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I realized, the point of holidays
isn’t perfection at all. It’s the
unique that’s memorable.
cool air rushed in and the chestnuts
started popping like gunfire,” Peach
said. “I had to commando crawl my
way across the kitchen floor to keep
from getting hit.” Still, it was her
favorite Christmas.
My friend Susan talks about one
Christmas Eve when her elaborate
dinner took longer than expected.
Trying to quell restless kids, her
husband reached to the back of the
cupboard and found some grape
juice— which turned out to be
Communion wine. They realized
their mistake when their 2-year-old
daughter, Rosette, “began laughing
and rolling around, happily showing
off, even when we got to church,”
Susan said. (No lasting harm done,
luckily!) Again, best-ever holiday.
I started to think Dan might be
right. The more I asked around,
the more I heard not about perfect
dinners and decorations, but of best-
laid plans gone awry: dogs wolfing
down roasts, ovens catching fire.
Amy’s favorite Christmas typi-
fies the theme I discovered in so
many recollections, of embracing
and finding joy in the unexpected,
no matter how “imperfect.” She
and her family had tickets to fly to
her in-laws’ in Florida, and Amy
had planned well, mailing gifts days
before and clearing out the fridge.
“We showed up at the airport on
Christmas Eve, but a snowstorm
grounded our flight,” Amy said.
They went back home, stopping at a
grocery store. “The next morning,
we had absolutely no presents, except
for a wooden whistle our neighbors
were kind enough to give our 2-year-
old son. He was thrilled. The snow
kept coming down, and we went
for a stroll through the village. We
still call that one our back-to-basics
Christmas. It was magical.”
And magical is pretty much as
good as anyone could want. The
point of holidays isn’t perfection at
all. In the end, meals get eaten,
presents get grown out of, and even
perfect greeting cards get thrown
away. It’s the unique that is
memorable. No matter our religious
beliefs, we celebrate holidays with
our families in part because these
rituals mark the passage of time
together. If we have a shared
memory that lingers— especially one
that makes us laugh— then we have
succeeded in creating not just a
holiday, but a true gift of the spirit. ■
MORE MAYHEM
Gone wrong is all right now
My mother wanted to make things easy, so she had Christmas dinner catered.
She organized it all, and we picked it up. It wasn’t until we tried to carve
through the turkey that we realized it was still raw! — Laurie P., Texas
One holiday, my mother, my aunt, and I got up really early to start cooking. We
decided to bake the cherry pie before the turkey. It took a while, so we started
drinking mimosas. We were having so much fun we didn’t even notice that the
pie had caught on fire until the alarms went off. — Cate C., Massachusetts
Years ago, my aunt made a
bûche de Noël
cake for Christmas Eve dinner. With
everyone admiring the fancy, delicious-looking cake, she mentioned she had
adorned it with holly sprigs from the bush outside the door— our dog’s favorite
“spot”! — Lori F., Massachusetts
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BETTER HOMES AND GARDENS | DECEMBER 2010 | BHG.COM
