NOT in the slow lane, YET
The blog is about living life after 70 with joy, resilience, and purpose. NOT in the slow lane, YET is a source of positive, helpful advice encouraging people to set and achieve goals and find joy in life. The blog will cover personal experiences and thoughts and concerns. Topics of blogs will be health, retirement, fashion, travel, and living in continuing care retirement communities. The blogs will be short and appear at least once a month on my website www.nadineblock.com or by email if you choose. Come walk with me.
A Vintage View on Christmas Traditions
My holiday traditions have changed over the years. My senior living community has rules against real Christmas trees and decorations and natural candles, citing fire dangers. We are down to plastic and paper décor. I cheated a little. My Florida sister usually sends me a dwarf boxwood tree centerpiece covered in roses, red ribbons, and lights. I keep it watered and replenish the roses for a couple of weeks.
So far, my housekeeper has not reported me to the staff. I fear a knock at the door might announce a “Santa” police officer dangling handcuffs.
In my childhood, the older children on our dairy farm dragged evergreen trees and dripping handfuls of needles into the family room on Christmas. The copious needles led to dozens of vacuuming sessions, but the smell of the freshly cut evergreen trees was magical. Christmas was here. The little children went to bed early and fidgeted all night, waiting for Santa to land on our roof and come down the chimney. We opened gifts in the morning and dressed in our best clothes for church.
When we dragged the tree out after Christmas, it left a lingering pine smell.
Here, we have many public decorations and social gatherings. Our campus takes up thirty acres and is decorated for the holidays by our landscape crew. In each building, there are trees in public areas. Many of our residents have Christmas décor on their doors or the floor next to their doors. Wreaths and table decorations abound. Twinkling lights are wrapped around outdoor public entrances and trees.
I chair the Art Committee, which takes on the installation of two hundred nutcrackers in the dining and gathering areas during the first week of December. We unwrap them carefully, laughing at their little faces and costumes, and arrange them by size.
One group is for those who need someone with a ladder. Our average age of eighty-four means that residents do not do that. That is a rule we made up.
Our “Rusty Singers” group does caroling. Inviting smells of hot chocolate and cookies add to the festivities. There is a Christmas Buffet with lovely hors d’oeuvres, bountiful meats, seafood, mashed potatoes, multiple vegetable dishes, and desserts if you have room. The Culinary Director is an expert at carving an ice sculpture for the table. Reservations are necessary, and residents often entertain their families.
Seeing the dining room on Christmas day makes me so grateful to the staff who give up part of their holidays to make our holidays beautiful. We are fortunate.
We have after-dinner entertainment for a couple of nights in the Christmas season, often ending in a singalong. Our vans take residents with symphony and jazz concert tickets to holiday presentations. Unique events include evening van rides to see lights at the Zoo or in neighborhoods. Many of us have family nearby who invite us for a holiday party or dinner. If we are extra lucky, we can still travel to distant families and friends during the holidays.
A friend and I have gotten together for a few years at her house to bake fruit cakes. The recipes use candied fruit, nuts, dates, spices (and bourbon). They smell lovely when baking and bring back memories of my mom’s copious fruitcake output. We bake about sixteen of them in small loaves, as there are few fruit cake lovers. It is a dying tradition. Some people accept the gift and put it in a bread box until the following Christmas when it will be replaced.
It feels virtuous to keep up a long-standing tradition even if we eat most of it ourselves.
At my age, sad feelings creep in at Christmas. The sadness of having two sons, ages 62 and 57, die of cancer in the last five years. My husband died in an assisted care facility on December 21st, 2021, just after I moved here. I am not alone in experiencing feelings of sadness during holiday times. We all have a list of losses that come to us at Christmas. I acknowledge my feelings and think about things that make me happy. I am ambulatory and keep up a fitness program. I live in a lovely community and feel satisfied that I can contribute to it. I have many social friends and a few terrific friends. I have four living siblings who are staunchly supportive.
Life is good.
I long for the smells and sights of childhood. The fresh evergreen trees and their fantastic pine smells. When I must have their smells, I light a pine candle and let its aroma waft through my apartment. I know it is against the rules, but it smells so good.
Happy Holidays to you, in whatever form you observe them: Christmas, Kwanzaa, Hanukkah, and others.