Christmas Archives - Ann Hedreen, Writer Teacher Filmmaker

Father Solstice

therestlessnest2019-11-07T15:38:41-08:00Categories: faith and doubt, human rights, Seattle, urban life|Tags: Beaconettes, Christmas, Columbia City, Columbia City Business Association, Columbia City Gateway, gun control, immigration, Refugees|

I was in it for the Beaconettes. What’s not to love about a holiday choir decked in sky-high beehive hairdos festooned with strings of lights? So I braved the bone-chilling Seattle December rain and headed for the annual tree-lighting at our neighborhood’s new gathering spot, a mini-park called the Columbia City Gateway. My husband was waiting for me, hot chocolate in hand. Aahhh. We tried to figure out where the tree was. Turns out it was a telephone pole. This would be a pole lighting. But that’s OK—it’s Columbia City, where even a pole lighting in a downpour can somehow still promise to be festive. There were some mercifully short introductory remarks, and then the night’s celebrity guest was introduced: Father Christmas himself, or, as the announcer added, “Father Solstice, if you prefer.” And what a magnificent Father Christmas/Solstice he was: fur-crowned, green-robed, cascading white beard and hair. I was kicking myself for not having added one more layer to my winter-rain getup and feeling anxious to see the Beaconettes before I crossed over into hypothermia. My husband saw me shivering and put his arms around me. Then Father Solstice stepped up to the microphone, wrapping us all in his gentle yet commanding presence: the kind of presence that long years of addressing such crowds can give a man, especially one with mythical tendencies. I’m paraphrasing here, but this is what I remember of what Father Solstice said: “I won’t talk long, I promise. I know you’re wet and cold. But I just want to remind [...]

Holiday Family School

therestlessnest2013-12-24T10:03:52-08:00Categories: faith and doubt, family, midlife, parenting|Tags: Christmas, Christmas story|

We figured out a long time ago that buying presents for every single family member was not going to work out very well in the long-term. Not when you start with six siblings and add spouses and then kids, more and more, year after year. So in my extended family, we draw names. And every Christmas, I’m grateful we figured that part out. Because there’s always so much else going on. When a big family gets together for Thanksgiving or Christmas or Hanukah or any other annual occasion, it is never the same group of people it was the year before. There’s a new boyfriend, or spouse, or baby. There are friends or neighbors who need a place to go. There are a few nuclear families who might be missing this year because, shockingly, they’re with that other family known as their in-laws. Or they’ve dared to break with protocol and go on a trip. But there’s another reason it’s never the same group of people: everyone in the room is a year older. So what? You might say. Maybe so what for us grown-ups, but for the kids? Wow. What a difference a year makes, when you go from squalling newborn to toddling, smiling one-year-old. Or silent young teen to suddenly-able-to-speak-again older teen. Or high school senior to college freshman. The niece or nephew I thought I knew? Gone, replaced by a young adult who wants to talk to quaint, church-going me about whether God exists and if so, why. Every year for 32 years, [...]

Solstice

therestlessnest2011-12-21T08:58:20-08:00Categories: Uncategorized|Tags: Christmas, Occupy, Solstice|

A ribbon of orange lifts the night-sky curtain: it’s the literal crack of dawn here in Seattle, eight minutes before eight a.m. Welcome to the week of the winter solstice, when every day tops out at just under eight and a half hours. It’s dark. Even during our eight hours of daylight, it’s pretty dark: the winter sun is no match for these thick winter clouds. We were lucky, the first half of December, which local weather expert Cliff Mass says was the driest on record. But dry or not, this is the season when we can’t take light for granted. We have to create it ourselves. And so we do: we string lights on our houses. We drag trees inside, and cover them with lights. We build fires and light candles. We go to brightly lit stores and malls. Sometimes it feels a little manic, this chasing after light. This denial of the 15 and a half hours of daily darkness that is really what December is about. Darkness feels dangerous. Uncomfortable. Blind. Who wants it? Who needs it? We do. Think of how we all started out: it took us nine solid months of darkness before we were ready to open our lungs and breathe, open our eyes and see. Newborn babies know darkness, not light. They only learn to fear the dark as they rely on their eyes more and more to tell them where their parents are; where safety and comfort lie. Seeds lie deep underground in the winter, content and dormant. Their [...]