A Chic Paris Holiday Season – Day 1 – What’s My Vision?

 December 3, 2020

It is the beginning of December here in Paris during France’s second national CoVId-19 lockdown. There is quite a different feel to this holiday season than there was during last year’s Christmas & New Year’s seasons. Happily, the government just relaxed some of the “lockdown” rules this past weekend so shops are allowed to open and we residents are allowed to travel up to 20 km from our residence (with the appropriate paperwork showing proof of identity, address and reason for being out.) Although I’m delighted to be able to move about Paris again, I don’t quite have that festive, joyful holiday feeling. This has been a tough year for all of us around the world. I’m still feeling a bit stressed by the recent past year and a bit nervous about what is to come.  I can’t quite reach out and catch that “eat, drink and be merry” vibe.

As always, a bit of comfort and common sense can be found in a book. Specifically, Fiona Ferris’s book, A Chic and Simple Christmas. She wrote this book as a way to design a lovely, feel-good holiday approach that incorporated all of her regular life responsibilities combined with holiday expectations and traditions. Some of these responsibilities were running a shop full-time during the busiest season of the year, meeting family and friends, holiday decorating, and cooking for holiday entertaining. She also wanted an approach that included important elements of her inner  “dream” Christmas such as a sense of peace, plenty of rest time, and a feeling of health and wellness.

I opened the book a few days ago and felt just the barest breeze of sanity waft in my direction – a sense of peacefulness? A feeling of health and wellness? Trying to balance competing family expectations while looking for the lost Christmas decorations? Sign me up, Fiona!

Fiona uses the first chapter to discuss how to decide exactly what does make up our “dream” Christmas? To be honest, here at the end of 2020, my definition of dreaminess is a little more down-to-earth than it was 12 months ago. I know at the very heart of it is the safety and health of my loved ones and friends. After that, I still don’t have a full picture of what a “feel-good” holiday season entails for me this year.

Fiona suggests that we choose some words that feel “right” to help us describe what we would like to experience. That, at least, would help give us a start in the right direction.  Right now, my two words are “elegant” and “relaxing.” I could also add “peaceful” and “calm.” My word list is not complete and may change as I think a little deeper about how I would like to go through this 2020 Holiday Season. I can certainly tell you what I don’t want! Words like stress, irritation, rush, noise, crowds, fear, arguing, cold hands and feet, tiredness, lack of sleep…. boy, that list of words just popped out!

I can use my list of what I don’t want to help me get started on writing out my list of what I do want. So, no cold hands and feet here in cold, grey, wintery Paris where I spend a lot of the day walking outside? Flip the words and I have a vision of warm hands and dry, toasty feet (even after several hours walking on very cold, wet cobblestones streets and sidewalks.) Happily, I just remembered that I have a pair of shearling gloves – I can pull those out of the top of the closet along with my winter scarves and some thick wool socks! Okay, the list idea has already provided some benefit. There is still a lot more thinking to do but at least my hands will be warmer tomorrow morning when I go for my coffee-gratitude walk!

Please join me as I work toward designing a joyful and thankful  internal approach for the holiday season in the midst of our tumultuous year.