Nobody can tell you
There’s only one Christmas song worth singing
They may try to sell you cause it hangs them up
to see someone like you living your own kind of holiday life

But you gotta make your own kind of season
Live your own special song
Make your own kind of Christmas music
even if nobody else sings along!

You might be nowhere this season
The loneliest kind of lonely
It may be rough going
Just to do your thing is the hardest thing to do

So you gotta make your own kind of Christmas music
Sing your own special song
Make your own kinda season
even if nobody else follows along…

Thanks to the holidays, Cass Eliot and all of my readers for the inspiration to be here!!!

The holiday season can be the most wonderful time of the year, but for those without close family or friends (or if they’re far away), for those living in poverty, for people with chronic conditions, and other reasons Christmas can be: discouraging, dismaying, disheartening, and in some cases, dismal. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/11/22/how-to-get-away-with-christmas/. Life for too many has become an exercise in survival, with little in the way of comfort and joy. This season and every season I’m focusing on the simple things, the little things, I triple dog dare you to do the same.

So far my “simple” Christmas activities have been: Attending a relaxing and informative Zoom workshop about holiday card-making presented by: Paint It Out (http://paintitout.ca/) featuring artist, Salima Andany (salima@paintitout.ca) and Chronic Not Hopeless (https://www.facebook.com/groups/1875955569247115) – we gladly accept donations chronicnothopeless@gmail.com. When I began painting, thanks to an inspiring class taught by Salima, I only liked acrylics, they just seemed to speak to me, but during this program I heard the voice of watercolours and my art heart grew three sizes that day! For those wishing to spend some time with others with chronic conditions, our Chronic Not Hopeless workshops are accessible, positive, and everyone seems to have fun, what else could you ask for? Oh yeah, they’re free! For those who are interested there will be two more workshops this season, Wednesday December 6th, 2023 at 11am ET: Wreath Making and Wednesday December 13th at 11am ET: Ornament Making. Contact: chronicnothopeless@gmail.com for free and safe Zoom links, more info, supply list, etc. Hope to see you there and BYOB – Bring Your Own Beverages (no judgment) and most of all, your imagination!

To say the King Edward Choir Christmas concert, “Winter Lights” https://www.kingedwardchoir.ca/ at the Collier Street United Church in Barrie, Ontario (that’s in Canada eh) was a delight would be the maximization of minimizing. It was soaring, never boring! There was singing, our hearts were ringing! Who out there Believes Hot Chocolate Season is the literally most wonderful time of the year? The King Edward Choir must believe because when we boarded the “Polar Express” we heard: “Hot! Hot! Oh, we got it! Hot! Hot! Yo, we got it! Hot chocolate! Here, we’ve only got one rule: Never ever let it cool!”. People who understand my passion for chocolate, including but definitely not limited to hot chocolate understand why this song is near and dear to my heart and stomach…all the year through.

KEC invited us to sing along to wonderful Christmas carols then we listened to many lovely tunes by: Irving Berlin – We may have our love to keep us warm but heading into my first Barrie winter, I’ll also need warm clothes and hot chocolate after digging out of the “Snow, snow, snow, snow!” with my electric shovel as we head toward a hopefully white but not too White Christmas.

There was so more: Tchaikovsky; John Rutter; and they added a very contemporary tune, “I Want To Stare at my Phone Screen With You”, awww, how sweet, I really hope they can keep their 5G holiday romance charged all year long.

In 90 minutes (with intermission) we had ourselves an early Merry Little Christmas (https://yadadarcyyada.com/2021/11/27/have-yourself-a-merry-little-christmas/), with triumph voices rising. My toes were still tapping long after my hands had stopped clapping. Kudos to Leanne Edwards, Artistic Director/Conductor and Katie Pergau, Accompanist and of course the richly melodic women and men of the choir, including my amazing sister-in-law who added her honeyed tones, smiling face, and I saw some dancing/swaying too. If you get a chance to see the King Edward Choir, or other choirs where you live, please do, there’s really something about voices together, raised in song that brings peace and comfort in any season.

You can also join a choir because as we know, “The best way to spread Christmas cheer is singing loud for all to hear.” (Elf).

As luck would have it I entered their raffle (proceeds to the Barrie Food Bank) and I was one of the lucky winners of a very generous (and heavy) basket of goodies: wine; cheese; cookies; coffee; tea; a lovely and warm scarf; a wooden puzzle that’s driving me mad but I’ll get it, I will; many chocolates – I’ll have you know I still have some left, ok, I don’t have any left, but they were divine; etc.

I understand they raised over $1000 for the Food Bank! I certainly left believing in the Spirit of the Season. I’m looking forward to “The Armed Man: A Mass for Peace“ by Welsh composer, Karl Jenkins, which the King Edward Choir will be performing May 4th, 2024 (mark the date and/or look around you, there are activities, in person or online which you can do together or by yourself – I attend all kinds of concerts, plays, travel the world, etc. all from the comfort of my bed!).

Chronic Not Hopeless hosted a virtual Christmas book club, Chronic Page Turners – can you guess what the book selection was for December? “A Christmas Carol” by Charles Dickens. Still a classic. Who’s your favourite character from the book? What’s your favourite film/TV adaptation of this timeless tale of trauma and redemption? https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/12/11/the-christmas-carol-awakens/

I waited until November 12th (https://yadadarcyyada.com/2013/11/02/christmas-comes-after-remembrance-day/) to start enjoying all the holiday season can hold. I’ve watched way too many Hallmark Christmas movies (https://yadadarcyyada.com/2021/12/02/24-days-of-our-christmas-lives/);

I had to watch “White Christmas”, of course. I don’t wanna wash my hands, my face, or hair in snow and I definitely don’t wanna shovel it, hmm, but snow angels and snowmen are fun. With this much snow you gotta learn to make some snow lemonade from those snow lemons…

“Miracle on 34th Street” (black and white version, so no blue teeth); “Elf”;

I always watch “A Charlie Brown Christmas” with my son on Christmas Day (traditions of any kind can be fun and comforting)…

It’s beginning to look a lot like Christmas. I hope you can celebrate or don’t celebrate your way, not the way stores, corporations, and movies/TV shows tell you to celebrate or not celebrate. So do any, all, or none of these. Go see some lights! Read a Christmas book! Write a Christmas book! https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/06/21/how-to-get-your-book-published/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2019/07/07/how-to-be-a-bestselling-author-in-3-days-or-less/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2021/05/21/how-i-met-your-author/

Bake some cookies, then eat said cookies, alright, alright, eat and share said cookies or swap those cookies (hey you at the cookie swap, don’t be that person)! Play some games: board, card, word, video, computer, whatever, just have fun! Make some candles or apple cider (not in the same pot)! Enjoy the crisp air with a moonlit walk (be safe, be aware of your surroundings, there are some naughty elves out there)!

Snap on those snowshoes (check your local library, you’d be shocked at what their Library of Things has, including snowshoes)! Swish, swish, go cross country skiing! Make some of your decorations and cards – homemade comes from the heart (also dollar, thrift, and craft stores and probably with some cursing involved)! Volunteer, give what you can, including your time! Watch holiday movies/TV shows, including but not limited to: “Die Hard”; “Happy Days”; “Gremlins”; “Gilmore Girls”; “Buffy the Vampire Slayer”; “Bridget Jones’s Diary”; “Downton Abbey”; “Scrooged”; “Seinfeld”; “Tim Burton’s The Nightmare Before Christmas”; “The Golden Girls”; “A Christmas Story”; “Community”; “Lethal Weapon”; “Call The Midwife”; “Batman Returns”; “Murdoch Mysteries”; “It’s a Wonderful Life”;

“ELF”; “M*A*S*H”; “The Holiday”; “National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation”; “The Santa Clause”; “Meet Me in St. Louis”; “South Park”; “Cast Away”; “Will and Grace”; “The Shop Around The Corner”; “It Came Upon A Midnight Clear”; “The West Wing”; “Rocky IV”; “Black Mirror”; “The Twilight Zone”; “Going My Way”; “March of the Wooden Soldiers”; “Ted Lasso”; “Home Alone” (When are we going to admit Kevin just had bad parents? And thank goodness they were incompetent robbers.);

“Trading Places”; “The Guardians of the Galaxy Christmas Special”; if you can find it, the 1978 “Star Wars Holiday Special“; “White Christmas”; “Friends”; any version of “The Nutcracker” (but the Elle Fanning version, well, it’s ‘unique’); “Glee”; “Holiday Inn”; “The Office”; “The Mary Tyler Moore Show”; “Eight Crazy Nights”; “While You Were Sleeping”; “30 Rock”; “Meet John Doe”; “Mad Men”; “Bell, Book and Candle”;

“We’re No Angels”; “Remember the Night”; “Holiday Affair”; “Lost”; “Krampus”; “Black Christmas”; “Pocketful of Miracles”; “The Lion in Winter”; “Anna and the Apocalypse“ (nothing says Christmas like a musical romantic comedy with zombies); “I’ll Be Seeing You”; “The X-Files”; “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia”; “The Bells of St. Mary’s”; “New Girl”; “Edward Scissorhands”;

Doctor Who Christmas specials; “Reindeer Games”; “Family Guy”; “Mean Girls”; “Santa Claus Conquers the Martians”; “Babes in Toyland”; “My So-Called Life”; “Little Women”; “The Simpsons”; “The Man Who Came to Dinner”; “How i Met Your Mother”; “A Christmas Carol”, so so so many Grinches, Santas, Rudolphs, Peanuts gang, and Scrooges; “Love Actually”; “The Ref”; “Grumpy Cat’s Worst Christmas Ever”;

“The Family Man”; “Bad Santa”; “Christmas in Connecticut”; “Holiday in Handcuffs” (this happened and we let it happen); “Bundle of Joy”; “The Bishop’s Wife”; “Parks and Recreation”; “Crazy Ex-Girlfriend”; “Prancer”; “Bright Eyes”; “Love Finds Andy Hardy “; of course, “Monty Python’s The Meaning of Life” and soooo many more!

Visit someone who may be lonely at this time of year, or anytime! Go caroling! Make a gingerbread house (use royal icing not just icing, I speak from experience, the horror, the horror!)! Go ice skating or watch ice skating! Go out and have a Happy Festivus!

Make your own Advent calendar! Have a potluck dinner with family and/or friends! Have a Christmas pajama day or party! Remember to save money on gifts, food, etc. Knit or at least wear a ‘spirit sweater’ aka ugly sweater or a Ho Ho Ho hat!

Cause it can’t really still be all about the gifts after decades of watching “How The Grinch Stole Christmas”, can it? Can it?

Please, please, please tell me it means a little bit more. https://yadadarcyyada.com/2015/12/18/these-arent-the-gifts-youre-looking-for/ https://yadadarcyyada.com/2017/12/18/twice-upon-a-christmas-carol/

Don’t hurry, don’t scurry, don’t worry. Rest is best in a harried holiday season. What gets done gets done, everything else should be fun. So here, we’ve only got one rule: Never ever let it cool! Hot, hot, hot hot chocolate; find your inner marshmallow and melt into the season.

There’s a lot of division these days, mountains of snowy drama that seem to grow during holidays. Make your kindness like snow, let it float down and around, each little wonder covering hardships, drama, and woe. When you’re worried and you can’t sleep, count your blessings instead of being sheep, and you’ll fall asleep counting your drama-free blessings.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays!

See you in 2024, we’ll visit some more!