simple holidays, part one.

It’s December 1st and our tree is twinkling in the corner next to our wall of books and the James Taylor holiday station is playing on Pandora and in this moment all feels peaceful and good.

I’m so excited about the Christmas season. I love watching the anticipation and delight on my kids’ faces, seeing them stretched out on the fuzzy rug in front of the tree playing with ornaments, whispering secrets about gifts. I love the Christmas hymns at church and finding light-glowing houses when we’re out at night and Christmas-y smells coming from the oven.

I love this season.

But I didn’t always feel this way. I remember times in our marriage when I dreaded the whole month of December, with it’s busyness and endless events, especially for those of us in ministry. I felt pressure all around me: to be present at activities, to make lots of memories, to have gifts for friends and neighbors, to bake for many pot-lucks. Just looking at my calendar in December made me weary.

But all of that drastically changed when we moved overseas. We went from over-packed Decembers to very quiet Decembers indeed. Among other things, living in another country jolted us out of years of habits and traditions and made us think about this season in a different way.

Few people in our part of Asia celebrated Christmas. And for those of us who did want to celebrate, there weren’t many choices when it came to decorations and food and gifts.  We didn’t have family close by. We didn’t travel. We celebrated with co-workers and pastors, but even those celebrations felt simpler, smaller. In fact, the difference was so vast that Christmas felt downright lonely sometimes.

But as much as we missed our families, we grew to love the quiet, even to embrace the loneliness. What better way to reflect on Jesus leaving everything and coming to earth than to be sitting in a foreign place missing home?

I think the main thing we realized living overseas was, The Christmas season doesn’t have to be crazy. And it doesn’t have to be perfect. It doesn’t have to rise up and match any expectations.

Christmas just is. Jesus came into this world as a baby, whether anyone in our apartment building has a tree or brings us Christmas cookies, whether we’re with our family or not.

Experiencing that reality was very freeing. Jesus was Emmanuel, “God with us,” in a very far away place, sitting under a tropical sun eating spicy biryani for Christmas dinner.

When we moved home two and a half years ago, we somehow managed to carry our new Christmas habits with us. It’s harder to keep things simple here in America, but I’m here to tell you it can be done.

Tomorrow I’ll give you some practical ways we keep Christmas purposefully simple as a family.