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So this is Christmas….
Christmas and I parted ways long ago. I guess it all started when I was around ten, and my mother, in a fit of pre-Martha Stuart inspiration, took over the décor of the family Christmas tree, replacing the antique ornaments with a montage of clear mini-lights, shiny red plastic apples, and fake white doves. Being a family with no religion, that pretty much nuked what little we ever had for Christmas tradition.
In my early teens I worked in hospitals and nursing homes for the elderly where co-workers did not want to work over the holidays, so I volunteered; why not. I spent some of my best Christmases ever with the patients and their families. I learned then that it is all about being together with loved ones. At 17, I went away to college and Christmas settled into a tradition of exchanging Christmas parcels with my family by courier, mine usually on time; my family’s, sometime in February. I guess they left all parcels under the apple and dove tree until after the holidays in case of last minute arrivals.
Finally several years ago, when I was home for Canadian Thanksgiving turkey, (by the way, it’s the second Sunday in October) I proposed that we finally drop the whole nonsense of drawing names and buying things for one another we do not need. There was a mixed response from my parents and five siblings so I closed the debate asking everyone to please remove my name from the gift exchange and please: Don’t do Christmas to me, and I won’t do it to you!”
Now I give a gift whenever I feel it will bring a much needed smile, though it is not likely to occur in the midst of Christmas ads on television and line ups at the cash registers. In this way, my gift is not likely to be compared to the relative size or price of other gifts received and there is no reason for the awkwardness of an unexpected gift leaving the recipient embarrassed they did not get one for me. I do not decorate my house, cut down a pine tree, or put up lights. I generally coast through the entire superimposed chaos unscathed.
However, I DO make an effort to visit or contact friends and family, and I DO like to prepare a big Christmas turkey dinner with all the trimmings for anyone who can join me. For me it is quality time with special people that will always be the true heart of this season. Therefore I DO wish you, our readers, the richest of quality time with your loved ones this holiday season.
James Hunter - Editor
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