As someone who, as a child, found Christmas indeed “the most wonderful time of the year,” I've been surprised to find myself dreading the holiday in recent years. As retailers and marketers start turning up the volume around Halloween to ramp up sales, I find myself withdrawing. When even a favorite store is decorated for the holidays in October, I don’t return until well into the New Year.
The run-up to Christmas obliterates Advent, my favorite season of the church year and perhaps the one that best illustrates the human condition. Even more obnoxious is the attempt to gloss over differences between religions, and between secular and religious holidays, with a sanitized “holiday season.” Happily, alternatives abound in Wisconsin, right here in the metro area. An extended fall and mild early winter weather (OK, the latter didn't quite happen this year) make it easy to resist the call to stay inside, shopping and overconsuming food and drink. State parks such as Pike Lake and Lapham Peak are just as breathtaking now as in summer. I recommend tuning into nature as the perfect way to avoid the holiday roller coaster and its inevitable ending of flab, stress and bills.
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