Mrs. Franzos: Mad Christmas Plaid

Wednesday, December 19, 2018

photo: Joshua Franzos

I like to wear plaid year round because I'm a bit of a punkrocker. (See these kick ass pants here). But for years at Christmas time, I tended to shy away from plaids and tartans because it felt... how shall I say... Waspy and Bunny MacDougal-y. And although 75% of me may be white anglo saxon protestant, 100% of that is Black Irish in spirit, if not actuality.

But as I get older, I've come to crave the romantic idea of tradition, including having a plaid that has been associated with your kin for hundreds of years. History has this weighty way of adding significance to things, not just plaid. As Josh and I grow as a married couple, we are thoughtfully incorporating more tradition into our lives, just not with a blanket approach, as tradition shouldn't be something you mindlessly do just because it's always been done that way.

photo: Joshua Franzos

So we're doing us, and picking the best handed down traditions that honor our past, but we're also seeking out new ones that will honor our future. We light a huge iron menorah each year, trim a tree, and spend Christmas day together documenting volunteerism around Pittsburgh for #mitzvahday. We also make a lot of food this time of year, from tried and true family recipes (Roasted Chestnut Soup) to a lot of recipes we've never tired before. Some are successful (Roast Beef), some are utterly forgettable (umm...), and some we just know better than to attempt at all (fruit cake). We've also talked about making a family crest or coat of arms, because, hello? FUN.

photo: Joshua Franzos

meryl franzos, christmas outfit, plaid socks

photo: Joshua Franzos

photo: Joshua Franzos

greek fisherman's hat, meryl franzos, christmas outfit

photo: Joshua Franzos

But back to plaid. Even though I initially bristled, there's honestly nothing wrong with Charlotte or Bunny MacDougal's traditional Christmas plaid for the Highland Fling in SATC (other than Bunny's latent racism-a very bad tradition). Bunny's preppy Christmas style is boldly her own, and because of that I found myself a little jealous and with a serious case of Christmas outfit FOMO. I longed to don some gay apparel, but I didn't want to commit the closet space or the cash to hyper seasonal garb. Enter these $7.50 plaid ankle socks from ASOS. I think I finally have a Christmas outfit on my terms.

photo: Joshua Franzos

photo: Joshua Franzos

photo: Joshua Franzos

Truth be told, I've always wanted to try a socks and heels look, but my fear was it might look like an attempt at Nabakov's baby sexpot. If the socks had been white with a lace frill, it probably would have. But I think I pulled it off successfully because plaid socks makes people think of grandpa and not sexually precocious little girls with lollipops. Sooo, win for me! Okay, so I certainly didn't think I'd end up here when I started writing this post, but here we are. Enough talking about Lolita on a Christmas blog post, baby Jesus can only take so much sacrilege. I'm gonna scoot because this post is becoming just a bunch of mad plaid rambles, but I hope you have the Merriest Christmas and rock out the rest of 2018 like it's 1999.

P.S. Make sure you tell me some of your favorite traditions in the comments, specifically ones that have been handed down and the ones you've chosen for yourself.