Shiny Brite Season

I've done all the decorating I can do this year. Shopping too. Not that that is ever a whole lot. I like Christmas to be about things you do, and not things you buy. But there are some things I find hard to resist, and one of them is vintage Shiny Brite ornaments.

I like them all. Big and small, plain and fancy, and in all colors. I've sold or given away most of those I've collected in the past, but a box full of classics like these at a giveaway price (which most of them are these days) must be given an appreciative home, even if they will only be enjoyed in the box just as they are.

And Christmas for me is about the small joys. Over the years of raising a family, we managed to do a wide range of traditions. Some only once, and some every year. Each child had a favorite. Like the gingerbread house. Stamping Christmas paper. Or baking. But you can't do it all every year. And you probably shouldn't try.

Christmas with kids almost defines the holiday. A lot of the magic of the season is invested in children. And that's where the joy began for most of us.

Now that my kids are grown, I have retired from the "job" of producing Christmas. Aside from trying to meet expectations (mostly my own), and financing a joyful celebration for seven youngsters, there were a great many events, parties, gifts, and projects in an impossible few weeks. Always with real life trying to go on in the margins. I see my parent children now struggling with the same issues of trying to balance the work of the Season with the joy.

But I'm back to the simple delights and "shiny brites" that first captivated my imagination as a girl in the first place. Sharing them with the new eyes and young minds of another generation. Showing them relics of a Christmas past, live with evergreen, and fragile. . . .