This would sound sacrilegious if I were, um, religious. I’m sure it will sound sacrilegious to my kids. Okay. Here we go. Christmas is not my favorite holiday. (Thanksgiving is.) Christmas is not even in my top ten favorite holidays.

I’m not a grinch. I enjoy a lot of the season. The food, the look of things. I have a soft spot for glittery soft gold anything. Those people who do blue and silver decorations, though, I have no idea what they’re doing. They are from the other Christmas planet. Anyway. I love candy canes and Handel and snow.

What I don’t love is the pressure. There is so much to do. So many expectations, deadlines, lists. (Some of these could be alleviated by better organization on my part, I admit.) But so much of it is false, too. Many of these gifts are not heartfelt. How could they be? Gifts for the kids’ bus drivers? I can’t (maybe some people can) go down this list of people I don’t know and find just the right thing to show our love and appreciation and whatever else we’re trying to show. I don’t know their interests. I don’t know if they like peanut butter cookies or peppermint. So a whole lot of people get generic candles at this time of year.

Really, I’m not a grinch.