Christmas in July

Happy Christmas in July!

No, seriously ... Christmas in July. We celebrate this. It's a real thing at our house.

Now, don't get me wrong: I hate Christmas creep - the way retailers act like Thanksgiving doesn't exist and inundate me with Christmas the day after Halloween (if even that long). Last year, a local radio station started playing Christmas songs 24/7 the week after Halloween. I adore Christmas music and appreciate it outside of the holiday ... but not 24/7 while I've still got a jack-o-lantern rotting on my doorstep.

[Note: craft stores are exempt from my wrath because people who make Christmas crafts, gifts and decor items can't start that stuff on Black Friday. It takes time, and so I get why those retailers have holiday stuff out already. And I admire crafty people who give gifts from their hearts and hands.]

No, our Christmas in July (or CiJ) is just an evening - a couple of hours really - carved out on July 25, not so much because of its coincidence with December 25, but because we wanted to do something in July, yet not tread upon the observation of Independence Day (the way marketers force real Christmas to do to Thanksgiving).

And so, several years ago, when our son was little, we started celebrating CiJ.

Why?

"I will honor Christmas in my heart and try to keep it all year," - Charles Dickens' Scrooge, from A Christmas Carol.

• We wanted to revisit the lessons of hope, renewal and forgiveness that Christ brought to the world.
• We wanted to remind our child to practice good cheer, charity and benevolence all the year through.
• We wanted to celebrate without the pressure, stress, materialism and expense of the big holiday. 
• Christmas can be fun and we wanted to have fun more than once a year.

Here's what we do to celebrate:

We don't deck our halls, per say, but we do bring out a small artificial tree that has seen many Christmases and dress it up a bit for the (off) season..

 The treats seem so much sweeter when savored without the deluge of so many other Christmas candies and cookies competing for the right to shrink my jeans before Jan. 1.

Mint chocolate chip cookies. They are yummy, yummy. Recipe here.

We watch a favorite holiday movie for CiJ. Instead of sitting around the house during the real Christmas season watching films where the characters are celebrating Christmas, we try to switch off the TV as much as we can and get out and actually make some holiday memories of our own. Still, you gotta love a good Christmas movie, no matter what time of year.

Cotton-headed ninny-muggins.

We do give gifts. This is not a retail frenzy, folks. We wrap up modest gifts in Christmas paper and get to tear it off. It's fun and I am not going to get all high-horse and act like it's not. Lest you think me terribly materialist, I will say that tonight we gave our son a gift card, two new shirts and school supplies (school starts next week). So, it's fun ... but not that fun.

A mini tree adorned with sunflowers and skirted in a beach towel, candle glow instead of a roaring fire, and modest gifts of little necessities wrapped in festive paper strike the right balance of Christmas ... but in July.

We'll often prep a CiJ feast of grilled burgers and corn on the cob with a garden tomato or two, and dine to holiday music. Our busy back-to-school activities tonight prevented that. But it's okay. Because even though CiJ is coming to an end, it doesn't mean we can't toss in Michael Buble's Christmas any other day and sing along to his adorably peppy little ditty Holly Jolly Christmas.

Because, as Buddy the Elf says, "The best way to spread Christmas cheer is signing loud for all to hear" ... even in July.