Photo Courtesy of Clipart Heaven
Article Courtesy of Organized Christmas
When I visit the supermarket during the holiday season (which starts
earlier and earlier each year), I don't hum along with the Muzak carols.
The old tune "Secret Agent Man" runs through my head as I
survey the front-line agents of Christmas Excess: Christmas magazines.
They sneak into the racks in September, and by November 1st, they're
everywhere. Oh, the glowing turkeys and lavish gift wraps! Who can resist the
cheery covers, the promised joys?
You can, that's who. Today, we take aim on the secret agents of Christmas
overkill: Christmas magazines. Read them without a giant helping of skepticism,
and you're well on the road to a chaotic, over-booked holiday season.
Will you allow them to inflate your holiday expectations out of
proportion? It's time for a reality check!
To Do Today
Get a Christmas magazine reality check
If there's a single factor that creates more ambivalence, stress, and
anxiety at the holidays than any other, it's Christmas publications. Visit any
retail outlet, and you'll see them everywhere: selling the notion of an
overblown holiday celebration.
Their insouciant air persuades far too many folks to go overboard at
the holidays. Whether food, gifts or traditions, the Christmas magazine is a
wellspring of consumer excess. Believe what they're selling, and you're
practically guaranteed a stress-filled, anxious holiday season.
Yes, Christmas magazines can be wonderful resources for gift ideas,
decor inspiration and holiday recipes. Just be careful!
Today's essay, The Secret Life of Christmas Magazines, exposes the
over-consumption forces hidden behind the magazine.
A good reality check will let you use these resources with them using
you!
The Secret Life of Christmas
Magazines
They're here! Surrounding supermarket check stands, elbowing aside
House Beautiful at the bookstore, popping up in fabric stores--even lurking
quietly in your mailbox: Christmas magazines!
Now, don't get me wrong. I love Christmas magazines. I buy Christmas
magazines. I read Christmas magazines!
As a source for recipes, ideas, decorating schemes, gifts, crafts and
all-round Christmas cheer, there's nothing like a good Christmas magazine.
Don't even think of trying to pry my collection of Better Homes and Gardens'
"Holiday Cookies" out of my clutches!
There's only one problem: Christmas magazines suffer from split personality--and
it's contagious. Reading Christmas magazines without a quick injection of
reality, skepticism and just plain Scroogishness can be hazardous to your
holiday health and well-being.
Let's examine a typical specimen. There it is, our little CM, sitting
primly in a chrome rack at the supermarket, shouting "Buy me! Buy
me!" How does our CM achieve this first step into your home and your
psyche? I will tell you: it promises to give you everything you really want for
Christmas.
In big, bold type, the CM's cover promises to save time, cut holiday
stress, feed your family (while keeping you skinny), decorate your home, and
make this Christmas the best and most bountiful you've ever had.
Here are some actual examples of the CM siren song, from my personal
collection: "Holiday Stress-Busters", "Quick Gifts to Craft for
Christmas", "Make-Ahead Tips", "630 Merry Ideas to Make
Christmas Happier, Saner, More Meaningful", and of course, "Drop 10
Pounds by Christmas".
Isn't this what we all want? A stress-free, merry, beautiful,
delicious, organized and slender Christmas? Of course it is--so into our
shopping basket jumps the CM.
Problem is, you can't judge a book--and especially a CM--by its cover.
That screaming headline for "Holiday Stress-Busters?" A mere half-column
of "No, DUH!" gems like "Every evening, take at least five
minutes to catch your breath and unwind." (It's true! These are actual
examples!)
What about those "Quick Gifts to Craft for Christmas?" This
collection of quilted wall hangings, painted doll furniture, woodworking
projects and hand-decorated china would take days to complete.
Should we mention that 90% are items no sane person would ever want to
give--or receive? A set of "Watch Face Button Covers?" As if we all
collect discarded watch faces for just such a project?
That "Stress-Free Thanksgiving Menu" includes a
sheaf-of-wheat bread sculpture that would challenge a Cordon Bleu chef , and
calls for an entire weekend on aching feet to do all the required
"making-ahead".
The promised 10-pound weight loss diet? Oh, it's there, all
right--sabotaged by a 100-page food section so sumptuous that the ads alone can
make you gain five pounds in one sitting!
Frankly, my dears, our little CM is a coquette. It teases, flutters,
flatters and cajoles, but it does not follow through on its promises.
When somebody tries to land you with claims that are too good to be
true, you've got to look for the hook behind the bait. What are CM's really
selling? Two things: consumption and dissatisfaction.
Consumption first. This one's easy! Just leaf through any Christmas
issue of a magazine that you read regularly. Before you even open the cover,
notice how fat the CM is? That, my friends, is the result of advertising-and
what advertising it is, too! New cars, expensive porcelain doo-dads, home
appliances, pricey exercise equipment, and elaborate furniture groups join the
usual ads for toys, food, and garage-sale specials (those ubiquitous
"small appliances": sandwich squashers and heat-'em-up blankets.)
Ads, though, are only ads--unless you buy them. That's where
dissatisfaction comes in. You won't consume unless you're dissatisfied, right?
So how do these experts of dissatisfaction do it? Look hard at those
"stress-busters". Instead of something useful like "Forget the
homemade cookies this year!", they suggest "If you are behind
schedule, make drop cookies instead of rolled and cut-out ones." Notice
that you're given this option only if you're "behind schedule."
Bounce over to the cookie recipes. Squint hard at the photographs.
Seven delectable kinds of cookies are displayed in antique tins on a marble
tabletop, photographed in soft focus against a background of holly, greens, and
glowing lights. You could bake all seven kinds of these cookies, but stacked on
plastic plates and covered with cellophane, they'll never match the
presentation of this display. Dissatisfaction!
Today's Recipe
haystacks recipe
Looking for a super-simple, no-beat candy recipe for Christmas giving?
Chocolate-y mounds of tender coconut, whole-grain oats and chopped
nuts, Gramps' Goodies are usually known as Haystacks. But in our house,
Cynthia's grandfather, Gramps Miller, made 'em, so Gramps named 'em!
Easy to make, they'll bring a crunchy taste of rich chocolate to
holiday cookie trays.
Each year, our family would wait eagerly for my grandparents' box of
Christmas treats. This recipe was my grandfather's contribution: Haystacks. But
we called them "Gramps Goodies"!
Chocolate bundles of crunchy rolled oats, crisp coconut and plump
pecans, these traditional Christmas favorites are easy to make ... and this
candy freezes well if properly packaged.
Ingredients:
1⁄3 cupcocoa powder
2 cupssugar, granulated
1⁄2 cupmilk
1⁄2 cupbutter, unsalted
1 teaspoonvanilla extract
2 cupsrolled oats, uncooked
1 cupshredded coconut
1⁄2 cuppecans, chopped
Instructions
In a large saucepan, combine cocoa, sugar, milk and butter. Heat,
stirring constantly, over medium-high heat until the mixture boils. Boil 2 to 3
minutes.
Remove from heat, and stir in vanilla, oats, coconut and pecans. Stir
until stiff.
Drop in heaping teaspoonfuls on waxed paper. Cool.
Notes
To freeze, stack candies in single layers separated by wax paper. Place
in zipper freezer food storage bag, and freeze for up to 2 months.
