It’s December, and that means no-one can escape from the commercial aspects of Christmas if you happen to live anywhere in the western world that requires going to shops, listening to commercial radio, watching tv (whether commercial or not!), reading magazines, etc., etc. My hushand works in schools, so he has been hearing and teaching Christmas songs and carols for several weeks already and the school concerts are in full swing.
Now I’ve left mainstream school teaching, I try to ignore the encroaching presence of Christmas until December hits. And the first weekend in December is when I sit down to write my Christmas cards. I’m not a religious person, so Christmas does not have any meaning for me in a religious sense. But for me it is an opportunity to create cards to connect with people in my life who I haven’t seen for a while, as well as for those I see more frequently.
I love to sit down and make the cards. The process of getting the pieces I’ve woven earlier in the year (if I have the time to weave them – which I haven’t this year, I’m afraid!!), or selecting the image that I want to use, framing it for each card, and writing the card and addressing the envelope is one that connects me to the recipients, whether or not they know it at the time. That moment when you are thinking of each person as you write the card, and the moment (of which I shall probably not be aware) when they receive and open that card and think of you, is important in the greater scheme of things.
It is these kinds of moments, also when you are making presents, that is what Christmas is about for me. Personal moments, private moments, but which makes me realise and reflect on the important people in my life.
Weaving is a small world, but also one spread wide. My weaving friends are scattered all over the world, and I love the image that always comes to my mind of lots of spider threads stretching from me to them all individually wherever they happen to be, and then all the other spider threads stretching from each one of them to all the people they know…. It’s a wonderful image that warms my heart every time. Sometimes the threads are lit by fairy lights, sometimes they are frosted like the cold winter early morning scenes on the plants in my garden.
Ok, so now we have social networking sites like Facebook that do this all the time, but still the annual ritual of Christmas cards is important to me. What’s important about Christmas to you?
PS.. Bon voyage to my dad who is on his way to experience a different kind of Christmas in Malaysia!!