This month, Shine Parenting Gurus were asked to share tips on how we get through the holiday season without going (too) crazy. As many of you probably know, I can quote Christmas Vacation in my sleep, so it seemed appropriate to pay it (and my wonderful, well-meaning, fun-loving family) homage with this post. You may be asking, “You serious, Clark?” Why yes, yes I am…
Growing up, our holidays were just as they were supposed to be. My dad would hang the lights on the house—literally flipping off the roof at least two years that I can remember—only to discover half of the strands weren’t working when he plugged them in. Then there was the year my mom decorated the tree to perfection—mostly alone because my brother and I were too cool to help (and my dad was likely messing with the outdoor lights)—and within hours it fell and crushed many of her most precious ornaments. Our standards were high, but at times, our spirits weren’t. That is, until we started kicking off each season with a family viewing of National Lampoon’s Christmas Vacation.
Clark. Ellen. Audrey. Rusty. Each year, my family lived up to our nicknames. (And many of the supporting characters weren’t too far off from our reality either.) By acknowledging ourselves in these characters, and embracing our imperfections, our holiday mistakes quickly turned to holiday cheer. After all, if you can’t laugh at yourself (right away), at least the rest of the family can laugh at you.
Now that I have a family of my own, I’m married to a Clark and have a couple little Rustys to keep things interesting at the holidays. The other day Clark came home with, well…some interesting decorations. The red light bulb for the front porch and the big “Ho”s to hang in the front window looked a bit more Amsterdam than North Pole to me, but I went with it. How could I not after seeing Big jump with joy over the red light and Little enthusiastically hang the (now torn) letters in the window?
And when we quickly discovered last year’s twinkle lights weren’t twinkling anymore? Well, that’s nothing a late-evening family trip to Home Depot couldn’t solve. Except Home Depot didn’t have what we needed. And then it was nothing an early morning family trip to Target couldn’t solve. (We needed to replace the oversized ball ornament Little broke playing indoor kickball anyway.)
Our Christmas tree shopping in the rain left us with a crooked tree that’s so wide it blocks the front door. And, yes, one of the strands of (brand new!) lights on the house is already out. But I’m determined to make this the hap-hap-happiest Christmas my family has ever seen.
I’m pretty sure years from now, my kids won’t remember what Santa brought this Christmas, but I certainly hope they remember the laughter, being trusted to pick out the “perfect tree”, belting out carols in the car, baking our favorite treats for friends and family and the special time we spent enjoying it all together.
And though my boys are too young to watch the movie with us, you can bet my husband and I will be laughing our way through Christmas Vacation and continuing to quote it as we run into the inevitable hiccups that come with this season.
How about you? What’s your trick for getting (and staying) in the holiday spirit?
I too grew up with watching Christmas Vacation and the oh so ever popular Christmas Story. Love both and yes they let you know that even though we have these great, perfect ideas for the holidays, they may not turn out that way but soon we can laugh at ourselves. We too picked our tree out in the rain yesterday and what I loved the most was how exciting it was for our kids! After getting the tree my son kept saying “Yea, now we get to stay inside all day to decorate the tree”. Seeing the holidays through their eyes is the best. I have always been controlling when it comes to decorating the tree and this year I let the kids do it. Yes, all the ornaments are down low and it looks a little tilted but the joy they had decorating it and eating dinner in total silence because they were just staring at the tree is all worth it! This year my goal is to “let go” my “perfect x-mas ideas” probably won’t turn out the way I want them and why not let the kids do it make make memories of their own.
How sweet that the kids were so excited about decorating the tree! See, in our house getting the lights perfected takes about a week, so we should be able to get the ornaments on by Christmas Eve. Enjoy your imperfect, but perfectly sweet holiday!
When my deep voiced Dad was young enough to climb a ladder to the top of the chimney (before we lit our Christmas Eve fire), equipped with a voice enhancer (aka a 4qt Revereware pot) and some jingle bells, he’d yell our names, his reindeer’s names, and lots of “Ho ho ho’s” down the chimney. That along with giant ashy footsteps in the living room the next morning made my sister and I true believers and early-to-bedders!! When I had my own children, the tradition continued by way of a long distance phone call, with my Dad again playing Santa. One year we got a good laugh out of it when he forgot the reindeer names and invented his own, and hence Jetson and Bletzer were born. We thought the kids would catch the error, but they didn’t. The looks on their faces while clutching the family phone was truly a sight to behold!
I absolutely love this story! My parents told Big that they knew Santa’s phone number last Christmas, so he kept asking to call. Luckily we found some cool personalized Santa things online that he loved!
Loved reading this! Each year the kids seem to “get it” more and more and it is so fun to see. They truly get so excited seeing all of the lights on the houses and were beside themselves with joy when I pulled out all of the holiday decorations. If you walked into our house you would never know that it’s actually “decorated” because it actually looks more like a picked-over, 50% off after-Christmas sale. The kids “decorated” – need I say more?
That’s so cute! I told Lenny that we needed to get some more sophisticated decorations and he reminded me that for the foreseeable future, our decorations are not meant to impress anyone but our kids. Good thing!
I love it! I used to have the Martha Stewart house with perfect white lights everywhere…now thanks to my husband and boys who are lovers of all-things-tacky, we have colored lights galore! And I’m embarrassed to admit that we have some on the “blink” mode, a neon rope around the palm tree and a blow up snowman. If there is such a thing, our house will make the Christmas “Don’t” list in the back of Glamour but the kids think it’s the most beautiful house on the block!
Heather, if someone as classy as you has a blow up snowman, I’m thinking Martha will have one on her cover in no time. Let’s face it, the fun we have with our little ones is even better than a Good Thing.