Still Christmas? — An Elegant Sufficiency

With a couple of free days this week I had an opportunity to complete something that’s been on my mind for too long: to finish my Christmas Journal for 2023. During November last year, with the building work still in full swing and our studio in absolute chaos, I felt I couldn’t even contemplate making a journal this year. My workspace was covered in dust, we were making our way around the room by squeezing past piles of stuff from elsewhere in the house and my mindset just wasn’t in the right place.

And then I looked at that shelf full of memories.

Christmas Journals from every year since 2005 with one or two rather older than that as well.

I thought of the times we’ve opened one up and spent time laughing and remembering. Did I really wear that dress…cook that recipe...? Oh, and that was the year when…

There are sad times in those pages too, those Christmases when we missed those we loved more than ever. But such treasures…how could I not do something to record what December 2023 was like?

I downloaded a set of prompts; “currently playing”, “loving this”, “seasonal reads” and so on and during December I jotted down a few ideas and took photographs. I decided to keep it simple and not attempt something every day, but simply to gather stuff and tell the story.

So there are few dates, though our Advent calendars seemed like a good place to begin.

I felt it was important to paint an accurate picture and though it would be simple to edit out the less than picturesque bits, I tried to include pages from my diary amongst the festivity.

Of course, there were fun things to include and those pages were easy and amongst the first to be completed.

Some pages are in every year: an example of our Christmas card and stamps from near and far. This year, I felt it was interesting to note that we didn’t get a single card with a First Class stamp on it - our friends have wised up to that unnecessary expense and simply post early for Christmas! (I printed one from the internet)

Another point of interest was the “plastic-free Christmas Crackers” at my WI Christmas lunch and the information about how much is saved by not including all that plastic tat in them. Actually, I rather loved the little wooden figures and the cardboard decorations and noticed that they were all taken home and not just left on the table.

But yes…

the reality was never far away!

With a few pages of wrapping paper and tags salvaged from the big day, together with a reminder of this year’s seasonal scents, I pulled it all together this week and before the end of February, with a day to spare…