Taking time to enjoy each holiday

We can hardly wait to get the Halloween candy off the counter before rushing in with Christmas candy and all that goes with it. This came home to me when on Halloween morning I went to the store to buy candy to hand out at the door that evening. Imagine my surprise when I was told there was none. They had a big weekend sale and it was all gone. The only candy on the shelf on Halloween day was for Christmas.

It seems everything is geared toward "what’s next." Hopping over one holiday, pouncing on the next. I thought of all the past holidays spent laughing and talking around the table. If I could do it over again, I would listen more and talk less, especially when my great-grandmother was at our table.

Fall and winter holidays weren’t rushed. We spent days on homemade Halloween costumes. We waited for the smell of the Thanksgiving turkey. No worrying about what gifts to buy, no trees or holiday decorations. We didn’t bolt out the door the next morning to take advantage of Black Friday.

Just us, our grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and friends – so many of them gone now – all coming together to enjoy a great meal with leftovers that we ate for days. Thanksgiving lasted the whole weekend. Family headed home, and it was only then, back to work and school did we begin to think about Christmas.

In those days, Santa brought the Christmas tree and we kids woke to see an overnight miracle. Santa left the tree, filled our stockings and left us modest gifts by today’s standards. The holiday lasted for the full 12 days of Christmas. Those days were spent hosting parties, visiting and having meals with friends. Then there was the New Year's celebration. Finally, on the 12th day of Christmas, trees would come down and be burned to celebrate the end of the Christmas season. It was an unhurried holiday season, from Halloween through New Year's Day, always stopping to enjoy each holiday before moving on to the next. That is a good reason to say, Happy Holidays!

Eileen Vernon

Trustee of The Bay Village Foundation. Retired lawyer. Resident of Bay Village for over 32 years.

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Volume 8, Issue 23, Posted 9:39 AM, 11.29.2016