A quiet December: what I no longer do in this season

It took me a long time to like December quietly. For years I tried to reproduce the atmosphere from the magazines. Strings of lights, five layers of wrapping paper, three Christmas parties, an Advent calendar for every member of the family. It never worked. What works is restraint. Not in any religious sense, entirely in a homemade one. What I no longer do in this season: no appointments after six in the evening if it can be avoided. No online orders after the first Advent. Not three kinds of biscuit, only one. Instead, I go to bed earlier, read more, and on the 23rd I take a walk along the Atlantic that has become a family ritual without us ever planning it. It sounds like loss but feels like arrival. December is the season my body wants to rest. For the first time, I am listening to it instead of overriding it.