Have you noticed that you can’t buy Charlie Brown Christmas Trees anymore? All the trees on the lots are perfect, full and symmetrical and ruthlessly trimmed so that not a branch is out of place. They are not the trees of my childhood that’s for sure. It wasn’t Christmas without mum and dad bickering over the tree. I can even remember dad drilling holes in the trunk and ‘grafting in’ branches to make some sad little specimen he’d dragged home look a little fuller. And while I’m on the subject of trees, when did everyone start color coordinating their trees? Worse yet, having themed trees? Christmas trees should be filled with ornaments handed down though the generations, they should be hung with odd little concoctions of popsicle sticks and macaroni that your child made in kindergarten. They should not be coordinated to match your couch.

I was in Michael’s the other day and noticed they had something called scented tinsel. Really? Why  - does your tree not smell the way it should? Does it need tree deodorant? If so, why not just go to the nearest gas station and buy a dozen of those little pine tree shaped thingies you hang from your rear-view mirror? Throw those on your tree, oh wait I get it, they wouldn’t go with the theme. This madness has to stop. 

Sometimes the best lesson you can learn is that things do not need to be perfect. Relax, let your tree smell like a tree. Don’t worry if all those homemade ornaments clash with your color scheme. Proudly display the cookies decorated by your kids. 

Last November I broke my wrist when I slipped on some ice. Well, there are quite of few things you cannot do when your arm is in a cast, not the least of which is bake cookies, write Christmas cards, or wrap presents. All that pressure to do those things that you think absolutely have to be done to make Christmas perfect, didn’t get done last year. And in the end, it didn’t really matter. I did what I could and didn’t get stressed about what I couldn’t do. It was pretty good actually. The girls were a great help. We came up with lots of ingenious ways of getting things done with me giving instructions and them trying to carry them out. 

So, here’s to an imperfect Christmas, homemade and filled with things you love, whether they go with your decor or not. And just for fun, here’s a list of some of the things I love: 

• the wreath of tiny handprints the girls made in nursery school when they were 3.
• the musical Christmas Angel Murray’s dad bought in Germany that sits in the middle of our Advent wreath each year
• the cardboard Santa and sleigh my father got for Christmas in 1936
• Oh, and my grandmother’s kuchen - which is perfect, every year.

Merry Christmas everyone.