Make Christmas connecting your holiday priority

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Does the voracious spirit of the holiday get you down?

Have you fallen prey to the overkill yet?

Are you buried in decorations, frantically treading water stocking your holiday pantry, and breathless from chasing the perfect present?

Do yourself a favour and take a deep breath.

The proper approach to the Christmas season is not an exhausting  marathon of preparation followed by an uncomfortable performance of forced tradition.

Christmas is not about putting your foot to the accelarator in a mad dash to briefly touch on some arbitrary illusion of a reality that will never be yours.

And it’s not about turning off your self-control on spending only to awake in January to a pounding credit card hangover.

No, Christmas is about stepping away from the rat race and drinking deep in those things that are most important to you.

It’s about doing things for others — and with others — not because you have to, but because you want to.

It’s not about spectacle, it’s about intimacy.

By all means invest some extra effort in finding that special gift. However, before you do, make sure you aren’t doing it because it will impress, but because it will be appreciated.

And go ahead and drag the kids to hunt for Christmas trees, or to cousin Gertrude’s house for fruitcake, or to that community choral show. However, do it not because it is expected of you, but because it will help you to be connected.

In all this bustle, take a pause, dial it back and make some quiet time to connect with those people most important to you.

Because connection, ladies and gentlemen of Cowichan, is the best present you can get.