Imagine it’s November, 2040, and you’re eavesdropping on your household members as they gather to discuss how to do the winter holidays this year.
“Wow!” says one of them. “Nobody’s sick this year! Maybe we could actually have a party?”
“And there’s enough vaccine to go ’round,” says another. “I still remember what it was like to go without….”
“Yeah!” chimes in the Voice of Experience. “And how about 2020, eh? No vaccine in sight; everybody holed up at home; no festivals, parties, get-togethers; no shopping expeditions or pictures with Santa; Gramps on his lonesome in the care home—yoicks! Never want to go through that again!”
“We called it the Year of the Plague,” you say, “but I remember the 2020 solstice season as the first Holiday of Hope. A lot of our current traditions started that year, you know. The Hearthkeeping Rituals. The Beloved Book for Beloved Persons book exchange – we can thank Iceland for that idea, as they’d been having a Christmas Book Flood for ages beforehand, giving books to one another every year for Christmas. The Secret Santa Verse-fest. The Household Game-fests. Quadraphonic Carolling. The Holiday Recipe Olympics. The New Year’s Eve Street Masque. The Zoomer Dinners. We did have pretty wonderful outdoor light displays before then, but in 2020 that went to a whole new level, too. You see, 2020 had been so horrible—”
“Yeah, yeah, we know!” Nobody wants to hear those gory details again.
But you are determined to have your say. “It was the year we rediscovered home. The year we realized that the most important job in the world is keeping up a household where people can safely live, and learn, and grow. The year we cleaned out our house and gave away everything we didn’t really need, remember? What a relief! When we decided that there’s more to life than sitting watching a screen, the way almost everybody was living then, and instead we got a puppy for our household. When you kids got hooked on books and games, cooking and gardening and training the dog—”
“And building and inventing stuff….”
“Writing my stories….”
“Yoga….”
“And baking. And you finally learned to cook,” says the household Baking King, with a mischievous glance your way.
“Thank goodness, eh?” You aren’t offended by the truth. “Life slowed down a lot that year. Twenty-twenty was painful, downright horrible, but in some ways the Plague rescued us from a lifestyle that couldn’t have gone on much longer, anyway. I for one treasure the household we have now. I always dreaded the holidays—spent every November and December looking for that River Tuskaytawayon—but now I look forward to this Holiday of Hope….”
“Okay, wise old elder, we hereby appoint you the Household Philosopher,” says the youngest, “but can we get on with this meeting now? Who gets to be in charge of the lights this year?”
Create A Holiday of Hope
Rediscover the world of books at Wolffy’s Book Den, online or in person. Wolffy’s is a treasure house of curated world literature, planet-saving books, the very best in children’s books, and (coming soon) radical educational resources.
Call 483-4940, message us on our Wolffy’s Book Den Facebook page, or email us to secure an appointment at the Den for your household. Appointments are two days apart, with the store sanitized in between, and you will have the premises to yourself. You can take your time to browse.
Please bring masks for you and your fellow visitors; we provide Biowash sanitizer (a 100%-organic spray that does not sting or dry out skin and reputedly kills viruses in 30 seconds).
Wolffy’s Book Den functions as Community Bookseller for Barefoot Books and for Usborne Books at Home. Wherever you are located in Canada, you can support this local indie book haven by ordering online on these links: www.barefootbooks.com/ca/eva-van+Loon and www.usbornebooksathome.ca/WolffysBookDen, or click the buttons below.
Have fun browsing these sites, but, before you order online, call or message us—the Den may already have what you want, or we’ll order for you if you prefer. Your orders can be picked up safely at Wolffy’s or we can deliver your order to you within the Powell River region. (We will also mail books for you if you are unable to come to Wolffy’s Book Den.)
Making New Traditions
We here at Wolffy’s have been interested in making new traditions for a while, and 2020 is the perfect opportunity. So we’ll be posting here regularly about how we plan to create a holiday of hope this year that we can then carry on into the future.
Stay tuned to our blog to see our ideas on how we plan to make our socially distant Christmas the best one yet.
May we find ways to bring light to these dark times.
Tail-wags,
Wolffy and the rest of the team (Kat, Tyee, and Sirius)