Hope all of y’all are having a fabulous holiday season! I’ve had a lot of conversations about this topic in my Instagram dms, so I wanted to talk a little bit about how we holiday in our family- and why.
I grew up catholic, with Christmas being a huge deal. We didn’t have much money so my mom worked really hard to make our holiday awesome and abundant. We had a big Caribbean Christmas party most years, and piles of presents. I’m so grateful that my mom did that for me- an overstuffed stocking and overflowing tree were so special to me as a child. I looked forward all year (as she worked and saved for it) and Christmas felt magical.
I love that magic holiday feeling, the warm fuzzies in your chest, still. But I’ve grown and changed since then, on a variety of levels. Nowadays, I try hard to limit our consumerism and consumption, for both environmental and ethical reasons, and have gotten stricter about this over the last year as I consider the example we’re setting for Asher. So a giant pile of the hottest toys is not going to be something that enthuses me, nor the holiday habit I want to encourage. I also converted to Judaism, and we celebrate Hanukkah each winter. It doesn’t even come close to the Christmas madness, and it shouldn’t- honestly, American commercialism paints Hanukkah as Jewish Christmas to draw a parallel and that’s innacurate. Hanukkah isn’t the primary Jewish holiday- it honors a miracle at the temple, where one ration of oil lasted 8 nights, and the celebration centers on family and togetherness, ritual and belonging. And food- as we celebrate the miracle of the temple oil, fried foods like latkes and sufganiyot (jelly donuts) are traditional.
So yeah- no giant flocked tree goes up in our house the day after Halloween, all my holiday decor fits in one bin, and I’m not going to beat you over the head with 37 gift guides (but I love helping you shop for the perf gift, so always slide into my DMs for that)…. I guess those are #bloggerfails but I’d rather be straight with y’all than chase commission coins 🤷🏼♀️🤣 since our fam simply doesn’t drink the Christmas Koolaid.
Now, before y’all get all fired in up that I’m Scrooge or grinchy and start roasting me- that’s not it at all. If three months of Christmas rings all your jingle bells, good for you! I love all of my friends warm and welcoming decorations, and I certainly love gift inspo, and I’m all about making your paper, blogfriends. I just really do best personally when I focus on food and family and fun- presence, rather than presents primarily, and between jetlag and a toddler, there’s nothing I’d rather do less than fake it for #content. So we make sure to prioritize time with our beloveds for holiday cheer- I’m so jazzed about the little New Year’s Eve fete we’re having, some brunches and visits.
But I’m not a monk- we do a few gifts for family and friends and each other, so I’ll share what we chose here.
For Asher, my mom and stepdad gifted him a play kitchen on the first night of Hanukkah and he’s already obsessed with it, and had his buddy over to break it in. We filled it with a food set and pots and pans, and he already had this mixer from his birthday. I’m still eyeing these coffee kit and charcuterie accessories for the future, but decided to hold off for now. He also got a little wood camera, some of the instruments in this music set (some are put up for when he’s older/safety reasons), some color wonder art supplies, and this Babylit book set. Our plan is to do 8 presents max for him, not more that one each night, and this handful was more than enough for this year. We might specifically do want/need/wear/read in the future, but didn’t feel the need to this year.
David and I are in the camp that love is input on your own presents, so while we aren’t big on surprises, everyone winds up happy. We ordered a new dining room table– after a series of unfortunate events we’re waiting for it to come off back order, and when it does finally arrive it will be a holiday miracle 🤯. He also got a handheld video camera (a DGI osmo pocket), and I finally decided to get AirPods (I know, I know).
For others, we brought home lots of tea and spices and so many towels from Turkey as gifts, and I spoiled my beauty-loving girlfriends with Olive and June nail polish sets.
Regardless of if or how or what you are celebrating, I hope it’s fulfilling and peaceful.
Mistletoe kisses!
