etc. We all have to do what we think is best for us and our own families and these decisions should be respected.

So, in conclusion, Christmas is certainly not cancelled in our home. It will probably look a lot different than it normally does, but we are going to adapt and make the best of it.