Every year at or near Christmas, or any big holiday really, I find myself at some point reflecting years past and seeing how far back I can go with specific memories of each year. Once I hit age 17 in my time travel, it's all a blur and it all happened "in my childhood", because I can't possibly remember which specific Christmas I got the Dukes of Hazzard slot car racing set as opposed to the Star Wars slot car racing set as opposed to the GI Joe slot car set. Truth told, I wasn't all that into slot car racing, but those sets were cool! And there's little bigger than a slot car set to fill a living room on Christmas morning, a centerpiece for all the other gifts Santa left. I had great Christmases as a kid. Ataris to Nintendos, Death Stars to AT-ATs , my family is to be commended on their excellent rapport with Mr. Claus.
This is the first Christmas I've ever not been looking forward to. It's not because of holiday blues or anything like that, but it's the first Christmas that feels a lot like Thanksgiving... see earlier posts on Thanskgiving. I'll spend Christmas with the one or two people who'll remain here for the two days we have off, and I'm grateful for that, but Christmas has always been quite special. Sometimes my family has delayed Christmas for me, because during those years during which I haven't been able to get home for "the day" I could usually get home around the first of the year. I don't expect my family to delay Christmas until late March.
Bah! Humbug! SOOOOO.... what does one do when one wants to make Christmas better?
Beg for more presents? YES!
No!
Well, yes, but no. . . .
What I'm going to do, I have done this before and I am encouraging everyone who reads this to do the same.... is go out this morning, go to the mall (bleah!) and find the "Angel Tree"... it may be called different things in different places, but every place tends to have one somewhere. Essentially it's a tree that is covered in the holiday wishes of kids who, without your help, may not have much of a Christmas at all. It doesn't take much - look around the tree, you'll find something you can fit in your budget, sometimes you can do this for like $20.
What I do is look around the tree until I find a note from some kid that really makes me laugh, makes me think "wow, that kid is just like I was," or in the best case (and this hasn't happened yet), I'll find a note from some kid who really just wants plutonium or kryptonite for Christmas. I know I would understand that evil child.
Anyway, no matter what kind of Christmas you're going to have, go out and do something to make it better for someone else. I know that's a very touchy feely sentiment coming from me, and to those of you who chortle at my three-sizes grown holiday heart I say a hearty "ho ho shut up!"
I am going to be a dangerous Clark Griswold-y kind of figure at Christmas when I have a family of my own. I fear that.
No comments:
Post a Comment