Christmas Eve 2010

As i wake this morning and have my coffee, i am reflecting back on the days of my youth and what Christmas was like for me as a kid. I think its important to document these things as it seems Christmas is no longer "that" and is becoming more of a week or two week long event, rather than a one day experience of joy and happiness. As a result, people grow frustrated, tired, stressed and seemingly MISERABLE!

When I was a kid growing up, we all use to go together to the Christmas tree stand, WELL after Thanksgiving, bundled up in our snow suits or down jackets with our wool hats on that had the goofy ball on the top. Generally the guy at the stand was bundled up helping people load their trees on the tops of their cars, int heir trunks, or any assorment of ideas that might work to get the tree from that cold, wet, busy place to our warm living room.

As a matter of fact, generally we had to set the teee up and let it sit for a couple of hours to warm up and open up to dedcorate. Mom always had music on, a fire generally going and we would all, as a family decorate the tree. Generations of ornaments came out, years of grade school projects to be hung on a tree, tinsle, lights that frustrated dad to no end, glittery tiinsel that could be found under coaches and charis for months after the new year had arrived. And then, the smell of the treee that would fill our house for the next month or so.
When we shopped, we generally got one or two gifts for each person in the family and maybe a friend would get a gift here and there. The clerks were always joyful, the mal was always full of fun energy, the people were generally smiling and happy...

 The wrapped gifts would continue to grow over the month under the tree, stockings hung by the fireplace, a small nativity scene that we had for as long as i can remember, Sitting together and watching Christmas cartoons and movies as a family with hot chocolate and various christmas snacks.

Christmas Eve would come along and generally my parents would have friends over to celebrate the Eve together...What I didnt realize until much later in my life, it was really a recruiting party so the parents could work to help put together big wheels, bicycles ot any other number of toys with many working parts that needed complex assemply.

We would set milk and cookies out for Santa dn then be rushed off to bed withthe warning that we had to stay in our bedrooms because if we didnt, and Santa were to see us up trying to catch him, he would not leave us any gifts and would immediately be put on Santas naughty list.

Anticipated nights of no sleep and clocks ticking slowly as minutes seemed like hours...Tossing, turning, unable to stand the excitement and then, just maybe, a slip off into slumber for an hour or two only to wake up at 5:00am excted and running to get mom and dad up... It was clear Santa had come and it was time to get to tearing paper and screams of joy as our christmas list was revealed in form.

After opening of gifts, every toy got attention, we played with every single thing we got. We shared and exchanged and even fought NOT TO TOUCH certain special gifts. The smell of coffee and before long, the sounds of mom in the Kitchn making the dinner for the afternoon.

We met neighborhood kids and shared all the gifts we had gotten with jealous envy and excited response... Snow was not as common as one would think in Colorado Springs on Christmas Day but it was always cold enough to have to bundle up to get out and show all your friends the stuff Santa had brought you.

By 3:00pm, Dinner was ready, we would sit as a family, and sometimes with friends, on Christmas day enjoying a meal together and eating until we couldnt stand it anymore, then generally it was off for a nap, then up for a Turkey Sandwich and some sides...Maybe a late night Christmas special and then off to sleep putting the Holiday Season behind us and reflecting on special moments of the day.

I am generally given grief now for my unwillingness to be excited on the Holidays now. But really, what is there to be excited about now days? Its not a clebration of the day anymore, it is a broken up, dysfunctional Holiday.

This year, the Christmas lights in my town were up before Thanksgiving. Lots with trees popping up two days before our day of thanks and now, we are reminded on a day of thanks that the season of giving is already upon us...Can I please have my day of thnaks first and spend my time focusing on that? Is it so hard to understand that Christmas is in December?

We have a society now with a divorce rate of OVER 50% and as a result, families are scattered all over the Country. This year you get the kids, next year the ex does. people are crazy at the stores, clerks are stressed, people dont make eye contact, everyone has a complaint. Everyione is broke and feels bad when they cant give that 500.00 game to their 4 year old or the new 300.00 phone to their 9 year old... Man, have times changes.

A box of leggos, a light brite, a big wheel, a bicycle... THESE things were so valuable to us as kids and we appreciated everything...We even made sure thatthe one tacky sweater we got on Christmas day was worn for at least a picture or two to show our appreciation....

Now kids open the gift and if it isnt whatthey wanted, they discard it on the floor, int he wrapping paper to get to the next thing and hope its that new Wii or the most updated drone phone or I-phone... The value of the gift is in the giving of it... Where did we lose that?

Family meals and days spent together are filled with drama and arguing. Kids, ebven the older ones, are now split and have to have three or four days of Christmas so everyone gets their chance to see the joy in the gift they gave... To me, I still feel that it should be ONE DAY...CHRISTMAS DAY...

If the kids have to be scattered all over the Country, then the gifts they are given go with them and they open them on Christmas Day and make calls of appreciation...Why do we have to be so selfish in our giving that we must see the reward personally and miss the significance of the day we are celebrating?

peaople complain thatt he holidays arent want they use to be but are hesitant to sacrifice their own self reward to celebrate whatthe Holiday is about...