A month of holidays

December is a month of holidays. For several years, I've labored to create blog posts about the holidays that fall during this month. When I realized I was focusing exclusively on December holidays but no others, I started my "Holidays Project" last summer.

At this point I've done feature posts on nearly every major religious holiday that usually falls in December, as well as several more minor ones and at least two that are secular in nature. Why so many holidays in one month?

Blame it on the Solstice. 
The astronomical event of the Winter Solstice creates the shortest daylight of the year in the Northern Hemisphere. It falls on December 21, nearly every year. Combine that fact with the nature of humans, and a holiday of some sort is near-inevitable.

We humans have a psychological and spiritual need seek out hope and a cosmic picture of the Universe that makes sense. And we probably need it most of all when food is short and we're in danger of freezing to death. That's why December is a month of holidays.

I explored Solstice traditions in some depth, in a blog post from 2016 that still gets many hits every year. Get drunk, eat dumplings or fruit, and party down. It's traditional!

Festivals of light
Not surprisingly for holidays that originated during a month of long nights, a lot of December holidays feature candles or fires.

A Solstice festival of light/fire is Yuletide. In a 2013 post, I focused on the Yuletide legend of Krampus, but the tradition of burning the Yule Log (originally a whole tree, or most of one) is probably more well-known to those of us whose ancestors hail from the British Isles, where the related custom of Wassailing also originated. Of course, many people prefer their "Yule Logs" to be made of cake, rather than wood!

Winter Solstice bonfires are a feature of a celebration in Maine. (Bangor Daily News/Eric Michael Tollefson)

Last year, the first Sunday of Advent and the first day of Hanukkah both fell on the same day, December 2. This year Advent started on December 1, but Hanukkah doesn't begin till sunset on December 22.

Compared with Yom Kippur and several of the others, Hanukkah is a relatively minor holiday that has gained a greater following because of its proximity to the Christian holiday of Christmas, celebrated on December 25 each year.

Christmas originated as a religious holiday, and it still is one of the most important holidays of the Christian year, preceded by the Advent season and smaller holy or feast days such as St. Nicholas Day, the Feast of the Immaculate Conception, and St. Stephen's Day.  If you think about it Christmas is a month of holidays, just by itself.

Secular observations
Especially in recent years, many individuals, cultures and traditions have embraced some of the more glamorous elements of Christmas, including Santa Claus, Christmas trees, holiday lights on buildings, and Christmas presents, without much interest in the Christian religious aspects.

There will likely always be people who decry a "war on Christmas" (meaning a minimization of the religious aspects), it seems unlikely that these exuberant and sometimes garish secular holiday traditions will go away anytime soon. They're too darn much fun.

The granddaddy of municipal Christmas light displays is the annual display in Kansas City's Country Club Plaza (unattributed photographer/KC Kids Fun)

One, somewhat peculiar spin-off of Christmas is Festivus, inspired by a TV show and celebrated with greater or lesser levels of devotion by aficionados.

A considerably more spiritual, but not religious, celebration is Kwanzaa. I explored the days of Kwanzaa in some detail, back in 2017. Although the first day had to share billing with Boxing Day, the second, third, fourth, fifth, and sixth days got their own posts. The seventh day of Kwanzaa is also New Year's Day.

However you celebrate this month of holidays, I hope you find love, joy, and peace among the hectic pace and the welter of traditions!

IMAGES: I created the "Winter Solstice" composite with help from Ksenia Samorukova (Ukususha) and Rawpixel at 123RF. Many thanks to the Bangor Daily News and Eric Michael Tollefson, for the photo of the bonfires in Maine, and to KC Kids Fun (and their unsung photographer) for the photo of the Kansas City Country Club Plaza holiday lights.

Retreat!

I had no idea what I was going to
experience when I checked in.

I recently got back from my first-ever writer's retreat, AKA Three Days as a High-End Hermit.

I've always had this daydream about holing up someplace with good room service and soundproof walls, so I could write nonstop for an uninterrupted period of time.

But my thrifty little self has always been a bit dubious about the value of it. After all, I'm not currently employed outside the home, so supposedly I have vast swaths of time at my disposal anyway. Right?

Of course, my Millennial offspring may both be gainfully employed, but they have moved back in to live with my Beloved and me in our semi-large suburban home because it's cheaper, we have the room, and they're saving their money.

One of Signy's cats (Boots) has discovered
that the top of one of my Bettas' tanks is
an awesome vibrator seat (warm, too).
So far, both Boots and Pokoyo the fish
appear to be co-existing okay.

But they're both autonomous adults. Coordinating with them doesn't take that much time. Of course, I do a daily morning-and-evening shuttle, because the parking at my daughter's work is insane and we don't live that far away, so it's not that hard for me to drop her off and pick her up. Gives us a chance to catch up with each other.

We do have animals to care for and feed and get to the vet as needed, which I do a lot of the time (now that I have lost Jake, all but two of the fish are my daughter's, but I like her dogs, cats, and even her blind lizard that has to be hand-fed daily). It's not that much of a chore. Also, there are the usual housekeeping-business things (repairs, insurance claims, contractors) that usually fall to me because I'm home and available.

Oh, and I have regular dates for lunch, coffee, and/or art museum trips or writing workshopping with assorted friends, as well as regular check-ins with my 93-year-old father, who also lives nearby. But a woman can't be a hermit all the time.

Really. I have lots of time.

This  delicious little birthday cake greeted me
the first night. I took my time enjoying
EVERY MORSEL. (Yes, the moon was solid chocolate).

For my birthday, my sister Gigi (also a writer, the best friend of a writer, and the widow of a writer) called my bluff this year. She booked me for a weekend at The Fontaine, an elegant little boutique hotel less than two miles from my home, on the west end of the Kansas City Country Club Plaza.

So, kind of dubious but willing to experiment, I packed my clothing, my computer, my sketchbook full of Rana Station visualizations, and my Journal . . . and I checked in.

OMG, the Fontaine is beautiful. Check out their website--but be warned. It doesn't do them justice. Most especially it doesn't do the warmth, friendliness and courtesy of the staff justice. I have rarely felt more welcome anywhere. From the moment I wandered in, I was greeted, guided, and offered any help needed--and that "TLC" treatment continued, without fail, no matter who I talked to, for the entire three days I was there.

But I also had some clear objectives and a lot of work to do. I had just sent the first novel in the XK9 "Bones" Trilogy, What's Bred in the Bone, off to a collection of trusted beta-readers, charged with telling me where it "worked," where it didn't, and whether they liked it, preferably by the end of the month. I desperately needed to think about something else and let them read in peace, without getting little "Are you done yet?" "Is it okay?" and "Did you (oh, PLEASE GOD!!!) like it?" messages from me every couple of days.

I had a second and third novel in the trilogy to get a handle on. Yes, I knew in general what I planned to do with them. But specifically? Not so much. At least not in detail. My primary objective for the weekend was to build a timeline for the second novel, A Bone to Pick. I also hoped to rough in a good, much more specific plan for the third novel, Bone of Contention. 

Brunch was like the rest of the Fontaine: elegant, delicious, accommodating, and welcoming. I got totally spoiled!

On my normal schedule, I'd expect that process to take a while. Possibly a couple of weeks. How much better could I do, uninterrupted?

And I do mean uninterrupted. I went to the lovely brunch each morning for a good, high-protein breakfast. I ordered supper in, either from Room Service or from a favorite local Chinese restaurant. I went on several "thinking walks." Otherwise, I worked (or slept. I did some of that too. But when I did, I dreamed about what my characters might do in various scenarios. I was that immersed).

Suffice it to say I met my objectives, and then some. I got my second novel's timeline done. I got my third novel planned out in semi-detail. I even got the next trilogy, and the one after that roughed in. I'm not sure I've ever gotten this much done, this coherently, in this short a time. Ever.

Any doubts I may have had are gone. The weekend was worth its weight in gold, as far as advancing my projects is concerned. Guess what I mean to do, once I've finished A Bone to Pick, and sent it off to my long-suffering betas?

IMAGES: All photos were taken by me. Feel free to re-post any of them you wish: all I ask is an attribution and a link back to this post. Thanks!