Merriment and Mirth: My Christmastime To-Do List
“Our hearts grow tender with childhood memories and love of kindred, and we are better throughout the year for having, in spirit, become a child again at Christmas time.”
Oh I am already feeling the weight of how fleeting this season is. I am ready to hunker down. The days leading up to the solstice are short and dark. They don’t lend “much scope for the imagination” as our dear friend Anne Shirley says. There is no snow yet… just a foggy cloud hovers, muting the landscape. The LORD’s seasons are sure, and each one offers us a new rhythm. But being a business owner this time of year feels like swimming against the current. Even though I do have time to hustle and produce more product before the holiday season is over, I’m choosing not to. I will continue to be productive in my days to be sure, but my focus is on merriment and mirth, not marketing.
Usually I tell myself “…January is for enjoyment and rest.” but January is usually when I get a renewed burst of energy to begin new business projects. The cold is invigorating. The days begin getting brighter. There is hope for newness, in January. But it is now that I want to retreat into a warm mug of hot cocoa, lose myself in knitting, and frequently venture to the oven to pull out a fresh batch of whatever I decided to bake that day.
And so that shall be my pursuit. Of course I still continue to make lists, because that is what quiets the storm of ideas swirling around in my mind. If I don’t put them on paper, they will be blown away never to return to mind again! But this is not a to-do list as much as it is a can-do list. I most likely will not get to all of these activities this month, and that’s okay. But these are some of my favorite traditions I’d love to make time for and things I’d love to bake in our cozy Christmas Kitchen.
May this inspire you to slow down and cultivate merrymaking in your home this Christmas season!
The Christmas Kitchen
Bake my favorite classic Christmas cookies
Press cookies (also known as Spritz)
Sugar cookies with frosting
Russian Tea Cakes
Thumbprint jam cookies
Homemade buttermints
Challah bread
Cranberry sauce yogurt parfaits
Caramel corn
Chocolate covered pretzels
Sourdough soft pretzels
Merrymaking
Read Little Women
Watch It’s A Wonderful Life (the uncut version of course)
Paper snowflakes for the windows
Have a wintry bonfire
Diffuse Christmas essential oils
Wreath making
String garlands
Gumdrop
Popcorn
Cranberry
Orange
Gingerbread
Listen to Christmas playlists, CDs, and records
Go on a drive to see the lights
Decorate the front porch and window boxes
Buy/make gifts and wrap them
Write and mail Christmas cards
Rare original watercolor by Beatrix Potter, 1890
I linked the recipes that I could, the rest are either family recipes or ones I plan on sharing on the blog in the coming weeks. I’ll also be capturing much of this activity for my Youtube channel. I hope you will join me! What are some of the activities you enjoy this time of year? Are there any recipes, movies, or books that you find yourself associating with Christmastime traditions? Let’s cultivate some merriment in the comment section below.
A happy Christmas to you,
Kaetlyn
