Bleary-eyed, I descended the stairs this morning into a quiet living room alight from the LEDs on our newly acquired Christmas tree. The dining room was illuminated by string lights along the ceiling. Emotions are corporeal experiences. Cheer lifted me. Sure, the string lights of the dining room are a year-round installation. The battery powered candles on the bookshelf never did get put away. Both spent the year dark. Now? Dim warmth infuses my soul with a sense of being cozy.

I confess a dread with most holiday seasons. The parts that grab and hold my attention strongest are the bundles of obligations. I go through life confident that I’ll fulfill most of my duties. However: holiday obligations are in a category that, simply stated, are not my strength. I have no future as a millennial Martha Stewart. My most recent craft project is bending copper wire leftover from an electrical project into a bracket. You see, it was to transform a somewhat heavy Enterprise D model into a Christmas ornament. It’s my astonishingly good fortune that my husband was not seeking a tradwife.

This year is different. I eagerly finished my holiday cards in November, dropping them into the mail on Black Friday. I put up the exterior Christmas lights, again, in November. I received a holiday cookie party invitation and I’m looking forward to it. I have my dress picked out for the Christmas Eve service at church. I think I know what cookies I want to make for that too. I am looking forward to the potluck at work, for once confident that I’m bringing something people will enjoy. The dark of declining daylight is getting to me, it’s getting to everyone, but sitting in my living room last night with the decorations? That was a joy.

It’s not like the world is a kinder place. There is no extra abundance of things to celebrate. This is an era that better people of the future will caution their children about.

Perhaps that is why I am so drawn to the ritual of this time of year. Here is where we will gather for connection. Here is where we will create beauty and brightness in the darkness. Here is where we will remind ourselves that creating joy is something we know how to do.