An Endless Supply of Candy

During the week leading up to Valentines Day, I was shopping from store to store to find craft materials so that my grandsons and I could design and make our own valentines and gift bags (to hold the cookies and candy that it’s my privilege as grandmother to provide).  I was also desperate to find a gift for my gadget-passionate husband but that’s a whole other story.  When I entered one store, I found the entire entrance filled with bathing suits, beach towels and straw hats.  These displays were enhanced by a huge display of sunscreen and lotions.  Now I know that a lot of people do go to sunny destinations during the winter but this  all seemed like overkill for just those few who get away to sun and sand for a week. 

This led me to thinking about last summer when it was 90+ outside and I gladly escaped to a store where they had the air conditioning turned to 60 degrees.  To complement the chilly environment, I was hit with Halloween costumes, spiders, witches, monsters and tons of candy.  A couple of weeks later, I went back and saw parents shopping for “back to school” necessities and found the Christmas decorations a couple of aisles away from school supplies. Again there was loads of candy.  Then just before Christmas, the valentine cards, and again loads of candy, made an appearance.  This past week, I found that the valentine supplies were almost overshadowed by the Easter bunnies and eggs and guess what? HEAPS OF CANDY! 

Once July 4^th is over, it seems that we are hit with a whole string of holidays.  We have Halloween, “back to school”, Thanksgiving and now we not only have Black Friday but it seems Cyber Monday has taken over as the ultimate retail conclusion of the year.  It seems that we can’t possibly ignore this onslaught because retailers will remind us every time we enter their stores. 

Time seems to be slipping by so fast and the world just keeps going faster and faster. Whatever happened to just enjoying the time that we are in now and enjoying the moment?  I’m not advocating that we can’t have the joy of anticipating holidays but if each of the holidays are blurring into the next one, is this really “living”?  If we see Christmas trees, Santa, or the Menorah for four months out of twelve, isn’t it hard to get excited when it’s actually time for them to be celebrated?

I also know that the rush to push each holiday comes down to the stores that are into the commercialization of those holidays. But where does it end?  Will the stores be displaying chocolate Santas next to the Easter eggs in a couple of years?  It’s pretty close to that now. If we buy into this false commercialization we might just see all of the holiday decorations – and candy – out all year!

Have you noticed how much candy is devoted to each of the holidays?  I hadn’t really thought about it until this post. Any bets on when we’ll see the first packages of Halloween candy on the shelves this year?

We are always getting ready to live but never living. Ralph Waldo Emerson

Do not dwell in the past, do not dream of the future, concentrate the mind on the present moment. Buddha

Navidad en Mexico -- Christmas in Mexico

My husband and I will be leaving on the 19th for Mexico so we’ll be spending Christmas on our own in Mazathlan – a first for on our own and a first for Matzatlan. The children are adults with children of their own so they want to build their own family traditions. I’m all for this! I absolutely believe that they should be creating their own customs and they have my full support. We had a family get together today, which was chaos but a fun, lovely chaos.

I’ve been so very lucky to have spent Christmas, or some time in the month of Christmas in different countries so have sampled some fabulous traditions. Fo many years, I had Christmas in the UK with Christmas pudding and mince pies (niether are to my liking but my husband adores both!), crackers (filled with little silly jokes, toys and hats) and boxing day celebrations. Every year we would visit an outdoor market in Bath where the aroma of mulled wine mixed with cedar, woodburning fires and other holiday smells filled me with a true welcoming sense that Christmas was almost here. These little stalls filled with fasinating handicraft and traditional items were set against the beautiful backdrop of the Bath Abbey. Often there were choral groups performing a whole medley of Christmas songs. It’s an experience that’s hard to beat.

I’ve also been in Copenhagen and visited the open air handicraft stalls in Tivoli Gardens with twinkling lights filling the park and making it a fantasy land. We also watched the changing of the guard at Amalienborg Castle, the Royal Residence, during a light snow fall and then warmed up in a local pub with grog (warmed, spiced wine) and pepper nuts (the worlds best small spiced cookies). There was also a business trip to Stuttgart where I spent an afternoon wandering through outdoor handicraft stalls and again, the smells filling the air just gave me a sense of what an old fashioned Christmas must have been like before the days of Black Friday at the malls and shopping on-line.

One year, my husband and I were traveling through Paris at Christmas time when our flight was cancelled. We didn’t consider this a hardship at all because Paris during the Christmas season is a fantasy of lights and I think it’s actually known as the “City of Lights”, although they do celebrate Bonne année (happy new year) more than Christmas. We took the train into the heart of Paris for dinner and we were lucky in that there was snow and ice so The Avenue des Champs-Élysées had been transformed into a Winter Wonderland. The trees that lined this beautiful street were covered in strings of lights making it incredibly romantic.

I do really miss the outdoor markets found in Europe because they are all so special but my husband and I are forming new traditions now that we are living in the US. Visiting the beautiful Longwood Gardens in Pennsylvania is definitely one that we’ll keep. I guess that it was all of the poinsettias there this past week that really got me into the Navidad en Mexico spirit. And now, I’m looking forward to Christmas in Mexico. It’s a land of fiestas (festivals) and Posadas (processions) leading up to Christmas and I’m excited to see and learn about new customs and traditions.

There are probably as many Christmas traditions as there are families. Whatever your traditions are, I hope that you fulfill them and have a happy and wonderful holiday.

Please send me some of your own traditions – I’m interested to learn how you celebrate the holidays.

Whatever you do to celebrate – have a very wonderful holiday and enjoy the time with family.