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97_98_articles/Tribun29.TXTI think Christmas has got to be the best holiday of them all. Of course, your cue is to respond, “Why?” Well, I’ll tell you.
First of all, Christmas is the happiest time of the year. I mean, what other time do we get to shovel the driveway every day? When else do we take 45 minutes out of our day just to get on our clothes for going outside? Oh...whoops. I meant to say you get this cheery feeling everywhere you go, complete with sponsors on everything! Yes, that is one bad things that has turned Christmas around a bit. A long, long time ago we used to celebrate Christmas for being the day when Jesus was born, and we’d give each other a simple gift or two. There were usually a few TV specials on, and they didn’t have titles like, “When the Big Mac Saved Christmas,” or, “Santa Claus Delivers Coke to Everyone Because Coke is the Best.” They had nice names like “Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer.” Nowadays that could be changed into “Budweiser Presents the Drunk Deer.”
But I’m getting pessimistic here. I’m looking at all the commercialization of Christmas. What about the actual good parts of Christmas? Well, there are a bunch. First of all, you get presents. Not just one or two, but many and all at once! Yee-haw! Now, I know people who are over the age of 18, maybe even 16, don’t get nearly as many presents as kids who are 7 and 8 years old. But you know what? I’ve never understood that at all. Kids like opening presents, but they also like seeing other people opening presents. If all they get to do is open their presents, see their mom and dad open one gift of bedsheets, and then go about doing their daily thing, it’s not nearly incredibly fun. Of course, if the parents would get two pairs of bedsheets (yippy...) , some money, a Lego set, and a Zip drive, the kids would be cheering(?) for them the whole time!
The food at Christmas is top notch, I’d have to say. Everythign from the angel food cake grandma baked to those cookies that you can never remember the name of, they’re all here. Here’s a tip, though, for people cooking large amounts of a specialty dish, or something that everyone might not like: Have plenty of butter bread around. No, seriously! When I was four or five years old, I didn’t like turkey at all. So, one of my cousins and I had a butter bread feast! All we ate was butter bread, and in great volume, too. We must’ve had five....maybe even ten pieces of it. And that filled us up!
In fact, the whole Christmas is just a happy time. You get to ride
Christmas is the best and sometimes worst time of the year. It is the best because many people all over the world celebrate the birth of the Christ Child. It is a time of peace, generosity, forgiveness, family togetherness, and it brings out the best in many people. The food is unsurpassed with abundance being the watch word. The sights, sounds and smells bring back many rich memories.
This brings us to the part that may be the worst. Sometimes these memories can be painful. Some of us are remembering past christmases when people we loved were still alive. Loneliness is a part of Christmas for all too many people. The television and media paint an unrealisticly festive picture that most find impossible to match. For some financial troubles are a burden.
How can we strive for a happy holiday with meaning for ourselves and our family? Start by throwing out most the the commercialism and media hype. Next resolve to reach out to other people around you with a sincere heart full of caring instead of a head full of gift giving ideas. Keep your preparations simple so no one has to be overwhelmed. Include anyone who may be alone and put every trivial past grudge to its eternal rest.
Have some child like fun. What do kids like best about Christmas?
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Karl
Becker, the author of all these articles, uses New
Tricks for his writings.
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