Putting the “material” in non-materialistic Christmas

This Christmas at the Enigma/Sakkara house was very simple, very understated.  In fact, Christmas vacation really does feel like a vacation (or “staycation” as the hip young’uns say these days).  Since our families are 1,000 miles away, there was no itinerary for hopping around the homes of various parents, grandparents, uncles, or aunts.  There were friends here and there, and even a fun belated-Solstice party last night, but not a fancy get-together a’la Thanksgiving.  Personally, I find the Orphan Thanksgiving wonderful, but the concept of the Orphan Christmas just seems a little off — although parties held by those very same “orphans” feel like a different matter entirely.  In the past, I have hosted Christmas parties toward the end of Christmas Day as a place for orphans to hang out and non-orphans to decompress after a full day of family-hopping, but those were hardly dinners.  In contrast to all of that, this Christmas was simple.

Years ago, I was much more materialistic about Christmas and listed out all the little things I received.  In more recent years, I have curbed that materialism in many aspects of my life, not just Christmastime — not simply by omitting a blog post highlighting received gifts, but by not wanting as many trinkets and gadgets and whatnot.  Ten years ago, I would have been absolutely disgusted at receiving nothing but clothing.  This year, I was quite contented.  In fact that’s where this post’s title comes from: putting the “material” in non-materialistic Christmas.  The material/fabric/textiles pun is stretching things a bit, but still apt.

Although my intent is to avoid listing the things I received, I do have to relay one item.  Both Kim and I, without any asking or prompting on either part, gave each other a robe this year.  I thought that was a fun bit of synchronicity, being in tune with one another’s needs without explicitly asking for or wanting.

Posted in: Dear Diary

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Brian Enigma

Brian Enigma is a Portlander, manipulator of atoms & bits, minor-league blogger, and all-around great guy. He typically writes about the interesting “maker” projects he's working on, but sometimes veers off into puzzles, software, games, local news, and current events.

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