Christmas

When I was a kid nobody declared a "War on Christmas."  In fact I don't remember being much aware of Christmas until a week or so before the holiday.  We had a little party at school and brought our teachers a present and sometimes made a present at school to give to our parents.. I remember one of them was a round clay disk with a hand print painted gold. Mom must have liked it because she kept it until it got lost or broken on one of our moves. Christmas Eve the family would all gather. My aunt and uncle and cousin would drive up from Adel and everyone would get together at my grandparent's house (where my mom and I lived) and we would eat snacks and exchange gifts.  The next day we would all get together at the great aunts (my grandfather's three maiden sisters) at the home place on the corner of 13th and Burnett where the Lifepointe Church now stands for Christmas dinner.

One of the traditions Christmas Eve was the reading of the Christmas Story from Luke 2 1-20.  When I was younger I read the story and later my cousin Chris took over the duty. And we would all exchange presents.  That is the adults would exchange them the kids just got them. We also got money from the great aunts and others and I remember that it was exciting to get some money because I really don't remember having much as a kid.  The adults would draw names and get each other a gift (usually something they wanted for themselves) - As there got to be more and more kids we drew names also. That was all right. Getting one nice gift was good. We usually had the drawings at Thanksgiving and sometimes the adults would "cheat" or trade names if they really wanted someone.  

Later the Christmas parties got moved around and were at my Aunt Jo and Uncle Dave's and eventually they wound up having Christmas Dinner there also.  It was always a little different mix between Christmas Eve and Day but we got to see most of our relatives at one or the other of the days.  As I got older it was fun for me to become one of the givers and I would look for gifts to give everyone.  One year I found some really nice Maker's Mark Barbecue sauce and bought a case.  Another year I gave wine. That was the most fun for me.  Until they decided to stop giving gifts. So the fun went out of Christmas for me.  I had already spent a bunch of money for Christmas gifts when I was informed that we decided not to give gifts anymore.  So I was stuck with them.

I started going to the Marsengill dinner to help out after that and found that a really nice thing to do.  Won't be doing it this year but that is another story. 

Now the stores start putting out Christmas merchandise before Halloween. I was down at Von Maur's in Des Moines and they had a huge display of Christmas up. Since then it has been one thing after another and the worst part is the War On Christmas hype that the Faux News people push. With all of that and just generally feeling negative about everything right now the Bah Humbug seems to fit.

I would decorate but all the decorations are in the basement and I can't go down to get them. I stopped having a tree when Jon's animals came to live with me as Miles was rather destructive at first. The tree is in the garage but I don't want to do it so no decorations this year except for the amaryllis and Poinsettia.  That is enough.

Oh yes and another thing I used to do was read A Christmas Memory by Truman Capote and sometimes Dickens's A Christmas Carol.  I really enjoyed reading them and to me that inaugurated the Christmas Season and got me in the mood.  Perhaps I shall get my Christmas books out and read it again (if I can find them) and that will help.  In the meantime don't let the Grinch steal your Christmas.