Christmas in July
“For we need a little Christmas
Right this very minute. ”
Yep. There’s nothing like entering month six of staying home to make me feel ready for Christmas. Let’s get 2020 over with and skip straight to December. I heard there will be a vaccine by then, we will have a new president (please God!), and the nightmare of 2020 will be almost over.
That’s not exactly possible, but we can celebrate Christmas in August to keep ourselves entertained in the meantime. I meant to do Christmas in July, but I was a day late. Oops - I’ve never been good with dates. One of my friends mentioned that she was getting her tree out of the attic to set up for their Christmas in July celebration, and I thought, “Oh, how fun! I want to do that!” immediately followed by, “There’s no way Tommy is going to agree to get the tree down from the attic. Also, that seems like a lot of wor and I don’t want to do that.”
So I scaled my expectations back, and planned to do the easiest version of Christmas in Summer I could imagine that would still feel special. We just told the kids (no grand pinterest-y reveal) that we were celebrating Christmas in Summer when they got up on Saturday. We all found our Christmas pajamas from last year and put them on. We turned on the Christmas station on Spotify, and I started to feel happy, just from the music and the pajamas.
Immediately, the girls decided to make paper stockings to hang on the fireplace. They designed a stocking template, cut them out, and taped them together. Then we each had to decorate our own stocking to hang up. I hadn’t planned for stockings, but they are getting old enough to have their own ideas. I think my ideas are the best (doesn’t everyone?), but I’m trying to participate in their ideas sometimes too. My inner control freak rebels, but we are working with her. Once we taped our stockings to the mantle, and once I finished cringing about the tape on the wood, I moved us along to a planned activity.
The girls got a new baking cookbook recently. We made sugar cookie dough together, and this time they were able to read the recipe and follow the instructions, something they couldn’t have done at Christmas six months ago. The dough had to chill, so while it chilled, we were going to do our own version of chilling. We changed out of our Christmas pajamas into swimsuits, and went to the neighborhood pool for the rest of the morning. Because making cookies for Christmas, but swimming for Summer. Boom - Christmas in Summer!
I realized recently that we don’t have any recent pictures of the five of us, so we tried to take one at the pool. I was reminded of why we don’t have any, since they turned out like this.
After Theo reached his limit on pool time, we ate lunch, gave Theo a bath, and everyone had quiet time. Let’s pause to honor quiet time, and its role in keeping us all sane during Covid, for a moment. Quiet time gives us a chance to clean up, take naps, play games, read, whatever. Theo naps, so that’s easy. The girls go to their rooms for one hour, during which they entertain themselves but without screens. They can do puzzles, play with their toys, read, or color. I think it’s really built their independent play skills, and it cuts down on the fighting the rest of the day. Plus, placebo effect -- I tell them they have to have quiet time so they fight less.
After quiet time, we decorated a mini white tree that Harper keeps in her room with cocktail umbrellas (because Summer!). We did “pick a song” with Christmas music and each picked a song and had a family dance party. We rolled out the cookies and cut them out. Each girl got to draw one template that I cut around for their special cookie -- Harper went with a donkey for Dominic the Donkey, and Ruthie chose a snowman.
Let this tree give you permission to lower your expectations.
The kids loved decorating it, it took ten minutes, and it was easy to clean up.
I decided to make frozen hot chocolate, continuing to find ways to combine Christmas traditions and summer. It was delicious! I loosely followed this recipe. It was surprisingly easy, and extra good with peppermint schnapps added.
Theo loved it, and we had to cut him off. He then got his second bath of the day. I don’t know how he got it inside his pants.
Once the cookies baked and cooled, we decorated them. I got a few tubes of icing from the grocery store, and we used our Easter sprinkles. The girls got super into it, figuring out how to create ombre effects thanks to Sugar Rush. We ate cookies as we decorated, then delivered the extras to neighbors to share the Christmas spirit. And after decorating and eating cookies, Theo got his third bath.
Our traditional Christmas Eve meal is spaghetti. It’s what we had when I was a kid, and I’ve kept that tradition going. It’s nice because everyone likes it, and it’s easy to make for a crowd. It was delicious, and then Theo got his fourth bath. Yes, we basically spent all day washing Theo. I guess I could have planned better, but hey, he likes baths.
We were planning to watch Elf, but Netflix pulled Elf on July 30, so it was not to be this time.
When the kids got up Sunday morning, we had little powdered sugar donuts, which we decorated with chocolate chips and carrots to be snowmen. So simple and the girls (and Tommy) liked getting to decorate their food and play while eating breakfast.
Then it was time for PRESENTS! We almost never buy toys outside of a holiday, so getting a new toy thrilled the girls. Theo got a package of undies -- I’m dreaming of a potty trained kid instead of a white Christmas this year. He likes to carry them around the house and say, “Unnies.” Ruthie got a Barbie music studio and a Barbie baby bath set to allow her to play rock star and mom -- her two dreams right now. I remember watching some toy documentary on Netflix a couple of years ago about the concept of Barbie when it started, and how she was designed to allow little girls (or whoever) to pretend and play out their grown up dreams. For Harper, I got a medical kit and a hair salon chair and accessories for her American Girl Doll. The girls agreed immediately to share their new toys and play with them together. They enjoy playing either way, although Harper tends to gravitate toward the American Girl Doll style play, where the doll is closer in age to her and she can choose to pretend to be the adult, teenager, or child peer of her doll. Ruthie tends to gravitate toward projecting her teenage or adult self through the Barbies and chooses to play with them more often.
I would gladly buy those toys again -- they spent the rest of the day playing doctor. They were neurosurgeons operating on brain cancer, delivering triplets, and curing broken bones. It was a joy to watch how well they worked together, compromised, created new scenarios, and worked around problems.
Oh, and our Elf Boing, stopped by to check out Christmas in Summer. He’s probably bored at the North Pole since it’s a slow time up there. Unfortunately, someone must have touched him (we all blamed Theo) because he forgot to fly home the next night. Oops. Some things are exactly like December when you do Christmas in Summer….
Christmas in Summer made us feel so warm and homey. The irony is that it’s so warm right now, and we are always at home. Why we would want to channel a warmer, home-ier feeling makes no sense, but also, feels just right.
My tips if you want to do your own Christmas in Summer celebration --
Keep it simple. Life is hard enough right now.
Pick a couple of traditions in your family you can add to the day or weekend.
Choose a special food -- cookies, fancy breakfast, traditional meal, whatever. Flip it around - eat the special breakfast for dinner, or do something fun that you wouldn’t normally do.
Be silly - dance to that Christmas music with your whole body.
Just go with the flow.