'Tis the Season!

'Tis the season once more, dear reader.  The yule tide has rolled in to fill us with the holly jolly-ness of another Christmas.  Oh, the fond memories and feelings that fill me when I think of Christmases past.  I remember the house decorated with strings of glowing lights, the tree so beautifully adorned and the presents wrapped with care beneath it.  I was too young, too innocent, to recognize the incredibly creepy prospect of a fat man in a red suit gaining surreptitious entrance to your home in the dead of night to reward good little boys and girls with gifts crafted by his legion of elves.  But only if you're good, mind you!  And I was very seldom good.

A conversation I remember having with my mother when I was a boy:
Me: "How does Santa get into the house since we don't have a chimney?"
Her: "He can pass right through the door...like a ghost."

Now that's scary!

Forget shaking the packages in a furtive attempt to surmise the mystery inside, I was far more devious.  I would sneak to the tree and skillfully tear away tiny pieces of wrapping paper in order to glean a peek at my perspective gifts.  I would relentlessly interrogate my grandmother until she spilled the beans.  I eavesdropped on my mother's conversations with her friends.  The mystery was too much.  It gnawed at me.

Then my mother became an atheist.  So long, St. Nick.

As materialistic as I might have been (may still be), there was always something about the season that filled me with an effulgent feeling.  Christmas was special.  I felt a kinship with my fellow man.  I was brimming with goodwill.  I thought the best of people.  All was right with the world.  That kind of optimism and warmth quickly faded with maturity and I turned into the cynical curmudgeon I am now.  Still, memories of those warm feelings return at times and I'm reminded that Christmas is about giving.  Too often we celebrate the holiday with feckless materialism and greed.  It is truly better to give than receive.  It's the kind of selflessness that nourishes the soul and is too often overlooked.  I'd like to wish each and every one of you a very happy holiday season and a Merry Christmas!  That is, unless you've been naughty....

Feel free to share your own fondest Christmas memories in the comments section below.