Walk into Fillmore Coffeehouse & Plant Cafe, and you might feel as if you’ve stepped into a scene from a Victorian Christmas.
Pine, cedar and holly hang around windows and doors, festooned with paper ornaments and strings of wooden beads. A garland of dehydrated oranges and cinnamon sticks wraps around a Christmas tree. Stockings hang joyfully under plant displays. Festive seasonal flowers beckon from the center of tables.
Funny thing is, owners Myra and Gabe Gleason don’t celebrate Christmas. At least, not in the traditional way.
As a child, Christmas “was always wonderful,” Myra Gleason said. Her dad insisted on a flocked tree each year and was fastidious about decorations.
“I’ve never had a bad Christmas,” she recalled.
There are many reasons for her decision to stop celebrating, including the history behind the holiday and Judaism.
But in 2007, she had one of those moments when she realized: “Christmas doesn’t come from a store.”
She worked at Walt Disney World that holiday season and realized the only gift she wanted was photos from her family back home.
“That was the first realization of how we’ve over-commercialized everything,” she said. “It’s not about the gifts and it has everything to do with being able to spend time together.”
She still enjoys seeing decorations around town and at other people’s homes, but doesn’t celebrate at her own home.
Instead, she and Gabe turn the holiday season into an adventure. They often travel.
“One year we took a 26-hour train ride to Chicago in economy. We’ll never do that again, but we’ll go on the road and explore new places. We’ll try to find snow wherever we can, maybe stay at a little cabin,” she said.
This year, they plan to travel to Branson.
Other holiday traditions include going to a movie or out to eat at a nice restaurant. They still enjoy spending time with family and friends. If they send gifts, it’s usually something like a gift card or a reminder of special times they’ve experienced together.
THIS IS the first time in 14 years that Myra has decorated for Christmas.
