I suppose it is natural for someone of my generation (read "almost senior citizen") to reflect upon Christmas as experienced in my past as a child, in present day as an adult, and to imagine future Christmases for my children.
Christmas for me growing up as a typical Baby Boomer was a magical time, filled with the sights, sounds, and tastes of the season. My parents were careful to mix in a healthy dose of the religious reason for the holiday along with the traditional build-up to Santa's arrival complete with strings of popcorn and aluminum icicles on the Christmas tree and multi-colored C-9 lights stapled to the eaves of our house. If it snowed in West Texas during this time of year, it made it even more special, since it would, for a short time anyway, make our world look something like Christmas looked like on It's a Wonderful Life and A Charlie Brown Christmas. We would have a Christmas party and a Christmas program at school, and all the moms (since they normally didn't work outside the home) would come help serve cookies and hot chocolate and listen to our choir sing The Little Drummer Boy and Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer. My letters to Santa included wishes for G.I. Joes, electric trains and slot-car racers, and my stocking usually included some fruit and candy - things my parents were lucky to get for Christmas growing up during the Dust Bowl and Great Depression years.
Christmas today is a time for short visits to distant, aging parents to let them know we appreciate the memories they created for us and to try to make a few memories for our children as well. With boys ranging in age from 22 to 5, their wish lists emailed to Santa include video games like Call of Duty: Black Ops, Fatheads, movie DVDs like Toy Story 3 and Lego Star Wars kits. Schools still throw parties, but the programs and assemblies seem to have disappeared, along with any acknowledgement of the religious beliefs surrounding the holiday, no doubt a result of misguided enforcement of the constitutional amendment requiring separation of church and state.
I hope future Christmases for my children and (hopefully, someday) grandchildren will still be a time for giving and thankfulness, for peace on earth, for expressing love to each other and for fond memories of Christmases past. Maybe they will call me on their 3-D video phones from their solar-powered cars to wish me a merry Christmas and send a gift certificate good for a grande fruitcake latte from InterStellarBucks.
