Christmas is nearly upon us.

As much as we all like to try and ignore it.

As of today there is one month left. Scary I know, but there you have it.

I love Christmas.
The air is crisp, the lights are pretty I rally do like almost everything single thing about it other than the commercialization that retailers seem intent upon. And so early too!

Ah the Christmas’s of old.

I miss the Christmas’s of my childhood.

In those days, it was a simpler affair.

Presents were generally hand made, there were no huge amounts of money spent as there are today, and Christmas was celebrated as opposed to being seen as an excuse to spend as much possible on the biggest present you could lay your hands on.

Xbox, PS2, I Pods, mobile phones, DVD players, none were even thought of let alone given as presents. Any gift received or given was probably worth all of {in those days} a few buck, other than whatever “big” present Santa had decided on for you. Then it may have been the scandalous amount of perhaps $20 dollars!

Christmas was to spend with family and friends. It was all family too, not just those in your immediate vicinity, but uncles, aunts, cousins and grandparents, from miles and miles away. In one of our houses, that meant, some years, up to 25 or 30 people for Christmas day. My Mom and Dad both had good sized families all who believed in having children and large families… Organized chaos admittedly, but it was a lot of fun.

Cousins everywhere, boys and girls, running all over the place, anticipation about what Santa would bring, giggling as we tried to nod off to sleep, but excitement making it difficult. Depending on who had Christmas, we might have had sleeping bags and mattresses all over the floor to make one giant dorm - Innocence prevailed we had to be good cause Santa was on his way.

Neighborhood parties were standard on Christmas Eve. Everybody enjoying the season, we would hop from house to house playing, parents talking, having a cold beer, cooking their holiday special. One fella loved BBQ – he was out in the back yard burnin some food that you could smell forever.
Back then a BBQ was a BBQ, not the stainless steel 8 gas plus work burner types you see today. These were a few dozen bricks, a steel grate and some newspapers, sticks and charcoal bruquets held over from the summer with puddles of lighter fluid all around it’s base. The bigger the flame the better – think it might have been a neighborhood sport.

Chicken and chops were a folded over in a piece of white bread with some sort of homemade bar-b-q tomato sauce, not 87 different types of kebabs, or marinated steak with corn in foil. This was a real fire and we were livin!

Neighbors would come for breakfast and to exchange home made preserves or hand crafted items for the house, maybe a doily or pot holder, a hand sewn embroidered mat for a table, or perhaps a plant or Christmas candle for the table. If you were really lucky you’d receive homemade spritz cookies or fudge that had been made from a family recipe that could be 100 years old, handed down from generation to generation, and the best thing you could ever wish to eat. The fudge in my house was in high demand let me add! To receive one of these gave you bragging rights almost until the following Christmas with some of my friends!! These days you would be lucky to KNOW your neighbor let alone exchange gifts such as these.

While the adults were inside drinking tea (that’s code) on Christmas morning, we kids were comparing presents with the other neighborhood kids. Riding a new bike, racing around on new roller skates (in the snow, unencumbered by knee, elbow and leg pads or helmets, they were for sissies!!!) Trying to master the required movement to make a hula hoop work properly was hysterical, let alone an all day chore! Squirting each other with the cheap plastic water pistols found in the stockings that held all sorts of little wonders. There were hoots of laughter, much running and yelling with the odd bout of tears as someone fell, but there was always a bigger kid to pick them up, dry their tears and dispense advice on how to do whatever was being attempted when the fall happened. There was a camaraderie that is sadly lacking these days. I can count on one hand how many kids you see outside on Christmas morning these days.

Lunch was huge I’ll admit. A full meal with turkey, chicken, stuffing, ham, lamb and/or beef, miles of veggies, and gallons of gravy all over the lot! Much of the food came from your own, neighbors and families gardens the summer before – we all canned our vegetables in those days.

The main course was pretty much the only thing you needed to buy, much of the rest was part of your gift, or simply handed to you over the back fence because there was a surplus in that particular garden. Not for us was expensive, frozen food, it was all fresh, chemical free and tasted wonderful. Compared to the norm these days, it was fine fare indeed.

Call me old, call me silly, but those WERE the days. Political correctness had not been thought of, people didn’t have to put themselves in the poor house to provide a wonderful family day that was appreciated by all and remembered for many years to come.

Kids were happy to be given any present at all regardless of size, value or supposed popularity. It didn’t matter if it wasn’t the latest gadget on the market, or the newest game around. Not so these days. If it doesn’t have a brand name, or isn’t worth an arm and a leg, no one seems to want it. My response is go without then!

It’s funny you know. I always thought the only people that longed for the past were old, but I don’t feel old and this year, for some reason, more than any other holiday I remember, I long for the past. For the days when the meaning of Thanksgiving and Christmas was not only remembered, but (EGADS), actually spoken of! When the word “Christmas” wasn’t a dirty word or wishing someone a happy holiday was not something to be concerned about or offending people with.

I would like nothing more than for the values many of us hold dear to be fashionable again.

I’m not holding my breath waiting for it to happen though.

Might turn blue….

Have a wonderful Thanksgiving, and enjoy time spent with family and friends.

Til next time…