Tag Archives: holidays

Under the Mistletoe

I often wonder if kissing under the mistletoe wasn’t started by a couple of kids quite by accident. In my imagination, I could envision a couple of kids playing in the woods behind the house, jumping on the piles of leaves and branches that had fallen on the ground and discovering a little sprig of mistletoe, and running after each other with it, like a game of tag. Again, in my imagination, I could envision this ten-year-old boy running after …

From Friend to Enemy in a Heartbeat

How does someone go from liking and respecting someone to disliking him enough to killing him? I might be able to understand it if this were a romantic couple and it was a crime of passion where emotions run so high that you don’t even register what you’re doing, but it’s harder for me to understand it in a friendship where there isn’t an emotional overload of a sexual nature. Sometimes, it’s motivated by jealousy but I can’t even imagine …

Holiday Depression

As a rule, during the holiday season, I used to see people being nicer and more jovial. Maybe not quite jovial, but more mellow. This year, there seems to be a marked decrease in the holiday cheer. Usually during the days leading up to Christmas, people used to be more patient when standing in long lines at the store. This year, there is more of an attitude of resignation. In the past, people used to talk to each other while …

Holiday Chocolate Addiction

It’s interesting to read articles about allowing ourselves to eat chocolate in moderation over the holidays to prevent us from feeling deprived. Most of them advocate that we plan ahead so that it’s included in the meal and, that way, we’ll be too full from the meal to gorge on it. I don’t know who these writers are but I can tell you, with absolute conviction, that if you have a sugar addiction, you won’t be able to stop with …

Christmas . . . Or Is it?

I’m a little bit confused. By this time of year, with only two weeks to go until Christmas, no one is acting like it’s Christmas. In previous years, supermarket employees were walking around with reindeer hats or red hats with bells on it, driving everyone crazy with the tinkle, tinkle, tinkle of numerous bells going off as employees walked by. And supermarket employees would be complaining about their Santa hats giving them headaches. This year, nothing. No reindeer hats. No …

Wait Until After the Holidays

The holidays tend to make us nostalgic, and many people make major decisions based on selective memories when they are feeling mellow, rather than on their true experiences of what really happened. It’s so easy to fall under the holiday spell of peace on earth, good will toward men, that you let the memories of your painful childhood and adulthood fade into the background. It’s at those times that, in a moment of weakness and longing for love and acceptance, …

The Thanks in Thanksgiving

Thanksgiving has always been a difficult holiday for me. From the time I was a very little girl and only wanted to eat a turkey with feathers . . . to when I became an adult and knew, with absolute conviction, that cooking would never be one of my better skills . . . to becoming an aware adult, that we only think about feeding the poor and homeless at holidays when we can feel magnanimous and spiritual, and seldom …

Less is More

From time to time I would hear someone say that less is more and it never made sense to me because I was always so busy multitasking, going from one project to another. I even used to read 35 books at the same time, alternating them according to what I was in the mood to read and never losing the drift of any of the stories. It seemed as though there were never enough hours in the day to get …

Does Santa Pay Minimum Wage?

Yes, I know. Christmas has come and gone but I just got around to putting away the Christmas cards that I received and I came across a card with Santa’s helpers, trailing behind him, carrying the gifts for his yearly delivery. And this got me thinking. Does Santa pay minimum wage to his elves? They work so hard all year, getting ready for his yearly distribution of gifts, and I wondered if they belong to a union and, if not, …

The Timing of Romantic Breakups

It’s very common for couples to break up around the Christmas holidays or birthdays. There have been numerous stories about people who have broken up with their partner around an important date only to get back together a month or two after the date has passed. There are many reasons for this phenomenon. I remember a man who was very in love with a woman he had been seeing for many years. He was bemoaning the fact that he didn’t …

Connie H. Deutsch