The holiday season won’t be quite the same for many of us this year. Thank you very much, COVID! Family celebrations are going to be smaller, with a more carefully selected group of people. Some will choose to limit gatherings to immediate family . . . which could mean only yourself, or you and your spouse.

Downsizing the holidays could be a very positive experience. The holidays are a stressful time. No matter how much you enjoy them, there’s all the pre-planning, and, often, a lot of last-minute scrambling. 2020 has already been a stressful year. I suggest everyone make a concerted effort to simplify so we might spend more time appreciating what the holidays truly mean.

You can still have your favorites for dinner, but do you really need three kinds of vegetables and five kinds of pie? A ten-pound turkey cooks faster than the twenty-pounder. With few, if any, houseguests, you don’t have to worry so much about the cleaning. Perhaps a smaller tree that takes half the time to set-up and take-down so you don’t resent it more than enjoy it. Put more decorations outside than inside. That way your neighbors can enjoy them, too. Especially those who are feeling the loneliness more acutely than others this year.

Leave yourself plenty of time to watch holiday movies and listen to your favorite holiday music. Curl up with your sweetie in front of the fire with a bottle of wine instead of fretting over all your half-done lists.

And read some of those books on your shelves instead of worrying about dusting them.

Speaking of books—they make great gifts. Easy to wrap. Easy to mail or fit into a suitcase, even if flying. And think of all the starving authors you’d be helping. This has been a tough year for the independently published who saw all their big author/reader events cancelled.

Here’s where I throw in a little shameless self-promotion. “Mary Bishop” is available both online and direct from the author (me). Check it out. You won’t be disappointed.

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