Holiday Temptations

Growing up, we had a strict Rule when it came to sweets in our house: they were only allowed on Sundays.  That’s right; no candy, gum, cookies, cake or dessert of any kind except on Sunday.  Special occasions such as birthdays and holidays were exempt from the Rule; Sis and I lived for these days.

While the Rule was harsh, our parents had taken the dentists’ recommendation to heart that sugary sweets were a “no-no” and the Rule was meant to “save” our teeth from cavities. By limiting temptation, they reasoned, we would forever refrain from candy and other bad foods and end up with pristine, perfect teeth.

Ha! One look inside my mouth and you’ll be blinded by the amount of silver fillings, so that plan didn’t really work out well.

Although my parents tried; really they did.  When I was three, mom dressed me for Halloween yet neglected to tell me about Trick-or-Treating.  Instead, she had me pass out the treats when other kids came to the door, for fear I would be tempted to eat candy if I had been allowed to experience Trick-or-Treating myself.

As we got older, Sis and I looked forward to Sundays as if Christmas came each week.  That was the day we could take some of our allowance and buy candy to eat for the day.  It was so fun to pick out what we wanted, rationing it throughout the day to make it last.  We’d savor every bite as if we would never have a treat again.

The good news is while I do appreciate a good cookie, ice cream and other treats, I can literally ignore sweets unless I really want something.  Unlike Hubby, who hears treats calling his name in the middle of the night from the pantry.  He makes fun of me and my ice-cream eating record:  one time I got 19 servings out of a pint of ice-cream.

I know you’re thinking I must be the Queen of Resisting Holiday Temptations, huh?

Nope.  There’s something about the holiday season that sends all of my willpower right out the door.

For some reason I feel like it’s okay to succumb to temptation during the holidays, and all sorts of strange reasoning comes into play. I crave the Peppermint Mocha coffee at Starbucks; these are okay to drink because I need to stay warm during the cold weather.  Tins of holiday popcorn and cookies have a magnetic pull; popcorn is actually “corn” and those cookies are so small the calories don’t really count.   And don’t get me started on the assortment of dips that seem to appear at the office; I’m sure these are nutritious because we use carrots for dipping.

Shopping is another temptation.  While I always enjoy the sport of shopping, usually I can spend time in the stores without spending, simply enjoying the activity of looking.  But not during the holidays.  There must be subliminal messaging in the Christmas music that’s piped into every store.  As I’m shopping for gifts, the sales compel me to adopt a “One for them, one for me” mentality.  The “spirit of giving” takes over and I decide to give to myself as well as others.  Strange reasoning comes into play here too: the prices are too good to pass up and I convince myself I’m buying things I need anyway.

A huge temptation for me during the holidays is to slack-off.  The closer we get to Christmas and New Year’s, the less I feel like working.  This could be a leftover imprint from my younger years when we all had a nice break from school.  Those kind of things are hard to forget, you know.

Or since we take vacation once a year in the early summer, could it be that my mind is just ready for another break?  No, it’s got to be something more sinister than that; it’s that holiday music and spiked popcorn, I tell you!

For those in the job market, there’s an even bigger temptation: to stop looking for a job.  On the one hand, it seems like a good idea as we rationalize “Hiring managers are on vacation” and “Companies will be more serious about hiring at the first of the year”.

From what I’ve seen this year I think we are fooling ourselves and succumbing to holiday temptation.

First, there appears to be more job listings – great news for anyone who is looking for an opportunity.  Second, my guess is that companies want to interview now in order to be ready with new hires at the beginning of the year.  We at least need to submit our application so the company knows we are interested.  Besides, if others are tempted to stop looking, then we stand a better chance of getting noticed.

It’s easy to give-in to temptation and stop searching for a job as we get closer to the holidays.  I get it; really I do.  Yet try to stay with it until Santa takes off from the North Pole.  It will be a happier holiday and a brighter New Year if you do.