COVER STORY: Everyone needs a little Christmas Rachel Hansen, Fjord editor
What is your idea of the ideal Christmas? Quiet solitude with a book in your hand and a warm fire crackling on the hearth? Or do you embrace the holidays as an opportunity to share as many Christmas traditions and memories with family and friends as possible? I’m definitely the latter. As the world becomes increasingly humbug – I make no apologies for it.
As soon as I see the first flake of tinsel I become wrapped in holiday anticipation. It generally annoys most everyone around me with the exception of my teenage daughter, Charlotte, who promptly goes and digs for her box of holiday relics and demands a journey into the back 40 to pilfer a drooping pine – in November.
Down surges the assault of commercials and focus on materialism (why aren't you rising at 5AM on Black Friday for $10 off the latest Frozen castle?) making it very easy to see why many have developed a deep dislike for the season. Replacing joy, debt and depression have become popular holiday hallmarks.
And yes, I do get it. There are people out there who completely abhor the holidays. Work grinds to a halt. We eat too much. We have awkward family moments.
And then there's the loneliness. Imagine how it feels for those far from family? Or perhaps with no family? Watching others celebrate just intensify the isolation.
(360) 427-5599 or email rachel@nwevent.org Publication is produced quarterly by IMAGE IN ACTION DESIGN PO Box 622 | Shelton, WA 98584 Available FREE throughout the Northwest © 2019 | no reprint without permission.
Cover Image The 32' Beauchamp Santa fills his giant bag with Christmas cheer once again in Shelton.
3
FJORD
