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vol 3 issue 9
december 2018
CC Biker & Motorsports
Wising you a (nostalgic)
Merry Christmas Kelli Langley WRITER Merry Christmas!!!! Yes, I said it…. not “Happy Holidays” or “Tis the Season”….I said the “C” word, and won’t apologize for it! Christmas is truly the most magical time of the year: the lights, the food, the gifts, the gathering of friends and family…who doesn’t love Christmas? And by saying that, I’m including Hanukkah, Kwanzaa, Festivus, and any other religious or social names for celebrating this time of year. It’s the sentiment, not the greeting, which counts. However, if you’re like me, you’ve noticed that this time of the year has been become much more commercialized and sterilized, as well as politically correct. Back in my day (you know, when dinosaurs roamed the Earth) we didn’t dare bring out the Christmas decorations before Thanksgiving. Christmas music started playing after that weekend, and anyone who had their lights on before then was considered trashy. Santa usually showed up at the malls that Saturday after Thanksgiving, and the commercials started that same weekend. Christmas programs like Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer and the Charlie Brown Christmas show started airing on Thanksgiving night, and were family staples on weekend nights until the big day. Parents had you over a barrel: be good or no Santa!!! One of the biggest thrills for kids back then was the arrival of the “Wish Books”: huge catalogs from J.C. Penney, Sears, and Montgomery Ward. A week after these arrived they were tattered and marked up, items circled and pages dog-eared in hopes our parents (and Santa) would get the hints we were offering. These catalogs had everything from clothes to toys to mini-bikes to BB guns, and every now and then we would catch Mom or Dad also peeking through the tattered pages, remarking on some piece of jewelry or tools that they would like to have. There was no on-line shopping, no Amazon or other web sites, just these huge books filled with everything anyone could possibly want; and when you did order something, you filled out
the form in the middle and enclosed your check or money order, or your store credit card number, put a stamp on it and put it in the mail, and prayed that it arrived in time to open on Christmas morning. Every school put on a Christmas program: the younger kids singing “Jingle Bells” and “Rudolph the RedNosed Reindeer”, the o l d er kids performing plays that included everything from skinny S a n t a s to the N a t i v i t y, and each s h o w ending with renditions of “Silent Night” and “We Wish You a Merry Christmas”. Most of the time Santa was the show-stopper, showing up at the end shouting “Ho Ho Ho!” and often bringing small gifts for the little ones. Decorating the tree was a family tradition, and often the branches were hung with those ornaments that the kids had made at school instead of fancy store-bought ones. We had neighborhood gatherings, cookie exchanges, and strangers would smile on the street and exchange Christmas greetings. On Christmas Eve youngsters would set out milk and cookies and then be forced to bed by their parents, only to lie there awake in anticipation for Santa to arrive. Parents would check anxiously on their little ones to make sure they were asleep before Santa got there, then went to bed
only to be awakened by the sounds of joy at 3 am when the little buggers got up and saw all their loot. Mom was going to have to be up at 3 am anyway to get the turkey on, so she was often up with the kids keeping the peace. Christmas mornings were spent in church, then home to a huge meal with family. Great-grandparents, grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles and cousins gathered around the tables while someone said grace, then feasted o n t u rkey, ham, stuffing, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, green bean casserole and pumpkin pie. After the meal you could always count on Grandpa falling asleep in the recliner and at least one argument breaking out over religion or politics, and one kid breaking another kid’s favorite toy. If the weather was nice, a touch football game was always on tap; if it was raining or too cold, it was Yahtzee or Uno games around the table. At the end of the day family members bundled up, gave each other hugs and kisses, and vowed to get together more often. Christmas night was Mom, Dad and kids in their pajamas in the living room watching “It’s a Wonderful Life” on the console TV, and the kids usually conking out before the movie was half over. These days things are so different…. Christmas decorations are put up in
the middle of October, Amazon has replaced catalogs, and kids know they’ll get whatever they want whether they’re good or not, because Santa is make-believe. Families are fractured: kids are shuffled between Mom and her boyfriend and Dad and his new wife, if they have time; grandparents are often raising their grandchildren, and the adults in these kids’ lives feel they have to overcompensate for the lack of family by buying them material things instead of spending time with them. Schools are not allowed to have Christmas programs, but can have “Holiday” programs; no mention of Christ or the true meaning of Christmas can be referenced to. It’s not politically correct to say “Merry Christmas” because you might offend someone who is not Christian. Going to Church has been replaced by sitting around on the couch scrolling on your phone, and the big family dinner is take-out ordered from Uber-Eats. Kids these days have no idea of what they’ve missed: the traditions, the family moments, the magic… Lord how I miss those days! Hopefully the world will turn itself around and our next generation can experience these things that we did! Until then, everyone out there have a very safe, very blessed and a very, very Merry Christmas!!!! Just a side note: Christmas is often a rough time of year for some folks… please, if you see anyone struggling with depression, reach out to them! Take the time to check on your elderly neighbors, the disabled vets, and anyone else struggling at this time of year. A smile and a kind word goes a long way, and you never know when it will completely change someone’s life. Let’s all remember the real reason for the season, and do our best to promote peace and love among everyone! MERRY CHRISTMAS!