The girls are grown and gone, but I still get excited about Christmas. All of the grandchildren are far away, but I still get excited about Christmas. I’m almost 63 years old, I live with The Royster Grinch, and I still get excited about Christmas. No matter what we say or do, it shows up every year. The music and decorations start appearing in the stores just after midnight the day after Thanksgiving, and in many places sooner than that. There’s just no getting around it. To tell you the truth, I could do with out the whole Black Friday thing, even though it officially ushers in the Christmas sales. I just don’t go out on that day. If you go out on that day, you are literally taking your life in your hands. It’s just not right.
I don’t think there was a time when I really dreaded Christmas. I still get excited. Left to my own resources, I’ll go out shopping a little at a time. Every time I see someone with a scowl or frown, I just smile at them. And every time I’ve done that, I've gotten a smile back. It’s uncanny … every time! Think about it. Just maybe a smile turned someone’s lousy shopping day around. I am a people watcher, and I swear, that I can almost hear them thinking, wondering and concentrating.
Getting ready for Christmas is never easy. I’m exhausted from trying to put up the pre-lit tree we bought last year. The lights didn’t work last year, so I called to see if they would let me go exchange the tree for another. Noooooo, they would not. However, if I could tell them what string on the tree was not working, they would send me a new strand. So I crawled around under the tree to read the tiny printed matter attached to the limbs where the lights did not work. I was on the phone for 30 minutes under the tree trying to read the little tags.
At LAST! I found the right set and read the little tag off to the girl on the other end of the phone line. She said they would rush our new lights out, and all I’d have to do would be remove the old string of lights, and put on the new. I could get out from under the tree and get on with Christmas. Uhh ... no, I couldn’t. I was on my back with a flashlight in my mouth, and paralyzed under the tree. I could NOT move from that spot. Finally, after a brief conversation with my self I was able to crawl out relatively unscathed, but sore.
In the mean time, The Grinch and I went to Sears Hardware to buy some lights to lie on the dull branches until the new lights arrived. Needless-to-say, the lights didn’t arrive until after Christmas.
Well, that was last year, and guess what. The lights don’t work this year either. I had the two strings of lights from Sears. One worked and one did not. Fine, we’ll just do with the one that works … sort of. I took bulbs out of the string that doesn’t work, and replaced dead bulbs in the one that sort of worked. The tree is up, and the lights are sort of on the tree. I’ll decorate it today. This should disguise the fact that there are a lot of dead lights on the tree.
When this tree comes down after Christmas, I am going to donate it to the curb and do what we’ve always done (next year). It was serenely ceremonious. We would just go to Home Depot or Kroger and buy a $30 tree. On the way home, we’d stop at the dollar store around the corner and buy 6 cans of flocking and go home. We’d put the tree in the stand in the driveway, flock it, let it dry and haul it in the house. I would decorate while The Grinch enjoyed watching and directing. After the tree was decorated we would sit together on the couch with the lights out and candles lit, admiring our little $36 tree. It couldn’t be more simple.
This is what we want, isn’t it? I mean, aside from the fact that the commercialism has muddied up the true meaning of Christmas, we go shopping, start baking, mailing cards and gifts, start decorating and putting up the Christmas tree. We even sing a little with the music on the radio. I honestly believe that the true meaning and spirit of Christmas is in the hearts of everyone who gives a gift. We know what this celebration is for, and we truly have giving in our hearts. I don’t believe that this Christian celebration will ever be done away with just because it might offend people of other faiths or atheists. It won’t be taken from us.
Today, there are two weeks and two days until Christmas Day. I will bake, wrap gifts and listen to my Christmas music. I will remember what Christmas is all about and think of my girls when they were little, waiting at the top of the stairs for the magic to begin. After the tree was turned on, candles lit, coffee making, quiches baking, angel chimes and Christmas music ... "Okay Girls, You can come down now! Merry Christmas!!"
I still get excited about Christmas ... and so does the Grinch.
