You know the kid, the one who wakes up first on Christmas morning? The one who stays the longest at family gatherings and just becomes engrossed in any reason to be together with family- that’s me. I’m that kid. Now granted, I usually sat quietly by the tree with some chocolate milk waiting for everyone to wake up, (after mom and dad said for the love of everything please wait a little while longer). Christmas just does that to me, unlike most any other holiday, it has the ability to make me feel safe. The stillness of a candlelight church service, the eruption of a wrapping paper filled living room, and the feeling of being together is so real at Christmas time. The mess of everyday life is left behind because there are cookies to bake and presents to give. Jesus truthfully wasn’t born on December 25th, but He is a real example of good being born into mess. Real and vulnerable mess is met by The one true God, something we all need to remember at Christmas time. So it doesn’t matter if that one room in your house is in need of another coat of paint, or if the shrubs out front are more lifeless than uncle Joe, this season begs us to embrace the good that overcomes the mess. Let’s face the fact that in this southern cotton, buffalo-check loving, farmhouse south, we’re all just trying to hide the mess. Let’s overcome the less than perfect laundry room for the sake of an incredible snowmen collection. It is possible to move past the piles of laundry to take time for the nightly hallmark Christmas movie.
I’m just not sure how to best communicate my love for Christmas and my excitement for what is to come this year. I want you, dear reader, to read these words and feel that your neighbor across the street, or that one family member you’ve been at odds with, is yearning for more, (just like the rest of us). You can’t give them the world, you may not be able to offer them a gift under the tree, but you can give them a seat at your table and a little Christmas cheer. Look at the grinch! He came to a whobilation and after destroying it and almost all the happiness of the town.. His whole life changed! Look- it’s messy and unordinary and doesn’t always go as planned but it is so worth it.
So why am I writing about Christmas on August 3rd? Well. I’ve got a sort of whobilation I’d love for you to be a part of. A Christmas Tour of Homes. You know the one where neighbors and friends in your town come see your Christmas decor in your home- I just lost every introverted reader. Stay with me. I know it’s unconventional, but since when have small towns been conventional. We’ve been beating to our own little drummer boy drum since day one. What better time to embrace the mess than at Christmas time? What better way to do so than through a Christmas tour of homes when your halls are decked and the cookies are in the oven?
I can remember years ago touring several homes in Todd County with Mrs. Carol Sharp. It was rainy and yucky and each house had blue slip covers for our shoes. That was several years ago and looking over the past history of the tour of homes here in Elkton it has always been rich with Christmas cheer. In partnership with the Milliken Memorial Community House, I am anxious to usher in the holiday season with you here in Elkton, Ky. So in true Dolly fashion, I know you’ll make this a Christmas to remember, in your homes or on our square, hallmark film crews are practically begging for a town like ours. If you know someone, or if you’re the kind of someone who’d like to be on the tour of homes, if you’re a business who’d like to contribute, if you’re eager to tour the homes yourself, share this post. Tell your friends. Christmas is coming and it isn’t a magic carpet on a rail, or a table full of food, or a Mariah Carey song, it isn’t a hallmark movie, it’s a season of knowing good overcame our mess a long time ago so we don’t have to. We just have to recognize it when it comes knocking on our door.
