Mike Dougherty's Blog

Quieting Christmas clamor

What we have discovered at our house in the past couple of years is that you can enjoy the season of Christmas, both spiritually and secularly, without repeating everything you have done in past years.

That list might include things ranging from getting the entire roofline covered with icicle lights and stringing up every card you receive in the mail to going to every upscale neighborhood for viewing the battle of Christmas decorations and getting homemade cookies baked for every neighbor.

Sometimes we get some of them done and sometimes we don’t, but my wife and I have enjoyed the holidays just as much.

The children are in Texas. We planned to travel south to see them last year, but an illness caused us to postpone the visit until late February. We called it the February Festival and we enjoyed it so much that we are doing the same thing for the 2009-10 holiday season.

With less rushing to see different members of the family, we had time to attend a wonderful Christmas Eve candlelight service at North Little Rock’s First Presbyterian Church. It was a beautiful service, complete with a fourth-generation child being baptized in the sanctuary.

We got some of our cards mailed and others we did not. Some of the ones we received had photographs of friends and family whom we likely see several times a year, but never think to photograph.

One thing I did have an opportunity do for the second year in a row was make a phone call playing the part of Santa Claus on a last-minute check of the naughty-or-nice list to a pair of beautiful neighborhood girls. I don’t remember how the relatively new tradition started, other than from a conversation with a neighborhood mom. The first year only the kindergartner was willing to get on the phone with Santa, but this year, the younger sister — now a toddler — could not wait to get her turn on the phone. She was anxious to tell Santa what she wanted, but his old ears heard “a camera,” when what she wanted was “a camel.”

Sometimes even Santa can be thrown a curve.

What we have discovered, though, is that it seems to be easier to get the new year off to a good start when you are easing into January from a more deliberate speed, rather than rushing up to Jan. 1, trying to slow down.

Happy New Year. I hope yours is off to a good start.