This column reflects the opinion of the writer. Learn about the differences between a news story and an opinion column.
Front Porch: A trip downtown was just the right thing for getting into the spirit of the season
![](https://thumb.spokesman.com/uO6q6eDqVn9RLDznlEJuDvMVKgE=/600x0/media.spokesman.com/graphics/2018/07/sr-loader.png)
And now it’s over. Christmas.
Packages opened, meals with family and friends eaten, happy (let’s hope) and likely overstimulated children and oh-so-much wrapping and aftermath to deal with. Thursday begins the massive cleanup, the after-holiday sales and days of outflow of those who gathered to celebrate away from home.
People back at work Thursday; and those who worked Wednesday may still be anticipating their day off. And, of course, those whose holiday was not so merry for any number of reasons.
I’m in the midst of a Norman Rockwell moment at present, so I’m allowing myself to go with the mental image of merry souls, lovely experiences and a faithful celebration for those for whom Christmas has a deeper meaning.
For me, the change of spirit came a couple of weeks ago. For the first time in a long time, I joined a friend downtown for a Christmas lunch and shopping venture at River Park Square. I had seen the Christmas Tree Elegance trees at the Davenport Hotel the week before, taking an older friend of mine there, an annual tradition that had been halted for a few years because of illness and COVID. That was pretty much my normal and singular downtown holiday experience.
But this year, I thought I should give myself a needed holiday uplift, so another friend and I decided to view the rest of the Christmas Tree Elegance trees at River Park Square and see if possibly a little case of holiday shopping might break out.
I am normally a grumpy and businesslike shopper. I don’t need to ooh and aah and touch everything and – God forbid – smell all the fragrances. I like to get gifts for those I care for with a precision-like strike. In and out. No lingering. No browsing (bookstores excepted). And it’s pretty much always a solitary mission. Not a shopper at heart.
And not downtown.
I feel bad about that. I grew up in a family much involved in retailing on the East Coast. I was in downtown department stores a lot, starting when I was a toddler, and learned so much about the industry at our family dinner table growing up. Many years later, when my mother moved to Spokane, she worked at the Crescent until shortly before she died. She often took her grandchildren to holiday events there. We’d meet up under the clock. Remember those days?
I just got out of the habit of going downtown. No particular reason, and not because of some of the ills that downtowns everywhere are experiencing.
Of late, I’ve been caught up in worry about what the future holds for us all, so I hadn’t let the joy of the season find much room in my head and heart.
Then Marie and I went downtown, with this surely being the best time of the year to do so.
Yes, we bought raffle tickets for the trees, and, not unpredictably, I did not win any of the trees and the gifts that come with them this year. Nor have I ever won. I’ve always considered this my contribution to the Spokane Symphony Associates. And, by the way, this year, the 42nd year of Christmas Tree Elegance, there were $528,862 worth of raffle tickets sold, with proceeds benefiting the Symphony.
Congratulations, Spokane, for this kind of support.
We saw so many families out. One dad was standing by a decorated tree with an empty stroller. I asked if he needed to get by me. No, he said, he was backup support for his little girl. I looked to the other side of the tree, and there was his wife and toddler. He was the dutiful sag wagon driver for the team.
We saw many older couples and ladies-who-lunch, like ourselves. There was also a group of severely disabled adults being escorted by its caregivers to see the trees. Teens in the stores. People sharing comments about the trees and other shopping matters with strangers. A school band eating in the food court, all carrying their instruments with them as they descended the escalator.
Everybody looked happy and animated.
We had a long lunch at Twigs, at a table which overlooked the main floor of the mall and the mall’s huge artificial Christmas tree. I once wrote a feature about the tree – it’s 50 feet tall (52 feet with star on top), 25 feet wide at the base and hosts 10,000 LED lights.
We could look down on the tree in the atrium and see kids having their pictures taken on Santa’s lap, most of them happily so, and with only a few letting out a wail beforehand. My friend and I talked endlessly about everything and nothing.
Marie showed me a store I wasn’t familiar with, and I found a nice last-minute gift for my son and son-in-law.
In another store that I didn’t know was there, I helped her find a children’s book for a young relative. And a local Spokane artist had some of his work on display elsewhere in the mall … and, yes, I bought something from him.
I could have just browsed, of course, but when you stumble across just the right thing … well, that’s what this kind of Christmas shopping/outing/dining adventure was all about. And I enjoyed it.
Shopping and Christmas decorations and all that goes along with the holidays don’t solve world problems.
But it put me in that Normal Rockwell painting I mentioned, and I enjoyed being there, for however long it lasts.
I hope the rest of your holiday season brings you moments like this as well.
Voices correspondent Stefanie Pettit can be reached by email at upwindsailor@comcast.net.