A Martha Stewart Christmas
This Christmas, of course, is unusual for Martha Stewart.
One year, quite by coincidence, I had two, I guess contacts with Martha around the holidays.
First I actually saw most of her Christmas special, complete with huge ginger bread house calling for few nails at the end.
Then I came across an interview in which she said something like: even when I was married, I liked to make a point of leaving for somewhere warm with a beach--right after Christmas.
A picture came to my mind. A beautiful house in the suburbs, beautifully, even ideally decorated for Christmas, totally empty. Of course it has a security system, and every hour a security car comes around; the officer shines a flashlight around the front of the house, and then drives on. Otherwise, total stillness. A Christmas house with noone inside celebrating.
My general sense is that old-fashioned "happy homemaker" broadcasts were actually intended to help ordinary people improve their meals, decorating, etc. Martha sets out a standard that is so impossible for ordinary people, you want to either hire a professional or eat out all the time.
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