Skipping (most of) Christmas

This is an article I wrote for our embassy newsletter, which I publish monthly.

The American Christmas season, for us and many others, is a blur of shopping, wrapping, decorating, baking, church programs and of course, holiday parties – parties with family, friends, coworkers, the kids' schools. For lots of Americans, there is the added stress of traveling just to get to all these festivities. This month-long celebration of beloved traditions and favorite foods is so busy and so full of intense emotion that most of us are exhausted by January 1, and we're sort of relieved it's over.

So, I have to admit that this is one of the reasons we like being overseas during the holidays. Christmas is just…..simpler. We get to skip the lines at the mall, the awkward family get-togethers, the overeating. We get to believe in Amazon.com instead of Santa (he scares the kids, anyway). There's no sitting in traffic for us, no way. There will be no shoveling snow off the driveway for the 49 relatives coming over for Christmas Eve. We don't have to compete with our neighbor's musical, animated, Holiday Lights Extravaganza ….we don't even need to hang a wreath on the door if we don't want to!

On the other hand, we won't get to enjoy Mom's cooking, or window-shop downtown, or sing carols in a candle-lit church. We won't see the joy on the grandparents' faces when the kids perform their school program. We'll miss the thrill of waking up to a winter wonderland outside the front window. We will not be meeting our newborn niece.

Instead, we'll do what we can to enjoy what we have here: each other, new friends, a tree full of ornaments from Christmas' past. We will enjoy our days off of work and school, and make our favortie cookies. And on Christmas Day, when the gifts are all opened, we'll be heading to the beach.

Whatever Christmas or Hanukkah or Kwanzaa means to you, it's important to continue some of the traditions while you live overseas.....but join us in embracing the simplicity!