Cheesy Christmas Books for the Win

I am a voracious reader who vacillates between reading literature that challenges the mind and beach reads that serve as an escape from reality. I am also a bit of a book snob, supercilious about the quality of the writing. I don’t like reading crappy writing. It makes me cranky.

But I love the holidays, the Magic of Christmas, in particular.

I am struggling to find the Christmas Magic this year.

My love of reading + my love of Christmas= A confession: I read cheesy Christmas books from Thanksgiving until New Years. As many as I can get my hands on. The cheesier the better. Just don’t tell discernable Dorothy.

My most recent read was Twelve Days of Christmas by Debbie Macomber. In this novel, a woman encounters her cranky (but, of course, super hot) neighbor one morning by the elevator. She greets him with a cheery smile and a “Hello.” This makes him crankier. She and her bestie concoct a plan to kill him…with kindness. The protagonist is deep in the trenches of a blogging contest, with the prize being a social media job. And since she is seeking a way to make her blog unique and gain followers, she boldly blogs about her acts of kindness and his reactions to them. This obviously leads to drama and an explosion of her blog’s popularity. In the end, (spoiler but not really because we all know what happens, right?) the kindness kills the Scroogy guy’s bad attitudes but also ignites positive and unexpected change in her. Everybody wins. I just loved it.

But I was also motivated by it. Recovering from a recent ACL replacement and a meniscus repair, I found myself frustrated with a of lack of mobility. One day, feeling pretty good and wanting to carpe diem (because that doesn’t last long these days with the weary but healing knee), I decided to clean a window sill before winterizing my 100+ year old windows. I carefully placed the dowel in its appropriate spot and began scrubbing away. Then WHAM! I accidentally knocked the dowel out of its spot, and the heavy wooden window slammed down on my hand, breaking several bones across the top of my hand. I screeched when I really wanted to cry. I remained stoic when I really wanted to crumble to the floor.

People have encouraged me to feel gratitude that the window didn’t crush any bones. Or gratitude that the window landed on my hand, rather than my fingers. I am trying but frustration and anger are tough nemeses to squash.

I am now in a cast. I, of course, wanted green and red striped but that wasn’t an option. So tye-dye it is. On my right, writing hand. Ugh.

One person called it colorful. Another called it pretty. Still a third called it cute. I call it confining. And there ain’t nothing cute, pretty, or colorful about that. Gray, burdening, and repulsive is more like it.

My holiday season doesn’t feel Magical and my Christmas sweaters won’t match my cast. Will I even decorate my tree this year? Wrap any gifts? Prepare my favorite decadent recipes? Open a delicious seasonal beer? Dress myself? Brush my teeth? Open a friggin gallon of milk? Nope. None of those things are happening, and I am mad as Ebenezer about it. He doesn’t like people, and I don’t like these physical limitations. Not one bit.

Alas! I am inspired by the “kill the bad attitude with kindness” theory from the Christmas novel. I am going to embark upon an adventure in kindness toward others to extinguish the gray, the burden, the repulsiveness. And then boldly blog it here: my actions, the reactions of others, and the impact on me. A true test of the impact of kindness on healing a broken spirit.

I am hopeful for an outcome as successful as the one from the book. Perhaps my love for the cheesy Christmas stories will bring more than the dopamine rush of the read. More than the escape from reality. Perhaps it will bring an escape from the need to escape: a comfort and joy in the moment. If I am really lucky, it will ring the Magic of Christmas’ bells with an invitation to come back!

Here is always the challenge: How to begin? Stumped, I dug deep in my teaching toolkit and launched a brainstorming session. Bake and share cookies? No can do. Rake some leaves for an eldely neighbor? No can do. What the elfing can I do? Join me on my journey.

Step one: Twelve Days of Christmas Kindness ideas? Send me ideas for acts of kindness that a woman with a broken knee, a broken hand, and a broken spirit could do to reignite the Magic of Christmas for herself and for those around her. Share my story or your won story and/or the title of the novel by Debbie Macomber, Twelve Days of Christmas, with others.

Written with a broken hand.