Happy holidays in health and connection 🎄💙

Sunday, 24th of December 2023 [109]

Wherever in the world you are and whether you celebrate Christmas or celebrate different ways or are a bit of a Christmas Grinch I wish you a happy, healthy and peaceful holidays, hopefully spent with family, friends or alone if that is how you like to celebrate.

For quite a few years I did my best to ignore Christmas. I never really liked them much anyway, as my family is a bunch of weird folk and we seem to love arguing in this festive season.

From time to time I would crave a huge family Christmas celebrations. I’d travel to Poland to satisfy that craving, but I soon realised that the bigger the gathering the more fuss about it all, the bigger chances for arguments and tears, even if I myself was not involved in them.

With time I’d opt for smaller and quieter Christmas spent just with my ex husband. Needless to say that when I split up with him, the traditional way of spending Christmas slowly disappeared from my life.

‘Christmas are for children’ - I’d say to myself. Since I had none, I decided it will be easier to put on the Christmas Grinch hat and socks on and ignore it all.

Ok… there was more to it. I also loathed the traffic around Christmas and the whole shopping madness, as well as Christmas decorations available for sale as early as before Haloween. The Christmas became more about spending money and the competition rather than a peaceful time spent enjoying time off work with loved ones.

So I let go and in the process I became just a little bitter about it all. My next (also ex) partner very much shared my view for Christmas. Yes, we visited family and enjoyed time with them, but without gifts and decorations and going over the top.

Once I was on my own again I did my best to ignore it all. I’d tell one friend that I spent this time with another one and that other one that I spend it with yet another one and I made sure to call my parents for xmas eve, then hide away from it all, checking when the next salsa party is happening 😆

Whether you choose to celebrate or ignore it all, you can’t really escape that festive season no matter what. Unless you lock yourself indoors starting from November. Majority of people are deep into celebrating Christmas and decorations are all around us, making it hard to ignore.

In Gliwice, where I went for Christmas shopping the Christmas tree was huge and beautiful. I couldn’t resist taking a few captures of it… from far away at first, then from up close, from one since and from another. There was lots to capure there!

When I approached it from the opposite side of the road I was a little confused as to whether it’s the same tree. I remembered the huge red baubles, but they were nowhere to be see from this perspective.

Only when I walked closer to it I realised it was done on purpose to have that effect. On that side it really looked like a different tree.

What does Christmas Grinch do capturing the Christmas decorations all of the sudden? I’d like to say that it’s just to enter qurator’s photo quest this week, but in fact, I took those pictures before I saw the announcement post.

What actually happened is I decided to let go… not let go of Christmas and traditions and ignore it all as I have done in the past year. I decided to let go of my preferences, cause according to the book I’m currently reading, the preferences are the root of all our unhappiness and anxiety.

It’s hard to let go of all of them at once, but I decided to let go of one preference at a time and see how/if it affects the way I feel. A part of me resisted coming home for Christmas, but another part asked when will I have another opportunity to spend 3 weeks with my aging parents? My company it’s closed for a week at this time of the year and by booking 2 weeks off just before Christmas I can have an extended holiday to really unwind.

Christmas or not, I decided to take 3 weeks off and spend them with my parents. Weirdly enough this made me feel a little Christmassy and I went shopping to pick up Christmas pyjamas for all 3 of us, as well as gifts for my nieces and sweet treats for everyone I’d be visiting at that time.

I wasn’t overly keen on decorating Christmas tree, but dad got all excited and dumped the tree and decorations in my room a day too early, as he thought Christmas eve was yesterday 😂

It was a very funny day. We laughed a lot when he almost finished all of his xmas eve cooking and asked my mum if she bought fish yet. She said she’ll do so tomorrow and only then he realised that it was 23rd and not the 24th yet 😂 As a result I had my favourite dish ready to eat ahead of Christmas. Not moaning at all!

The kept on the tradition of decorating Christmas tree up on the Christmas eve though. Not cause I’m so traditional, but because I’m so lazy! The preference to do things ‘later’ rather than ‘sooner’ is still very much a thing. Hopefully the one to leave sooner rather than later!

This post has been written as an entry to this week’s #qurator’s photo quest. To participate click the link -> with announcement and rules and make sure to follow them all!