The Christmas season is here. This cannot be denied. Stores are decked out in their holiday finest. Christmas tunes accost us everywhere we turn. Frosty the Snowman and Rudolph are showing on the television. We can get our yearly fix of It’s a Wonderful Life on Turner Classic. Yet somehow we don’t feel in the holiday spirit.  We just cannot get ourselves to be jolly or merry. We don’t need the Grinch to steal our Christmas, grief has done that for us.

All of those traditions and simple ways we marked the holiday now don’t seem so important. The tree sits in the attic where we left it last January.  The lights are in their box in the garage and the wreath has yet to make it out of the basement.  We just don’t have the desire to decorate.  We feel like we should do something, but our hearts are just not into it this year.

Here is a radical suggestion: Don’t.  Don’t put up the big tree this year. Maybe get a small tabletop one or a smaller easier to assemble type or don’t put up a tree at all.  Don’t put up the lights inside or out.   Leave the wreath where it is and the windows and doors bare.  The fireplace mantel can remain garland free and stocking-less. There are no decorating police who will come to your house and inspect it for its Christmas cheer. Martha Stewart is not going to judge you for your lack of red and green décor. So stop putting additional pressure on yourself to do something you just don’t have the energy or desire to do.

Instead visit friend’s homes or drive around the neighborhood and enjoy everyone else’s lights.  As I watched my neighbor standing precariously on a ladder far above the ground trying to string his lights across the gable of his roof line, I was glad that it wasn’t me risking my life for a few twinkling evenings. I vowed to re-visit his home at night to enjoy his labors, but I am not feeling any pressure to match his festive feats.  In fact I saw a great photo on Facebook that shows a house all decked out in lights and the house next door strung some lights that simply said, “Ditto.”

Ditto – that is all you need to say. I will enjoy your efforts, but I cannot bring myself to do this for myself this year. So you bring the lights, the trees, the wreaths, the blowup Santas and boughs of holly and I will look at it all and enjoy it and simply state that this year is my “ditto” year.

If you need some grief support this holiday season and throughout the year, contact our Director of Grief Support, Nancy Weil, at 727-524-9202.