No one is even going to half-heartedly attempt that 2020 will be a banner year for holiday celebrations. There are clearly no parties or gatherings on the near horizon, and quite frankly I was planning on laying low again this year because doing so may have played an integral part in barely saving my sanity last year. To that end, I’ve decided not to go big on the decorations, choosing instead to focus on a few choice focal items in the form of fresh greenery (we haven’t had a Christmas wreath in years) and a few extra candles. Love and light and evergreen glory.
I’ll also spruce things up with displays of fruit and nuts that can be as pleasurable to the eye as they are to the palette. Little mandarin oranges, jewels of pomegranates, and crisp golden apples always remind me of childhood holidays, when boxes of fruit would arrive from my parents’ friends and land in the kitchen. Each pear or apple or orange would nestle in the neatest packaging for such precious cargo, every one a little gift, and so appreciated in the throes of winter. If we were lucky, someone would send along a big box of Middle Eastern desserts that looked like bird’s nests – all gooey and buttery phyllo dough and nuts – a glorious holiday treat that felt like a page out of some magical Nutcracker story. (And so much better than that questionably-heralded Turkish delight which is anything but delightful.)
This year demands simpler pleasures and sparser treasures.
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