Smile! It's Christmastime!

It’s that time of year again. It may have happened to you just this morning. It seems like only a week ago it was Halloween, Veteran’s Day, or Thanksgiving Day. And today you woke up and looked at your calendar, or saw the date in a corner of your computer or your phone and realized… It’s almost Christmas!

I have worked in retail for almost three decades (yes, I started working as a toddler). What I described above happens to me every year—sometimes it’s in early December, sometimes it’s… later December. Many years I have finished my Christmas shopping around 5 pm on Christmas Eve. A couple years, I’ve started it at about that time. So whatever manic mood, blissful ignorance, sheer panic or even terror you feel, I have felt it. And today, I offer you a little help.

I do not know how to turn back the clock or speed up the UPS truck; I offer and claim no mastery or manipulation of the rules of time and space. But I do have some ideas on something that is almost as good. I can help you feel Christmas-y during this frenzied season.

Whether I am worried about money, worried about food, worried about gifts, worried about whatever, connecting myself to Christmas helps me manage the madness, and even enjoy ninety-hour work weeks (I’ve had ‘em). This helps me feel like I’m with the ones I love, even if they are at home while I work… or even if they are hundreds of miles away (many of them are).

Here are my surefire ways to get yourself more into the Christmas mood and thinking of others, thinking of giving, thinking of living and not just surviving. I guarantee at least one or two of these will work for you!

Without further adieu, here are my Christmas Spirit Inducing Secrets… Satisfaction guaranteed.

Watch the right Christmas show or movie. There is a long list of holiday classics that fit the bill here. Elf, the Rankin Bass stuff like Santa Claus is Comin’ to Town, Charlie Brown, A Christmas Story, The Grinch, It’s a Wonderful Life, A Christmas Carol, etc. You have a favorite, you know it. Dust it off, pirate it, borrow it, do whatever you have to do to watch it now!

Everyone in my family loves some Christmas show that no one else gets. One kid loves Polar Express (ugh), another loves Arthur’s Perfect Christmas (better), and my wife loves Charlie and Lola (pretty good). And Spongebob and the Simpsons have a couple good ones too.  Guilty pleasure shows are the best—the ones that you have the most perfect link in the world to. The one that makes you think, “I am the only person on the planet watching this right now.” And it. Is. AWESOME.

My guilty pleasure is Mr. Krueger’s Christmas, a short film done in 1980 starring Jimmy Stewart (the holiday movie king) and produced by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Maybe it is because it just takes me back to my childhood, when my family hunched around a small black and white TV to watch Christmas specials. Maybe it’s because I love the message. Maybe I just love Jimmy Stewart’s enthusiastic portrayal of the title character in one of his last few starring roles… I just love it! My kids make fun of me, of it, of Jimmy, of the little girl, of Jimmy’s daydreaming, but I can barely get through it without tearing up as I remember, once again, the meaning of Christmas. Cheesy, dated, over the top, and absolutely priceless. Watch it until the end!

Watch your favorite un-Christmas movie. You know, a movie that has Christmas as the backdrop, but is not exactly about Christmas. But if you set the movie with, say Arbor Day as the setting, it wouldn’t be quite right. There’s a bunch: Gremlins, Better Off Dead, Batman Returns, Home Alone, some Harry Potter movies, and of course stuff like Die Hard. Note… these movies are not guaranteed to bring the Christmas spirit, but my favorites get me laughing every time. And when you are laughing, you’re probably not stressing.

Make your house smell good. Go to the grocery store and buy the two-dollar bag of pine cones that smell like Big Red chewing gum. It will give you a Christmas buzz every time you go in the same room as said bag of pine cones. I love me some Big Red scented pine cones.

Maybe that’s not your thing. Don’t fret, there are other things you can do to get your house smelling like Mrs. Claus’ kitchen. Go to Pinterest and find an elf’s recipe for homemade Christmas potpourri—just like grandma used to make. Or, be adventurous and start chucking nice smelling stuff into a pan of water and gently heat it til it smells like Christmas. Orange peels, cloves, cinnamon sticks, candy canes, whatever. I bet you can throw enough stuff in that pan to make your Christmas blues fly away on a Christmas-scented breeze.

If that’s not your bag either, get yourself a Christmas-y smelling candle. Come by my house, we have probably a dozen you can sample. Heck, you could probably steal one and we wouldn’t even notice. Nothing like stealing from Uncle Kevin to get you in the Christmas mood! But seriously, as much as I complain about my wife’s candle addiction, they do add an unmistakable difference to the house, especially at Christmastime.

Eat something. Better yet, make something, then eat it. Not just anything, preferably something nice and wintry. An easy favorite of mine is coconut candies with chocolate on top. They’re super easy to make, just a few ingredients (coconut, melted butter, sweetened condensed milk, powdered sugar, maybe a little vanilla) stirred up, then refrigerate and top with a blob of chocolate (melted chocolate chips for example). They only take a few minutes to make, and they are tasty… if you like coconut and chocolate and sugar. It’s one of my favorite things about Christmas—just like Mom taught me to make as a kid.

You’re thinking, right now, about something you like that is sure to put a smile on your face, and make your belly shake like a bowl full of jelly. Make it, or get someone else to make it for you, then devour it, preferably while watching Mr. Krueger’s Christmas in your Snuggie.

One more thing you can make and eat, that has the bonus of making your house smell good—bake some bread. Even if you don’t know how to do it, take a shot at it, and you’ll probably do just fine. And if you mess it up, your home is gonna smell awesome—bonus Christmas spirit. If you haven’t smelled that around your place for a while, you need to try it! My wife made bread this week and the house smelled amazing, and it just felt like Christmas.

If you are just completely pressed for time, and have no one up to the task of making you something tasty, you have my blessing to buy a store-bought treat. Might I suggest Trader Joe’s candy cane-flavored Jo-Jo’s (like Oreos with candy cane flavored crème filling), or pfeffernusse– German spice cookies. There is a 70% chance you will toss the pfeffernusse in the trash, and a 30% chance you will thank me forever if you’ve never had them before. If you like stuff like gingerbread and molasses and ginger snaps, you’ll love pfeffernusse.

So your house smells good and you’ve watched that show or two, and made and eaten plenty of Christmas-y treats, but are still feeling more like Scrooge or the Grinch than Cindy-Lou or Tiny Tim? My next suggestion will help.

Turn on the Christmas music. You probably have a list of favorite songs or albums to listen to this time of year. Here are some of my favorites, with a couple links. I bet there’s something here you’ve never listened to before, or at least not for way too long.

The classics: Elvis, Charlie Brown (by the amazing Vince Guaraldi), and my all-time favorite Christmas classic, the one Johnny Mathis did (called ‘Merry Christmas’). Johnny has a distinctive voice somewhere between Sinatra and Alvin and the Chipmunks, with amazing energy and passion poured into every song. It is perfect to sing along to. In fact, I’m singing along to it now, so forgive me for any typos.

Some fun family favorites: Barenaked Ladies, Cee-Lo, Michael Buble (yeah, I know), Band-Aid, the Carpenters (listen at your own risk), The Lower Lights, and some girl named Taylor Swift.

New age-y stuff: George Winston’s ‘December,’ Windham Hill’s ‘Winter Solstice’ series, Kurt Bestor’s ‘One Silent Night.’

Off the beaten path (and some of my favorites): Sufjan Stevens’ ‘Songs for Christmas’ (check the link above, just amazing, sprawling, by turns silly and beautiful), Patty Loveless’ ‘Blue Grass White Snow’ (awesome bluegrass-tinged, folky country Christmas songs), Brian Setzer Orchestra, Sarah McLachlan’s ‘Wintersong’ (check the link to her cover of the Gordon Lightfoot classic below), and anything by the Mormon Tabernacle Choir… just pick your favorite Christmas song and I guarantee they have sung it.

I like driving around at night with the family or a friend, listening to Christmas music and looking at the lights on all the houses we drive by. Sometimes we count how many houses have Christmas lights on our route. The other day I drove my kids to a function at the church, just a couple miles away, and we counted 39. It reminded me of doing the same thing with my family as a kid, driving home from Grandma’s on Christmas Eve, counting the lights, watching the sky for Santa and his reindeer.

If you’ve followed any of these suggestions, by now you are certainly feeling better about the holidays. I have a few more things that help me really make the most of Christmas. The next one is service.

Doing something for someone else helps us feel more like Jesus, and thus feel more in tune with why we celebrate Christmas. Even if it is simply tipping a waitress a bigger amount than she’s expecting, or giving a few dollars to a homeless man, those little acts of kindness go farther than we’ll ever know. If we can do something even bigger, we’ll feel even better.

I wrote last Christmas Eve about one of my favorite Christmases. The center of that memorable Christmas was my family taking time to do something special for some special people. That story is here if you’d like to read it: http://the-kla.blogspot.com/2014/12/the-best-christmas-ever.html

Speaking of Jesus, the final thought I have is this: read Luke Chapter Two. Even just the first half. It will only take you a couple minutes, but it is a beautiful account of the events surrounding Jesus’ birth. I can’t think of anything that better invites the spirit of Christmas than reading words written by and about Him and His prophets.

I love November and December! Though they are the two most draining, demanding, frustrating and stressful work months I have, they are also the most joy-filled months of the year, if I take a few little moments to remember all I’ve been blessed with, especially the gift of our Savior, Jesus Christ. I hope you have a wonderful holiday season, and seriously, give me a call if you need some Christmas cheer.

Merry Christmas!