It’s a beautiful day out. Blue skies, wonderful trees opposite, now turned the colour of orange zest. The light, the colours are what I hope for for autumn.
But in fact, it’s December already. Right now it looks a long way away from Christmas card scenes of snow, robins and the like. Yet I know, from the eagerly awaited first door of the advent calendar, that we are on our way there.
An idea came to me today: my own version of a Christmas Carol. No need for ghosts, chains and so on, I trust. But a chance to think about Christmas through the lens of the story: Christmas past, Christmas present, and maybe some Christmas future too.
As adults, we may find it hard to look to the excitement of Christmas, when we are considering to do lists, and more dates in the diary, and so on.
Yet we may well have earlier memories when Christmas was all about anticipation, amazement. I want to capture some of that.
At the same time, none of us live purely in traditions. There will be some we take, some we dispense with, but there are also the tasks of all year round: clean the sink, wash the clothes, cook the evening meal.
I want to see what elements of anticipation may be there in the everyday, as well as in the more deliberately Christmassy activities.
In a Christmas Carol, Scrooge was given the chance to look forward and see how things might be if he didn’t change. I don’t want to be in that category either: but I’d also like to think about how Christmas might be in the future.
What would it look like to spend Christmas in another country? What if I ever finally tackle cooking turkey for multitudes? What would a Christmas be like if presents weren’t part of the picture at all?
I don’t know that I am signing up to any or all of these, but I am interested to think about it. What makes Christmas Christmas for me, my family – and what in fact is open to change, maybe to improvement too?
And if I can dig out our copy, it might be a good time to read Dickens’ original too. I’ll see what happens on that one, but I’d like to find out how the original works, separate from Grinches or Muppets, fun though they are.
Over on Facebook for November, I joined others in looking at what I was grateful for, day by day through the month. It was great to see the variety of responses – in different countries, different settings.
I’m hoping that this Christmas Carol will keep going with the gratitudes. But I hope I will also find a way to look at anticipation, longing, uncertain beginnings, and moments where I am simply present to what is happening.