This December, I’m slowly making my way through Calm Christmas and a Happy New Year by Beth Kempton (2019), savoring every sentence. In Chapter 1, the author presents The Five Stories of Christmas that focus on faith, magic, connection, abundance, and heritage. Today’s focal thoughts center on connection.
Kempton invites us to reflect:
Do you have a specific memory that is related to a Christmas tree, a Christmas feast, or a particular Christmas gathering?
I do, in fact, have a specific memory that is related to a Christmas gathering. We were in my grandparents’ home in Blackshear, Georgia, sitting in the den by the silver tinsel tree with its bright blue ornaments – probably 1970ish. Their friends Kitty and Randolph dropped by with a tin of Christmas cookies, and I remember my grandmother receiving the cookies with warm thanks and a big hug before placing them on the kitchen counter, then returning to the den, where Kitty and Randolph sat down and made their impromptu visit. When they left, they got in their pickup truck to deliver more tins of cookies to family and friends – who, I’m sure, also had no idea they were coming for the surprise visit.
That memory still stays with me as the way of the old days before life got more complicated. It was my first experience with a Currier and Ives tin, and my first experience with a variety of different types of homemade cookies, like the kind with sticky orange marmalade in the center. This was a day when people were home more, did more baking, and made house visits. Life may not have actually been simpler; in fact, it may have been just the opposite. But the values seemed to have been much different, and everyday moments were made more meaningful because less seemed more and enough seemed bountiful.
The older I get, the more I love the idea of these bygone eras. I think it’s why I love reading anything by Gladys Taber so much. Everything she wrote from her Connecticut farm, in my mind, is seen through a Currier and Ives painting. Rustic, rural New England with snow and simple times. It was a day when people really connected. Not through a screen, but in person. Unannounced.
On a scale of 1-10, I would rate the importance of connection, gathering, and feasting at Christmas as an 8. These ratings of each of the stories will be important on Friday, when I draw my Christmas story constellation.
Common Threads 
Connection is definitely important and especially at Christmas time. Since I spend the holiday away from friends and family, I schedule time before I leave to connect with them. I love planning these outings. It gets me ready for the season.
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Kim, yes, I agree with you: connection, gathering, and feasting at Christmas brings the blessings of love, family, friends and the wonder of the original Christmas event. I still bring out my mother’s humble 1940’s creche to remind me to honor her love of Christmas. May your holiday be filled with peaceful memories in the days leading to the holidays.
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Kim,
I’ve long found the holidays difficult. This year is no different. That said, reading your post took me to a couple of memories that eased the holiday angst for me: The time my dad brought a blue spruce tree home, and we walked to the corner drugstore and bought ornaments for it. The other memory is the candy sack given to children at my home church. It had ribbon candy, two chocolates, and an orange. It was such a treat. Now I need to get the book.
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Wow, Kim! This brought back a flood of unannounced visitors at our home when I was young. These unannounced visitors came throughout the year, not just at Christmas. Everything these days seems to planned or rushed and I agree that connection is essential to happy living! Thanks for sharing!
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Kim, you brought to mind long-ago Christmases when all the cousins gathered at our grandparents – we girls got crocheted ponchos and stuffed Dalmatian dogs. I could write of many gatherings, and the food, and stories of earlier generations when a stocking with oranges brought Christmas joy to eight siblings. We have so much more now and are far less happy. The lines hit home with me: “But the values seemed to have been much different, and everyday moments were made more meaningful because less seemed more and enough seemed bountiful.” It is true. I, too, love the bygone eras. Your reference to Currier & Ives stirred memories of my grandmother’s treasured Ideals magazines, with breathtaking photos of snowscapes and nature’s winter glory. I long for a good snow. Kemp’s collection of stories that focus on faith, magic, connection, abundance, and heritage is exactly my kind of book – will have to get a copy! Lastly – I am so intrigued by this idea of a Christmas constellation! Your post is a treasure in itself.
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Thank you so much, Fran! Your stuffed Dalmatian dogs make me think of the stuffed dogs I got at Shoney’s as a child. I had several – a Dalmatian, a pink poodle, and a beagle or something. And a green frog. It was when Shoney’s used to have the shelf behind the register and parents could buy their kids a toy so they’d sit still and be quiet. I was that kid who needed the toy, apparently. I do love the memories of yesteryear – and I’m finding that Kempton’s book is helping me sort the traditions to keep and the ones to let go. This year is a good year for me to do that – to pass on some things and keep to only what matters. Your reading and commenting is always such a joy to me!
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