Beyond the Holiday Box

BY ABBY GURALL WHITE

The winter months can be confining in New England – short days and longer periods of darkness set in from October through January. We tend to hunker down in our homes and spend more time inside, seeking warmth and safety. Festivities and gatherings around town have promised to give us a chance to connect and check-in, to be a part of a community. Over the years, Concord has dependably been a safe and vibrant place to spend the holidays.

This year, we will navigate the pandemic into the winter months — working, learning, and living more remotely. It is one thing to be home in comfort and another to be required to operate life from home. One reaction is to feel trapped or boxed up. The additional confinement is isolating. Loneliness is a real factor for all ages.

Coming into the holidays, I reflect on the times Concord felt hopeful and heartwarming. The times that defined living in a close-knit community of invested neighbors, shopkeepers, family, friends, and townspeople. I reached out to ask a few Concord natives - those who lived here over the past 50 years - for any special memories they had of our town during the winter season.

Sentiments of past seasons came in in a flurry:

• Having an office on Main Street and getting to know the merchants who were always positive about the season

• Sue, Helen, and Sandy waiting tables at Brigham’s (now Helen’s), giving a warm welcome to young kids

• Merchants serving goodies (and some schnapps) on Concord Christmas shopping night

• Anticipating the arrival of Santa along Main Street

• Caroling around the tree and flagpole on Christmas Eve, Dave Frothingham leading with gusto

• An annual neighborhood gift swap of fudge, fresh baked bread, and cookies

• Seeing the book-themed Holiday Trees decorated at the Concord Museum

• Holiday Chorus Concerts at Alcott School in the 80’s with Lynne Kwarsinski, who retired in 2020

This year the holidays will undoubtedly be different in town. The virus has us keeping our distance physically. We must limit gathering. Masks hide our smiles. In the next 30 years, how will generations remember this season?

Winter 2020-21 calls upon us to rethink the way we do things, to think outside of the box. We can still connect with small kind acts and neighbors helping neighbors. We can notice and acknowledge one another. Look up, unplug from media, and connect to a real live person. Call a shopkeeper or customer by name, make eye-contact and smile with your eyes. Drop a note to someone and check in, shovel out a neighbor in need, share music, light a candle or tree with bulbs and unite with light. The excitement of opening the box is still there. Time to pull the ribbon and tear off the wrapping.

Abby White is a Concord resident and a real estate consultant driven by a true passion for the town in which she lives.