This is one of my most favorite times of the year. From the annual Christmas tv specials and the regular shows with Christmas-themed shows, to the seasonal music on the radio that totally disappears by the 26th, to the people at stores and malls trying so hard to find just the right gift for someone that they care about, it's all magical to me.
Over the last 30 years, since becoming an "adult" in life, that magic tends to start wearing thin. You look at all the advertising that goes on, trying to get people to spend tons of money for just that one day, and you have to wonder a little bit. Or at least I do. Don't we have good memories that didn't cost tons of money? Do we really have to spend $150 on a gift to show someone they mean the world to us?
I remember growing up and how my mom would hang the stockings at our fireplace. We weren't blessed with a nice thick mantle that gave great opportunities to hang them. We had a brick/stone fireplace wall in our living room and a few of those bricks stuck out about an inch or two farther than most of them. Luckily for us, there was one that was the length of our fireplace just above the fireplace. So my mom would take a cord, wrap it around that section of brick, put the stockings on it and then tie it together, holding it all in place. Sometime during the night on Christmas Eve, she'd fill the stockings and we'd see them first thing when we ran out the next morning. Worked like a charm for all those years.
Except one year, it had been late and she was tired. So rather than do that, she used thumbtacks and tacked them, 2 each side, to the wooden door frame of the doorway into the living room. A great idea except none of us kids thought about that. Kids are creatures of habit and we were like everyone else. We'd send Beth to the living room starting around 4 am to see if Santa had come yet. All she had to do was go to the doorway and look inside. The tree lights would be left on all night and they gave just enough light to see if the stockings had been filled. Each time she came back, she'd shake her head no and we'd go back to the game of Monopoly we were playing, trying to make time pass faster.
6 o'clock finally came and we were allowed to get up. We all ran to the living room and stood there. No stockings at all. Nothing. We'd been good...well, as good as any other year. Why no stocking? Then Melodie turned around to get the coffee started and as she went back through the doorway into the kitchen, she noticed the stockings! OMG, you'd think there was someone dying, what with all the shrieking we were doing. Talk about surprised! (And trust me, Mom was told about the events of the night and she never put them there again.)
In 1988, my mom decided it was time to retire the stockings. Us kids were all adults and Melodie had a son of her own who had just turned 5. Mom decided that the only stocking would be Jim's. The rest of the usual filler would be in a huge bowl on the counter. Everyone was okay with the decision...okay, everyone but me, that is. I'd had 3 years behind bars and while she'd done the stockings the year before, (to give me a final year of them) I just didn't like it. I liked the annual stocking ritual. And I wasn't ready for it to be done.
So, I used part of my paychecks from my second job and did the stockings myself. I bought all new stockings for everyone in the family. I even included my aunt and grandmother, because I wanted to go all out. I bought all the usual nuts and candies to fill them up. I bought everyone a gift or two to go inside, as well. And I wanted to go slightly different for the names on them. Our original stockings had had our names embroidered on them, and when that had worn off, mom had replaced them with magic marker names. Instead, I bought gift tags and those rub-on letters you could get, in italics. Took me 4 packages of them, thanks to all the vowels I needed. While at my second job, I'd use some time after clocking out to fill out another tag or two. It took a bit of time because I wanted them looking perfect.
On Christmas Eve, I filled them before leaving work and left them in the back of my car, where the tray hid them. After everyone went to bed, I went downstairs and got the box they were in, brought it upstairs, and laid them all out on the coffee table in the living room. The next day, everyone was surprised. I got questioned a few times and played dumb. I did admit it finally later that spring. I think Melodie heard it the most that it was her who'd done it. It was one of the best things I'd done for Christmas in my life. And the tradition kept on for a few more years. The last year I did it was 1992. There was no real point to doing it after that, since both Mom and Dad were gone before Christmas of 1993.
So this year, I'm begging my friends to do something different for Christmas. Do something you stopped doing years ago, create a new tradition for you and your loved ones. Just do something different that will surprise people again, just like Christmas was a surprise when you were a kid. It doesn't have to mean a lot of money. Just think of something unique for your family and go for it. Bring the magic back again this year. You'll be glad you did. I promise you.
