Little stables and mangers made out of graham crackers, with frosted mini wheats as the snowy roof and animal crackers as the welcoming livestock — how was I supposed to say no to that? Our day didn’t have a lot of wiggle room in it, but it was a week before Christmas Eve, and my sentimentality toward nativity crafts was on high. It would be worth it to squeeze in an hour at the nearby rural town library. (It was! Even though there were a couple very non-cheery meltdowns to get there.)
Sometimes “squeezing it in” is how a lot of Christmas festivities feel. There is definitely pressure to pack in all the holiday activities, often both internally and externally so. This is the season to celebrate, so let’s do it all!
Dashing hither and yon like a bunch of overworked elves, however, isn’t always so conducive to Christmas coziness. There’s a good chance you’ve noticed this at some point in your own holidays, for as they say, the struggle is real. We want it all to be so special, to make all the sweetest memories, to do all the things, yet sometimes in order to be able to be actually present and enjoy the moments we have, we need fewer of them.
Fortunately, it hasn’t actually felt like too much this year…perhaps because, as you may have read, we have been pretty lax on the yuletide extravagance over here. A lot of that is also due to Brian’s and my personalities, as we tend to err on the side of low input, going with the flow and letting things slide by a little too much.
But Christmas has been one of my favorite times of the year since childhood, and my increased focus on Advent over the last years has only deepened my appreciation for the season. The kids adore all the decorations, lights, and carols (and extra candy, as you heard last week), and I adore their enthusiasm: Kiah will randomly stop whatever she’s doing at any point to run shrieking over to gaze at the Christmas tree, and Benson can be heard singing, “Emmanuel, Emmanuel,” throughout the day.
It is kind of a big deal — the hope, peace, joy, and love candles of Advent culminating in the Christ candle on December 25 is a good visual representation of all that came to the world in the light of Jesus. Not all holiday traditions we partake in expressly depict the nativity, but if they contain any hope, peace, joy, or love, they still point to it.
So of course we want to celebrate! To do the library gingerbread nativities, to pinterest some Christmas crafts, to wrap all the Christmas books in order to open them again. We cut paper snowflakes, let the kids roll and top their own snowman-shaped pizzas, took hot chocolate and popcorn along for our drive to look at Christmas lights.
Rarely have we had a Hallmark moment, and more often than not our sweet moments were mixed in with a bunch of not-so-sweet. The kids acted a whole lot more like the straight-out-of-the-field shepherds (or their stinky sheep) rather than the glory-filled angels; the hot chocolate spilled in the carseat, they threw Christmas books at each other, and somehow it became a travail to eat pizza. But Jesus came to a stable, so I guess we’re just trying to make him feel at home.
And an Advent email from Kate Bowler reminded me, “...joy isn’t something we have to manufacture every December like we’re on deadline. It’s cumulative. It sneaks in through smells, sounds, and moments we don’t even know are sticking.” I hope all these little memories of cozy, messy love and welcoming Baby Jesus will stick for my children. I know they are for me.
Super Cinnamon Ornaments
This is an easy tradition I’ve loved incorporating since having kids, and we usually do it with my friend and her kids. True to form, one child had to be forcibly wrangled inside and one kept trying to eat the dough, but we had some lovely moments interspersed between the cinnamon smeared everywhere and the fighting over the rolling pin. For days while the ornaments were drying, I could smell that spicy cozy aroma almost anywhere in the house, so that’s a bonus. We like to keep one each year and give the rest away.
Prep tips: I usually buy good cinnamon, like from Glenn’s Bulk Food, but go cheap for this project.
• 1 cup cinnamon, plus more as necessary
• ¾ cup unsweetened applesauce
• 2 tablespoons glue
• optional: a tablespoon of any/all: ginger, cloves, allspice
• objects for patterns, ribbon for hanging
Mix cinnamon, applesauce, and glue, plus any additional spices. The “dough” should be moist but not wet or sticky, so add more cinnamon if you need to to make it workable. Roll it out on parchment or a silpat, and cut out with seasonal cookie cutters, rolling in a pattern if desired (evergreen fronds or holly leaves are nice). Use a straw to punch a hole for the ribbon, then let dry on parchment paper for several days.
Lettuce Eat Local is a weekly local foods column by Amanda Miller, who lives in rural Reno County on the family dairy farm with her husband and two small children. She seeks to help build connections through food with her community, the earth, and the God who created it all. Send feedback and recipe ideas to hyperpeanutbutter@gmail.com.
