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What are your Christmas ceremonies?
I am set for the season - I have Christmas wallpaper, and a lovely, old fashioned Christmas screensaver on my computer. I can rest easy - now all I have to do is shop for food and presents, decorate and clean house! OK - I have only just begun - but these small steps allow me to feel that I have somewhat of a handle on the Christmas season.
I come from a family where there are traditions for every holiday. As an adult, I have adopted some new traditions and mixed them in with the old. Honoring traditions is what keeps me centered and brings me assurance that "all is well" with my world. In essence, following these traditions is a form of personal ceremony for me, even though in reality they are simply things that I do in my life that bring me joy.
It is very easy to get lost in all of the changes that our world is presenting us with. Ceremony is all about centering and grounding ourselves - reminding ourselves of what is truly important, and what only seems to be important at the moment. I am going to talk for a minute about what the Christmas season means to me, and about what my traditions are. Traditions will differ from country to country, family to family, and person to person. Think about your personal traditions as you read about mine, and you will see how they center and ground you, and how they represent what is truly important in your life - and how they bring you your greatest joy!
As a young child, one of the traditions in our family was allowing my sister, brother and I to go through the Christmas catalogues and see what was "out there", and what we wanted Santa to bring us. For her own safety and sanity, my mother always made sure that there were at least three catalogues available at all times! We had a great time looking at all of the colorful toys - with no real expectation of receiving any one thing as a gift. My brother, sister and I simply "knew" that what was under the Christmas tree would be something that we would like. And that is what always happened - even though we were a very middle class family, with my father as sole support.
In my family, the Christmas tree was also a big, big deal! Somehow it always got decorated on a weekend, so that all of us kids could "help". My mother kept a firm hand on all of us, so it was fun, and not a riot scene! She also managed to convince all three children that it was an "honor" to place t he tinsel on the tree! What chutzpah! We actually believed her! I dearly love old fashioned tinsel, but I no longer use it on my tree, as it takes forever to put on - and it then walks around on all of the animals for the duration! (And then there was the year that I strung popcorn and used that as a garland on my tree. I could never figure out why there was a growing blank spot on the garland in the back of the tree - until the day that I saw my male cat back there eating the popocorn off of the string!)
Food also played a large part in our family traditions. For Christmas, my mother made sugar cookies, date filled cookies, cranberry pudding, mincemeat pie and a host of other things, including divinity and fudge. She never made it seem a chore - although at times it might have been. It was a joy to see the food out on the table, and to see friends and family having such a good time. I still continue the tradition of making these same foods - and I truly enjoy doing it. As I make the food, the memories of years past come back as a warm, fuzzy blanket. I can still see the card table, with a big bowl of nuts, sets of nutcrackers and plates of candy set out on it.
Another one of our traditions was wrapping presents. As children, we were taught how to wrap the presents ourselves. I still find great joy in picking out a gift that I feel will make someone happy, wrapping it in something that I find visually appealing and adding a pretty ribbon and bow to it.
I think this is all part of the process - that when we are doing the small things in our lives with consciousness - that we allow ourselves to place joy and good feelings into the things that we do, we are creating personal ceremony that binds our lives together.
It is comforting to me to turn the tree lights on, shut the house light off, light a few candles and sit there sipping egg nog and enjoying my memories. Each thing that I do during the holiday season centers me, grounds me and connects me with all of my younger selves. It connects me with my family - those living and those passed on. It is the roots of who I am.
Where are your roots? What actions will you take this holiday season to honor your personal or family traditions? What can you do to take the chaos out of the season and replace it with joy and peace? We all have choices - make your choices count!
Thank you for visiting my Creation of Ceremony page. May your day be Blessed.
Mitakuye Oyasin - For All Of Our Relations.
Bonnie Cehovet
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