A Jingle of Christmas Sentiments

The allure of spicy sweetness draws my Hubby to the kitchen. He slips over to the counter where the gingerbread cookies are cooling. He takes one.

“Mmmm, let me see,” he grins, picking up a second one. “I think I need another sample, just to be sure.”

I laugh. They’d clearly passed my Hubby’s taste test.

When I was growing up, I’d come home from school every day in December to a house filled with a melody of spice, cinnamon, vanilla, almonds and cloves. My mother was preparing for Christmas. No one in the family got to savour any of her sweets until Christmas Eve. That’s when she put out her holiday platter and generously kept it replenished until the New Year.

Once I had children of my own, I started baking gingerbread cookies. These days, I send a batch off to my son who lives across the country. I asked him last year if he still wanted them and he said, “Yes! Yes! And yes!”

So here I am, rolling out my dough. There’s flour dust everywhere; it’s all part of my Christmas experience. It’s a tradition that I adopted from my mother. It reminds me of the happy Christmases I had growing up. Making them today, connects me with my son.

I’ve always celebrated Christmas with a set of core traditions. Others have come and gone depending on how much sense it made to follow them.

Even the core ones have been adapted at times. Not all of Santa’s gifts have come wrapped or have been placed under the tree. I tweaked my mother’s gingerbread cookie recipe to suit my evolving tastes and those of my family. There have been large trees, small trees, real trees, artificial trees … but there’s always been a tree and lights. Even the Christmas just before Hubby and I moved out west.

That was the year we sold our family home, moved to a small condo and downsized to essentials which did not include a tree or decorations, except for a few keepsakes. We had multiple family celebrations lined up and thought that would be enough. We were wrong. While out shopping for gifts one night, we came across a beautiful pre-lit four-foot artificial tree. Within the hour, it was in our living room, unpacked and all lit up. It got designated “essential” and moved out west with us in the spring.

I believe part of the Christmas season magic is kindled by the traditions we dust off every year: the strings of lights that sparkle in the night and the evergreens that add warmth to even the sparsest of spaces. There’s the holiday music we stream, the sweet treats we eat and the gifts we share.

Christmas is inspirational. Its strength is in the hope it gives and the light it brings. Its power is in togetherness: connecting with community, family and friends. It’s about returning to our core values of love, kindness, gratitude, and compassion, focusing on the people we care for the most.